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Beta reading and Editing

  • 14-08-2019 1:26am
    #1
    Nicks delight
    Registered Users Posts: 55 ✭✭


    The first time I wrote a novel I said, "I don't need an Editor." Now 100 essays later and many research projects behind me and a good few short stories, I feel very different. Regardless of what I write, I always get other people to have a look at my work before I hand it over. I also use Beta readers. Strange as it might sound, I now find myself Beta reading for others and editing books too; mostly sci-fi, fantasy and some horror. I am blind to my own lines and mistakes, but spot mistakes in others. Funny old game....

    Anyone else here who Beta read or edit?
    Tagged:


Comments

  • #2
    JoZeb
    Registered Users Posts: 15 ✭JoZeb


    My beta readers are heroes, and yeah I beta read back. I don't edit but I do run courses in creative writing where I deliver critique and I also mentor writers. I think for SFF it's even more important to get readers, especially those who like the genre, as worldbuilding etc is so nuanaced and easy to get wrong.


  • #3
    Livvie
    Registered Users Posts: 714 ✭✭✭Livvie


    Nicks delight wrote: »
    The first time I wrote a novel I said, "I don't need an Editor." Now 100 essays later and many research projects behind me and a good few short stories, I feel very different. Regardless of what I write, I always get other people to have a look at my work before I hand it over. I also use Beta readers. Strange as it might sound, I now find myself Beta reading for others and editing books too; mostly sci-fi, fantasy and some horror. I am blind to my own lines and mistakes, but spot mistakes in others. Funny old game....

    Anyone else here who Beta read or edit?

    I critique books but with an editor's hat on so the writer gets a full edit as well.

    My only qualification is that my work has been edited so I've learned from it. I'd like to do it professionally - I love it


  • #4
    JoZeb
    Registered Users Posts: 15 ✭JoZeb


    Livvie wrote: »
    I critique books but with an editor's hat on so the writer gets a full edit as well.

    My only qualification is that my work has been edited so I've learned from it. I'd like to do it professionally - I love it

    I’d be scared of steering someone wrong and destroying their book!
    I critique less now I’m published - people who don’t know me already pay too much heed to me and I’m only one opinion.


  • #5
    Livvie
    Registered Users Posts: 714 ✭✭✭Livvie


    JoZeb wrote: »
    I’d be scared of steering someone wrong and destroying their book!
    I critique less now I’m published - people who don’t know me already pay too much heed to me and I’m only one opinion.

    I make a point of saying that I'm not professional and that the writer can always get a second opinion from someone who is. And I always explain my reasons for certain suggestions, but tell them to make up their own minds as to whether the ideas appeal to them or not.


  • #6
    Nicks delight
    Registered Users Posts: 55 ✭✭Nicks delight


    Sorry, I should have responded quicker but Universe decided to throw a mega big titanium wrench in my front tire and stuck a universal screwdriver in my dusty heart. Sure I agree, an opinion is just that and nothing more. Stories are told and they are from the Authors mind straight down onto the bleached paper or a glaring screen frying our faces with frame-rates hurdling at us with epileptic rates, and that is all well-and-good but I still need someone to tell me if my presentation and story logic correspond with the rest of the world and its readers. Sometime I float into a dyslectic acid cloud and my page content is somewhat dis-congruent so I like my stories to go trough the literary autopsy before I set them free. :)

    Generally when I Beta read, focus is mostly on the story rather than gramma dramatics but if i spot something I highlight it. I never state my opinions as a law that should be adhered. :)


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