Beta Readers And Where To Find Them

Hello! I'm back from an almost 10-month hiatus where I took some time to focus on my W-I-P, but I'm super excited to get to blogging again.While away I got acquainted with some hard to find but well-needed beta readers. 

What's a Beta reader? Here's a handy definition for new and aspiring authors like myself. A critiquer or reader who evaluates written work with the intention of providing feedback on spelling, grammar, plot, and characters.

Do You Need Them? Oooh yes, you do! No matter how perfect you think your work is, it needs unbiased feedback from people who love to read - preferably not your mom or siblings, friends or anyone who owes you a favor. A good beta reader will honestly tell you if they're feeling the story, if your plot makes sense, if your characters are relatable, if the story drags...etc - all of which you need to know BEFORE you even think of approaching an agent.

Beta readers honestly do not get enough credit for the amount of help they provide. I believe one writer referred to them as 'unsung heroes' and I couldn't agree more.

Where To Find Them? Now to the hard part. I remember when I started my quest for Beta Readers and I had no clue where to even look. My biggest resource - social media. It exists for a reason, so use it! I did several google searches that brought me to posts about beta readers but never actually where to find them. However, persistence paid off and after a few tries, I yielded results. Here's what worked for me:

Honing your Craft: How Workshops can help

After a partial professional edit for my current WIP, my editor suggested I check out a few writing workshops. Actually, her exact words were "workshop the hell out of this baby" ... meaning my manuscript. Needless to say, I've taken her advice and I'm one of the 4 people accepted into the First Five Pages Writing Workshop for the month of November. You can check out the entries here:   http://firstfivepagesworkshop.blogspot.com

Tension

So after the excitement wore off, I realised just how much work I was in for. Started with 'tension.' My editor had mentioned this to me briefly but prior to the workshop I must confess I hadn't given it much attention. My primary focus was the telling of the story. However, I since learned that tension is very much a part of that. A story should never just sail along with obstacle, challenge, danger, fear - this is the stuff that will keep readers interested enough to turn to the next page. If an agent says "The story doesn't have enough tension for me," it's bad news. Think of ways to introduce more conflict and raise the stakes. This will literally keep readers at the edge of their seats. 

Choosing Your Character Names

Have you ever been in the midst of typing a story when a character you just created badly needed a name? When the regular Mary, John, Paul or Sue wouldn't do? If the answer is yes, then join the club, a lot of writers and aspiring authors have this problem, myself included. Fact is, if you're writing a story, chances are you will need a character and that character will need a name. 

So what do you do? How do people come up with these names?  

There are actually several ways to go about this:

Look Around You

In my case, specifically, if it's a minor character, you know, like an odd stranger or villager, I simply pick names from the people around me ... a la co-workers . Consider also the names of family members, friends, colleagues etc that could come in handy.

However, for major characters,I generally recommend a bit more effort.

First Drafts Sucks

  So after completing my very 1st draft of my first manuscript. I felt sooo good...like I had climbed Mount Everest or achieved something phenomenal.

I must have walked around the house the with a huge smile on my face. Nothing could get me down; I had just completed a manuscript of 82,000 words! and I felt pretty kick ass about it. You know like there was nothing I couldn't accomplish, like Mount Everest was next; oh the joy, rapture, elation (you get the drift)...

until a couple days later, I sat down, ready to begin my second draft and this happened!


via GIPHY

My balloon of happiness deflated immediately. No seriously, my 82,000 words of awesomeness morphed into work littered with grammatical errors and unfinished sentences.. half of which barely made sense. Needless to say, depression immediately followed and self-doubt reared its ugly head.


via GIPHY

"Maybe I can't write at all? Why am I doing this again? What happened to my masterpiece?" These are just few of  the questions that drive you INSANE! For newbies this can be especially disconcerting. Fact is my words were clearly lost in space or somewhere in my head and needed to make it to my manuscript.

You probably guessed but my second draft consisted of several re-writes, cuts, tweaks and lots more drafts.

If it weren't for the articles I came across supporting the idea that first drafts of anything are rarely ever good, I'm pretty sure my devastation would have lasted much longer than it did. So newbies, chin up and keep at it.

New at Writing? Consider Pre-writing

An idea is Born

I’ve always flirted with the idea of writing a novel but didn’t get the actual push to start writing until after watching the movie Jurassic World. Yeah, I know it sounds odd, but the first scenes of the theme park were so visually inviting, it got me into imagining what my own world would look like.

Story outline 
So after the idea then what? Depending on who you ask, it’s generally a good idea to have some form of story outline. It could be something as basic as a rough draft to plot out the 3 essentials:
-The Beginning
-The Middle
-The End