#edit: corrected punctuation

[honorarycassowary]

The Secret Life of Squadron X IDW Transcript

Inspired by @decepti-thots​ transcribing Zero Point a little while back, I decided to transcribe another text feature only available on the Last Stand of the Wreckers hardover collection. Unlike Zero Point, this is less relevant to the rest of the IDW universe, since I believe only Ferak ever appears outside of LSOTW. But I think it provides interesting and sometimes moving character notes for these characters. So without further ado, have The Secret Life of Squadron X by James Roberts.

When the time came to introduce Squadron X in issue four, Nick and I realized we had a problem: we still hadn't decided which characters were going to make up the team. All of the big name G1 Decepticons were accounted for by this point, and using famous faces was out of the question anyway because the entire squad died in issue five. There was still a handful of makeweight Decepticons like, say, Snapdragon, who had yet to appear in IDW's Transformers continuity, but in this context their relative fame caused a problem: fans wouldn't believe that they were powerful enough to pose a serious threat to Impactor and his team. We could have made them up, but there was something a little anticlimactic about them being a bunch of generics.

In the end, we decided that Squadron X would be comprised of genuine G1 Decepticons, albeit phenomenally obscure ones—characters who had appeared in the UK or US Marvel comics, if only for a panel or two. This way, they would be more than generics, they could be as powerful as we wanted them to be, and they would make hardcore fans do a double-take.

MACABRE

FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE. TRANSFORMERS UK #88 (PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 1986)

The crazed, insecure Macabre made his debut in the last part of "Target: 2006." when he attempted to assassinate Emirate Xaaron. He failed when Impactor took the fatal blast instead, and seconds later was destroyed by the Wreckers. Of course, we couldn't resist the opportunity to turn the tables and, nearly 25 years later, have Impactor assassinate him.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Macabre was the leader of Squadron X. He succeeded Valve. a founding member of the Wreckers (and Spark brother to Springarm and Wheelarch) who defected to the Decepticons. The badges he wore around his neck were collected over several years. and were all torn from the dead bodies of high-ranking Autobots.

TORNADO

FIRST OF TWO APPEARANCES: TRANSFORMERS UK #15 (APRIL 1985)

Compared to his teammates Tornado is a veritable superstar, having appeared in not one but two Transformers stories. He cropped up in "The Enemy Within!", Simon Furman's first TF story, in flashback: he rebelled against Megatron and died fighting a fellow Decepticon, Earthquake. Before the war broke he out he worked as a saboteur in Vos. In "State Games!", a text story from the second Transformers Annual, his plan to bomb Tarn's power plant and frame lacon was thwarted when he was caught in the act.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Tornado was Macabre's right hand robot, and of all Squadron X had the highest number of kills to his name. Starscream had secretly promised him a place on Decepticon High Command "come the revolution."

EARTHQUAKE

FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS UK #15 (APRIL 1985)

Another Decepticon rebel. Earthquake tried to get off the hook by opting for trial-by-combat. Unfortunately, he ended up fighting Tornado. Although, in his words, he could "warp the very surface of Cybertron," he couldn't gain the upper hand: neither robot survived the fight.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Earthquake was famous for being the Decepticon who brought down Sherma Bridge. Prior to his death at the hands of Impactor he was suffering from dementia and, after exhibiting disturbing signs of primus apotheosis, had been earmarked by Macabre for termination.

FANG

FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS UK #82 (OCTOBER 1986)

Another character who made his debut appearance in 'Target: 2006,' Fang was a bully who got his kicks terrorizing weaker robots in Maccadam's Old Oil House. Studded with spikes—or fangs—it's impossible to tell what he transformed into. Whether he was able to transform after being punched to bits by Twin Twist is unknown.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, the mute Fang lost the power of speech when Impactor shredded his vocal processor during the Wreckers' infamous nine-second attack on the Decepticon Penal Colony, Styx (see Wreckers: Declassified 97: The Wreckers' Lightning Strike). He subsequently communicated using a form of aggressive sign language, and at the end of conversations was inevitably the last person standing.

