If you’re a writer, you’ve probably asked someone else to read something you wrote and give you an opinion. That, in a nutshell, is what a beta-reader should do for you. Read your work, and give you some kind of amazing sent-from-heaven input that will make your work approximately ten million times better than it was before they read it. But let’s face it, that’s not entirely realistic. In my experience a good beta reader will only improve your work by a factor of ONE million, not ten.
But I digress! What I really want to share are my own rules for beta reading. A general how-to guide, for those of your just starting out, or recovering from a nightmare exchange, or looking to up your game. This advice is based on a solid year of beta exchanges, during which I believe I’ve learned the ropes. I’ll let my CPs chime in on that one–what’s a CP, you say? A Critique Partner. They are the kind of beta readers who will give you detailed, writer-based feedback. NOT beta readers such as teenagers, whom I view as target market samples–giving your YA novel to teens is ethnographic research in my book. I’ve explored that process as well, but the rules for that kind of beta exchange will have to wait for another post.
For now, let’s focus on a beta exchange between CPs, people (most likely writers) who agree to read each other’s work and share feedback. Here are my rules for a smooth exchange–because, like any exchange, there is the potential for a swap to go awry. Attending to the ‘business’ side of a beta swap right away can save you headaches and put you on the right track.
How to Set up a Successful Beta Exchange
1. Swap details first. Novel title, genre, short description or query, and WORD COUNT. Note the caps there? Yeah. Word count is pretty important in an exchange. If you’ve written 35K, and they’ve written 140K, you might not want to swap. Or you might! It’s totally up to you. But exchanging this info up front will give you a chance to kindly opt out if you are not a match with your CP.
2. Swap samples. Some people swap the first three chapters. Other swap the first 25 pages. Whatever you swap, I recommend trying a sample of someone’s work before you sign up to eat, I mean, read, the whole thing. If only we could do this in restaurants, too, right?
3. Establish swap expectations. This is the ‘business’ part of a swap. Set a timeline for the exchange. Agree to a format for feedback. Do you want notes in the Word doc? Do you want to use ‘Track Changes’? Do you want a separate summary written in email? Do you expect the MS to be formatted a particular way? Will you be open to more questions after the crit, or reading a future revision?
4. Establish feedback expectations. There are INFINTE topics to address within a work in progress. It’s a good idea to give your beta reader an idea of the feedback you’re looking for. Is this a first draft? Are you looking for general feedback on plot, character development, pacing, and voice? Or are you at the polishing stage? Are you looking for line edits, grammar tweaks, and quick kills for dangling participles? Know where you are with your MS. There’s no sense in getting line edits on a first draft. Save that picky, time-consuming work for later drafts whose plot holes have already been fixed.
Once you’ve chatted with your potential CP, found that you have a nearly identical word count, and exchanged samples (only to discover you must have been separated at birth), it’s time to get to work. And how exactly do you do that? Well, here’s my best guess, based on beta reading a couple of dozen MSs in the past year.
How to Beta Read
1. Remember that this is not your MS. However you give feedback, and whatever level of critique you have agreed to, do your best as a reader to tap into your CP’s unique point of view. Try to push that unique voice and story in the direction it NEEDS to go, not the direction you would take it if you were writing this story. You can show a million writers the same picture, and we’ll all write a different story. Help your CP write theirs, not yours.
2. BE HONEST. Notice that I put that one in all caps? That’s because beta reading is a total waste of time if you aren’t prepared to give honest feedback. Say what you mean. As a reader, and as a writer. Don’t shy away from pointing out writing that needs work. Or voice that goes in and out. Or characters who act OUT of character. Or plot holes big enough to drive a car through. Or whole passages, or even whole chapters, that bored you to tears. Whatever level of feedback you’ve agreed to give, give it kindly, but with total honesty.
3. Specificity is a gift. As a beta reader, it’s easy to feel like we need to solve the other writer’s problems. Don’t worry about that. Worry about telling your CP EXACTLY what you are experiencing/thinking/questioning at any part of the novel. Rather than making suggestions, ask questions. When your CP reads your question, they will know what to do. They’re writers!
4. Do the work. What do you get out of beta-reading for another writer? Well, other than eye strain (I kid) (not really), completing a beta-read teaches you how to write. Yeah. So I think the effort is worth it. Because when you read someone else’s story, you see things about your own writing that you would not see otherwise. For every minute you spend scrutinizing someone else’s pages, your pages will improve. I promise. Plus, being a great CP is rewarding. You will attract even better CPs, people who are agented, or even published. A great CP does not go unnoticed.
