Sunday, June 9, 2013

What I'm Learning from Beta Reading



If Sundays are going to become the lit corner on The Bathroom Monologues, then I might as well start with the book I've been hammering at all week. I'm fully editing Last House in the Sky, hoping to have a sparkling draft before ReaderCon in July. Four beta readers turned in fully marked up manuscripts, fewer than I was counting on, but these four did thorough and wonderful jobs.

I cheated on this novel, soliciting an alpha reader to let me know if the whole things too nuts. It's about thieves trying to steal a flying city from a cult, with a backdrop of dinosaurs and hungry robots, so there was the slim chance that it wouldn't make sense. My alpha was enthusiastic, and luckily the betas have agreed that running with my love of The Weird works. I'm considering running the very brief first chapter as a Friday Flash some time.


I'm not tired. I could write longer.


If you want it, I'll write about how the revisions process is going. It's been surprisingly fun so far, when I'm not shaking. But today I'd like to chat about what I'm learning from my betas, both about them and myself. All my old convictions remain true: a spread of specialties and interests among betas helps, you need people who will call you out, and there really is nothing as good as getting multiple betas to laugh at the same line.

Being the second novel I've had properly beta read, I'm starting to absorb more of the trade. A big part is picking people whose intelligence and patience I trust, so that I can come at them with any questions, be it on wording or how alternative gender gets handled. The ability of betas to feel they can write anything on the MS, and for you to feel you can have conversations long beyond their notes, is integral making the work better. I'm a very lucky man to have the friends I do.

I've also learned more about procrastination. When I first asked them to finish it in two months, one reader commented that he thought that was far too long. I was surprised, and so it's my own fault I was surprised a second time one month in, when I found five of the seven readers had read less than a hundred pages. Three hadn't started at all. They weren't lazy; it's a basic human feature to procrastinate, to do other things right now, and to swear you'll get to it later. Three readers thought if I'd asked for it in one month, they'd have nailed it immediately. Life got away from them.

Near the end of the beta period I reached out to an additional reader, apologizing for the tight constraints. She read through the entire thing in three weeks and left 800 comments. She was no superwoman; all my betas were smart people, but with tighter time constraints, she just went to it. God bless her.

I learned harder truths about myself. I am now fairly certain that heavy composition or editing will always worsen my neuromuscular syndrome; in writing to you now, my fingers keep hitting the wrong keys because they're shaking.

My appetite is much greater than usual, the level of pain in all my extremities is worse and unremitting with sleep, and most concretely, I'm turning into a spud. My elliptical records how fast and far I go in any given amount of time, and it's revealing that I am physically incapable of exercising as hard as I normally do, getting winded and exhausted minutes sooner than usual, and no matter how I approach the overall workout, not hitting the distance I'd set for the last three months. When I force my body to hit the speed I used to average, I persistently suffer asthma attacks and muscle spasms. I don't recommend muscle spasms.

This has lasted all week, and it's not the first time it's happened. It was the case six months ago when I was writing this novel. It also happened persistently in writing and later editing The House That Nobody Built. I think big writing physically wears me down. The corporeal form is pesky like that.

You'll accept my apologies if I take Monday off. I think I'll watch some of the E3 coverage and finish Mary Roach's Gulp.

13 comments:

  1. Apology far from necessary. You give us a lot. Just at the moment (and whenever your body and mind dictates it) you needs are much more important than pandering to us.
    I find this process fascinating. I love being given the privilege of looking at writing from the other side - thank you. And yes, I would love it if you do give us the first chapter as a Friday Flash...

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    1. Ironically, I am still shooting to have something up tomorrow. I've got a little character portrait of a painter in space that I think I might be able to wrap up after today's editing session. Here's hoping!

      And thank you for both your patience and compassion. I'm glad you dig on my process. It's consuming quite a bit these days...

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  2. Hey John. I find a similar thing, that when I am writing or editing hard, I have less energy to run. It's like they draw on the same battery.

    I'm glad the editing is so much fun. Good luck on getting things set for July!

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    1. I guess it all comes from the same hunk of meat. This darned body. I'm still trying to figure out methods that won't destroy me in the work, because I constantly crave more productivity.

      And thanks for the luck!

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  3. I think a month is a fair request. That's what I usually ask and have been asked for in return. You're right, people tend to procrastinate.

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    1. If I'm free, I have no problem beta reading a novel in a month. It's reasonable to me, but I still feel odd asking other people to pound a book like that. What's your beta process, Alex?

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  4. I don't "get" Beta. It is apparently beyond my reach brain wise. I want to understand beta. But I am stuck at Alpha. By the way, grammar says But is now an allowed and correct way to start a sentence. I am good with that, however, I refuse to use the word normalcy. It's just so WRONG TO ME.
    xox jean

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    1. Do you mean you don't understand the editing terms, or that you don't understand why people seek out alpha and beta readers?

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  5. I can't even put up my Liebster award or anything else like I finished the A-Z 2013 on my blog. wow I got old suddenly.

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  6. I love weird stories. They can work.

    I always ask for a month and my beta readers have been ready with notes in that time. When someone gives something to me, they also ask for a month, or if they haven't been specific I'll tell them within a month and deliver.

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  7. I'm glad your betas did a good job for you. I think the trick with writing is to pace yourself unless of course you have a publisher and a dead line but when you have neither, then my attitude is to take is steady. ^_^ Well done John.

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  8. I am experimenting in the world of beta readers as well this go-round. I had exactly 2 people offer, and so far I've gotten excellent feedback from one of them. The deadline I set for them is coming up on Wednesday, so we'll see. I also gave a 2 month window... so perhaps that was my mistake.

    Hope you are feeling better soon. It's no fun when our bodies betray us.

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  9. This makes me feel slightly better about that I'm only starting to read the book I promised to review two weeks ago... slightly.

    As always, your stamina and commitment in the face of what sounds like utter agony astound me. I hope you're healing.

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