I used to say when people asked for betas in fandom that I wouldn't beta anything I wouldn't read. I knew that I'd never be any good at helping anyone if I couldn't tolerate the subject matter/characters/pairing/genre in the first place. It wouldn't matter if I could be a good person for spotting typos/grammar stuff, I'd still hate what I read. So it's important to have common ground enough to know what's coming from a "this very idea is abhorrent to me" and what's coming from a "I like it, but I don't get this or I stumble over that" perspective.

Plus, there's a lot that can be misinterpreted in communication, and with a stranger, even more than with a friend. I've had some doozies of fights with my best friend over issues where we both took something the wrong way, and I can't imagine how that would have gone if we were strangers, though I know it would be unpleasant.

I sometimes curse my ability to write as fast as I do because I don't know of anyone who can keep up with me. My former friend/cowriter told me when we fought that she stop caring about my stories and didn't read them because there was just too much and no one had time for that.

I guess I need a slave I can chain in the basement and give them all my stuff. Of course, then they'd hate me because all they got to do was read.

I'd make my cat do it, but his idea of criticism is to sit on my papers and not let me work on them.