This is actually Part 4 of The Mother of all Writing Processes
series.
We began with getting ideas and planning and organizing them. Then we discussed
Drafting, followed by Revision.
By revision, I meant what you would do on your
own, before anyone else sees it. The second phase of revision is essentially to get someone else’s eyes on
your writing. In the academic classroom we usually call this phase of the
Writing Process the Peer Review. In the real world of fiction writers,
we call this “sending my manuscript off to my beta readers” or similar
declaration – typically with either a tone of delight and triumph or with a tone of
derision for the necessary evil to which an author must submit.
Peer Review
In the composition classroom, I consider Peer Review one of
the most useful activities beginning writers can do to learn how to improve
their writing. My students, however, do not see it that way. Although they
begrudgingly participate, most of them work with minimal effort through the process despite my detailed explanation of what they should do. No amount of exhortation seems able to convince them of the
benefits of doing peer review.
First of all, it's more than just proofreading a classmate's paper. I understand that they may lack confidence in what they
have written and don’t want a classmate to see how poorly they write. I get
that sometimes they write personal stuff and don't want anyone to read it. I know the classmate who reads their
paper is “untrained” and no better at writing than the author is. Or, for
others, there is the paper from the internet which would be discovered if it
were shown during peer review.
I’ve found several ways to do Peer Review and I try to offer
more than two ways during a semester, depending on what seems to work best for
the group in the classroom.
- The simple exchange of papers between two students; they
read each other’s papers.
- The small group round robin exchange, usually with 3 to 5
students; each author can get multiple feedback comments.
- The full class round robin; everyone passes to the right and
passes again after 15 minutes or so.
- In my MFA program in fiction, we passed out our papers
(short stories or novel chapters) in advance of the review session and
classmates wrote detailed critiques to be given to the author, as well as having a full
class discussion of the work; usually enough time for two or three works to be discussed in one class session.
The success of any method depends on how vested the participants
are in their own success, success being measured by the amount of useful
feedback a paper receives. In the MFA program, I’m sure sometimes a classmate or
two felt less interested in giving the full effort. The same lack of effort
comes in all the other methods. To first-year students, just “gettin’ ‘er
done” is the goal and a quick skim and “I like it” seems to be enough to pass.
It is not, of course. In some cases, I’ve provided a checklist or a list of
questions to be answered as a way to force better reading and thinking about
the papers they are reading.
Beta Readers
Those who have taken the pledge to write fiction to the best
of their abilities and for the better part of their “free” time, do not usually
share their work in a group unless it is through membership in a writer’s circle or similar club. Instead, they share their work with a special person known as a
“beta reader.” I’ve always thought the term odd: Am I, the author, the alpha?
or is the paying reader the alpha? I’ve joked about preferring Delta readers to
Beta readers – or even a Gamma reader who could see right through my head to
know exactly what I should have written in place of what I actually wrote.
Either way, the test reader serves a primary and crucial function in a writer’s life.
Having stated the above as something like a fact, I must now
confess hypocrisy. I do not send my manuscript to a beta reader. There are two
reasons (not “excuses”!) for this, and by declaring my way of doing things I do not intend to
discourage others from using a beta reader. I believe in their effectiveness given the right circumstances.
For me, the first reason is far more nefarious. As a young
man in junior high school, I enjoyed writing science fiction stories, usually
based on ideas I got from reading science fiction stories. In one class, we
were encouraged to write every day, whatever we wanted to write. I started a
serial called “The Adventures of Micro Man”: about a superhero who could shrink
himself to get out of tight jams. The teacher liked my stories so much that I
was asked to read them in front of the class. That was highly nerve-wracking.
Even though everyone in class seemed to like this weekly “story hour” by me, as
a budding introvert, it scared me to death. Furthermore, I was under pressure to write something exciting each week or my
entire identity and reputation would be destroyed!
An even worse example, and perhaps the single most
devastating criticism I have ever received – what finally caused me to clam up
and never share my writing with anyone – came when I proudly shared my latest
science fiction story with my father, a high school social studies teacher.
After reading it, he gave the story pages back to me all marked up in red ink. He pointed
out everything that was wrong with it. Nothing good was said about my story.