TRITON

FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE: 1989 TRANSFORMERS ANNUAL (SEPTEMBER 1988)

By the year 2510 Triton had been masquerading as an Autobot for ninety years, and was technically the last surviving Decepticon. Determined that the Autobots should not win the war, he caused a fight between Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, and the Wreckers, during which Roadbuster was killed by Scattershot. Triton himself was killed during the ensuing shoot-out.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Triton served as Violator's second-in-command aboard the Fatal Consequence and its predecessor, the Rash Action. He was invited—then ordered at gunpoint—to join Squadron X after singlehandedly murdering a 20-strong Autobot boarding party.

FERAK

FIRST (AND ONLY?) APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS [US] #17 (FEBRUARY 1986)

A mid-ranking Decepticon who enjoyed hunting and killing Empties, Ferak and his fellow hunter-seekers helped Lord Straxus keep Polyhex under control. He was incapacitated after Blaster smashed him into a tower, but—according to some sources—resurfaced in 2007. soon after the battle against Unicron. commanding an airborne hunter squad. He was killed by Rodimus Prime after unsuccessfully begging for mercy.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Ferak is a talented engineer who came to Megatron's attention after designing the Nightmare Engine. Prior to his death he became increasingly disenamored with life as a member of Squadron X. and was intending to quit once they'd finished ferrying munitions to a Decepticon outpost on the other side of the Redan Quadrant. He harbored ambitions to rekindle his friendship with Wheeljack, but deep down knew this was impossible.

CROSSCUT

FIRST APPEARANCE: TRANSFORMERS [US] #18 (MARCH 1986)

Crosscut's chief contribution to the Decepticon war effort was to demonstrate the fatal effects of a faulty space bridge.

In the IDW Transformers Universe, Crosscut was often mistaken for a member of the Decepticon Justice Division—something that invariably worked in his favor. There wasn't much room for friendships within Squadron X, but Crosscut and Triton bonded after Springer forcibly welded them together in battle.

[runawaymun]

turning off spell and grammar check on Google Docs. It has gotten so bad. (Trying to replace hummed with hummel????? I'm sorry? Many such cases. I can't even remember all the ones off the top of my head but all of the suggestions now are nonsensical or just flat out incorrect. Half the time it's not even a real word that it's suggesting to me. I hate that they decided to replace it with dumbass AI machine learning rather than, you know, using actual grammar and spelling rules).

[whumpy-wyrms]

rereading TLLR for like the first time and damn this series is amazing it’s got all my favorite tropes and everything wow the author sure has good taste. wait i wrote this? i wrote this???? that’s so crazy

[destinyandcoins]

if you're ever worried about whether or not you're making a difference in the world with your work, remember that somewhere out there someone is rewriting the mla style guide for like the 10th time

[homosexual-fanfiction]

the ~proper~ em dash is kind of ugly

[tarakau]

.

[spohkh]

i sincerely hope i become the annoying motherfucker who can recall chicago manual of style rules with the relevant section number just off the top of my head

[chisungie]

.

[fortunejoy]

"Beginning Paragraph Correction" is an activity designed to help students improve their writing skills by identifying and correcting errors in a short paragraph. In this activity, students are presented with a paragraph containing grammatical, punctuation, spelling, or coherence errors, and they are tasked with identifying and fixing these mistakes. The goal is to reinforce proper writing conventions, enhance proofreading abilities, and develop an understanding of sentence structure and organization. This activity is particularly beneficial for beginner writers as it provides hands-on practice in editing and refining their written work.

[mysticarcanum]

love getting an edit request on my writing so stupid that i. what is the meme. turn into the joker? have my joker moment? i am the joker now. i am fucking off from work half an hour early because i am so angry

[britneyshakespeare]

ok well i did one (1) of my tasks for the day and it went badly. now im gonna do my other task for the day which should be... less bad

[muntitled]

Virginity Files: Enha Edition

▪︎ Summary: how Hyung Line would respond to finding out you're a virgin

▪︎ Cw: Established Relationship, nsfw, virginity kink, Heeseung's part is a little unethical, +18, Minors dni

Heeseung | 희승

Abstinence had never really been a major factor in Heeseung's philosophy. In fact, he believed quite the opposite. Always choosing to forgo self control, in favour of being passionate, hedonistic and sometimes even borderline lecherous in your relationship.

