What do you do when waiting for betareader feedback?

Elfriede · Nov 15, 2019

I handed my fundamentally broken baby over to readers just over a week ago, with about a week left... But I don't know what to do in the meantime!!! I don't write short stories. Editing another novel wouldn't work in such a short time. My anxiety isn't letting me forget about all the plotholes they'll find that I haven't picked up on. It's scary!!!!

What do you guys do?

mccardey · Nov 15, 2019

Take some time to build up your reserves for the next stage. :Hug2:

Walk, plant something, build something, get lots of hugs and store some for later.

(Also, try not to think of it as a baby. Selling babies is frowned upon

)

Dan Rhys · Nov 15, 2019

I would try reading my work, pretending to be a stranger to it, and see if I could anticipate my beta reader's feedback. Probably sounds dull, but it helped me become more aware of the flaws.

Unimportant · Nov 15, 2019

Go write a new story. By the time beta feedback comes in, you'll be in love with your new characters and new plot, so you'll have a lot more distance and perspective on the first work and it won't hurt nearly as much when your betas tell you that character A is a prat or plotline B doesn't work.

MaeZe · Nov 15, 2019

I've started my second book.

buz · Nov 15, 2019

lots of things, I suppose

Some ideas-

-write a different thing
-eat bruschetta
-watch Call the Midwife
-play Oregon Trail
-sashay around the house singing The Eye of the Tiger
-freak out the dog (see above)
-walk the dog to make up for your alarming behavior
-compose a brief but spiritually epic poem about a prince who is turned into a weresnail, who is forever doomed to slide upon'st his own mucus trail (tell no one)
-sit down to organize all your papers you've accumulated, spread them across the floor, get them 70% sorted, get bored and then spend several weeks walking on top of them until they're all unsorted again
-paint your toenails
-consider and reject a career in prestidigitation
-loogiemancy
-pay bills
-trudge back and forth to your day job, trudgily
-tacos
-spill water all over the papers that are still on the floor, hang them around the room like laundry
-attempt to send back all the wrongly addressed mail that you've received
-read/listen to a book, or fifteen
-woodworking
-volunteering
-visit a park
-skip rocks
-learn all the words to a song in a different language
-skeeball

Brightdreamer · Nov 15, 2019

Even if you don't write shorts, trying your hand at flash fiction - or just random scenes based off random inspiration, like online story prompts or flipping through a catalog or Tarot draws - can keep the writing wheels greased (and might lead to new projects.)

Otherwise, my vote is for reading. To get words to come out, it helps to put words in. Read for fun, read to see how other writers solve problems you struggle with or tell stories you admire, read to whittle down the book pile and justify spending holiday money on even more books.

mccardey · Nov 15, 2019

Brightdreamer said:
Otherwise, my vote is for reading. To get words to come out, it helps to put words in. Read for fun, read to see how other writers solve problems you struggle with or tell stories you admire, read to whittle down the book pile and justify spending holiday money on even more books.

+1

i can’t believe I forgot that bit!

Elfriede · Nov 16, 2019

I typed out a whole message and my browser crashed

Yeah, I suppose now's as good a time as ever to finally get started on the Brothers Karamazov, like I've been saying I would for years... I suppose that's a good use of my waiting!

And I'm in a weird spot with this feedback. I have another novel in the shelved period. Got about a month left before I'd feel comfortable working on it again. And this story is in a slightly rawer than usual state for feedback.. but at the same time it's the first properly 'literary' story I've ever done. Without having other genre staples to fall back on. So I think the wait is the worst because I'm scared they're going to think I'm some Cormac McCarthy wannabe or that I should stick to only writing fantasy stories. I just want to be told I'm on the right track for the most part :roll:

Woollybear · Nov 16, 2019

Elfriede said:
I handed my fundamentally broken baby over to readers just over a week ago, with about a week left... But I don't know what to do in the meantime!!! I don't write short stories. Editing another novel wouldn't work in such a short time. My anxiety isn't letting me forget about all the plotholes they'll find that I haven't picked up on. It's scary!!!!

What do you guys do?

I read blogs on writing.

Subplots. Voice. Tension. Story structure. A thousand other topics. Descriptions. Psychic distance, immersion, viewpoint, narrative approach.

Or I go to the library and check out books on craft.

How not to Write a Novel is a great one, and fun to read.

Or I read my favorite books and take notes. Or I do beta reads for others.

Sometimes I clean house and get back into jogging.

Marian Perera · Nov 16, 2019

MaeZe said:
I've started my second book.

This is what I'm doing.

Aimless Lady · Nov 16, 2019

Unimportant said:
Go write a new story. By the time beta feedback comes in, you'll be in love with your new characters and new plot, so you'll have a lot more distance and perspective on the first work and it won't hurt nearly as much when your betas tell you that character A is a prat or plotline B doesn't work.

