edited again, until I can\u2019t see any flaws in the story \u2013 yet know there must be some (because there always are)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThat\u2019s when I know it\u2019s time to enlist the help of a beta-reader (or few).<\/p>\n
Beta-Reading<\/b><\/em><\/p>\nA friend asked me recently how I decide whom to trust with my writing. I thought that was an interesting question because, without knowing it, that\u2019s exactly what we do when we ask someone to beta-read for us. It can\u2019t be just anyone! We have to trust them.<\/em><\/p>\nFor me, a good beta-reader is someone who:<\/em><\/p>\n\n- writes or reads in a similar genre to my story<\/em><\/li>\n
- if they write, writes in a way I like<\/em><\/li>\n
- can use Word’s reviewing tools<\/em><\/li>\n
- lets me help them in return<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Oh, and of course they must be available! There\u2019s no use sending your writing to someone who can\u2019t get to it for months. I\u2019m lucky enough to have beta-readers who can generally get any story I send them back to me within a week or so. I do the same for them, just because it lessens the agony of waiting. We agonise enough when we send our work to publishers, editors and agents (oh soooo much!!). But between us writers, we can cut out some of that worry!<\/em><\/p>\nStage Two<\/b><\/h3>\n
It\u2019s exciting when I get my beta-read back. Because I trust my writery friends, I can\u2019t wait to see what plot holes they\u2019ve picked up, what typos they\u2019ve found and what they didn\u2019t understand at all. I know they\u2019ll rip my story into fine shreds for me \u2013 because that\u2019s what I do for them \u2013 and I\u2019m excited to receive the information that\u2019s going to build me a better, stronger story.<\/p>\n
So, beta-read in hand, I:<\/p>\n
\n- read through all the comments<\/li>\n
- immediately change anything easy to fix, without reading the story through from its beginning<\/li>\n
- brainstorm the harder changes, fix them, again without reading the story through from its beginning<\/li>\n
- if it\u2019s for an anthology or competition, check the word count again (I\u2019m always over)<\/li>\n
- finally I read through from the beginning, deleting everything I can<\/li>\n
- put it aside again, this time for a few days<\/li>\n
- print it out and read it in a different part of the house<\/li>\n
- edit again, until my eyes are bleeding<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Sometimes, although I’ve already had the help of several beta-readers, I’ll repeat the entire process again \u2013 especially when I\u2019ve created a highly imaginative world, or I\u2019ve a nagging doubt I simply can\u2019t identify.<\/p>\n
How do I know when to stop the beta-reading process?<\/p>\n
I guess when the suggestions I get back from my beta-readers are relatively fine points, points that should be changed (because they\u2019ve been spotted) but which in all likelihood wouldn\u2019t have caused an editor to reject the story had those points been left. Sometimes I get to that stage after the first round of beta-reading, sometimes later. Either way, when the suggestions are that minor, it\u2019s time to let go.<\/p>\n
Letting Go!<\/b><\/h3>\n
I still wait an extra day or so, in case I wake in the middle of the night with inspiration or doubt, but that\u2019s more or less the end.<\/p>\n
Now, looking back over this post, my process sounds somewhat laborious. I wasn\u2019t always so particular about refining my work before sending it out \u2013 but, do you know what, that was back when I didn\u2019t get published or win any competitions!<\/p>\n
Different processes work for different writers and this is the way that works best for me. Yes, it can be hard work… but then isn\u2019t anything that\u2019s worthwhile? What do you think \u2013 is your process similar, or very very different? Please let me know in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This month, I’m interviewing editors of short story collections \u2013 both in anthology and magazine format \u2013 about the process of selecting and publishing short stories. Those interviews will feature here shortly. In the meantime, I wanted to ask you about your writing process. In particular… when do you feel\u2026<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[84,85,86,601,712],"class_list":["post-5904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writer-advice","tag-beta-read","tag-beta-readers","tag-beta-reading","tag-story","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8554,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5904\/revisions\/8554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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