Discussions of sex would plague you early on in your relationship because sexual gratification is something Heeseung refuses to compromise on- and you look too fucking gorgeous in nothing but a simple bathrobe for him to be expected to have pure thoughts.

He kisses up the side of your neck first, with his arms encircling your waist from behind like ivy creeping along the sides of an archaic mansion. You tilt your neck, welcoming his kisses as you rub the rest of your lotion along your forearms, the smell of cocoa butter having dire effects on Heeseung's restraint.

"I could fucking eat you alive," he whispers drunkenly in your ear, causing the sharpest of gasps to leave your throat when you feel his hardened length push up against your ass.

'It's happening' you think idly to yourself as Heeseung's hands crawl up your front until they're dipping into the opening of the robe.

When his fingers make contact with your breasts you freeze and Heeseung groans as he dips his head between your neck and shoulder.

He squeezes and tweaks your nipple, his cock growing impossibly harder when he feels your nipples turn to hardened peaks.

"Fuck-" he whispers before dragging you down onto the bed. Your body is limp and unresponsive when Heeseung hovers over you, your back pressed against the comforter as he inspects the expanse of your body with his large domineering hands.

You should've known what you were getting into with a guy like Heeseung.

He lives, eats and breathes sex.

How could you ever be so dumb?

"I need to touch you," he whispers, undoing the belt of your robe.

"You'll be good for me?" He asks- but his movements stop when your hand on his, stops all movements.

"I haven't had sex yet-"

Heeseung only blinks once before flashing you that dazzling smile. "Well obviously we haven't had sex yet- that's what I'm trying to correct."

"Ever. Heeseung." You release a shaky breath. "I mean ever."

It only takes a maximum of 15 infuriating seconds before Heeseung continues to slowly undo the knot of your belt as he says, "Would it be unethical if I said I'm more hard now than I've ever been?”

Jay | 제이

The idea of sex comes pretty early on in the relationship because it's all Jay could ever think about in your presence. Sex had never been anything monumental in his previous relationships- it had always been exceedingly casual, like a mutual business transaction with both parties guaranteed to step away from the venture wholly satisfied.

But here Jay is, on his knees in front of you like a martyr at the altar.

The blazer he had worn is discarded somewhere around him but all that plagues his mind is evil, diabolical thoughts of you. He looks completely wrecked as he kisses up the sides of your legs, his dress shirt half unbuttoned with his sleeves rolled up to his forearms. At the start of the evening he had looked dapper, not a single hair out of place and not a single wrinkle on the prada shirt. Ready to meet your patent.

But for you… here, he's a mess.

"What has gotten i-into you?"

You dig your hands into his hair, urging him to stand up but all he does is groan and nuzzle his face further between your thighs.

"You know how beautiful you looked tonight?” he breathes, lifting the fabric to reach more skin, “It was torture having to save face for your parents but secretly wanting to eat you out the whole the night-"

Jay punctuates his mind numbing confession by lifting the ends of your dress and ducking underneath. He hooks his fingers into the sides of your lace underwear and he pulls-

"Jay, stop-"

"Why?" His voice cracks under the weight of his own desire, and he peaks up from under your dress to look up at you with pleading eyes. "Baby, just let me taste you." Your heart shatters. "I know we haven't done anything, and that's fair- maybe you don't trust me yet- I don't know-" as Jay speaks all you can do is shake your head, "But I'm fucking attracted to my girlfriend- I need to be inside of you, I need to taste you and fuck you and hold you-"

"I'm a virgin."

Jay's rambling dissolves into complete and utter silence and you're left to watch as he sits back on his haunches, completely mystified.

"What?"

"That's why we haven't done anything- I-"

Your words of embarrassment completely dissolve in your throat once Jay ducks under the skirts of your dress once more, sending your heart into complete overdrive.

"Tonight's the night then,"

Is all he says with the mission of eating you out with absolute ardour.

