• Read this stickie before posting.

    • In order to reduce the number of new members requesting a Beta reader before they're really ready for one, we've instituted a 50 post requirement before you can start a thread seeking a Beta reader.
    • You can still volunteer to Beta for someone else; just please don't request someone to Beta for you until you're more familiar with the community and our members.

Hi everyone!

Status
Not open for further replies.

Sunbreaker2

Banned
Joined
Mar 7, 2016
Messages
192
Reaction score
2
Hi i am new to the forums, i admit i am not sure whether this is the right place for this or not but, i was looking for anyone who is interested in being like a writing buddy on a story i am writing. Although it is still very early on in the making the more or less plot is about a guardian type character who is thrust into a journey around the solar system to stop an alien plot to unleash a weapon capable of destroying humanity by a cryptic and exiled character who ends up being the protagonists guide through most of the story, although this is a VERY short summary i feel the story itself is lacking in many ways i do not know where. If anyone is Interested please message me. It can be on the forum, there is no need to private message. I chose not to post the summary because i feel it would elongate this post to much and potentially bore you guys.
 
Last edited:

AW Admin

Administrator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
18,772
Reaction score
6,285
Your best bet for finding a beta reader is to actively engage with the community.

People aren't going to want to beta for you until they have more of an idea of who you are as a writer.

After you've made 50 genuine posts, you can post a short excerpt for crit in Share Your Work.

A good way to get a handle on how to write and how to crit is to first read the stickies, and then, read through some crits, and then maybe trying a crit of your own.

We learn so much about our own writing via learning to crit that it's really worth the time.

You should also read The Newbie Guide to Absolute Write and introduce yourself in New Members.
 
Last edited:

Sunbreaker2

Banned
Joined
Mar 7, 2016
Messages
192
Reaction score
2
Okay! that is a good idea, thanks. i am very confused with navigation, as this is my first time on a forum.
 

Winfred

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
297
Reaction score
26
Location
Minnesota
Just a school of writer's thought...

Hi Sunbreaker2!

Really I'm an unpublished writer, so for what it's worth... You're doing good already by speaking out your plan and direction with your writing, great! I wish I'd started that way, simply getting your name and word out. I posted in Share Your Work about 3 times (watch for acronyms as many will just write "SYW" instead). Just keyword search "Share Your Work" and they have a password for that area in order to enter it, then you will see about 10 different genres writers post excerpts under. Over about a year period I posted about 3 times the start of my novel, early drafts of chapter one after I'd written my whole novel and was doing rewrites. Actually my novel kept "growing", expanding from 30,000 to now 61,000 words and SYW was very good for me - meaning my chapter one.

Even though I had little experience I also critiqued in SYW too and feel I did help with that added other eye on a work. A published writer, author of 3 novels and a creative writing professor, told me to get my story down first as when you try to tell others about your story before or while you're writing it the telling interferes with the subconscious process. Really there are many schools of thought out there, but he made a lot of sense to me. I have followed that rule. I'd thought originally with my novel that it was a novella and had "finished". Somehow my subconscious kept working way beyond what I thought it would. So really when it was a "novella" and growing unexpectedly I was getting crits on the important start of my story, so maybe I'm being hypocritical. Think of it though, you have your story idea and too many "cooks in the kitchen" can have an interfering effect at least before you've written your whole story.

Really though I've known my entire story from beginning to end even when it was a novella, but my protag's circumstances where enhanced as I lived my story. One Beta Reader (A "Beta Reader" is one who out of the goodness of their heart is willing to crit without asking the writer to crit their work in return, actually a random act of kindness.) I've also did a Beta Read of a whole novel for a writer in a writers group I'd attended at one time, yet he'd offered to read my "novella", so I didn't turn that down. Oh, word of advice too, make sure you know the genre and look at maybe a sample of a writer's work first if they want you to read their whole novel. I timed myself and worked 33 hours critiquing this guy's novel and it wasn't one I would have at all wanted to read. Back to this inspirational crit. The crit was my story seemed to start best in another area of my plot about 1/3rd the way into my story. I started to realize I needed to develop and expand with my protag's character arch with that event that was actually part of a subplot. Beyond me that event and subsequent effects to my whole story ended up giving my novel even greater strength and led me on a story element I worked on for several months. I hope I helped with my meanderings here in some small way. I hope everything works out for you!
Carpe Diem!
Winfred
 

David R

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 28, 2017
Messages
74
Reaction score
6
Location
Boulder, CO
Thanks for getting this started. It helped me navigate to the right place.
 

Sage

Currently titleless
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
64,562
Reaction score
22,369
Age
43
Location
Cheering you all on!
Since this thread is over a year old and the OP is banned, I will close it.

ETA: And it's in the Beta Project Subforum. So very out of place in many many ways.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.