This is really helpful, thank you for going into such detail!
The distance is so important, but as you say sometimes deadlines get in the way of that! I'm nearly at the deadline for my current fic but my next project doesn't have any deadlines, so I'll be taking advantage of that and leaving more time before editing.
Looking back at my older fics to see where the issues are is a great idea, I'm going to set aside some time to do that and essentially beta myself. I think part of my difficulty is that my betas have tended not to be very critical (often betas who I've found on the discord server just offer spag and not much more - maybe because there isn't necessarily a longer relationship there so there isn't as much comfort with being critical?). I'm going to be more explicit with my betas from now on that I actively welcome that criticism, but I can also try and pretend that I'm not the writer and criticise myself more too.
no subject
The distance is so important, but as you say sometimes deadlines get in the way of that! I'm nearly at the deadline for my current fic but my next project doesn't have any deadlines, so I'll be taking advantage of that and leaving more time before editing.
Looking back at my older fics to see where the issues are is a great idea, I'm going to set aside some time to do that and essentially beta myself. I think part of my difficulty is that my betas have tended not to be very critical (often betas who I've found on the discord server just offer spag and not much more - maybe because there isn't necessarily a longer relationship there so there isn't as much comfort with being critical?). I'm going to be more explicit with my betas from now on that I actively welcome that criticism, but I can also try and pretend that I'm not the writer and criticise myself more too.
Thank you so much!