Jake | 제이크

Being in a relationship with a boy made of literal prince tendencies meant there were a lot of lecherous acts that you had to coax out of him. When you and Jake first shared your first kiss under New Year's fireworks he had tenderly placed his hand on your cheek as if your skin was forged of porcelain and he muttered, "Is this okay?” Those three words haunted your relationship to the point that you feared your boyfriend saw you as less of a girlfriend, and more a fragile, precious thing he coveted.

These thoughts spin in your head as Jake rubs circles on your inner thigh through the duration of your Friday-night movie.

You couldn't focus on Toy Story 2 because Jake's large hand and its glorious callouses left nothing but goosebumps in their wake, and you're completely and utterly brimming with energy when you pause the movie to gain his attention.

"Can we kiss?" You ask.

You're not sure why you ask but this running theme of always seeking for consent I'd a habit that is difficult to shake off.

"Fuck, if I wasn't thinking about it for the passed hour," he replies before scooping you into his arms. "Get over here."

You're straddling his hips and his mouth crashes against yours, eliciting an unsteady moan from the confines of your throat.

Jake is such an eager kisser. Always eager to please.

Always eager to do good for you. It's like he was purposely trying to kiss away every other guy you may have come into contact with.

If only he knew how embarrassingly small that list really is.

"Woah- Bunny, what're you doing?" Jake's hands are still on the soft sides of your hips when you grind down against his length. You're both fully clothed but the intention of your actions is very much clear. He curls his arms around you as if urging you to stop, but his steadily hardening cock gives him away.

"F-Fuck," he curses under his breath finally relenting and choosing to lean back against the couch as you grinded down against him. He watches you with hooded eyes. "This is how you're feeling tonight, yeah?"

Your bottom lip clamps between your teeth, "Yeah..." and it completely erupts a wave of arousal in the pits of Jake's stomach.

"You want Jake to take care of you?" It's the way in which he says it, like every word had to be meticulously asked in order for you to understand the severity of the situation. It made you feel silly, and juvenile and so incredibly blissful.

"P-please," you whine, locking your arms behind the back of his neck as you grind down harder against the bulge in his pants. "I'm ready."

"What- like ready, ready." Instead of admiring how cute your boyfriend is, all you're able to do is bury your face in the crook of his neck.

"I'll take good care of you." He says eventually, with his large hand rubbing soft circles into your back. "Jake'll take good care of you..."

You need him to make you feel good and that alone has him soaring along the silver lined clouds.

Sunghoon | 성훈

Unlike the rest of Sunghoon's meticulously planned life, falling helplessly in love with you- and then your body- had been something to hit him quite unsuspectingly.

You stormed into his life, and shook up every aspect of his fully functional brain, making him question just how good of an idea it was to invite you to live with him. Seeing as you two were quickly becoming a serious ensemble, Sunghoon knew the time to solidify the relationship was quickly approaching, still, it caught him wholly by surprise when you admitted your inexperience under the soft glow of his overhead light. Wine intermixed with saliva lay on both your lips due to the sweet, drunken kisses you've exchanged on the couch. Sunghoon didn't mean to get handsy. He rarely does.

In fact, Sunghoon prides himself on his restraint when it comes to you. Seeing you, however, in this space, amongst his things, as if you were a part of his property... he lowered the wine glass onto the coffee table to swoop you into his arms.

"D-Did you hear what I said?" You felt embarrassed to have to admit to being a virgin but somehow you felt that consent was needed. Perhaps he may not be completely comfortable being made subject to the daunting task of being someone's 'first'.

"W-We don't have to do this?" You try to whisper. You try to push him away by his chest but his teeth sink into the crook of your neck drawing a heightened gasp out of the confines of your throat.

"We should get you ready first," he whispers instead, knocking all the air out of your lungs in one fell swoop. His hands glide down over your silk pyjamas until he's cupping your sex- the most private, most vulnerable parts of you. "We'll go slow." Sunghoon said with his nose still buried in your neck as he snuck his hand down your pants. You were a gasping mess, so unused to the feeling of it being someone else's hand on that particular spot.

