God bless the BETA reader! – WIP Wednesday

A BETA reader is an angel sent from heaven to read your manuscript before it’s ready for proper consumption. You may think you’ve perfected it, but an outside eye will find problems in your story that we’re hiding away. They can turn your garbage into a novel, just by reacting to your work.

A few weeks ago I talked about being in a BETA circle, and completed my very first BETA reading of someone else’s novel. Critiquing the work of another author made me look at my own manuscript differently as well. It was a tremendous learning experience, both as a reader and a writer.

Recently, I was lucky enough to have my own manuscript, The Andromeda Man, Beta read by three other authors.

It. Changed. Everything.

It’s amazing how much you can miss when you’re too close to the material. I’ve spent the last six months stuck in The Andromeda Man, and through all of my re-drafting and re-working, there were still major structural issues that tore the piece down. Characters made realizations too early and mentioned them too late. Subplots were abandoned halfway through the piece, or showed up too late to be satisfying. Loose characters had no effect whatsoever on the climax. Hell, was there a climax? Or did things just happen?

My Beta readers were able to draw my attention to skeletal moments, encouraging me to slow down and add more detail. They showed me where I was info-dumping instead of pushing the story forward. They helped me to see exactly why my protagonist lacked agency, and suggested ways to save her from herself.

The biggest thing I learned? Nobody hates my writing as much as I do, and that’s a disturbingly empowering thing to say.

I am empowered. I can finally see my manuscript from the outside. I can finally see the problems as pieces instead of “general crappyness” to solve. I know where to replace hanging threads and subtly untie those that seem firm.

Bless you, Beta readers, for all that you see. Thank you for saving my novel.

Let the revisions begin!

The Rising Author Tag – Tag Tuesday

From A Whisper of Ink and Project Odette! A mixed tag with the same theme.

What’s your current WIP about + what are you working on with it?

My current WIP is called The Andromeda Man. It tells the story of an ambitious business woman in a world driven by Social Media. Her disinterest in ‘Socials’ leads to a diagnosis called Addictive Disassociation Disorder, and during this time, she starts receiving strange messages from a man claiming to come from ‘Andromeda.’ Is it real, or is it all to do with her disorder?

I’m currently finishing up the final touches on the piece. I think it deserves at least one more good read-through before I start querying, and probably a few extra fixes along the way!

Show your WIP’s aesthetic in images or words (or both)!

Luckily I just made this for the #ThursdayAesthetic tag on Twitter! My story is set in 2048, so it’s a world not too far from ours today. It’s got that ‘party-girl-gone-tech’ aesthetic!

What is your favourite type of ~thing~ to write?

This is such a difficult question, because I find it really hard to limit myself within genres. I tend to write a lot of Fabulism, with world’s just outside the realm of possibility. Sometimes I veer more fanciful, sometimes more scientific.

My main drive is the characters. Whatever the setting, I’m all about the relationships that are created, and the challenges within them.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? 

I’m a plotter like crazy! Scrivener is the best thing that ever happened to me, because I can plot out the whole story and write chapters sporadically within the outline. It’s magic!

Out of the characters you’ve written so far, who are your favourites?

My favourite character is one I’ve named Theo, from my YA WIP ‘Harvest Moons’. It’s a manuscript I’ve written before, and am slowly rewriting into a proper novel.

Theo is from the ‘Lit’ Territory, where citizens receive powers from the moonlight. He is what I’ve called a ‘Stalker’, and has the ability to Reflect the Light off his body in order to achieve invisibility. Sadly, as his Light exists outside of his body, he is left without a soul.

He’s your typical good-guy Sociopath, fighting only out of necessity, but there are a few other secrets along his journey…

Tragically, he won’t appear until Book Two, so in the meantime I need to fall deeper in love with my leads!

What (or who) motivates you to write?

My brain, mostly. All my life, I’ve constantly generated ideas, and if I don’t get them down on paper/computer screen I fear they’ll disappear.

OCD is a killer, man, but it sure does push the creative process.

What’s your writing routine, if any? (ie. snacks, music, time of day, location, etc.)

Silence and focus. As long as I’m in a comfortable place with minimal distraction, I can type away like crazy.

And coffee. Because… coffee.

What genre will you never try, and why?

I’d say Historical Fiction, except that I actually have a MG historical fiction piece plotted in Scrivener. It’s based on the true story of my Granny, who was a refugee child during the Spanish Civil War.

The story is too incredible not to write, and hopefully I’ll knock it out one day.

I hate saying I’ll never try a genre, because I want to experience everything. I love change, and I live for exploration.

