Tips for getting better beta reading

For the uninitiated, a beta reader is to an author what a beta tester is to an inventor or a manufacturer's research and development division--someone who takes your product for a trial run, then reports about its strengths and weaknesses. It's a necessary step after you've completed a novel, and then fixed as much as you can; other eyes can pinpoint remaining weaknesses and shore up your sagging confidence about the manuscript's strengths.

The reason many authors end up disappointed, misled, or even crushed by critiques they receive is they fail to give beta readers clear instructions about what they actually need to know. And without a clear sense of what you need to know, readers will often go to one of two extremes: cheerleading or nitpicking, that is, giving only positive or only negative feedback.

Well, writer friends, the truth is you need BOTH. If others tell you everything is perfect, you'll stop listening to your own intuition and ignore niggling issues you haven't yet figured out how to fix. If others tell you they see problems, problems, problems, you'll end up in a slash and burn mentality when revising and destroy the best parts of your story.

The solution is actually quite simple: Always give your beta readers clear guidance about what kinds of feedback you want. And conversely, if someone asks you beta read, don't be shy about asking them to provide some guidelines.

Clearly, what constitutes "constructive criticism" can depend very much on individual temperament, past history, and self concept. You alone know what sorts of feedback will energize or crush you. For example, I appreciate readers who find my typos and missing words, while others will unnecessarily beat themselves up for very simple, easy to fix errors. (You spend years editing people with PhDs, and you realize even frighteningly smart people at the world's top universities have typos and dangling modifiers. Nothing to freak out about; fix it and move along.)

With that caveat, I share below some sample beta reader guidelines that you're welcome to use, or adapt to your own particular feedback needs.

Sample beta reader guideline letter

Thank you for your willingness to read and offer comments on my manuscript. As you read, please respond to the following questions and mark any areas you think I should give more attention. Feel free to e-mail comments as you go if that’s easier. I’d like to receive everyone’s comments by [deadline].

Overall impressions

What parts of the story did you enjoy most? Feel free to mark scenes that you feel are especially strong.

Does the story feel balanced--giving adequate time to the right things? Are there parts you feel need more or less emphasis?

Can you tell who the intended audience is? Why or why not?

Are there any elements that I've completely overlooked you think I need to consider or incorporate?

Character

Are the characters engaging and adequately complex? Do you care about them and enjoy getting to know them deeply, even the antagonists?

Which characters do you most connect with and why?

Are characters’ voices distinct in the dialogue? If not, note where you hear problems.

Do the peripheral characters work in supporting the main story without being overly distracting? Do any feel underdeveloped or overdeveloped relative to their importance to the story? Which ones do you feel need more or less emphasis?

Does the main character adequately change through conflict, climax and resolution?

Plot 

Does the story move forward and keep you reading more? Note where your interest is especially engaged and where it lags.

Does the plot hang together and make sense? Do you see any "plot holes"--illogical or impossible events, as well as statements or events that contradict earlier events in the storyline?

Do the plot twists and complications work, or do they seem contrived or hokey?

Do characters appear to have sufficient motivation for what they do? If not, note where you “just don’t buy it.”

Are scenes paced well in terms of building and releasing tension? If not, note places where the story drags or races.

Theme

Can you identify the theme?

Does it come across in a non-preachy way? Note anything that strikes you as heavy-handed.

Mechanics

Note word choices that don’t quite seem right in terms of tone within a scene, or because a particular character just wouldn’t use that word.

Please note any spelling errors, homophone errors (using the wrong sound-alike word), grammar gaffes, punctuation funkiness, and missing words.

Note any continuity errors you see (e.g. wearing a coat in part of the scene and not having it later in the same scene).

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If there are particular parts of your story that you feel less confident about-- perhaps that bend genre or are a bit experimental for you--make sure you ask specifically for feedback on those elements.

What questions would you add to your own list?

