ETA - Thanks all, I'm fully Beta-d up!
Hi all.
I'm looking for a beta for my finished crime/murder mystery novel.
The tone it pretty light, certainly the Sandy McCall Smith side of Ian Rankin, but it does have proper dead bodies and stuff...
What I'm looking for in a beta is pretty straightforward. Hopefully the grammar/punctuation/spelling etc is okay, but what I could do with help on is:
1) Where do you get bored?
2) Where are you confused/lost in the plot?
3) Is there anything clunky in the writing which sticks out?
4) There are a few funny (ie humourous) scenes in the book. Do they fit okay, or would they be better edited/deleted?
I'm at the stage of wanting to tout this around to agents, but I don't really have anyone who can cast an eye over it first. At the risk of boasting, I'm rather proud of this one, so would appreciate anyone who enjoys reading this genre who could give me an honest opinion. I'm pretty thick skinned, and would far prefer overly-critical to overly kind, but I am looking for someone who might be wiling to do a bit of in-depth crit., rather than "hmm, it's nice but it didn't grip me". I'm happy for a beta only to crit a few chapters, rather than a whole book - anything rather than nothing is helpful!
I've posted the first chapter in the Mystery section of share your work for a taster!
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175161
ETA I'm more than happy to beta partner someone, hopefully in a similar genre.
Hi all.
I'm looking for a beta for my finished crime/murder mystery novel.
The tone it pretty light, certainly the Sandy McCall Smith side of Ian Rankin, but it does have proper dead bodies and stuff...
What I'm looking for in a beta is pretty straightforward. Hopefully the grammar/punctuation/spelling etc is okay, but what I could do with help on is:
1) Where do you get bored?
2) Where are you confused/lost in the plot?
3) Is there anything clunky in the writing which sticks out?
4) There are a few funny (ie humourous) scenes in the book. Do they fit okay, or would they be better edited/deleted?
I'm at the stage of wanting to tout this around to agents, but I don't really have anyone who can cast an eye over it first. At the risk of boasting, I'm rather proud of this one, so would appreciate anyone who enjoys reading this genre who could give me an honest opinion. I'm pretty thick skinned, and would far prefer overly-critical to overly kind, but I am looking for someone who might be wiling to do a bit of in-depth crit., rather than "hmm, it's nice but it didn't grip me". I'm happy for a beta only to crit a few chapters, rather than a whole book - anything rather than nothing is helpful!
I've posted the first chapter in the Mystery section of share your work for a taster!
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175161
ETA I'm more than happy to beta partner someone, hopefully in a similar genre.
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