Building the Craft, Beta Reading

Writing is like meditation.  No one knows what you do, many times even the author does not know what he or she does.  But meditation helps the person and he/she feels the benefits.  In writing, the author enjoys the experience and the finished work delights its readers.

When I write, I commune, I live with the characters, in the world they inhabit.  I interact with them, experience the events of their lives and then try to make it come alive using words.  I do have a plot in mind and I hope with all my heart that they listen to me and not throw nasty surprises at me.

Do they listen?

Oh dear me, no!  Most often they throw spanners in the works.  They just can’t be repressed.

When I began writing I felt like God!  I was creating worlds.  Like all things in life, this grandiose delusion of mine bit the dust.  The characters took over, the world of the book took over.  All I could do was scramble along and make the best of it.  When I wrote Chakra, I planned to write a book about gifted teens.  They would have adventures, grow up a bit.  Find their powers.  Simple eh?

Well the story was supposed to take place in Delhi and thereabouts.  High Schools, Politics amongst kids …

But Jorawar came to life.  So did Lata Irani.  What was the poor author to do?

I loved the story, and then the reviews came in.  Too many characters, many people said.  I had to agree.  Many times the author is so close to the plot, she sees the trees but completely misses the forest for the trees.  This time, I decided I needed a fresh pair of eyes for my book “Wrong for the Right Reasons.”

A beta reader.  Someone who is balanced and can give me an unbiased view about the book.  Someone who can tell me whether the story works or not.

[image error]I contacted book reviewer and blogger Sakshi Nanda.

“Ritu Ma’am, I have never beta read a book!” she said, unsure of what was required.

Oh, but she really did a good job.

The book is out on Amazon and is getting good reviews, four stars no less.

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She says

‘Wrong, for the Right Reasons’ is one of the most real books you will read this season. It is Shyamoli’s story – as a young divorced woman, a single mother of two, a daughter struggling to break-free from an abusive mother and a person looking to walk on her own terms in a society which defines ‘respect’ in the most constricted of ways and hangs norms like nooses around the necks of single women. What is special about this book is what is seen as amiss in others – there are no sudden twists and turns, no army of characters and not even a flourish of a closure. It tells you a story keeping the sensational and the spectacular away, yet retaining the extraordinary within it, in the form of portrayal of relationships, streams of consciousness and the growth of the characters over the years that span the novel. One of my first doubts was about Shyamoli being too real to be made into a ‘heroine’ but by the end of the manuscript I had revised my idea. She is that exactly because she is life-like. And readers will be able to find a Shyamoli in their lives too. Isn’t that a wonderful thing in a book?

Thank you Sakshi.  The book and I both benefited enormously from your beta – nay – alpha reading.

She has written her experiences as a beta reader in her own words.  Read them here

The link to the book on Amazon