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bettsfic · 4 years

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Writing is hard. It's deliriously, unimaginably hard. And yet, many of us choose to do it, because we're compelled by the need to externalize our inner experiences. My favorite thing is to help writers do that — guide them to create work that is meaningful to them, and that most clearly conveys their aesthetic and thematic interests. I've taught writers of all ages, at all stages of their writing careers, to realize their work onto the blank page.

I use my background as a university-level creative writing instructor, coupled with the organizational management skills of a decade in commercial finance, to help writers go from "I have this idea and I have no idea how to start" to polished manuscripts. I take even the most ambitious, ambiguous projects and help writers break them down into manageable tasks.

Here are the services I offer:

Consultations

This is my most popular service. A consultation includes:

Feedback on any work up to 5k words (optional)

1-hour video conference call

Step-by-step action plan

Reading recommendations (if applicable)

1- or 2-week follow-up email to check on progress

Consultations are great if you have a single piece of writing you want in-depth feedback on, or if you want to get started on a project but don't know how. They're also good for working through writers' block, asking questions about writing in general, brainstorming or plotting, or finding the motivation to write.

By the end of the call, you'll know exactly the next steps you need to take. I’ll ask you, "Are you comfortable and confident moving forward?" and stay on the phone until the answer is yes.

Consultations are a one-time fee. I invoice at the end of the call.

Coaching

It's like having a personal trainer, but for writing! Ongoing coaching includes:

A video conference call either monthly or bi-weekly

Feedback on all work you want me to look at

Ongoing action plans and accountability emails

Coaching is best for those juggling multiple projects or who want to work toward eventual publication.

For ongoing coaching, I track my hours and invoice monthly on the first.

Editing

Editing services include:

Developmental/structural feedback

Sentence-level feedback

Proofreading using the Chicago Manual of Style (or MLA/APA, if applicable)

End note with my overall thoughts

Reading recommendations (optional)

Editing services are good for writers looking for a final polish, application essays/cover letters, journal articles, or for sprucing up your prose. I price edits by word count and invoice when complete.

Testimonials and my credentials below the cut

Testimonials

I have extremely positive things to say about my sessions with Beth. I started out with a lot of big ideas and no idea what to do with them, and Beth has helped me organize and streamline my process, teaching me tools and techniques that have given me a lot more confidence in my ability to execute my vision. Since I started working with Beth, I find it easier and easier to produce, and also feel that the quality of my work has noticeably improved. — Shan

Beth's approach was so relaxed and friendly; I was nervous going into the conversation, but felt a thousand times more calm and confident coming out of it, and now I also feel that have the tools I need to approach the rest of my project. Her approach is intuitive, almost alchemical; I'm not entirely sure how, but she managed to convince me without seemingly trying that I already know what I'm doing, and that my skills are up to the task I've set myself. — Jen

I submitted the first chapter of an original work for editing, and I am beyond satisfied with the results. Betts did an incredible job. As the writer, it's easy to lose sight of the rhythm and pacing of your own work, so her comments on how the chapter felt in those terms were invaluable. I appreciated the line-by-line suggestions of where I could add color and texture without messing with the flow of the story. Also, I really liked the rhetorical questions she asked in the comments. They provided insight regarding what a fresh reader is thinking or feeling in the moment. — Anna

I found the consultation helpful both technically and emotionally! It was great to talk through what I was thinking with someone who gets the fanwriting experience and who could also help guide me as I thought about pacing, pov and arcs. I appreciated that you came with specific questions. The questions themselves were pointed but always from a place of seeking to understand, and with the assumption that I knew the answer even if I hadn't thought about it yet. I came in with questions about setting up conflict and left feeling like I had a much better grasp of that. The cheerful encouragement was also great, and reminded me that I am (theoretically) tackling this story because it is fun, not only as a chore. :) — Elizabeth

You are clearly extremely knowledgable about writing, and the advice you gave was professional, succinct and very helpful! I feel much better about my story now--you have my sincere thanks! — Kiri

