The entire purpose of prereading is to allow the writer to get
an idea of how well a work in progress is flowing, and to have
help in catching the early draft stage mistakes before going
public with the piece, and also to gather ideas on what might
improve the fic in question.
That's a good definition. I might expand upon it by saying that one can
judge from the reactions of one's pre-readers how the fic is being received.
During a moment you wrote to be heart-wrenchingly sad, did the pre-readers
cry or laugh? This might tell you how successful you're being.
The entire point of prereading is to help the author perfect a fanfic.
True, and a very valid point. People whom I have pre-read for can attest to
the fact that I can argue quite loudly and passionately against what they're
doing or to argue for a certain change. (Ask Zen sometime about the C&C I
did for "The Bitter End".) I'll keep pressing the issue if I think it's
important because I truly want the work to be the better for it. But - and
this is important - I also recognize the right of the writer to thumb their
nose at me and do as they darned well please.
Sometimes, prereaders don't respond at all.
Always a pain. But see below.
Sometimes, they don't respond promptly.
This has to be tempered with the fact that pre-readers, too, have a real
life. They are under no obligation to respond promptly - we're not paying
them, after all.
And sometimes, they respond, but their comments are not
particularly helpful.
Well, "helpful" is in the eye of the beholder. :)
But if their comments are along the lines of "I think you should
do this" and "I think this should happen", and this is not what
the author is looking for...
Whoa. The author *isn't* looking for this?
Personally, I find such input invaluable. It gives me a tremendous feel for
how other perceive my work and where they think my fic is going. Of course
I reserve the right to completely reject what they're saying, but it's still
useful to listen to.
In a way, I understand where you're coming from, Lurker. It's your fic and
you know where you want to go. But still, listening to what people think
about where they think your fic can go is still useful. If they want it to
go in a completely different direction, perhaps there's something in what
you've written so far that's suggesting something you don't intend. Maybe
you're providing too little subtext and not giving your readers any idea
where you're headed with the fic. (This may be by design, of course.)
Speaking for me, personally, I wouldn't just reject someone else's
suggestions just because it's not where I want to go. I might take the
opportunity to question them further - *why* do they think it should go this
way?
Again, any and all input is good, IMO. And, in the final analysis, you do
reserve the right to go with what you feel is right over what your
prereaders think is right.
Sometimes, for these reasons, a prereader simply isn't serving any
useful purpose. In these cases, it is perfectly reasonable for an
author to cut them off, because they're dead weight.
<shrug> Always true. I'd just be careful about it, because prereaders are
valuable commodities and are not to be lightly discarded.
-Richard