Getting the Most from your Betas

I'm on a bit of a beta reader kick right now. Must be because my precious darling is in the hands of betas and so (unfortunately for you) this is all I can think about. I've decided to go with it and offer a little bit more advice on betas.

So now that you have the right readers for your story, it's important that you help guide them so you can get the right kind of feedback. While we'd all love to hear "It's perfect, don't change a thing" that is unlikely to be true or helpful.

Are you asking the right Beta questions?

I suggest giving your readers a list of questions to get the ball rolling. Below is the list I use. These questions are fairly general and are just a starting place to let your beta know the kind of feedback you are interested in.

1.      Did the beginning (first few paragraphs and pages) capture your interest and pull you into the story? If not, what was missing?

2.      Were you able to get into the story quickly?

3.      Were there any parts you wanted to stop reading or where you found yourself skimming or skipping over?

4.      Can you relate to the characters? Do their emotions and reactions feel real?

5.      Does the dialogue sound natural?

6.      Were you able to picture all the characters and scenes? Do any of them need more description? Do any of them have too much description?

7.      Were there any parts you found confusing?

8.      Are there any questions that aren’t answered by the end?

9.      Did the stakes/risks feel real?

10.  Was the ending satisfying?

11.  Was there any scene or character you just didn’t like?

I also use a cover letter for my questions. Some beta readers are going to be old hands or even writers themselves, so they know the drill. However, some of your readers might be unsure how this all works. I use the letter below to fill them in on the importance of their role.

Dear Reader,

            Thank you for agreeing to be a beta reader for my novel. I appreciate the time you are willing to give to read my book and provide feedback. This is an important step on the road to publication which makes you important to the success of my work. So thanks again.

            I have provided a short list of questions to get you started thinking about the book. Please read through them before you start reading so you can have them in the back of your head while you read. Feel free to provide additional comments on any other topic you feel is relevant. All of your feedback is valuable. Also, feel free to make comments directly on the manuscript.

            Please know that I do not consider this a finished work and I anticipate you will have lots of suggestions to make it better. I understand fully that my novel has flaws, and I am grateful that you are willing to help me find them. There is no comment or observation you can make that will hurt my feelings. I am genuinely looking for your honest feedback. If you hate it, I still want to know.

            Last, I ask only that you do not share this work with anyone unless you have first checked with me. It is my intent to publish this novel, and any public distribution of this work prior to that time could jeopardize my chances of publication. If you have a friend who you think would enjoy the book and could provide helpful feedback, I am open to additional readers. I only ask that you check with me first.

            So, again, thank you for your help. I look forward to getting your feedback and making a better novel.

The last full paragraph may seem like a bit of overkill, but since I use teen betas I thought this was important.

What questions do you ask your readers? Have you found a method for getting the best feedback? Share your tips below so we can all learn from our collective greatness!

The downfall of Ctrl+F

Editing this novel has become a bit of a writerly journey for me. Since this is the first time I've considered something I wrote good enough to bother editing, each step has been a new journey. I've worked through lots of steps and re-written the first chapter dozens of times.

This week will be my last week of editing for this piece which is way ahead of schedule for my May 15th deadline to start querying. I've done all the structural changes that I think need to be made and now I'm just down to fixing words.



I recently wrote about the joys of Ctrl+F to seek and destroy words that bogged down my writing. However, I think I may have taken my joy too far. As I slash words with glee, I'm noticing a trend. Sure, my writing is getting tighter (read better) in a lot of places, but in some spots the change in wording is altering my voice.

Gasp in horror! The voice is often considered a crucially important consideration for a potential agent/editor. Dozens of agent wishlists specify things like 'an adult romance with a cynical voice' or 'a fantasy with a strong female driven voice'. Voice is something that is unique to each writer and can't be duplicated.

So if the changes I'm making distort my voice, is it ok to leave 163 instances of the word 'like' in my manuscript?

For now, I'm going to say 'yes'. I could be wrong and my betas might rip this thing to shreds. But right now, every word I change feels like I'm tearing the soul out of my story. Maybe this is what it feels like when a writer reaches the end of editing.