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Writing ADD? Tips for progressing with multiple projects

I have a confession to make. When it comes to my writing, I can be a bit ADD. Sometimes I can hunker down with one project and give it my all for months at a time, and sometimes a great tangential idea worms its way into my head and demands my attention.

Photo by JessicaGale at morguefile.com

Blogging seems to exacerbate this tendency in me. Some issue will come up in my drafting or revising or editing or marketing, I'll blog it and think Hey, this would be a great nonfiction chapter or start of a whole new book. I have five such book ideas on my hard drive at the moment. Five. I keep adding to them in fits and starts.

Emotions in the Wild: A Writer's Observation Journal was once one of these great ideas that I knew would take a lot of steady work to complete (BTW, have you seen the new cover design?). But I did complete it. What worked for that project was how very structured it was. Composing it required identifying key emotions, developing observation exercises for each, and seeking evocative quotes to open each section. Having the structure made it easier to ping-pong among these tasks as mood and energy directed and still progress.

A big takeaway from that project, which took about six weeks to complete, from concept to launch, was to begin fun, end challenging. Overcoming initial inertia is the most difficult part of writing, so dive in with what's easy, fun, or grabbing your imagination. Then, switch to the parts that are challenging: hard, un-fun, and not grabbing your imagination. Because you can, to use a cycling metaphor, "draft off" of that earlier effort like it's another cyclist breaking through the wind resistance for you so you can keep up your speed with less expenditure of energy.

Journaling is a super helpful tool for juggling projects, too. Last summer, when I had the added issues of kid at home from school and an elderly parent needing a lot of help, I kept a couple of running lists. One was of goals I'd set for myself, some with deadlines, some without. The other was where I simply reported what I'd done that day in moving toward each goal, and talked to myself about where I was blocked, where I needed to do more research, where I had doubts or worried about a particular project or section of it.

If you tend to be an internal processor like me, journaling like this can be a powerful self-help tool. It requires you to begin articulating problems instead of just holding them in your head where they drain your energy (see The Need for Emotional Processing for more on this concept). Talking yourself through an issue can take you farther toward finding a solution. Continuing to circle back to those stuck places and brainstorming will, with time, get you unstuck.

Keeping running lists and journaling becomes a kind of reward system, too. You can look back at the items crossed off (I am a fan of using strikethough in Word document lists) and see progress. That sense of accomplishment will give you a hit of dopamine, a feel-good brain chemical, research says.

Do you tend to juggle multiple projects? What helps you steadily make progress?

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Thankful

April is drawing to a close, and as I look back on the month, I'm thankful for so many things.

~My wonderful hosts for my mini-tour of Muddy-Fingered Midnights.

~National Poetry Month, making it cool to love and write poetry. 

~My critique group, who helped me get unstuck with the WIP.

~My friends who let me badger them with medical questions. (Why in-person research rocks).

~The Irish dance hard shoes given to my daughter for free. Riverdance, here we come!

~My new editing client. Excited to edit poetry! Woot!

~The cool series idea Stina gave me: "Stolen from Poets," in which I explain how to use poetic techniques in fiction. Stay tuned for more!

~The A-Z challenge making my blog slacking acceptable. Congrats to those who persevered with it!

What are you thankful for today?

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Finding brain space (and a winner!)

I won't torment you finger-crossing, breath-holding entrants in my anthology giveaway. Let's cut to the chase.

Heidi Willis

is the winner of  Poetry Pact volume 1!!

Thanks to everyone who entered. And note that the Kindle edition is now available for just $2.99. All proceeds go to Direct Relief International, a global aid organization.



