REPOST: Beta Readers: You Need Them, Especially When You Think Otherwise

This weekend Kate and I are covering the Calgary writer’s conference When Words Collide. We also happen to be presenting on a panel together Sunday morning. Our topic is Beta Readers, Critique Partners, and More; I signed up for one reason: I have a lot of experience with critique groups and beta readers. But I also have something else to bring to the table: my growth as a writer who has learned to cope with being critiqued.

I wrote about the importance of beta readers many months ago. I want to repost it (with only a couple of tweeks) and follow up on it down the road after our panel!

Repost:

So there I was a couple of months ago: I had just done my first read through of my fae story after letting it rest for over a month and it wasn’t that bad. I mean, I was satisfied with it and it didn’t seem like a washy pile of BS. Thinking that the deadline was Oct. 30, and it was only mid-October, I felt pretty good about myself. LOTS of time to fine-tune, I thought.

However, I had a step to go: one of my rules is to always run a piece by a beta reader. I chose Kate because she initiated the fae story challenge. Something was nagging me about the story and I just couldn’t figure out what. And Kate’s good at figuring that kind of thing out.

She tore my tale to shreds. Not literally, but the red ink everywhere might as well be shredded edges. If I didn’t need the edits she wrote down I think she would have stomped on the whole document in frustration. With a quivering lip –ok, my lip wasn’t really quivering but I was like WTF– I asked what was wrong. A lot of things. So many things I can’t believe I didn’t see myself. *cry*

But after our lengthy conversation she assured me that it was salvageable. My story needed to be overhauled to the extreme, but there was something there.

THIS IS WHY A WRITER NEEDS (GOOD) BETA READERS: First, they give your story zero quarter and kick it when it’s down. They beat the ever living snot out of it. Second, when the tear-down is over they pick it up, dust it off, and tell you where it needs improvement. Third, they reassure you your art doesn’t suck and motivate you to fix it instead of tossing it.

Then you get to start all over again! Yay! *cry*

Drafting is a bittersweet process but you can’t rely only on your set of eyes. When you come at your story for the 5th time and know it inside and out it’s really hard to see where the problems are, even after a long period of time. Beta readers are invaluable, and I urge every writer out there to assemble a team of people who won’t sugar coat their words and only give positive feedback. Good is nice, but negative lets you know where stuff is and isn’t working. I’ve learned to revel in the negative –I used to be one of those people that would get all wide-eyed in the face of constructive criticism and wonder, in my Di Nero voice, “you talkin’ to me?” You have to grow and learn to take it, it’s part of being a writer.

As always though, any feedback given can and should be taken with a grain of salt. They’re suggestions, but take them seriously. Constantly ask why? Why did they say that, hate that, love that, etc. At the end of the day if you really don’t want to change something –don’t. But if all of your readers are pointing out the same thing and you just love it to pieces, you might have to kill it. It’s tough but writing involves killing your babies, no matter how good you think they are.

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