Activity

Beta reading discussion, round 2, by Daeus.

 

Beta reading is a great way to make friends, help others, and even polish your skills.

Today, I want to give you some tips so that, when you beta read, the friend you’re working for will be thrilled they asked for your help.

Anyone who harbors private opinions about why one story is better than another is fully capable of beta reading. The trick is to build confidence, then keep practicing.

Beta readers fill a specific role. They’re generally involved with the early and middle drafts. This means Beta readers are not responsible for pointing out every minute detail. They’re responsible only for pointing out patterns of bad writing or large-scale things that keep a scene or character from working.

This is fairly easy!

Like I said, anyone who harbors private opinions about why one story is better than another is fully capable of beta reading. Here’s all it takes.

Read a scene.
Pay close attention to how it makes you feel.
If something doesn’t feel quite right — maybe the scene is slow or melodramatic or something confuses you — ask yourself why it feels that way.
If you know the answer, share it. If you don’t know the answer, take time to think it over. You might be surprised at how smart you are! Finally, if you simply can’t figure it out, that’s okay! Just say, “I don’t know how to fix it, but this scene/character has such-and-such a problem”. Very often, once the author is alerted, they can figure it out on their own.
That’s all it takes to beta read. You may not be able to help your friend write a timeless masterpiece, but at least you can help them avoid the terrible one-star review. What gives a writer comfort above all else is to make their book is a smooth read, masterpiece or not.

So what if you want to take your beta-reading to the next level?

The first step is to train yourself to be constantly self-aware while beta-reading and always asking why doesn’t this feel right to me? That’s the number one skill of a beta reader.

Second, study up on key areas. I recommend starting with scenes and characters. For scenes, you could study scene structure or setting. For characters, you can study goals, character voice, backstory, etc. I’m just giving you some basic ideas. Maybe something else will stick out to you as very important.

Now, go read some articles about the subject, then get an in-depth book. Tada! You have one mastered skill you wow your writing friend with.

For those very energetic beta readers, here are a few tips for becoming an ultimate beta reader.

Learn to read the writer. This means you learn to envision the same ideal story he or she is envisioning in their head. Then you can tell them, “This is not just where you went wrong, this is what I think you were trying to do.” Then they’ll go, “Oh, thank you!”
Get into line editing. This is a term professional editors use to describe a thorough adjusting and perfection of your prose. You won’t reach professional status without a lot of training and practice, but you can still do a lot! I like using suggestion mode in google docs for this. I believe you can do the same thing with Word too. Let’s say your friend is using telling a lot. Just telling them they’re telling will be helpful, but probably the habit is so ingrained in them, it will be hard for them to fix. If, however, you show them through numerous examples how they can rewrite sentences and paragraphs using show don’t tell, they could catch on much easier.
Learn tough love. If, for instance, your friend thinks they can get by with light edits on their story when really they need to rewrite large portions, please tell them so. People have done this for me before, and while it hurts a bit at first, in the end, I’m extremely grateful.
At the same time, point out some of the things your friend aced. This not only gives them happy fuel to keep going, it will actually help them write better. Once they know their strengths, they can focus on using them more.

 

@samantha-pen @hgm_barnes18 @heather-drabant @kb-writer @inspirewrite @duskflower @kjames0813 @ireneadler

@kari-karast @i-david

@donna-darling @kr-lalonde

@the-golden-light @jennythefaun

@bekah @SamBerg0

@Naomi-Sowell @MissPenguin @mckinley @another_chance @fairfay @kori