5. Beta Reader Checklist:
— Did the opening sentence grab you? The opening chapter? Does the novel start where the story starts (most don’t in the first draft)?
— What were the most exciting parts of the story? The most boring? How was the pace overall? In each chapter?
— Did you like the MC? Were the secondary characters well developed as well? Did any characters act out of turn? Was the antagonist well-developed as well? Did you understand the antagonist’s motivation? Did you have sympathy for them?
— Was the world-building complete? Were there sensory details? Was there any info-dumping?
— Was there telling instead of showing?
— Was there enough dialogue? Enough action? Enough description?
— Were there bad writing habits? Too much passive voice, dangling participles, lack of sentence variety, cliche phrases, bad dialogue tags, too many adverbs . . .
— Did the story end in the right place?
And finally, one note on RECEIVING a beta-read. Thank your CP. And don’t ask any questions, not for a minimum of 48 hours. Read through their feedback carefully. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from beta swaps, it’s that every single reader shares an observation that improves my work.
Because regardless of writing skill, most writers are great readers, and they have feedback aplenty. The first time you read beta feedback, you’ll most likely have a heart attack. But rest assured, after the shock wears off, you’ll be energized. And excited. And thankful. And you will LOVE your CPs.
Read About my First Beta-Read!
So, awhile ago I made a resolution to attend my first writer’s conference within a year, and this past weekend I attended an SCBWI-NJ workshop! Yay! First of all, let me say this moment was very exciting. I felt like attending this workshop was my coming-out party of sorts, wherein I revealed my writerly identity to the world. Sure, I have CPs and a writer’s group, and I’ve written a couple of MSs at this point . . . but this was the first time I showed up as a writer in PUBLIC.
It’s a good thing for me that a lot of other people showed up, as well, because I got over those nerves quickly as I surveyed the room of attendees and realized we were all in the same boat together. Sure, some of the people there had agents or published books, but every single one of us still had some kind of writerly aspiration we were working towards, whether that be getting agented, or published, or re-published. I was among friends.
Why did I go to a Conference?
The event I attended was a single day free workshop offered by SCBWI-NJ. I begged my husband and kids to drive me there through post-Sandy roads, detours, and traffic so that I could get a taste of what a writer’s conference would be like. Granted, I’ve gone to a whole lot of professional design conferences and trade-shows, so I knew what to expect from the conference environment. What I was interested in learning was what really gets discussed at these events, and what I might stand to learn from biting the bullet and paying for a larger conference in the future.
The Scoop on this Workshop
While I listened to the wonderful Leeza Hernandez introduce the industry professionals participating in the day’s workshop, I started to take notes, and then thought better of it and started live-tweeting the event. After all, the most important soundbites would surely be under 140 characters, so why not share with my writer buddies as I learned? Read on for my favorite soundbites from the workshop by topic.
State of the Industry
The workshop opened with remarks from a panel of industry professionals including agents Ted Malawer and Rachel Orr, and editors Jenne Abramowitz, Paula Sadler, and Sara Sargent. The remarks spanned common topics of interest from what’s trendy, to personal interests, to discussion of the Penguin/Random merger, to some very insightful remarks about publishing and writing on the whole.
Phew! That was a lot of info, right? Great info and good insights into what these agents and editors are looking for, though!
Series Paperbacks with Jenne Abramowitz
Am I particularly interested in writing a paperback series? Not so much. But I am interested in Jenne, because she has SO much experience in the publishing industry, and I just knew she’d have some really interesting remarks to share.
Crit Groups
I also attended a Crit Group Session with Sheri Perl-Oshins, but didn’t tweet during the session as it was a real workshopping expercise. Sheri shared a lot of great insights into how to form crit groups and how to run them. The biggest takeaway I had: Set Expectations Up Front. As long as you discuss how swaps will work, schedules, and expectations, you should have an okay crit experience–but remember, not everyone will be a great match. Connect with writers via Twitter and FB and through your local library, or however you need to, because feedback is critical to producing great work!
Q&A with Agents
The final session I attended was a Q&A with Ted Malawer and Rachel Orr. I was really looking forward to this session because these agents are both, well, funny. And genuine. And in general, it was an informative and fun session. But there were a lot of questions that quite frankly could be answered online with a quick trip to their agency websites, or using google. At times I questioned how much agents really enjoy a Q&A. Having been on a pro panel myself as a designer, I can say that nothing sucks the life out of you like mundane questions or self-promoting questioners.
What Did I Learn?
