What the heck is a beta?

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   Seeing as how the Short Story is about to start and there should be more than a few new writers joining us, I thought I would explain it. With every contest we have people 
asking what it is, so here I go.
A beta, in NYCM parlance, is forumites swapping stories with each other during the 
contest, so that you can each make comments on the others story that should be 
helpful: such as punctuation, grammar, lack of conjoined ideas.... Maybe the story 
leaves way too many questions as it is read through, your confused with something, 
right word wrong meanings. So, it is sort of like an editor and a proof reading all in 
one, so that we can all improve our story before submitting. It is very helpful.

At some point, after the prompts drop, someone will post a Beta List. This is where 
you find others wanting to beta, and you fill in your info so that people can find you 
and send you their story while you send them yours - the filling in is pretty 
self-explanatory (oh, "open or closed" simply means you're ready to read or you are not). 
It is helpful to find betas that are within a certain time zone so that you are not sending 
stuff at midnight to someone in the same time zone - I am 12 hours opposite to New 
York time, so Australia and the west coast of North America work great for me - I can 
send when I go to bed and it should be returned by the time I wake up, and it works 
the same for them as when they go to bed I am still up and will get it back to them 
before they hit the floor in their morning.

I hope this is of some help. If you have any questions just leave them below and 
I or some other forumite will leave a reply, we are pretty close that way on 
the forums. 

Suave

Here is the link to the Beta sign up.
2023 Short Story Beta List - NYC Midnight Forums : Writing Competitions

Edited by Suave - 24 Jan 2023 at 6:52am