So that's it. No more. I offer up my work to the betas and then I'll make one more sweep to fix anything they find that needs fixing.

I guess it's time to get serious about that agent list cause this ship is about to sail.

A Pantster's Tale

So now that I am nearing the end of revisions (quietly doing the happy dance) it's time to start really thinking about book 2. I know what the book is about and I have tons of scribbled notes, but that's not what I'm talking about. It's time to decide how I'm going to write this book.

With my current MS I wrote with wild abandon, never knowing what scene was coming next or what crazy capers my characters would get into. Seriously, I didn't even know how I wanted the thing to end. Unfortunately, I got about halfway through and ran into a serious block.

I didn't know what to write next!

I wrote a lovely start to a book that didn't seem to be going anywhere. After that I did a very (very) rough sketch for the rest of the book and that helped to guide me home. By rough sketch I mean I wrote one line for every scene with random extra details peppered in for fun. I ended up only using about half of those scenes.

The result was a rough draft I wouldn't show my dog (If I had a dog). I had way too many characters and plot holes you could drive a semi through. Let me be perfectly clear: it was a hot mess.

This has led to a lot of revisions on my part. I slashed around 20,000 words and had to re-write entire chapters. I guess this was about half revision, half scrap and start over.

I should have known better than to write this way, but when the idea hit I didn't stop to think about it. I just wrote. Which is fine. However, I should have used a break somewhere to map some things out.

In my 'this is how I pay the bills' world I'm forced to be analytical. While marketing sounds like a very dreamy, creative type job it's really only about 10% creative with the rest of the time spent pouring over numbers of all kinds to see if your creative works. If it works in marketing it just might work in writing, right?

So for book number dos I plan to do things a little different. I'm going to road map my book and we'll see how it goes. It could be an absolute failure. It could be the key to writing a book without the need to write half of it over again. Just like when reading my favorite books, the mystery of what will come is the best part.

Next time I'll talk about how I intend to make the switch to plotting.

So what about you? Are you a plotter? Do you write as you go? Are you somewhere inbetween? Have you ever switched styles and how did it go? I'd love to hear your tales.

Please stop using that word

Last week I talked about the current editing work I'm putting in.  One of the items on my must-fix list was whittling down all my over-used words. Lucky for us writers there are tons of blogs out there with helpful lists of words that lots of folks flood the pages with. If you haven't seen these, here are just a few.

Go Into The Story
Learned About Writing

I'm also a big fan of Janice Hardy.  She has tons of help on her site.

So I started with these master lists of bad words, but I quickly realized that I probably have a few of my own unique bad boys.  The trick would be figuring out what they are.

My first tip is to print out your novel, but do it a little different.  Remove all the line spaces and indents and all the white space that makes for good formatting.  By cramming all your words together it makes it easier to see when you have the word 'just' eight times on one page.  Not that I did that...

There is also a really neat website out there to help you identify your problem words.  It's also fun to use which makes it feel like your playing when you're really working.  Sneaky.

The website is Wordle and here's the fun part.  You enter your entire text and it gives you a fun graphic with all your big words.  The larger the word font, the more times that word appears in your text.  So after you get over all your character names and major locations you can see where you need work.

In the spirit of sharing, here is my hot mess:

So if you skip my character names, the other stuff is pretty easy to see.  I already mentioned that 'just' is an issue.  I also struggle with 'like' because I am overly fond of simile (the first step is recognizing you have a problem). While some of these I expected, other were a surprise.  I didn't see 'time', 'head' or 'back' coming.

Now, that's not to say I can't use these words, but knowledge is power, right?  I can use the amazing ctrl+F to look at where I have these words and figure out if something else would work better.

Let me end this post with a little ctrl+F advice I discovered.  It has been my experience that using this function on your entire document is not helpful.  By the time I get halfway through I start skipping the word instead of trying to change it.  I can only do so much.  I have found I'm more focused if I work through my list one chapter at a time.  If I spread it out, it doesn't seem so tedious and I'm more likely to want to fix the problems.

