Beta Etiquitte

[Aakaakaak]

Do you basically give your betas the "keys to the city" (all the character sheets, outlines, etc.) or do you only give them written, or partially written manuscripts?

[Kali]

I wouldn't give them the character sheets, or anything other than what I plan on having printed.  Your readers won't have access to them, right?  So you want your beta readers judging just on what the reader will experience.  They're the ones who'll tell you that they don't understand why Betty is so terrified of chairs, or what Burt means when he refers to "the German Shepherd incident" and that's how you'll know you haven't done a good job explaining things in the text.

[shades of grey]

(the German Shephard incident:
thats a title just begging for a short story to go with it)

i agree, your beta only need the story, then you can see if their experience matches your intention

[Aakaakaak]

Okies. Cool beans.

The German Shepard Incident is a Mouse story waiting to be written.

Also, anybody else using Google Docs to organize with? I just started playing with it yesterday.

[svb1972]

Okies. Cool beans.

The German Shepard Incident is a Mouse story waiting to be written.

Also, anybody else using Google Docs to organize with? I just started playing with it yesterday.

Read the EULA on Google.
If you're writing a story, the last thing you want is google going.  "we own all Ur Basez!"

[shades of grey]

i keep it all on two hardrives so if one goes kablooie...

[Aakaakaak]

I'm pretty sure that's not permitted with them, but I'll definitely have to look into it. Thanks for the warning shot SVB.


=========
Kablooie...
Yeah, good idea. I was thinking about printing stuff off, but putting it on another hard drive, or even a flash drive might be wise of me instead.

[Kali]

Backup-wise, I email the document to myself once a day at the end of the day's writing.  To two different email addresses, for paranoia's sake.  Once a week, I backup the folder to a thumb drive.

You can never have too many backups.

[Starbeam]

I wouldn't give them the character sheets, or anything other than what I plan on having printed.  Your readers won't have access to them, right?  So you want your beta readers judging just on what the reader will experience.  They're the ones who'll tell you that they don't understand why Betty is so terrified of chairs, or what Burt means when he refers to "the German Shepherd incident" and that's how you'll know you haven't done a good job explaining things in the text.

Yeah, pretty much this.  I would also suggest giving questions/suggestions for things to watch out for, if there's anything you know you have problems with, or think might not quite come across as you want.

Okies. Cool beans.

The German Shepard Incident is a Mouse story waiting to be written.

Also, anybody else using Google Docs to organize with? I just started playing with it yesterday.

I looked into Google Docs once, but decided that I use too much stuff already.  I have 2 writing specific programs, Mac equivalent of Word, and to keep stuff with me, the notes app that I can sync between my Mac and iPod.  And a notebook, flash drive, and printed copy.

[svb1972]

Stephen Brust for example uses Emacs for all his writing needs

[Aakaakaak]

Stephen Brust for example uses Emacs for all his writing needs

Lisp, as good as it may be, scared the living bajesus out of me. (mostly because it feels natural for my dad...who's got a laundry list of mental issues...if it's natural for him....) I could check it out though. I've heard of it before.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Do you basically give your betas the "keys to the city" (all the character sheets, outlines, etc.) or do you only give them written, or partially written manuscripts?

I don't do character sheets, and outlines are things I do only when a story is finished and there's the potential of actually selling it (because the story will not stick to what I think it's going to be in advance anyway), but I do not generally show my readers anything beyond the manuscripts once I am working on something; kicking notes around with people I trust before I am really working on it, even on a "would you find this concept interesting/plausible ?" level, is a different thing, though.

[Aakaakaak]

Its my first attempt at a book. I just want to do it right. >.<
(If I didn't have a fairly tight idea of what I want to put on paper I'd be all over the map. Some people's minds wander. Mine goes on walkabout.)

[Aakaakaak]

Here's a rep about Google Docs:

As we state in our terms of service, we don't claim ownership or control over your content in Google Docs & Spreadsheets, whether you're using it as an individual or through Google Apps. Read in its entirety, the sentence from our terms of service excerpted in the blog ensures that, for documents you expressly choose to share with others, we have the proper license to display those documents to the selected users and format documents properly for different displays. To be clear, Google will not use your documents beyond the scope that you and you alone control. Your fantasy football spreadsheets are not going to end up shared with the world unless you want them to be.

So basically, they have the license stating that if you, the document creator, chooses to share out something to someone, it's legal. But if you choose to keep it private it is. They have no claim on your IP.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Its my first attempt at a book. I just want to do it right. >.<

There's no right and wrong here.

There are some things you get better at pretty much only by doing; don't worry about your first thing beign perfect, or you'll never get anything written.  Do it as best you can while still getting the words on the page.