Granted, I was a teenager and a beginning writer but I did my best and was
proud of what I produced, willing to acknowledge I still needed to work on it,
but . . . . Later, I came to understand his reading mantra, which I quoted when transforming him into a character in one of my novels: "There's no reason to read fiction because it's not true; why waste your time reading something that's not true?"
So there are my reasons for not using a beta reader. The
other, current reason is a combination of two more factors. First, I’m rather
timid when it comes to asking someone to read something I’ve created. I know it
is imperfect – hence the request to test-read it – so it takes a special kind
of friend, colleague, or fellow writer to accept the task. Finding someone who
is both willing to read an imperfect text and who is also knowledgeable enough
(writing conventions, spelling and grammar, etc.) is a challenge. Once found, a
writer may rely on that sole beta reader forever. Nothing wrong with that, so
long as the beta reader can be both objective and constructive – and not hold
back the tough remarks.
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| One of many checklists on the internet. Or make your own. |
Commitment. What the writer asks of the beta reader can impact the
quality of the feedback. Is the beta reader merely reading as a surrogate
“paying” reader just to see how the story flows, if it is engaging, if it hits
the points the author wishes to make, or if it is even interesting? Or is the
beta reader expected (assumed?) to be checking the sort of issues an editor
would focus on? A beta reader may catch some typos or awkward sentences and
point them out to the author, thereby acting partly as an editor. But if the
text is not so interesting, has too many problems, perhaps the beta reader will
not put as much effort into a good, solid reading as if the story were truly
compelling. Friendship may require a friendly reading, too; one wishes to remain friends after the reading. It also takes a
significant commitment of time to read and comment on a manuscript, especially
if it is a novel of 100,000 words. Is money involved? or would that pollute the
reading and commenting experience? That’s a lot to consider when arranging for a
beta reading project.
As I stated above, I generally have not used a beta reader.
There may be slaps on the wrist coming my way, but asking someone, even a
friend (a friend may be the worst “test” reader!), to read something and tell
me what he/she thinks of it is something from a list of worst ways to torture
someone like me. However, due to the nature of the project, there have been
manuscripts that received a reading prior to my final submission for
publication.
Most recently, my novel A GIRL CALLED WOLF which was based on the
life of a real person required me to share what I was writing with that person.
I definitely needed her feedback to make sure I was telling her story the way
it should be told. In this case, the beta reader was also the heroine of the
story. (I blogged about that process here.)
Another novel of mine, A DRY PATCH OF SKIN, my so-called
vampire story, was also based upon my real experiences and so I “let” the
person read it who I had transformed into a major character in the book. I had
to change a few things because of that “test” reading. In another case, A
BEAUTIFUL CHILL was based partly on some real experiences and the real person
who became one of the dual protagonists, so naturally I allowed her to read it.
Neither readers of these two books were true beta readers; they were not
expected to critique or edit anything, merely to have the chance to vent and
rant about how they were portrayed in the novels.
Recently, a colleague of mine at Edgewise Words Inn asked me
to “beta read” a short story. I thought to myself “Sure, I can do that” and
immediately took a look at how long it was! No offense intended, but when time
to write is limited, especially when you’ve invited the muses to visit and
you’re sitting by your keyboard waiting for them to arrive, taking some of that
time to read and critique a different work seems counterproductive. However, as
a friend and colleague, I felt obligated to do my best. Fortunately, as I read
it the story caught my interest. That made the process go more smoothly. In
fact, reading this story and thinking how to make it better, marking it and
writing comments to that effect, actually helped to call the muses to my own
project. Reading . . . writing . .
. two sides of the same coin!
Lastly, I must again confess something. I went to university
to study English, Literature, Composition Theory, Linguistics, and Creative
Writing. My day job is Professor of English. I teach students how to write . .
. to a greater or lesser degree; every semester, every class group is a
different ballgame, but I digress! Therefore, I’m supposedly trained in use of
the English language. I write in different styles as fits the subject of the
story. I know how to spell and use grammar correctly – correctly for the characters
in the story. So it seems as though I should not need a beta reader. For
technical matters, perhaps that’s true. However, every writer can use a
different set of eyes on a manuscript. We become jaded and our eyes trick us,
glossing over the error that sits on the page in plain sight. So I believe in the
beta reader . . . but I have my reasons for not subjecting anyone to being one
of mine.
Best of luck to you finding, nurturing, and keeping your
lucky beta reader!
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(C) Copyright 2010-2016 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog.
Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.