"Just relax, Baby,"

"Sunghoon-"

"Right here," he whispered, drinking in your gasps like they were the finishing remains of crimson red wine. "I'm right here,"

[rad-batson]

The Batkids and The Arts (Feral Edition)

They’re all musical theatre nerds. Every single one of them. Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Cass, Jason, Steph, Tim, Duke, Damian. They go see Broadway shows together then don’t stop talking about it for like a week. It is the one bonding activity they will never pass up.

Jason and Steph once entered a ballroom dancing competition and won after some pompous rich kids insulted their moves during a gala. Since then, they’ve entered a competition every month or so just for fun. (And for the prize money :P)

Tim is an avid believer that Culinary Art is one of The Arts. (Can he cook? Absolutely not. It was Bernard that convinced him, but he stands by it.)

Duke talks through every single movie he watches. He always promises to be quiet at the beginning, but then he gets too excited and whispers commentary to the people around him. This habit has since bled into the entire family. They are no longer welcome at the local AMC.

Every single one of them is pretentious about something.

Dick is pretentious about any and all performance arts featured at the circus. Once, someone made a joke about going to “Clown School” and Dick screamed at them about how not even their pinky would have the privilege of being admitted into clown school.

Jason is pretentious about classic literature. They can no longer tell if his jokes and references to Shakespeare and Jane Austen are correct or if he’s just fucking with them.

Cass gets pretentious about martial arts being a performance art. She is also pretentious about ballet being a martial art. She could kill a man in fifth position without losing her balance, and that’s a fucking fact.

Stephanie is very good at acting pretentious about the arts. She absorbs everything she’s learned from the rest of the bat family’s interests then pretends to be pretentious about it to mock them while sneaking in just enough correct information so no one can call her out on it. (Her true interest is graphic design.)

Tim has no professional experience with photography, but he will be pretentious about it like he knows everything. (Bruce: Tim, why is there a filter on this evidence photo you took? Tim: I thought it looked nicer that way. Really makes the blood splatter pop.)

Duke isn’t exactly pretentious about writing, but he will lay down his life for the Oxford comma. (Bruce didn’t use it until Duke called the punctuation in his mission reports “insulting.” He now uses it.)

Damian is pretentious about studio art. If he ever hears his family or friends say, “I don’t get it,” at an art museum, he will make them look at it for five minutes as he explains in painstaking detail what’s so revolutionary about it.

The kids decided to take an improv class together once for their undercover work while Bruce and Alfred were out of town. It was so fun that they still play improv games when they’re bored.

Cass is secretly a metalhead.

Whenever one of the younger kids needs to write an English paper, they will just walk up to Jason, riddle off a dumb opinion about the book or poem they had to read, and record whatever Jason ends up lecturing them about. The most recent incident resulted in an award-winning paper about how the theory that William Shakespeare never wrote his own work is deeply rooted in classism.

Damian always has paint under his nails. It just never comes out.

Dick has personally taught everyone in the family how to do The Perfect Backflip. They all get a little ceremony once they’ve mastered it. There is cake.

Whenever Cass is standing around with nothing to do, she’ll practice her foot positions for ballet. The others always notice and follow her lead.

Jason: dramatically recites a poem in the living room Steph: starts beatboxing

Steph is always the first to find typos or continuity errors in a book, play, or movie. She doesn’t intend to; it’s just second nature to her. (She is now Duke’s official proofreader.)

Duke: So how’d you like the movie? Damian: I really loved the mise-en-scène, especially during the breakfast scene and that one shot near the end with the warehouse doors. Duke: *nods thoughtfully* Everyone Else Leaving the Theater: wtf is a meez on sen?

When Duke is finished writing something and wants to share it with his family, he’ll give it to Jason and Cass first.

Jason and Duke have frequent passionate arguments discussions about who is the best poet. Never bring up Dickinson, Poe, Shakespeare, Hughes, Plath, Wilde, Kipling, Sappho, or Angelou in their vicinity unless you want to start it up again.

Damian is surprisingly good at acting. Too good.

