beta reader

Beta Readers: Pros & Cons (Part II-PROS)

There is something so amazing about sharing your work with people excited to read it!

It is a testament to the WIP (Work In Progress) that those whom you have asked to read you work are just as passionate about what you are creating as you are! The people whom are willing to look over typos, incomplete sentences or even lopsided plots (and their holes) and see the potential (and potential greatness) in what you’re creating!

Beta Readers are the frosting on the WIP cake! They make it better, sweeter and help to bring everything together. When your Beta Readers are engaged; when they communicate with you; when they get swept up in a world you’ve created? This is the very best thing.

Beta Readers offer you first hand reaction to your story! The scary part of any WIP is the actual draft, but to have someone willing and engaged enough to read it? Including the revisions? This is a high compliment and encouragement.

Think of Beta Readers as sous chefs. They help to get and pull everything together. Their help and input help to shape the document, making it perfect for the rest of the world.

Do not shun the extra eyes, dear ones. Don’t negate the power of those whom are willing to review your work and invest in it! Beta readers are needed! Seek them out and use them!

The work awaits!

From The Editor’s Desk: Why You Need A Beta Reader

There is nothing wrong with having honest feedback.

There is nothing wrong with having someone else look at your work with the sole purpose of feedback.

Beta Readers are the secret weapon in any writers’ tool kit. This army of your own enlisting help you to weed out what works, what’s boring and what you need more of. The best analogy I can give comes from a process my grandmother did while baking.

When she would bake cakes or pies, she would make what she called a test cake. When she would do this, she would like a few taste the cake. The purpose of the process was to figure out if the cake needed anything added or taken away: more sugar, less vanilla, don’t cook it so long.

It was the feedback coupled with her expertise made what she created all the greater!

The same is said for beta readers! These people are the secret ingredient to what you need to make your work–before the prices of editing!–as reader desirable as it can be.

A good rule of thumb is after a draft is complete is have a small group of readers (friends, family, classmates) to look over your work purely for feedback! You can do the mechanics and other clean up later.

As Nora Roberts said, “You can’t edit a blank page.”

[images from guardian.ng and findbetareaders.com]

The Fear Of Revision

 

The scariest thing sometimes is to create a story. The next scariest thing is to decide to revise something you may have had to push through to finish. The thing which hinders writers to revise is anxiety. Namely, the dynamic duo of fear and doubt.

The fear tells the writer, “How can you do it?” Doubt says, “I don’t think I can, I don’t see how I can, and I can’t. I can’t. I can’t!” These voices will always haunt writers. We coexist with fear and doubt. From idea conception to publishing, we wax and wane between the highs and lows brought about through, by creativity.

In conquering these bickering, quibbling voices, try these steps:

1.) Be forgiving of yourself.

Writing is hard! Let no one tell you different.  Sometimes the best thing you can do is to forgive yourself for doubting the quality of your work, or leaving a work or draft believing it is not worth rewriting. Audre Lorde notes there are times that writers don’t in fact write! And indeed this is heartbreaking. However, in forgiving  yourself, you allow the gift, the talent to return without hindrance.

2.)  Be honest.

What are you writing to write?

What are you trying to say?

Don’t think about what other people will think when they read it, you must first write the book you want to read. From there, you are able, will be able to write and revise as you desire.

3.) Be consistent.

We know that scheduling writing time can be a thing of miracles. However, if you desire to finish or revise a work, you will have to push through doubt by way of discipline and consistency.

If you set out to make Wednesdays your revision/writing days? Do that. Let nothing hinder you from that work, and developing that discipline.

Discipline helps to silence doubt, and stifle fear. It proves to your talent and giftings they are under control, subject to your demand, and are subject to exercising.  You can write because you can write.

 

4.) Be confident.

This is your story. You are its writer. These people, these worlds you create, are subject to your control and the limited only by your imagination. Write as if know one is looking. The only one who is will be you. So give your audience something to see.

 

 

Jennifer P. Harris

Editor/Founder-Shekinah Glory Writing Services