I definitely don't think one needs to be a writer in order to be a good beta, but I don't know that I necessarily think a "bad" writer would make a good beta--for me, at least, I'd flat-out never entrust my work to be beta'd by somebody I considered a bad writer. Of course, if definitely depends on what you mean by beta (as Magpie mentioned, we tend to use it in fandom as a catch-all terms for a lot of different things) and what you mean by bad. Somebody might be a terrible storyteller/bad at pacing/characterizations etc., but could have excellent technical skills, which could make them good for SpaG/copy edits beta, but not much for the heavy lifting of beta work. I don't think betaing and writing are necessarily the same skill set (I agree that being a good reader alone and not a writer at all can definitely suffice), but I would find it strange if somebody was writing and doing it poorly, but then was able to turnaround and offer me really excellent and in-depth beta advice. While the lack of distance from your own writing might impede some natural beta skills, some of that should shine through to the point where I wouldn't consider them a "bad" writer, if that makes sense?
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2020-05-10 10:50 pm (UTC)I definitely don't think one needs to be a writer in order to be a good beta, but I don't know that I necessarily think a "bad" writer would make a good beta--for me, at least, I'd flat-out never entrust my work to be beta'd by somebody I considered a bad writer. Of course, if definitely depends on what you mean by beta (as Magpie mentioned, we tend to use it in fandom as a catch-all terms for a lot of different things) and what you mean by bad. Somebody might be a terrible storyteller/bad at pacing/characterizations etc., but could have excellent technical skills, which could make them good for SpaG/copy edits beta, but not much for the heavy lifting of beta work. I don't think betaing and writing are necessarily the same skill set (I agree that being a good reader alone and not a writer at all can definitely suffice), but I would find it strange if somebody was writing and doing it poorly, but then was able to turnaround and offer me really excellent and in-depth beta advice. While the lack of distance from your own writing might impede some natural beta skills, some of that should shine through to the point where I wouldn't consider them a "bad" writer, if that makes sense?