Dick knows your music taste before you do. He has a carefully curated playlist for every single family member, every possible combination of family members, and every possible mood at the ready.

They can and will correct anyone who mistakes Gothic architecture for Victorian or Gothic Revival and vice versa. (It’s really a Gotham thing.)

Tim: How dare you call The Grand Budapest Hotel the best prison break movie when it’s clearly The Shawshank Redemption! Jason: Well, as someone who’s BEEN TO PRISON, I think I should know! Dick: It’s clearly Chicken Run! You’re all just Chicken-ist. Duke: But what about Midnight Express?! That one’s so good! Steph: Has anyone mentioned Toy Story 3 yet? No? Damian, watching from the sidelines: I liked Escape from Alcatraz. Cass: Same.

There are several art pieces in the manor that have been positioned directly over top of bullet holes and other suspicious damages.

Damian and Duke made an animated short film once for the Gotham Film Festival. Dick and Cass were their models for the concept art. Tim did historical research. Jason helped Duke edit the storyboard, and Steph was the continuity supervisor. It was about a British super spy working for MI6 that saved the world in the late 70’s. It was titled Agent A.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Revision Strategies

When the time comes for revision, it can cause stress for writers of every level.

After all, it can be hard to delete or change words you spent hours writing.

To help reduce this stress, the following lists a few revision strategies.

READ IT ALOUD

Although it can be awkward at first, reading your work aloud can be one of the best revision strategies.

1. Catching Typos

When reading silently, your brain might skip over or correct small errors because it makes educated guesses about what the words are trying to say.

However, reading aloud forces you to slow down and see what is actually written.

2. Identifying Sentences That Flow Awkwardly

If you have ever read an incredibly long sentence in someone’s work, you know that it can be hard to follow the person’s train of thought.

These sentences are hard to catch in your own writing, but reading aloud will make them almost impossible to miss.

It is natural to take a breath in between sentences, so if you find yourself out of breath while reading aloud a single sentence, or having difficulty following the main idea/s of a sentence, the sentence likely needs to be revised.

SHARE YOUR WORK

It can be unnerving to ask others to read your work, but the payoff is more than worth it.

1. Another Reader Can Offer A New Perspective

It is easy to miss small details in your own work, especially when you have been looking at the same document for a long time.

Furthermore, because you are an expert on your own topic, you may not notice whether your essay effectively lays the groundwork necessary for those unfamiliar with the topic.

Ask a friend, family member, or a writing consultant to read your draft and offer feedback.

Moreover, telling your readers what to focus on ensures they pay special attention to the elements you want to revise.

2. Edit for Grammar Last

Even a grammatically-sound paper can fall flat if the content does not meet a reader’s expectations.

Your top priority during revision should be to make sure that you have made your point/s clearly.

Save the editing of punctuation and grammar until after you finish revising a draft.

3. Manage Your Stress

If you get a lot of feedback on what to revise, make and prioritize a list of the comments.

After taking the time to digest everything, focus on each individual item on your list.

Cross off items as you complete them so that you have a physical representation of the work you have finished.

TAKE TIME AWAY

Leave yourself enough room in your schedule to take time away from your completed rough draft; time away from your writing is an important part of revision.

1. Recharging Throughout the Process

It is taxing to begin revision immediately after finishing a draft and can discourage writers.

Giving yourself a break between writing and revising allows you to rest and recharge, so when you revise, you have more energy to spend on the process.

2. Refreshing Your Perspective

Taking a break allows you to distance yourself from your work so that you can read through it more objectively.

This fresh perspective allows you to see what might need clarification, refined organization, elaboration, or other revision work.

3. Coming Back from a Break

Instead of immediately jumping into sentence-level revisions during your first read-through of a draft, focus on reading your writing from start to finish at least once without interruptions.

This enables you to see how well your writing flows, catch any repetition, and determine whether anything might be missing.

Writing Notes & References

[daisywords]

I personally know there are multiple types of editing but I've never seen anyone explain it in a way that actually made me understand what the types of editing actually were (yeah cool that you say {}editing is different from []editing but *how*). So if you wanna explain, feel free to.