I learned that I would like to go to another writer’s conference, but I need to be careful about the focus of the conference I attend. I don’t want to throw myself into pitch sessions. I’m not terribly interested in Q&A’s. What I really love to talk about is writing. The deep, underlying mechanics of writing. Characterization. Plotting. Settings. Word devices. Sentence Structure. And I also LOVE books. I love authors.
So, perhaps what I need is a writer’s conference that’s more about writing than publishing. I trust publishing will work itself out with time. That’s not what I want to focus on right now. So I’m considering BEA for the love of books, or another SCBWI conference (if it offers more content-oriented sessions). If you know of a great writer’s conference, please share! I hope to meet you there one day.
Wow–Just one week ago, I was celebrating some truly incredible, wonderful news via the lovely Ms. Anna Meade:
WOOOOOOOOOO! Go forth to her website and pour out congratulations and love, as it was a mightily hard-fought battle but her story prevailed.
Melanie’s entry, The Catch, is a pithy bite of dark flash fiction with a crunch at the end. I was filled with dread the entire time I read it and she built the suspense to the unbearable climax. Well done, Melanie! I look forward to collaborating with you on my next flash fiction contest in 2013!
When the audio recording of The Catch is posted, I will let everyone know!
Seriously! That happened! I am still so humbled and excited and proud and flabbergasted. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Dark Fairy, please let me introduce you to Anna and her wonderful website Yearning for Wonderland, wherein you will find incredible interviews, amazing writerly companions, and truly inspiring contests. I entered the Behind the Curtain contest because, well, Anna’s prompts are awesome. For example, here’s the prompt from #BTCurtain:
Greasepaint and floodlights and cheerful music out front, but behind the curtain sometimes darker dramas unfold. Whether theatre or circus, pantomime or ballet, there is the world presented…and then the world hidden.
Too often, a gorgeous, painted stage facade conceals dry rot and warped wood. The clown’s smile wipes away to reveal bitter rage. The ballerina’s twisted foot, the leading man’s alcoholism, the abuse of performing animals, all carefully hidden from the audience. For the price of just a ticket, the artifice is yours.
Yet I challenge you to pull it aside, to peek behind the curtain. Who do you see, what do they feel, and most importantly what do they hide?
How could a writer NOT respond with great creative enthusiasm to that? So, long story short, I entered, I read over sixty other fabulous stories, and last Friday, amazingly, my story was selected as the grand winner, along with…Sophie Moss (@smosswrites) for Scarlett’s Rose Petal Revenge,
J. Whitworth Hazzard (@zombiemechanics) for his creepy, stalker story, Scopophiliac, and Jessica Marcarelli (@jmarcarelli) for her entry, Behind the Curtain.
And I am so grateful. Even more so now that I’ve spent the time since that wonderful moment riding out a hurricane and living without power and heat in descending temps, only to flee New Jersey for the refuge of my parent’s home in NC late last night. This is the first time I’ve been back online, and sitting in a warm living room with heat and hot food and a warm blanket–do you notice a motif, here? I was really cold for the last week!
But while I was freezing, I was also thinking a lot. About winning. And losing. And how there really is no way to inhabit one of those spaces entirely. We are all winning and losing a little bit each and every day. The tally adds up to a vague gray sum, something neither black nor white, but a shade of human in a way. For one moment, your heart soars, and the very next it plummets. I think I’ve learned not to hold too tightly to any of these moments. It’s best to let them ebb and flow, and try to remember who you are and what you want out of this day, out of this moment–and know that regardless, there will be wins and there will be losses, but all that matters is staying the course.
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| Revision was the topic in #kidlitchat this week, as you can tell. |
When the tour arrived in Plimpton, Angus found his venue was a crumbling barn hardly large enough to accommodate the trapeze. Stone walls buttressed each end of the building. A sagging roof spanned the gap.
“These buggers expect to see someone fly,” Angus grumbled, leaving Joanna and Marcus to produce some semblance of their regular show.
They worked late, and by the following day Joanna was certain of two things: one, that a miracle was required to pull off their tricks, and two, that she was, to her great satisfaction, with child.
As the sun waned, weak beneath the upland clouds, Joanna’s joy at the gentle nausea in her stomach gave way to a deeper, biting pain at the thought of confessing to Marcus.
When he’d selected her six months ago, the prospect of roaming the countryside with a circus had seemed a dream. Joanna had risen to every challenge, she’d soon found herself rising from Marcus’s bed in the mornings as well. But he had no need of a wife, as he’d made clear from their first stumbling fall into the straw. Still, Joanna hoped that a child might make a better prospect.
She held her confession taut on the tip of her tongue until moments before their act.
“Marcus,” she said quietly. “I’m pregnant.”