I hope this helps.  I also hope I have not just provided a crazy procrastination tool that will put everyone's current editing projects on hold.  How do you identify your crutch words?  Any secrets or tips of the trade?

Hello, Red Pen

Many weeks ago, I started editing my novel.  While this isn't the first thing I've written, it is the first time I have ever done any large scale editing. 

When I opened up my rough draft here's what I thought editing would look like:
1. run spell check and correct any typing flubs.
2. adjust off phrases and correct passive tense.
3. fill in some minor details that weren't completely fleshed out when I started writing.

Not a very hefty list.  I naively assumed it would only take a few weeks, maybe a month to finish.  After all, I still had to work and take care of my kids.

I'm not ready to laugh at my stupidity, but at least I can see the error of my ways.  Oh sure, I ran spell check.  I even went back and filled in those missing details (things like last names and other trivial facts). 

The real wake-up call came when I started re-reading the draft to look for what I thought of as weak writing. I realized then the amount of work staring at me from those pages. I quickly printed out my novel and made a new list of things to do.  It looked more like this:
1. ctrl+F all those words I keep over using (pretty, just, almost, etc., etc.)
2. keep reading the same section at least twenty times until I can figure out why it stinks.
3. obsess over poor verb choices.
4. remove all the flashy dialogue tags, you moron.
5. make changes that create continuity issues I'll have to fix later.
6. recognize the numerous useless subplots and remove or fix them.

The list keeps going, but I think you get the idea. My once beautiful pages look like an English teacher exploded on them.  I have circled words, entire sections slashed through, arrows moving sections from here to there.  My favorite are the arrows reminding me to turn the page over where I have completely re-written an entire page. I'm also partial of the big question marks to indicate I have no idea why I wrote something.

Needless to say, my estimate of time is a little off. A few weeks has grown into a few months.  It's hard, ugly and makes my brain work more than it did when I wrote the first draft.  But at the end...it will be a better novel.  Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

A Letter to Betas

Dear Wonderful Beta Reader,


At some point in time, a manuscript was placed in your hands and you heard the begging words, "Can you please be a beta reader for my latest novel/short story/etc.?"  Being the wonderful person that you are, you agreed, even if you didn't know exactly what it meant to be a beta reader.


The author of the gem you now have in your possession probably said something like this:


"Just read it over and be completely honest.  Feel free to rip it to shreds if you hate it."


You should know that this is what all writers say.  It is the worst lie we tell ourselves and others. While we say we want you to let us have it with a red pen, what we really want is for you to finish the book and tell us it's a masterpiece.  We love to hear the words "Don't change a word.  I love it just the way you have it."


And because that is the deep, down desire for all of us, we will never question you if your feedback consists of gold stars and gushing admiration.  We will see this as validation of our genius.


So why am I telling you this?


Lately, I've been reading a lot of self-published work. Some of the authors are well known folks in the writing community on Twitter, FB, and others.  So, since these folks must know a thing or two about writing I have to assume they went through the normal editing process which usually includes beta readers. And this is where our problem starts.


I can't help but read some of these books and think to myself "where was this author's beta reader?"  As the writer we tend to be too close to our story to see some of its flaws.  That's why we need critique partners and beta readers to show us these things. Fluffy praise feels good, but it doesn't make our story any better.


So, dear fabulous, kind-hearted, brave beta reader, if something doesn't make sense, please tell us.  If all our detailed descriptions slow down the action, point it out.  And if a character is completely unlikeable, trust me, we need to know.


The truth is we may take your notes, fling them on the ground and storm around for the next few days in a fit of self-righteous rage.  But when the storm is passed, we will look at your notes, make changes and thank you for helping us write a better story.


**A note to authors** The above is a perfect example of why selecting friends and family members as your beta readers is a really bad idea.  Unless you have a second cousin who hates you for giving him bunny ears in last year's reunion photo, stay clear.  Strangers make good betas and there are plenty of websites out there where writers can trade projects with each other.