Finding brain space

In the past year or so, I've struggled with an inner world that sounds a bit like this:

laundry - train - how many characters is too many? - school bus - out of aluminum foil - how do you document this version of Joyce's Ulysses? - veterinarian appointment - ADHD - printer jam - 1703 merchant costume for social studies project - Ezra Pound estate - ironing - prayer - elevator scene - weed and mulch - does Turkish have a possessive case? - choosing gratitude - blog commenting - dentist appointments - advertising deadline - back cover blurb - playdates - squirrel - baby shower - moldy shower curtain - curtain styles in the 1960s - Beatnik poetry - poetry anthology - Duotrope e-mails - another birthday party ?! - dinner with "the girls" - weight gain - parenting through puberty - date night - dying neighbor - homonym errors - book trailer - fleas - wedding present - friend's divorce - abiding in Christ - evil candy-filled vending machine - stroke or no stroke in chapter 11? - dog's arthritis ...

If I were to go through the list with colored markers, I could pretty quickly identify what thoughts are consuming most of my brain space (job, household management, kid) and which ones are barely registering (hello neglected hubby, extended family, poetry writing).

As I've been reading up on "executive skills" to help my daughter become less scattered, I've had to come to grips with my own strengths and weaknesses. My girl has a very poor "working memory"--the ability to hold and quickly draw on practical information--yet mine is excellent. I rarely write lists, believing I don't need to. But the more I keep adding new information to my mental lists, the more noisy my brain becomes. Soon that "excellent working memory" becomes more of a handicap than an asset. So much is in my head, I can't easily articulate my needs so others can pitch in. I get more and more overwhelmed because I've made my memory my master.

And you know what else? I have no brain space for aesthetic pleasure, creativity or long-term planning and dreaming. And this, friends, is no way to really live.

I've been able to help my daughter tackle her morning, after school and bedtime routines with fewer reminders and nagging by simply creating lists and incentives. As she successfully completes tasks and moves a magnet or pushpin from the "to do" to "done" column each day, she earns songs for her MP3 player. She's doing great, I'm yelling less. And best of all? I don't have to remember what she needs to remember.

In fact, remembering less feels so good, I want to start doing it more often in other areas of my life. At the office, I've made more use of spreadsheets and the "tasks" function in Gmail.

I'm keeping a journal in my purse for note taking. I've also looked into the Kindle apps store, and I think I'll download calendar and address book apps so I no longer feel the need to hold so many dates and phone numbers in my head.

Creativity requires breathing space in your brain. If you find yourself frequently stuck, or simply not writing much at all, consider how you might clear some mental clutter.

Is yours as crowded as mine? How might you clear some mental space?

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Slowing down

Thanks, blogging pals, for all the well wishes. As I enter my third week of recovery post-surgery, I can tell you it has been an eye-opening experience. And sometimes an eye-closing one. (Thank you, Percocet, for making me sleep 14 hours a day.)

Some random things I've discovered:

~One of my husband's students was having surgery at the same time. In the surgery-prep area (where they give you your stylish hat and put in your IV), he tried to chat with me, but I couldn't see him because they'd made me give up my glasses. Poor kid was about to have his face reconstructed after a rugby injury, so maybe it's a blessing I couldn't see.

~Robotic surgery is cool. I had a four-pound benign tumor removed through an incision that's less than an inch long. (It was removed in pieces, if you're wondering how that trick was achieved.)

~I'm a lightweight when it comes to anesthesia. The nurses wanted to send me home and I couldn't stay awake.

~Nausea and abdominal incisions are a bad combo. Ow.

~Best diet when the idea of food grosses you out: jello, apple juice, animal crackers.

~There are way too many steep stairs in my 3-storey, historic, urban townhouse. What gives? Weren't people shorter in 1907?

~Reading is actually more restful that watching movies or TV. Less data to process at once.

~You can't beat a Kindle if you frequently doze off while reading. It powers down on its own and never loses your page.

~The hardest thing to give up was managing my daughter. I was sure her teeth would go unbrushed, her homework unfinished or lost. She was fine, even if she got more screen time than I'd like.

~It's good for one's spouse to experience how the house runs without you (or more accurately, which things don't get done).

~When your ability to achieve is taken away, you realize how much being busy is actually a choice. And often it's a shabby substitute for deeper relationships.

How have your last few weeks been? What's new?

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