-
R.M. Archer replied to the topic Concerning Beta Readers and Editing (aka, I have QUESTIONS!) in the forum Fantasy Writers 3 years, 6 months ago
If you know that your first book needs major edits, definitely tackle that before you move on to the second. It’ll set the second book up with a better foundation in such a situation.Agreed.
So, I think this depends on how practiced you are at finding flaws at your writing. Sometimes you’ll finish drafting with a mental list of ‘Here are the things I should fix’ and sometimes you finish with the thought ‘I have no idea if that was a masterpiece or a flaming hot mess’. In the first case, I suggest doing at least one pass to fix the flaws you can already see! In the latter, it’s perfectly okay to get readers for the first messy draft.As an additional note here, it’s a good idea to set aside the book for a while if you’re in the latter camp when you finish. Some time and space will give you a clearer perspective on it once you read it over again after a few weeks or even months. Readers can also help, but it’s generally a good idea–especially if you haven’t done much editing before/gotten much feedback before–to work from your own expectations first before sorting through outside feedback. Know what your aim is with the story so that you can filter feedback through that and make sure you’re applying the feedback that will strengthen your story. (Of course, it’s a balancing act to know what would make the story stronger even though it’s uncomfortable and what rubs you the wrong way because it’s wrong for the story… which brings us back to it being a good idea to postpone that stage until you’re confident in what you want to do with the story and you’ve had some practice making adjustments.)
But for developmental edits, I’ve found it very useful to have a list of questions to ask them! (I’m happy to share it if you need an idea of it!) Besides that, the most useful way I’ve found that works for me and doesn’t use too much of my readers’ time is to ask them to write a few thoughts at the end of each chapter, even if it’s just something like ‘It’s fine, I liked it’. In the best case, you’ll get a ‘This chapter made me feel X, I liked Y, you could fix Z’ Again, this kind of depends on the reader, some of them like to leave a lot of comments, some of them keep it very brief. Both are useful, and you’ll figure out which works best for you and you can fine-tune from there!Agreed on all points!
Article Categories
