I had a discussion with my friend and also the voice talent, Alison Blanchard last night about beta copies. Alison received an earlier copy of Woven Myths - Bindings and couldn't get past the 2nd draft writing. I'm someone who focuses first on structure - plot and character development - before tackling sentence structures or descriptions. The skeleton has to be there before it can support anything else.
The problem is, getting feedback. However, in order to get feedback, I need to have skin on the meat and bones of the story. My inclination had been to send out the meat and bones with no skin attached, asking my beta readers to trust that the skin I put on will be pretty.
According to Alison and Westina, I'm going about this ass-backwards. If I want beta readers to give feedback back, they need to have a better written version.
So, I called my editor today and told her to hold off reading on this version and that I'd be working up a better, more well-written version because that's what beta readers want. Val, my editor told me that she'd probably read this draft and the next, even though I'm already readying the beta copy. That made me feel good. :)
Anyway, if you want to sign up as a beta-reader, send me a note.
The problem is, getting feedback. However, in order to get feedback, I need to have skin on the meat and bones of the story. My inclination had been to send out the meat and bones with no skin attached, asking my beta readers to trust that the skin I put on will be pretty.
According to Alison and Westina, I'm going about this ass-backwards. If I want beta readers to give feedback back, they need to have a better written version.
So, I called my editor today and told her to hold off reading on this version and that I'd be working up a better, more well-written version because that's what beta readers want. Val, my editor told me that she'd probably read this draft and the next, even though I'm already readying the beta copy. That made me feel good. :)
Anyway, if you want to sign up as a beta-reader, send me a note.