It (the consultation) was very helpful and thorough. The questions I was asked were very useful in order for me to realise what I truly wanted to work on and what mattered to me most. Breaking my goals down into tiny little steps was very beneficial as I develop my writing and editing style. — Soph

The consultation was fantastic and super helpful! The most beneficial thing for me was definitely your emphasis on finding what it was that I wanted a work to be doing, then talking about how to get there. I really appreciate how openly you read stories, that you don't try to bend something to genre or format or outside standards. I also picked up a ton of larger ideas--about the work of simile and metaphor, how to structure a short story, using "you" as a narrative pronoun--that I'll be reflecting on when I'm writing other things. — Marie

Credentials

I received my MFA in creative writing and pedagogy from Miami University in 2018

I'm about to begin a PhD in English, emphasis in fiction, beginning fall 2020 at the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers

I've been teaching at the university level for 4 years

My fiction has been published and has won or been nominated for awards

You can read more about my teaching philosophy here

Notes on content

Unfortunately since we live in a time of unrestrained purity rhetoric, I feel it's important to note that I will read any content and offer feedback on the merit of its intentions, never my personal moral beliefs. Moreover, I am happy to look at both fanfiction and original creative work, as well as nonfiction operating outside of creative aims, such as application essays, cover letters, or even car manuals, if that's what you're into. I have experience writing/teaching scripts, plays, novels, short stories, personal essays, poetry, hybrid/experimental forms, memoirs, graphic novels, and academic articles.

Contact me

If you're interested in any of these services, please message me here. Tell me a little about yourself, your work, and what you're looking for. If you're shy and have a question about something that's not addressed here, you can shoot me an anon.

If you're not interested in services but still want to support me, you can reblog this post or become a patron.

Check out my newsletter Sure, Betts for updates on monthly availability.

#masterpost #commissions #please bear with me on the deluge of content today #it's just because i'm getting things in order!

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gayregis · 4 years

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ok i'm all for it when a fandom creates personalities/stories for characters that had very limited screen/page time BUT dandelion and geralt don't have very limited screen/page time. they have a very loving relationship that was developed over many years which netflix decided to ignore. people are creating second personalities for geralt and dandelion and it kinda bugs me since their real personalities and relationships are so amazing. idk just needed to rant

finally someone said it ... i have a joke that if regis shows up in netflix, they won’t actually need him at all, because the fandom has already created too many vampire!jaskier and medic!jaskier headcanons.

it fucking bugs me when people just project random personalities onto characters that already have extremely strong personalities in canon (not in the manner of “fixing” things, but in the way that they actually just disregard all of the depth that was already canon). this is mostly due to netflix’s shitty writing, cavill’s lack of acting and refusal to say his dialogue, and their refusal to make dandelion actually a master poet.

netflix fans can’t seem to comprehend that jaskier is not barbie... he does not have 10 million different jobs. he is a lyric poet, that is his job. he is a troubadour, a professor of the art, and then he did a little bit of spying on the side. that’s it! he’s not an assassin, he’s not a cook, he’s not a philosopher, he’s not a surgeon, he’s not a naturalist, he’s not a swordsman, he’s literally just a poet. (note that “poet” refers to the type of poet that sings, as that was the only type of poet in their time period). it reminds me of when people “godmod” when they do RPs, they pretend their character is just brilliant at everything they try and has endless skills.

the fact of the matter is that dandelion sucks at 99% of everything besides things relating to his profession and his station: poetry and literature (including history), heraldry and knowledge of all of the royal and noble systems on the continent, anything having to do with memorization, vocal expertise, musical expertise, any academic bullshittery, likely gossip or drama from around the city the story is set in, having friends... but he can’t sew to save his life, he’s never shown cooking for himself (he directed the fish soup but didn’t do it himself, he only gutted fish for it and told everyone else what to do), he doesn’t know much about monsters except what he might have read in books, he doesn’t know much about swords, he doesn’t know about survival in the wilderness. think about it like a DND character - his charisma is 20 and everything else is fucking shit. pick another member of the hansa if you want to get good rolls on medicine or nature checks.