He ceased wrapping his ankles momentarily, then continued as though she had not spoken. She wondered if he’d heard her at all.
Angus passed, clapping Marcus on the back, and Marcus responded with a wry remark about barns.
At this, Joanna became certain he hadn’t heard, and resolved to confess during a gentler moment. She tied her last ribbon, rubbed chalk into her palms, and climbed to the eaves.
As Angus bellowed below, Joanna set off, sweeping through the air to meet Marcus. They flowed through their routine, arms and legs meeting as one, and yet Marcus avoided her eyes.
A pit formed in Joanna’s stomach, a hard little thing that grew sharper with each turn.
The finale arrived, a long, arcing throw, which they had planned dramatically close to the stone wall. Joanna’s body swung back, and as she turned to face Marcus, his eyes met hers, and she knew then that he had heard her.
Her legs whipped away, towards the uncompromising stone, and she reached for him, but instead of gripping tightly to her fingers, Marcus let her go.
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I’ve read a bunch of different interviews with established authors lately about their daily writing habits. Haruki Murakami blew my mind with his intensely physical daily routine, which includes running 10K or swimming 1500m every day! Seriously, click through and read about it. Murakami takes discipline to a whole new level.
For me, writing happens every day in one of these forms:
- words towards my WIP, ideally ~2K
- writing a flash piece, which I did last week on Lost Witch’s blog
- a blog entry
- writing notes for a beta read
- revising a WIP
- making notes on my iphone while I “watch” my kids at the park
So, I give myself a few choices. Some, like working on a first draft of a WIP, are pure creative indulgences. I write and write until my eyes are so sore I can’t stare at the screen. I try not to edit as I go. I just let the words pour out. Other tasks, like beta reading or revising take more of a critical mindset. And when I’m feeling chatty, there’s always the blog.
What I like about having a lot of choices at hand is that I know I will accomplish my goal of writing something every day, because I’m not locked in. Some of the writing tasks are longer, some are shorter. Some are more intense than others. But if I open up my WIP and am not immediately ready to type, I’m far more likely to move on to another writing assignment than hammer it out. They all need to be accomplished, after all. The schedule is up to me.
And every day, no matter what I end up writing, I do one other critical task: I read. Again, I try to have options, but always, every day, I put something new into my brain (even if it’s only one page of a book), so that tomorrow I’ll be able to spit something else out when I sit down to write. Reading is like homework for writers. Don’t skip it, or there’s no way to ace the writing test.
So. I bet you’ve heard about a little niggling problem called passive voice. Simply put, a passive sentence is . . . well, actually, that’s my problem right there. Passive voice is generally considered a bad thing in writing because it puts the action at arm’s length, thus sucking the life from your MS. Most sources agree on that point, but not everyone agrees about whether or not passive voice should be eradicated in every instance, or what construes a passive sentence in the first place.
Wikipedia has pages and pages of info about passive voice, including lots of examples of when passive voice is an appropriate construction. The Elements of Style by Strunk & White illustrates passive voice in several concise paragraphs, while making it clear that passive voice must be avoided at every opportunity. And then there’s Steven King, who wonderful little book On Writing contains some of the best writerly guidance I’ve ever read–he hates passive voice. He seeks to destroy it at every turn, and recommends that I do so as well.
And yet, I’ve read an article that claims three of the four passive voice examples used by Strunk&White are not passive constructions, and that the authors actually mangle the guidelines for sentence construction quite thoroughly. And I’ve certainly dealt with a fair number of critique partners who seem determined to eradicate every form of the verb “be,” even though its presence alone does not indicate a passive construction:
A lot of people think all sentences that contain a form of the verb “to be” are in passive voice, but that isn’t true. For example, the sentence “I am holding a pen” is in active voice, but it uses the verb “am,” which is a form of “to be.” The passive form of that sentence is “The pen is being held by me.”
So. Lots of people are worried about passive voice. Most are convinced it’s not the way to go. Some are comfortable spotting it; others are clearly confused about how to identify it at all. And I’m left staring at my MS, wondering if I should chop up my sentences and force them into forms that I’m not entirely sure are warranted. I mean, an obvious passive is easy to shoot down:
The tent was filled with people
becomes
People filled the tent
But what about trickier forms of passive voice? Longer sentences with prepositional phrases sprinkled in and questionable subject-verb relationships. I stare at those sentences, fiddle with them, and then go back to what I had before. For me, the answer to those questions will come with beta reader feedback. If and when my critique partners see evil passive voice messing up my story, I’ll fight the good fight. Until then, may your verbs be active, and your sentences clear.