Art Imitates Art

On Monday I went to my first theatre audition in nearly five years. With such a long hiatus I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't be the same, but just like riding a bike, it all came back to me.  I decided to audition to give myself a break from all my current editing.  I'm sure anyone who has ever gone through serious editing can relate to the creative drain it can create.  I figured a little art in another form might help to rekindle some of my depleted stores.  I got a bit more than I bargained for.

As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, my stomach got the nerves.  Those butterflies that most of us have felt at one point or another.  Not bad, just different.  Immediately, I was struck by how similar this was to starting a new project.  It had just the right mix of excitement and panic.  Yeah, something new! Oh God, can I do this again?

But once we got past all the formalities and it was just me on the stage with a script in my hand, all of the butterflies dissapeared and I was left with wonderful freedom.  In theatre we are given the chance to take a character and breathe life into the written word.  We give the character emotion, movement, motivation.  For those brief moments, we get to live in someone elses shoes. 

Writing can be the same, if we let it.  For the time we are sitting at the computer cranking out words we immerse ourselves into the world of our characters.  We give them emotion, movement, motivation.  All that.  If we give ourselves over to the process and stop worrying about every single word.

After the audition, I felt good about what I had done.  It wasn't perfect and I could see the other talent there around me.  But before I gave head space to doubt and speculation I allowed myself some time to just enjoy what I had accomplished.  I put myself out there and didn't die. :)

That's exactly how I felt when I finished my current MS.  I knew it wasn't perfect; far from it actually.  I also knew that once it was done, I would be competing with a lot of other folks for agents.  But for just a bit, I let myself forget what was down the road and revel in my success.

Then came the waiting.  It was less than a day before I knew if I was cast, but they were some long hours.  I started second guessing all the lines I had delivered.  Was it enough?  Would the director laugh at me and throw away my audition sheet?

And that's how I feel when I send out my work to be critiqued.  Will they like it?  Will they get it?  Did I give them enough?  Will they laugh and fill it with red ink?

The next morning, the truth was out there.  Alas, I wasn't cast.  When you are competing with twenty other ladies for three female roles, the odds are slim to start with. 

And just like that, my manuscripts can come back with enough red ink to light up the night sky.  Details that I overlooked, grammar mistakes, weak word choices.  No matter the reason, my MS as it went out wasn't ready yet.

So is that it?  Do I throw in the towel on my MS or on acting?  Heck no!  I go back to the table and look at all those notes.  Chances are high, the changes will make my work stronger, an one step closer to being ready for query.  And I'll keep going to auditions because we only lose when we stop trying.  Rejection is good for us.  I'm sure when I query there will be plenty of rejection letters.  But the beauty is that I only need one agent/director to like me.  Then the real work starts.

How do you know you're done?

It should be pretty easy to know when you are done writing a story.  If you write chronologically, you're done when you get to the end.  If you write scenes and then plug them in, you're done when all the scenes are written.  Maybe you're a total seat-of-your-pants kind of writer.  If that's the case, you know you're done when there just isn't anymore story to write.

When I finished my first draft, I knew it without a doubt when I was done.  No questions about it.  I typed the final words and stopped.  What I had was rough, unedited and probably not very good (yet), but it was done.

Now that I'm editing, I'm suddenly struck with the realization that I don't know how I'll know that I'm done.  I've been slowly going through each chapter.  Removing weak spots, rewriting sloppy writing, filling in holes and all the things I know need to be done.  But how will I know when I've done enough.

For example, this blessed first chapter just might kill me.  I've edited this thing so many times I've lost track.  Even as I move through the rest of my chapters, the first one keeps pulling me back in.  And each time I read it, I find more things to change.  A word here, a sentence there.  I know it's better each time, but will it ever be good enough?

I've read enough cautionary tales to know that I'm not going to query until I think this piece is polished to perfection.  But will I ever get to that point?

As is my practice when I am stumped by a writing question, I turned to the internet and found Diane Gaston.  God bless her! Diane gave a couple of ways to create a stopping point for editing. She suggested limiting the number of revisions to three, or making a check-list.  My favorite was to set a time deadline.  Deadlines I can work with.  They create a definite point of closure.  Plus, I deal with them all the time in my day job.