“but what if he was good at other things, you never know?” OK but dandelion’s profession is extremely significant to him because a profession in their medieval time and setting is something that you do for life and pass down to your children (if you have any... dandelion is obviously an outlier in his society’s relationship norms). a profession is not just your job, you don’t work at medieval starbucks. you have to be very skilled in what you do, because you wil be doing it until the day you die. this is why geralt is so upset at being a witcher, he doesn’t WANT to kill until the day he dies, and this path was chosen for him, he had no say in the matter. but of course, geralt and dandelion are opposites. dandelion LOVES being a poet, he literally chose this path for himself. he could have had any kind of governmental job, like his cousin ferrant, working for royalty and having a settled home in a royal court. but instead he became a poet, and then he did something even more wild and travelled the continent, instead of looking to be the court troubadour of some royal. both his class and his profession would allow him to cozy up in some court and never leave, with a cushy job until his death. but instead he travels and he meets many different people and gets in all these wacky situations. this is incredibly bizarre for an individual living in his time period and setting, who has the class and credentials/training that he has. this is already very interesting, and very significant to his character. then you add on all of the other characterization that sapkowski developed for him in the books, and it’s impossible to ignore how specific this character is in terms of personality, likes/dislikes, etc. he’s not just some poet, he’s dandelion.

plus since geralt is such a fucking dick in the netflix series, so many fans are creating random personality tropes for him... random and incorrect backstory for him... no one knows who nenneke is, everyone thinks that visenna actually had a hand in raising him for a while... people are literally out here shipping him with vesemir and i am stupid enough to want to rehabilitate them by talking about how everything was different in the books.

geralt and dandelion’s relationship IS NOT something that exists solely in fanon. the books are RIGHT THERE, with them having a good relationship, but because they don’t have cavill’s abs and shitty lighting effects in them, they’re bound to be ignored. but maybe it’s for the best that geraskiers ignore the books. i have seen a flurry of despicable fetish shit come out of the fandom that centers on the abuse of gay men and i don’t want that to touch books geralt and dandelion.

#ask #anon #gerlion #dandelion #also i think if youre going to give underdeveloped characters more personality #it SHOULD be personality that fits with canon #for example for angouleme my hcs for her just go deeper into her trauma #but it doesnt take away from her canon personality

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sisterofiris · 6 years

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The Layperson’s Guide to Online Research

The Internet is full of badly researched and sometimes straight-up wrong information. Who would’ve guessed? From reinterpretations of ancient sources being taken at face value by history enthusiasts (like that infamous pre-patriarchal Persephone post) to well-intentioned but ahistorical writing spreading misinformation among modern polytheists (like the myth of Hestia abdicating in favour of Dionysos), it’s often hard to know what is trustworthy information and what is not. Unfortunately, this makes things difficult when you, a non-academic, want to research a topic.

My biggest recommendation will always be to turn to a local university library (often there are even lectures and conferences you can attend without being a student) or to subscribe to a digital library like JStor. On the other hand, I completely understand that for various reasons, not everyone can access these resources. This is why I’m here to help.

In this post, I will outline the steps you should take to check whether an online source is trustworthy and up-to-date. I will mainly focus on researching ancient history, but bear in mind that you can use the same (or similar) steps to research many different topics.

The vetting process below may seem like a lot to take in, but it all boils down to five questions:

where does this come from?

who is the author?

what are their sources?

when did they write this?

who else wrote about this?

Step One: Where does this come from?

The first thing you need to do is check the website where the information comes from. Trustworthy signs to look for are a .edu or .org web address, a university logo, or the description of the website as a professional resource. Very, very often, websites with flashy or sparkly designs are made by amateurs and are not trustworthy. Any web page that doesn’t tell you who wrote it or why is not trustworthy.

