Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
As I mentioned last week, the first draft of my “first” novel, Residuum, is a wrap. This week I’ve been doing a read-over of the whole thing since, true to form, I took more than a few long breaks in the middle of writing and needed to be sure the structure at least made sense. I’ll be finished with that today and start the next step, which is a personal editing pass or three wherein I’ll iron out rough patches, make some obviously needed changes, and try and catch grammar problems. Not commas, though. I’m miserable with commas.
All this to say, soon I’ll be in a place to share the book with people willing to provide feedback. To those of you new or entirely unfamiliar with this process (myself included), this involves seeking out what are known as “beta readers” and “critique partners”. I’ll detail the both of these below – if you’re interested in taking a role in my move toward publishing as one of these, please do let me know either by reaching out directly, through the site, on my social media, or commenting on this article. Thanks in advance!
What is a beta reader? Well, to put it simply, it’s someone willing to put in the time reading an unrefined manuscript with the goal of providing feedback to the writer. Beta readers and critique partners are the second line of refinement in the editing process, the first being the authors own updates, and will typically engage in several rounds of back and forth with reading, providing feedback, receiving and updated product with those refinements, and repeating the process. There’s nothing contractually obligating in this process, it’s just an open partnership between the reader and the author. Both are free to back out whenever they please. For the author, this is a wonderful chance to get feedback from the market and gauge reactions. For the reader, they get to read something for free and make critiques which can shape a story.
Don’t be intimidated by the amount of work involved, either. When beta readers and critique partners set up reviews, they first come to an agreement with the author as to how much they want to review and for how long. Only want to see the first 10 pages and have 3 weeks to review? That’s fine. Want 2 miscellaneous chapters from 2/3 of the way through and get all the feedback in a day? Sounds great. Whatever you’d feel comfortable with, let me know and we’ll get it set up.
As for critique partners, take everything I’ve said about beta readers and add an exchange to it. Critique partners are other authors who are at roughly the same stage of the writing process and seeking edits – that writer and I would exchange a certain amount of our manuscript for reviews and suggestions, agree to an amount of time, and return the work. This case is a bit more equitable than the beta reader in that we’re both getting to progress toward our goal of editing, but in no way is this any more or less valuable to the author than engagement with beta readers. We need anyone and everyone willing to give our work the time of day.
About the feedback itself – this goes without saying, but be as specific as possible. The goal is to sculpt the work into something with a strong direction and voice. “I don’t like this part,” while true, isn’t going to be much help reaching that goal. “The protagonist feels like they lack agency during this portion” is great feedback. It tells me there’s a problem and what that problem is. If you’d like to add what you think should be done about it, that’s great as well.
Oh, and, not that I’m looking for pats on the back, but positive feedback is also helpful. It’s good to know when things hit home.
So, like I said – if you’re interested in being one of the whetstones for my work, or know someone who might be, please get in touch. I’m ready to get this thing seen and start grinding.
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