So, I've created a deadline.  I am currently considering attending  DFWCON.  The conference starts May 19th and, like most, offers the chance to pitch your work.  So that's my new deadline.  Even if I can't go (there's a potential scheduling conflict) I am committing to stop editing and start querying by that date.  Of course, that gives me all kinds of butterflies and the likes.  But that is why I am so grateful for Diane.  This is what she wrote at the end of her blog:

Yeah, you say, that is all well and good, but how does this guarantee my manuscript is the best it can be?
It doesn’t guarantee anything, but, then, you will never know if your manuscript is the best it can be, even if you go through it ten times. No one ever knows, because expecting that kind of perfection is unrealistic. The question you should ask yourself is not if your manuscript is the best it can be, but if it is good enough for submission, if you’ve covered all the important elements, the ones on your checklist. If your answer is yes, stop editing and SEND IT IN.
Give the editor her turn to go through the manuscript. Even if she loves it, even if she buys it, she’ll suggest changes.
And you will have a chance to edit your manuscript all over again.

A Writerly Kind of Love

Last month I experienced a writer's high when I finished my most recent MS.  After working on this novel for over a year it was liberating to finally see the whole thing down on paper.  After months of pounding out words whenever I had five free minutes I would be able to lie down at night without obsessing about the next scene to write.

I wanted to get started on edits right away, but I heeded the advice of countless authors and decided to let it sit.  Besides, I needed the break and my next story was begging to be mapped out.

Last week I finally opened back up the document to start the editing process, but instead of the bubbling excitement I expected to feel at seeing my characters again, I was filled with dread.  As I read each chapter, I was overwhelmed with the realization of how much editing I needed. 

I have plot holes, bad name choices, passive voice, ludicrous dialogue tags and cheesy cliches all over the place.  I got to work, but the truth be told, I wasn't into it.  For the first time in a long time, I was no longer enjoying the writing process.

Still, I trudged on, until this weekend when something amazing happened.  After slicing the first 6,000 words, removing three minor characters and polishing my dialogue until is shined, I am in love with my first chapter.  All 3,000 words of it are spectacular.  At least, I think they are.  And right now that's all I need.

Sure, I loved my novel before, but it was more like a high school kind of love.  All shiny and new with tons of 'firsts' to keep me hooked. But even though I sang its praises to the moon, I knew my love for this first draft couldn't last...they never do.

But this love is different.  I can see myself settling down with this first chapter, sending it out with my queries, posting it to critique groups.  I imagine a future with this chapter and it makes my heart sing!

And...it makes me realize that all those other chapters waiting in the wings aren't good enough for me.  They are going to need some serious work to be worthy of following this new first chapter.  But instead of dreading it, I'm excited again. and back to enjoying the process.

What is the hardest part for you in the writing process?  What keeps you going when the writing gets tough?

Writing 101: Dialogue Part II

Better late than never, here is what I'm sure is the much anticipated part two of Writing 101: Dialogue.

Last week I talked about giving your dialogue context and purpose. This week, I want to discuss a few other finer tips on dialogue.

Did you know there is a king of dialogue rules? Yeah, me either. But the internet doesn't lie. Apparently the king of dialogue has decreed that Dialogue in a novel must be in conflict.

According to James N. Frey "When characters have different goals and are intent on achieving them, conflict results. If the stakes are high and both sides are unyielding, you have the makings of high drama."

This makes good sense. After all, no one wants to read a book where everyone always agrees and gets along. Conflict is the difference between a good idea and a good story. But like all rules, even the King's rules, this one should be broken...sometimes.

Every once in a while, your characters may want to just have an honest conversation. Maybe your character wants to explain something to another character. No drama, just an 'I need you to understand me' kind of talk.

This is fine, but if most of your conversations don't have conflict, or at least an underlying tension, your readers will stop being interested.

Here are some additional things you can do to give your characters some character through dialogue. Most of these come from a great book by Renni Browne and Dave King, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. I highly suggest this book for some simple to use tips to take your writing to a better place.