When you’re looking at books and articles uploaded online (such as Google Books), make sure they were published professionally by a publishing house or peer-reviewed journal. Mainstream news articles range from accurate (BBC) to completely unreliable (Daily Mail), but since even the best of them can be sensationalistic, I recommend digging further.

Another very important thing to look out for is ideology. Is the website devoted to a certain issue, like proving the Ancient Greeks were black, the Sumerians were contacted by aliens, or the Hittites worshipped a pre-patriarchal Mother Goddess? Congratulations, this information is biased. Some of it may be correct, but you should check steps two to five very carefully before believing it.

Generally, you should look for websites that are focused on your topic, not websites that use your topic to prove a point.

Here are two examples to illustrate the difference:

Not trustworthy: this page about Persephone as an archetype. The website focuses on the Enneagram, not on Greek mythology, and the web design is amateurish. Even though the page mentions mythology, its purpose is to establish Persephone’s personality type, not to discuss her role as a deity in Ancient Greece.

Trustworthy: this page about Ancient Egyptian women and religion. The website looks far more professional, and by clicking on the logo in the top left, you will get to the organisation’s page, The Stoa Consortium. On the right, there is an “About” section which explains that the website was set up by a Professor of Classics and is funded by various universities, as well as by the US Department of Education.

However, determining whether or not a website is any good is not always so easy. Theoi.com, for example, is an independent resource with no academic support, but it’s very well put together and reliable. Meanwhile, Academia.edu is a platform for scholars, but less reputable people can easily slip through and post their “translations” of haiku in Linear A. Experts can have informal blogs, and non-experts can write professional-looking news articles. It’s hard to know which ones of them to trust.

This is where Step Two comes in handy.

Step Two: Who is the author?

A trustworthy source will always identify its author. Some pages (like my own blog’s “About” section) will only tell you the person’s credentials, often for privacy reasons. This is a good start, but you should try to find out more - particularly whether this person actually is what they claim to be. (In my case, it’s fairly easy to tell, since I’ve posted pictures from university projects (x, x) and my identity can be deduced from various links and tidbits I’ve shared - but please be skeptical about what I say as well! Just because I’m an ancient civilisations student doesn’t mean I’m always right!)

Once you know who the author is, you need to check whether they are not only educated, but educated in the subject. This means a university degree (preferably a masters, and even more preferably a PhD) or other proof of expertise in the subject (like an experienced weaver sharing their perspective on ancient tapestries). Whatever the person’s qualifications, they need to be serious (i.e. not “one time in college I took a class on Greek mythology”) and directly related to the subject.

Here are some examples:

Not trustworthy: that pre-patriarchal Persephone post. Its author is a layperson who fell into the same trap I’m trying to prevent: they read a few web pages and decided they were the truth. Luckily, they seem to have somewhat learnt from their mistake.

Usually trustworthy, but not in this case: Gerda Lerner writing about the Hittites. While Gerda Lerner was very learned in women’s studies, she was not a Hittitologist - nor particularly familiar with ancient civilisations in general - and she did not have the nuanced understanding necessary to discuss women in the context of Hittite society.

Trustworthy and non-academic: Janet Stephens’ hairstyle reconstructions. Janet Stephens is not an archeologist, but she is a very experienced hairdresser. This makes her qualified to reconstruct and reproduce ancient hairstyles. (Note that this does NOT make her qualified to discuss, say, the religious implications of hair-binding in Ancient Greece. It makes her qualified to do what she does: style hair.)

Trustworthy and academic: Paul Schubert’s blog (in French) about Ancient Greece in the modern world. His “About” page has a link to his university page, which contains his biography and credentials. He writes about his expert subject, and stays well within its boundaries.

Step Three: What are their sources?

Next, you need to determine where they get their information from. For ancient history, the number one, most important source is ancient texts. Anything that cites ancient texts with their reference (Homer, Iliad, XΧII 389-390) is automatically more trustworthy than anything that doesn’t. If you want to research in-depth, I would recommend looking up these references to get an idea of what they say (Theoi.com and Perseus both have free text databases).