As Steven King said (paraphrasing here):
The body should not be carried into the kitchen. It’s a body for goodness sakes! It’s not doing anything! Tell me John and Suzie carried the body into the kitchen, and I’m interested.
Thanks to two great blogger friends, I’m going to share some more stuff about me today! Who’s excited? Yeah! Eva Rieder and Cheryl Fassett, this is all your fault. You were each kind enough to award me the Fabulous Blog Ribbon Award, and thank you so much for that. I’ll be back another day to nominate a few of you to share your fabulousity! Happy summer everyone.
Five Fab Moments in My Life:
- The day my boyfriend knelt down in his sweaty gym clothes with no ring and asked me to marry him.
- The first time my son wrote me a letter and left it on the kitchen counter for me to find.
- The first time my younger son took a nap next to me (the older one could never be bothered to).
- The day I got my first full request, which gave me the tiniest of reassurances that I might not be wasting my time with this writing thing.
- I’m reserving the last fab moment for tomorrow . . . because I believe that tomorrows are the most wonderful thing we have to look forward to.
Five Things I Love:
- Croissants. There can never be enough of them.
- Sunny mornings, the kind that make me want to skip a shower and breakfast and just write.
- Hearing the doggie charm I wear on my necklace clink as I move around the house.
- Cooking with my husband.
- Tucking the kids in and sitting in the quiet of a happy, sleepy house.
Five Things I Hate:
- Discrimination. You won’t hear me preach about my own beliefs here, but I believe in equality. Period.
- Living far from my family. I miss them.
- Lying awake at night thinking about a plot line when I should be sleeping. Really, this is not a good thing.
- Doubt. I detest that squirmy, hot feeling that builds in my stomach when I’m not certain of the path I should take.
- Jersey left turns. If you don’t live in Jersey, you may not know what I mean, but a Jersey Left is pure evil.
Last week I was lucky enough to win a signed copy of Middleworld during #MGLitChat, and this week the book arrived, thoughtfully inscribed to my two little boys 🙂 They felt like celebrities–what a wonderful thing for the authors to do! Thank you J&P Voelkel, we are really looking forward to reading your book.
If an agent tells you “sorry, we’re not a match,” what they’re really saying is: you’re better off swinging by Walmart, picking up a 10lb bucket of sherbert and parking it on your couch for the rest of the year watching old Roseanne re-runs than writing another word.
The truth is, no matter how nicely an agent tells you that they are not your match, a rejection hurts. This isn’t news to anyone, really, but if you look more closely at how I wrote that sentence you might notice something: the agent is telling you they are not your match. Not that you aren’t good enough for them. Not that your novel sucks. But that they are not right–them!
This may seem like a super trivial distinction to draw, but it matters. A lot. Think about it this way: how many times has your book club, or circle of friends, or extended Italian family, or whoever, read the same book and had completely different opinions about it? All. The. Time. I don’t think my book club has ever given a unanimous thumbs-up for a book. And we’re just twelve lovely ladies who like to drink wine (shout to The Novel Bites!).
I have so many good friends out on sub right now. So many twitter buddies are out there climbing the same mountain, and generally feeling terrible about each rejection. Or rather, each pass. I’m calling it a pass, because, really, that’s what’s happening. You are being passed on to the next agent. And that next agent might just be your match.
What does that mean, exactly? Your match is an agent, or editor, or publisher who reads your novel and gets it. As in, if they had attempted to write your novel, it would’ve come out similarly to what you wrote(except better).
NOT: I read this and have so many suggestions that what would result is a completely different novel.
NOT: I read this and kind of liked it but think you should change the setting to Japan in the 14th century with midget twins for MCs.
NOT: I like this.
Your match will love your novel. They will say they loved it. They will be full of ideas which make total sense to you, and are an evolution of your own thinking. Working with your match will be like working with you, only a better you who’s done this many times and has the experience to push your novel to its absolute best. Chances are, you do not have this quality within you. That’s why you need the right match.
Note, not a good match. Not a thank-God-they-want-me match. But the right match . . . and there are only a handful of agents out there who will match you. So if someone says they are not your match, it’s really okay. There is absolutely NO WAY that any one writer could be every agent’s match. We’re all different flavors. Only the right pairing works.
For more wonderful cartoons about a writer’s life, please hop on over to one of my very favorite sites, Inkygirl! Seriously awesome illustration and writing awaits you.
If you need help finding a match, check out Agent Query, Publishers Marketplace, and my personal favorite, Literary Rambles, which offers in-depth info on each agent’s profile. And if you’re working on a query, check out this post on query resources.
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