Vary your sentence length. This one is easy to spot on the page.

“Hey, Bob, How was your weekend?”

“Pretty,good. How was yours?”

“OK, Did you catch the game?”

“Yep, I never miss one.”

“What did you think?”

“The referees were awful.”

“I couldn't agree more.”

Wow, even in real life that conversation is dull. I can almost here “Bueller, has anyone seen Bueller?” in the background.

Look what happens we vary the length.

“Hey, Bob, how was your weekend?”

“Pretty good, you know. Same old, same old. How about you?”

“OK, Did you catch that game on Sunday?”

“Oh yeah. I never miss an opportunity to watch the boys in blue in action. During football season, Sundays are holier than ever.”

“Well, than, what did you think?”

“Oh, man, the refs were creaming us out there. Did you see that call right before the half? Since when did a little bump in the shoulder constitute un-sportsman-like conduct?”

“I hear ya, man, I hear ya.”

But even if you vary the sentence length, that will still be a boring conversation. Why? Character A asks a question and then Character B answers. Character B asks a question and then... you get the idea. What if when Character A asks “What did you think?”, Character B responds, “What did I think? What did you think when Coach Nimrod called a trick play in the fourth quarter with 3 seconds to go?” Character B doesn't answer the question directly, but we certainly get the point.

Also, don't forget that rarely do we actually speak in complete sentences. Most of the time we use fragments or abbreviated sentences. Contrary to everything your sophomore English teacher told you, you can use a sentence fragment. And even better, you can string two of them together with a comma.

Take this for example, your character can say,

“It's good. It's really good.”

Or, they can say,

“It's good, really good.”

See the difference. Same words, but the second example sounds much closer to what someone would actually say.

So there you have it, the nitty-gritty on what I learned about dialogue. I had intended to discuss accents this week, but Lordy, that's a big subject. So next week I will tackle the subject of accents and dialect. As always, let me know if you have suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered.

Here are links to this week's resources:

http://www.novel-writing-help.com/writing-dialogue.html

www.amazon.com/Self-Editing-Fiction-Writers-Second-Yourself/dp/0060545690/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328718402&sr=8-1

Is taking things into her own hands (Writing 101)

The world of writing and publishing books is scary. I understand that and I haven't even submitted my first query. The literary world is chock full of reasons to keep your lights on at night and the covers pulled over your head, but for me the worst is the unknown. Like many aspiring authors I ask myself almost daily, “Is my writing really good enough?”

If I'm being completely honest with myself, I have to answer no.

So what's a gal to do? Cry in her Cheerios? Burn her notebooks? Absolutely not!

Just because I don't think I'm good enough right now in this very moment doesn't mean I can't be. If I really want to get better I have to be willing to put in the effort. It has to be about more than just practicing my craft; I have to actually work at it.

Throwing a basketball at the hoop won't make me a basketball player.  Pumping out words on my keyboard doesn't make me a writer. If I want to be a center forward for the Chicago Bulls (not likely since I'm only 4'10”) I need to know how to play basketball, then practice it. Likewise, if I want to be the next JK Rowling (Brandon Sanderson, fill-in-the-blank) I need to learn how to write and then do the writing.

Now, I don't want to give the wrong impression here. I know how to write. But I know there are things I could do better. Much better. Like what? Well, lots of things. So how are you going to get better? Good question. I'm glad you asked.

While I'd love to attend every web seminar, writer's conference and boot camp that catches my eye, my pocket book has it's limitations. I think most of these are very worthwhile, but there is a better (read: cheaper) option out there for folks like me who don't have the liquid funds available.

So here's the plan. Each week I will select an area of writing that I think I need to work on. I'll do some research through the web, the library and any other free/cheap resources I can. Then, I'll post my personal findings here. We can learn together.

Starting next week look for the first edition of my Writing 101 series. My focus will be the pesky transition. I hope you enjoy it!

Do you have areas of interest that you'd like to see covered in the series? What part of the writing process holds you back from finding publishing success. Let me know and I'll try to include it in the series.