References to modern texts (especially books and articles) are good, but the author shouldn’t only cite these. This turns research into a game of broken telephone - so-and-so told me that so-and-so said that Plato wrote... What’s more, you need to make sure these sources are also trustworthy. Just because a page provide links doesn’t mean they’re relevant or well-researched - if so, then rickrolling would be the peak of academia.

Lastly, I shouldn’t need to say this, but information without sources is not information. That’s like me telling you I’m secretly the princess of Liechtenstein. It might be true, but you can’t know for sure without proof.

Again, some examples:

Not trustworthy: this quote by Plato and this one supposedly from a cuneiform tablet. Neither has a clear reference, nor context: the first is just attributed to Plato’s Symposium, and the second’s author varies from Naram-Sin to a Chaldean king to Cicero. (What’s more, both have strongly ahistorical content. Plato would never have written about “Greek mythology”, and the Mesopotamians had no concept of a “book”.)

Could be trustworthy, but you should check: Medievalpoc’s sources on Ancient Egyptian transatlantic voyages. Yes, a variety of links are provided, but are they any good? A few clicks will show that they lead to the Daily Mail, a paper written by two ideologically-motivated Mormons, and a bunch of articles about ancient people building boats (which nobody doubts, but which doesn’t prove they could sail across the Atlantic).

Trustworthy: Hittite Prayers to the Sun-God by Daniel Schwemer. This is a fully cited article with ancient sources.

Step Four: When did they write this?

The next important step is to find out when this information was written. This is because research is constantly evolving, and older interpretations may no longer be considered valid. This obviously includes views with underlying racism, sexism and homophobia, but it also applies to less obvious things, like the fact that the Sumerian word zag is now read za₃.

Unfortunately, for copyright reasons, most information available online for free is a bit outdated. You should still aim for more recent publications if you can, and definitely avoid anything that’s fifty years old or more. The only exception is for translations of ancient texts, which stay pretty much the same apart from a few spots where their translators’ biases come through - and the exception to the exception is texts in Mesopotamian languages, in which case you should really, really try to find a translation that’s younger than fifty years.

Academic podcasts, blogs and newsletters come in very handy here, because they offer insights on modern research while often being written in accessible language.

Yet more examples:

Not trustworthy: Martin Nilsson’s The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology (1932). Though Martin Nilsson was a great scholar, modern research has evolved since this book was published (in 1932 in Germany - a context you can definitely sense while reading). What’s more, it was written before Mycenaean Greek was even deciphered.

Trustworthy: Eric Cline’s 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (2015). Not only is the writing easily accessible to non-experts, this book is up-to-date and written by someone at the forefront of research in Late Bronze Age societies.

Step Five: Who else wrote about this?

This last step is basically fact-checking. Your author may have the best of credentials, they may have written their article on the most respectable of websites, but their theory could still be rejected by the majority of their peers. Look up the book or article’s title followed by “review”, which will hopefully generate other experts’ opinions on the matter - or just keep browsing different websites.

This step is not the most important and can often be skipped - you don’t need to fact-check every word you read. But if you want to research something in-depth, if a claim seems iffy, or if any of the above steps gave mixed results, you should always look for outside input. And no, you won’t always get definite answers on whether something is true. Such is our knowledge about history. But it will give you a more rounded understanding of the topic, and that’s always valuable.

A final note

If you’re not sure whether something is trustworthy, please don’t hesitate to ask! Historians and history students are your friends, and we want you to have accurate information. There’s a lot of us on Tumblr and elsewhere who are happy to help out with that. We can’t be there for everyone 24/7, but we’ll gladly point you in the direction you need!

#research #history #ancient history #ancient greece #mesopotamia #studies #infodump #debunk

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essayongenocide628 · 4 years

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idonotknowhowtoo-blog · 5 years

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How to Write a Certifications Summary

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> SEE ALSO >>

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