{"id":419,"date":"2016-10-15T15:13:13","date_gmt":"2016-10-15T22:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/?p=419"},"modified":"2016-10-15T15:13:13","modified_gmt":"2016-10-15T22:13:13","slug":"surviving-beta-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/surviving-beta-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Surviving Beta Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s face it. Beta Reading is equivalent to having teeth pulled at the dentists. Sure, it may be necessary, but it hurts like hell and is bound to leave a few bruises. The Beta Reading phase of writing a novel is one of the most important, and also one of the most torturous. In this phase, you gather public opinion on your story from the eyes of your target audience. On the rare occasion, the feedback is good. A great majority of the time, feedback is not-so-good and sometimes terrible. Not everyone will love your novel, and a few will even rip you a new one. So how do you find the constructive<\/em> in the constructive criticism you will get back? How do you find the strength to carry on?<\/p>\n

\"betafeedback\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don’t Send Garbage<\/h1>\n

If you send out a few chapters in a rough state, full of bad grammar, no punctuation, and terrible sentence structure, prepare to get your rear-end handed back to you. Beta readers don’t have time to wade through something you threw together. They’re expecting an excerpt of a publishable novel.<\/p>\n

\"garbage\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Even if you’re looking for feedback on only a few chapters, you must make sure those chapters are polished. Most Beta Readers prefer everything you’d like read in one document, and not several. If you want serious feedback, you must prove you’re serious by giving out your best work in a concise format.<\/p>\n

Don’t Expect a Timely Response<\/h1>\n

Reading for the purpose of catching continuity errors is a lengthy process. If you’d like feedback chapter by chapter, make that point known before you submit your work to a beta reader. Otherwise, you may be waiting until the reader is done with the entire submission to receive feedback. As well, your work may not be the only work the beta is reading. Holidays, weekends, and the beta’s own work and social life will also trump your reading. So be patient. Sometimes the beta reader may take a month to get back to you.<\/p>\n

Don’t Expect Line Editing<\/h1>\n

A Beta Reader’s job is just that: to read. Most will not point out every grammatical error or spelling mistake. Some make make overall suggestions such as issues with verb tense, continuity, or writing style. Line editing or copy editing is a separate task and comes at a cost. The job of a beta reader is to give you feedback on how they liked the novel, not to correct it’s issues.<\/p>\n

\"correctyourgrammar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Don’t Take it Personally<\/h1>\n

When you finally get that response from the beta, it’s an exciting time! You open that email only to find the feedback is less-than-favourable and you feel like the world has crumbled around you. This is the wrong way to take feedback. Criticism is not an attack, but a means to tell you where your writing needs work.<\/p>\n

\"criticism\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Different readers give feedback in different ways. Some may use the sandwich technique (by telling you what they liked followed by what they didn’t like), others may just list the points you need to work on. The important thing is to figure out what the beta reader is telling you and not take the comments personally.<\/p>\n

Don’t Forget to Thank Your Beta!<\/h1>\n

Most importantly, if you want to develop a rapport with the beta reading community, always thank your Beta Reader, even if you’d like to shove her face in a vat of boiling oil. Read over their feedback and craft your thanks in a form that proves you’ve taken what they’ve said to heart. “Wow, I never noticed my dialogue was so forced. Thanks for pointing that out!” Don’t try to defend the topic’s they pointed out; if a Beta Reader can’t figure out your plot, then an agent, publisher, or the average reader will not either. Trying to defend bad writing only shows you’re not mature enough for the task.<\/p>\n

\"Take<\/a>

Take that, beta reader!<\/p><\/div>\n

Don’t Give Up!<\/h1>\n

Your novel doesn’t suck just because the Beta Reader pointed out that you have flaws. Issues, even major ones such as narration voice or tone, can all be fixed. As long as the underlying story bones are strong, you still have hope.<\/p>\n

If you have issues with self esteem or criticism, you can always point this out when you submit your work. Most Beta Readers will try their best to work with you with feedback. We want to help!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

– Rissa<\/p>\n

Rissa offers Beta Reading services for Young Adult fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal. You can contact her via social media through her Facebook page<\/a> or Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s face it. Beta Reading is equivalent to having teeth pulled at the dentists. Sure, it may be necessary, but it hurts like hell and is bound to leave a few bruises. The Beta Reading phase of writing a novel is one of the most important, and also one of the most torturous. In this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beta-reader","tag-beta-reader","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/SurvivingBetaReading.gif?fit=420%2C420&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6odz9-6L","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":403,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/once-more-with-feeling\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":0},"title":"Once More With Feeling","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"September 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Holy cow; I haven\u2019t made a blog post in a really long time. As with last periods of blog-less-ness, this time is no different. Living here in the Oil and Gas capital of Canada, we\u2019re slowly succumbing to the failing price of oil. This means job losses, increases in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Day to Day"","block_context":{"text":"Day to Day","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/day-to-day\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/best-online-friend.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3540,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/new-book-release-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":1},"title":"New Book release news","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"June 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2026 or why a write-a-book-in-a-month challenge isn\u2019t necessarily a good challenge. Welp, it\u2019s been a while, I know. I wish I could say I\u2019ve been furiously writing, but alas, I have not. In all honesty, the pandemic threw a wrench into my writing. I\u2019ve been trying to re-establish my writing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gamemasters"","block_context":{"text":"Gamemasters","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/gamemasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/roses.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/roses.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/roses.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/roses.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1225,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/covid-19-and-new-years-resolutions\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":2},"title":"COVID-19 and New Year\u2019s Resolutions","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"January 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m late to the game on the whole New Year\u2019s Resolutions thing, but I have a good excuse. With this most recent variant, the probability of catching the virus went up a substantial amount. Going by numbers in my city, it appears to be about a 20%-25% jump. But more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "COVID19"","block_context":{"text":"COVID19","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/covid19\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Spring.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Spring.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Spring.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Spring.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":162,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/quest-for-stories-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":3},"title":"Q4S Part 2: CreateSpace: The Final Draft Frontier","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"November 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In this post, we\u2019ll explore getting your novel into the beginning stages of mass distribution by leveraging CreateSpace as your starting platform. This allows us to use CreateSpace\u2019s pre-formatted templates to make compiling your final draft into a publishable format a breeze. Then in future posts, we'll use this final\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Self-publishing"","block_context":{"text":"Self-publishing","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/self-publishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/QuestForStories_Part2.jpg?fit=610%2C374&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/QuestForStories_Part2.jpg?fit=610%2C374&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/QuestForStories_Part2.jpg?fit=610%2C374&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":631,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/when-life-gives-you-dead-leaves\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":4},"title":"When Life Gives you Dead Leaves . . .","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"October 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Geesh. It's been ages since my last blog post! Since my last check-in, our brutally-hot summer has changed into an unusually cold and rainy autumn. Granted autumn is my favourite season, but I can\u2019t help but feel we\u2019ve been cheated out of summer. Well, maybe it was just me who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Updates"","block_context":{"text":"Updates","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/AutumnHighwood1-1-300x152.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":958,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/creating-a-hard-magic-system-step-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":419,"position":5},"title":"Creating a Hard Magic System","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"April 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The classification of magic into \u201chard\u201d and \u201csoft\u201d systems was conceived by award-winning author (and author of my second-favourite series!) Brandon Sanderson. He theorized that magic fell into two general forms 1. Soft magic, where magic just exists and is loosely explained (like the Force in Star Wars, and Tolkien\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "World Building"","block_context":{"text":"World Building","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/world-building\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hard Magic Step 1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/HardMagicStep1.jpg?fit=501%2C498&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}