Tag: beta readers

organization

I have crap organizational skills.

Oh, I can do it when I have to, of course, but it’s always an aggravating extra step. I’m not a natural list maker. My clean laundry can stay on the guest bed for weeks. But some jobs are so large that the imposition of a defined order is required. And it’s maddening.

black and white animated gif of disheveled-looking man looking at papers and screaming
Via.

As a newbie writer I’m still working out the best way to collect all critique/beta reader feedback in one place so I can easily refer to it while editing the current* draft.

Some is digital and some is paper. I’ve tried volleying back and forth between 3 hard copies (so far) and multiple Word windows and it’s too confusing.

I’ve handwritten everything on my own printed version and while I have everything in one place I still have to drag a phone-book sized binder around with my laptop. The only places big enough to spread everything are my dining room table and the public library.

So as a last resort I’m going to try adding it all to the current Word** draft as comments. Best of both digital and print.

I hope.

*I hesitate to say “third”. Some parts have had more drafts/are more “done” than others.

**The last draft was restructuring, and Scrivener’s “index cards” functionality was great for moving scenes around easily. Now that I’ve solidified the sequence I want to view it as a whole. That, and a single Word doc is just easier to send to people.

the finish line (may cut my head off)

OMG. OMG. As of this post I’m down to the last eight scenes in my second draft(!) This is wonderful. This is terrifying.

I’ve spent 3 days trying to congeal my anxiety into a post while John Adamus nails my mood in 140 characters.

Nonetheless, my own blatherings: Second draft = putting the whole thing in front of beta readers time. Structural errors that I could excuse as “covered in another chapter” when readers only read excerpts will now be writ large. Shallow emotions, poor cause and effect, loose ends, red herrings: all will be glaringly obvious in context.

I know – it’s why one has beta readers. I’m just nervous that these errors won’t only reveal what I need to fix but what I can’t. Maybe because it’s beyond my ability. Maybe because who am I to write about people like I understand how they work, how dare I?

Ahem.

In short, I’m afraid of what the story will say about me as a person, rather than about my ability to write.

A wise friend once told me about my fencing that no single competition defines one’s worth as a fencer or as a person–a crucial distinction for me as I too often conflate what I do with who I am. It’s no different with writing. If my book sucks it doesn’t mean I’m an awful person.

But if it sucks too badly to salvage it does mean I’ve spent four years on a cold, dead turkey. Which is a lovely “learning experience” but it sure as hell won’t feel like it.

But at the end of my chat with Mr. Adamus he posed the question:

The goal is making this book as good as I can before seeking a professional editor. But to do that I need other eyes to notice the things I can’t anymore.

I’m going to get there by [cringe] putting it out there and letting beta readers rip it to shreds. Even if it hurts. Even if they tell me things I don’t want to hear.

What about you? In your endeavors, do you ever freeze to a point that you just can’t finish what you started? How did you move past it?