That said, I’d be a crap children’s book author. I’d somehow manage to squeeze thirteen characters into 500 words. Simplicity is certainly not my strongest suit.

What is your favourite genre to write?

Fabulism, or low fantasy. Something just a little too magical to be real. I love writing questions. I love writing enigmas.

I’m a weirdo, and it definitely comes through in my words.

What are some book ideas you want to write in the future?

I mentioned my Spanish Civil War MG and my Lit World YA… I’d also love to turn my one-act play, ‘Happy Birthday, Wendy Darling!’ into a YA novel. It’s a story of the Lost Girls: Alice, Wendy, and Dorothy, and the way they’ve wandered into adulthood.

It will take some work to book-ify it, but I love a challenge!

What brings you the most satisfaction as a writer?

Finishing my story. Honestly, just getting the thing out of my head and into a consumable form is insanely satisfying!

What type of characters do you prefer writing? 

I love the flaws. Not little flaws, like being a picky eater, but big, life-altering flaws like betraying everyone you love. Maybe it’s my messed up sense of humour, or just my real-life cynicism, but I write the dark stuff. And I like it.

Which of your characters is based off you?

All of them, a little bit. As I wrote the character of Sarah, I started to recognize how much of myself was in there. She’s not a nice person, but there’s something about the lens through which she sees the world that I could relate to, and in ways of which I wasn’t proud.

Again, I guess that comes with the flaws. Real life is ugly, and sometimes we can be too.

Share a tiny (or large) snippet/excerpt of your writing, if you’re comfortable!

Chapter one, The Andromeda Man by Michelle Payne

I tag all of you writing types out there, especially those of you not yet published, like me!

Beta-Reading, from a Beginner

I am in a Beta circle!

For the first time, I have a complete piece of noveliscious writing that’s proofread, multi-drafted, and ready for human consumption.

If you’ve been paying a lot of attention (and I mean a LOT), then you’ll know my novel is called The Andromeda Man. TAM follows the last 62-days of Sarah Meyer, a high-powered businesswoman, who has been receiving messages from a man claiming to come from ‘Andromeda.’ With no knowledge of what that means, and strange premonitions leading her deeper into the mystery, Sarah must find the Andromeda Man before her time is up.

It’s a story I’ve been fiddling with for at least half a decade, and it’s finally become something tangible. Readable. Edit-able. So, I’m proud to announce that the Beta stage has arrived, and…

…I have no idea what I’m doing.

I’m part of a critiquing site called Scribophole, which I encourage everyone to join. Membership is free, but you can post more with a low-cost monthly fee of $9.

There, you earn karma by critiquing the works of other authors, and then you use that karma towards posting your own. It’s a less nurturing community than, say, the NaNoWriMo forums, but I’ve also received clearer and more actionable feedback from there. Highly recommended.

Now that my unpaid advertisement is over, let’s talk Beta! Through a special group on the site, I’ve become part of a circle of four novels. All four have semi-scifi elements, and all four are very different.

At present, I’m reading a truly astonishing piece of historical fiction, and I am totally out of my depth. I’m good at motivation, not criticism! I can’t critique a genre with which I’m barely familiar! What the heck am I doing?

They biggest problem I see people share regarding their Beta-readers is that they’re constantly trying to re-write their work. That’s the trouble with authors critiquing authors: we know how to write a book, but have we forgotten how to read them?

Except… I haven’t forgotten how to read. I don’t mean the basic page-to-brain reading, I mean reading. I love books, and I read them regularly, and that’s why I write books. I write the book I want to read in the world.

So, instead of focusing on the nitty-gritty nuts and bolts of grammar, spelling, or whatever else I thought Beta-reading was going to be… I’m going to focus on reading. Some questions I can use to guide me:

1. Is the story drawing me in?

2. How could it be more exciting, or mysterious, or visual?

3. Why am I drawn to my favourite characters?

4. Are there any major plot holes that are tearing me away from the page?

5. Is the pacing right? Is the tension real?

And most importantly:

6. Am I excited to keep reading?

They’re the same questions I’m secretly asking myself while I read any story, Beta or not. If I open a book, I want it to draw me in. I want to fall in love with the characters, or maybe hate them, but either way I need to care. Is my imagination satisfied? Does it all make sense? Do I even want to to turn the page?

That’s Beta-reading. It’s helping the author craft a book that people want to read. Readers, not editors.

I’m going to Beta from the perspective of a book-nerd, and I hope my fellow Betas do the same for my novel!

I shall report back with my Betaliscious findings. Hopefully I’m not the cause of a bookish disaster!

If you have any tips and tricks for being the best Beta-reader ever, please share them in the comments! Heaven knows I could use the help!