Hello! I'm Matthew and I'm eager to get back into beta reading/workshopping.
Availability:
Available as of 3/20/25. I can review 3-5 works simultaneously, depending on length.
Please see my signature for how many slots are open.
Preferences:
- Short-form content like short stories, poetry, and screenplays
- Experimental writing, slice-of-life, creative non-fiction, "weird/artsy"
- Love sad stories and tragedies
- Fond of romance (especially queer romance) or stories focused on intimate non-romantic relationships (best friends, family)
- I'm open to any genre but especially appreciate horror and comedy
I have workshopped a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. They're usually not my favorite, but a good story transcends genre and I'm open to any interesting writing.
If you need an entire novel read I'm probably not your guy, but I'll review individual chapters with some summary and context provided.
What I write:
- Short-form poetry and prose poetry with a focus on nature/biology and autobiography
- Short stories that are A) literary fiction about relationships, nature, and mythology, or B) autobiographical non-fiction
- Some screenwriting; working on feature-length dark comedy. Have written some slice-of-life and horror shorts
Beta Style:
- I'd like to hear about what your goals are with my reading. Do you want feedback on how a particular writing choice is working? Do you have questions about what direction to take the story? Are you looking for inconsistencies or confusing sections? Do you need feedback on the dialog?
- Should I focus on your writing voice, on the content of the scenes, or on the way scenes/passages connect together?
- Do you have a goal you hope to achieve with this piece? Is there an inspiration you'd like me to know about?
- When I say "goal" I'm talking about the thing that's motivating you to write this particular piece and how you measure that the piece is done.
- Example: "I wanted to explore an intimate friendship and how people drift apart and re-unite" -> Is the characters' friendship sufficiently intimate? Do they drift apart? Is there a reunion? If these things are all present and working, the goal is met.
- Example: "I wanted to write a dialog-heavy story about living swords that shapeshift into animals." -> Does the story have enough dialog? Is the shapeshifting concept being explored enough?
- Example: "I wanted to write a horror story inspired by my trip to an abandoned mall." -> Have you fully captured the elements from your mall adventure into your story? Is the story scary enough, or too scary?
- If it's an early draft, we can skip grammar and focus more on the overall structure. If it's a late draft, we can do a grammar/phrasing check.
- In my first reading, I'll read normally like I'm reading for pleasure except I'll note down reactions or questions I have as I go.
- In my second reading, I'll focus on your feedback goal and note sections that I can bring up in our discussion along with my thoughts.
- If it's a late draft, I'll go through a third time with a grammar/phrasing check.
My preference is to highlight and comment on sections in a Google Doc, or print out the text and write notes on it. I may write some feedback after the text as well. I like to then discuss my feedback and your thoughts either with voice chat or text chat after you've had a chance to look it over. We can then do another round, if you like.
I am honest and I can be blunt. If you prefer a softer style of feedback, please let me know because I don't want reviewing feedback to be a negative experience.
Note for poetry: this is a very subjective genre so I feel the most productive way to provide feedback is for you to share your goal(s) with the poem and we'll see how well it's achieving that goal, what kind of technical elements I'm seeing, and what my subjective impressions are.
Experience:
I have a BFA in Creative Writing from a very workshop-heavy environment. My classes were in poetry, short stories, screenwriting, songwriting, and publishing. I was also a chair on the Creative Writing Club which was mostly a space for additional beta reading for its members. I also edited for a couple of student literary magazines. I've published short prose and poetry in a couple of lit mags as well.
Timeline:
I'll contact you within a day or two of receiving your message. Once I start reading, I should send my feedback within 3-7 days.
Note that I have some chronic health issues. I'm in the process of recovering, but there may be some setbacks that cause delays.
Contact:
Please send me a PM here or message me on Discord @RoughlyHewn. (I'm also watson.wrote in the notAbsoluteWrite Discord.)
