Writing Lessons

  • What You Should Know About Beta-ing (Part I)

    So you’ve completed a manuscript and you’re ready to let someone else look at it – someone besides your mother or your best friend. A person who may (or may not) tell you it sucks, offer suggestions for improvements, and fix your grammatical errors.

    If you don’t have a local writer’s group, you may be able to create one from online resources. I’ve found beta readers at both Absolute Write and Writer’s Digest Community.

    Now I’ve been lucky with most of my betas, and not so lucky with another. Let me teach you what I learned the hard way:
    1. This manuscript (ms) is your baby. You don’t let just anyone take care of your kids. Be nosy. Ask questions.
    2. A beta should read and be familiar with your genre. A person who only reads fantasy fiction will have a different opinion on how your literary fiction should be written.
    3. Every beta will have a different strength. One may correct your sentence structure, while another will point out plot/character flaws. You may need to find a few to help you perfect your ms (An article I read said that SEVEN was the right number. Two per each draft of your book and one to act as a final copy editor. That seems like a lot, but you’ll have to determine for yourself).
    4. Don’t expect your beta to agree with you…it’s probably better if they don’t.
    5. Don’t send your whole ms on the first day. A beta should audition. Send them the first three chapters. Look over their edits, and then you BOTH can decide if the partnership is going to work for you (Hey, they may hate your story and won’t want to read more than three chapters).
    6. Pretend you’re a private eye. Likely, a beta has posted some of their work somewhere. Research the things they’ve written, the comments they’ve gotten on their work. Where your beta is weak, they’ll likely miss those things in your manuscript.
    7. No matter if you agree with their edits (here’s a great article on dealing with critiques, actually written by one of my betas), you should be grateful for their work. Betas read for free.

    Anyone else have tips for making a beta partnership work?

  • To Tag or Not to Tag…

    I do not like the word “said.” There are more interesting, beautiful, and correct words to tag a line of speech. I am also unpublished, and would really like to change that status. SO, I have to change my opinion.

    Although the most basic dialogue tag is boring, it is also the most accepted word by editors. After reading seven articles on the subject, I learned that editors (and consequently agents) agree that other synonyms of “said” distract the reader from the dialogue. Over use of words like screamed, shrieked, hissed, whispered, sighed, shouted, etc. is a sign of beginning writing. YIKES!!

    I’m not going to re-write the articles, but here is my grand summary:
    1. Use words other than “said” sparingly – too often and it’s like eating sprinkles instead of a cookie.
    2. Don’t tag all the time. If the conversation is between two characters, a reader should be able to follow along without “he said” following every line.
    3. Mix action into dialogue to progress the story or develop a character.
    4. If you use an adverb after a tag, your dialouge is not strong enough. (i.e. she said, sadly)
    5. Use the right punctuation. Here’s a great article on that.
    6. Characters can’t actually talk while laughing, shrugging, sighing. (I don’t acutally agree with this point…haven’t you ever said something while laughing?)

    Does anyone else have an issue with “said?”

  • I have no idea what I’m doing…

    While I’m waiting for my betas to finish editing “Saw it Coming,” I started work on my new project. It’s been brewing in my head for a LONG time, and I knew the chapters would spit themselves out if I just sat down at the computer long enough.

    I’ve written four chapters in the last two days. It’s a good thing, I promise. Except that this story is telling itself in first person past tense. Ummm…what? Do I know how to write in that POV?

    No. I don’t think I do.

    Third person is easy for me. Most of the time words flow onto the page and I don’t have to think very much about tense, internal thought, action scenes. First person is a whole different animal.

    Did a little research last night on the subject and found some great articles on the First vs. Third debate. Some people have very strong opinions including:
    • “First person is beginning writer’s mistake”
    • “First person is the accepted voice for YA”
    • “Stories with multiple characters and viewpoints should be told in third person”
    • “Voice is more identifiable in first person”

    There was no consensus on which was the “right” way to tell a story. I’ve read fantastic novels told in just either POV.

    Which POV do you prefer to write in? And do different stories, in your opinion, require a different POV?

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