Your handy-dandy guide to different types of editing

disclaimer: writers, you can literally edit however works for you. these distinction can be useful to your process, or just if you're looking to hire an editor. Not all editors make distinctions in this way; there are various ways of dividing. But no matter what vocabulary you use, it's best practice to start with broad, big-picture stuff and move towards narrower issues. Some editors do all levels of editing, while some specialize.

Developmental Editing (Is it a good story?)

Developmental editing has to do with the content. For a novel, that means working on the bones of the story. The plot. The pacing. The characters. Do their motivations make sense? Can the reader understand why things are happening? Does the story drag in places, or seem to brush past important elements? Do all of the subplots get resolved? etc. etc. (At this stage an editor is mostly going to be offering suggestions, pointing out issues, and throwing out potential solutions. Beta readers can also be very helpful at this stage to get a reader's perspective on the story beats and characters.)

Line Editing (is it well written?)

Sometimes called substantive editing, line editing is zooming in a little bit more to focus on scenes, paragraphs and sentences. Once we've decided that a scene is going to stay, lets look at the mechanics of how it plays out. Does the scene start to early or too late? Does the writing style communicate the emotions we want the reader to feel? Does the dialogue match the characters' voices? do any of the sentences sound awkward or ugly? Is the movement being bogged down by too much purple prose anywhere, or is there not enough detail? (This can get pretty subjective, so it's important that the writer and the editor are on the same page with taste, style goals, etc.)

Copy Editing (is is correct?)

Copy editing is all about the details. Think grammar and punctuation. Do the sentences make sense? are they grammatically correct? Is the dialogue punctuated correctly? Any misspellings? Should this be hyphenated? Should this be capitalized? Should we use a numeral, or write out the number? etc etc. A significant part of copy editing is matching everything to a style manual (like Chicago or AP) a house style guide (individualized preferences from a publisher, for example), and a project's own internal style sheet (are the character's names spelled the same every time? if we used "leaped" in chapter 4, we shouldn't use "leapt" in chapter 7) Copy editing is still subjective, but less so than the earlier levels, so a copyeditor will be more likely to just go in and make a bunch of (tracked!) changes without consulting the author for everything.

Bonus: Proofreading (did the copyeditor catch everything? are there typos? formatting issues? have any errors been introduced?)

Lots of people say editing when they really mean proofreading. Proofreading is the absolute last thing to get done. It's the one last pass just before something is published. It's important, but as you can see, there's a whole lot more to editing than just checking for typos.

[cbk1000]

I think more people need to understand that fics are not books. Aside from the occasional professional writing it on the side of their published work, fanfiction is written by amateurs in their spare time. Do some of these amateurs write at a professional level? Yes, of course. But you shouldn't have the expectations going in that you would have for a book you paid money for. There's a bare minimum expectation of quality there, because it was written and edited by professionals (supposedly, in some cases). Is it extremely obnoxious to find a bunch of poor grammar and typos in something professionally produced that you paid actual cash money for? Yes. Is it appropriate to vent about the poor quality in a review on whichever platform you use to rate books? Sure. It's pretty unprofessional to put out a crap book that was half-assedly proofread and then charge, in this day and age, quite a bit of money for it

But a fic author doesn't owe you professionalism. You're reading a free story on the internet. Even fics with betas usually do not have actual professional editors working on them. There isn't even a veneer of quality gatekeeping the way there is in traditional publishing. The stupidest person you know could write some gay porn and throw it up online. Literal children are writing fics. People learning a second language are using fic to practice their skills.

If you find something unreadable because of the grammar and spelling, just click out of it. It's not that deep. It's not a personal affront. It's not something you need to bitch or snark about in the comments. It's usually pretty apparent very early on if something isn't technically well-written. I cannot even count the number of times I've read a paragraph or two of a fic and quit because I know the punctuation or writing style isn't something I can overlook. You don't owe the author your time and they don't owe you the correct 'their.' If you're so angry that a free story you found on the internet isn't well-written that you have to leave a scathing comment about it, go the fuck outside and breathe some fresh air.