This.

Elfriede · Nov 16, 2019

Patty said:
I read blogs on writing.

Subplots. Voice. Tension. Story structure. A thousand other topics. Descriptions. Psychic distance, immersion, viewpoint, narrative approach.

Or I go to the library and check out books on craft.

How not to Write a Novel is a great one, and fun to read.

Or I read my favorite books and take notes. Or I do beta reads for others.

Sometimes I clean house and get back into jogging.

Those blogs have and books have always felt strange to me. I read probably the most famous one, On Writing, by Stephen King. And it was fine and all, but I didn't really learn too much from it that I didn't already have figured from regular books, you know? I don't know whether I have the wrong mindset going in and that blocks what I might learn but I've always thought it might be a better use of my time reading good, regular books over books on the craft.

Woollybear · Nov 16, 2019

You don't have the wrong mindset.

There are so many ways to grow as a writer. None of us use all the same methods. Personally, I don't write the next book while waiting, (although I do write blog posts on science and life while waiting), because my brain prefers to focus on my main project and not be fragmented in that way by a second manuscript. Lots of people write the next book. It sounds efficient.

But there are lots of things you can do.

I find beta reading other people's manuscripts to be really, really helpful. Example: When people tell me my characters aren't likable, and I don't understand how to fix it, if I see the same issue in someone else's manuscript I can use my insights there and apply to my own work.

Win win.

indianroads · Nov 16, 2019

Elfriede said:
I handed my fundamentally broken baby over to readers just over a week ago, with about a week left... But I don't know what to do in the meantime!!! I don't write short stories. Editing another novel wouldn't work in such a short time. My anxiety isn't letting me forget about all the plotholes they'll find that I haven't picked up on. It's scary!!!!

What do you guys do?

We all have our own processes that work for us, and I believe cross pollinization can be detrimental. In other words, we all do our own thing. I do have a question though, why would you send work that you feel is fundamentally broken out to anyone to read?

In the interim, wouldn't working on those flaws be a good idea?

Your process isn't wrong because it obviously works for you, but I'm curious.

Elfriede · Nov 16, 2019

indianroads said:
We all have our own processes that work for us, and I believe cross pollinization can be detrimental. In other words, we all do our own thing. I do have a question though, why would you send work that you feel is fundamentally broken out to anyone to read?

In the interim, wouldn't working on those flaws be a good idea?

Your process isn't wrong because it obviously works for you, but I'm curious.

I trust their opinions and this is a completely new style that I'm writing in. I suppose betareader isn't the correct term but all the same. In the past all of my writing has been massively influenced by the likes of Robert Alter and Cormac McCarthy's middle period. And for this new book I've abandoned almost all of those stylistic choices to try and read closer to McCarthy's Suttree era, and Anna Kavan. Mary Jane Ward or Ann Quinn. It's a completely different aesthetic and I'm entirely unsure of if it works or not. There's a lot of dissociation in the story and I don't want to keep working on something that may not even be working, you know?

I suppose a big thing is confidence. The readers (or most of them, anyhow. One's a new reader. And a YA reader! That's entirely new for me) all know who I'm basing my style off. We've spoken about what kind of books I think are best and what style of prose I think are just plain strange.

At the same time, these people aren't exactly the same readers as me. So the things I focus on in writing (the aesthetic and prose over anything else) isn't solely what they look for in a story. And having someone point out where the plot is thinning out is nice to know early because it's fairly far down on my list of important things in a novel.

I suppose I should've called them alpha readers. It's draft 2.5, so I think it's not unreadable or anything. Not to sound cocky or like a douchebag or anything.

ALShades · Nov 16, 2019

I worked on a different project and tried to take some time off from writing. Not that my mind didn't stray back to the main project every single day. It's hard not to try and anticipate what the beta readers will think of different areas.

One of my beta readers gave chapter-by-chapter feedback each day. That was both glorious and maddening.

Elfriede · Nov 17, 2019

I decided to just go back to editing it and picking out the flaws I can see haha. Seems like a solid choice and in all honesty I couldn't go a week not working on a project! It would've been painful waiting and not writing or editing something for a novel.

Paul Lamb · Nov 17, 2019

I sent a story to a friend because she is experienced in the subject (travel) and waited forever for her response. Turns out her email went into my spam folder for some reason.

As everyone else has said, get yourself involved in something else, preferably something far different from what you're waiting on. Stretch those wings!

mccardey · Nov 17, 2019

Elfriede said:
I decided to just go back to editing it and picking out the flaws I can see haha. Seems like a solid choice and in all honesty I couldn't go a week not working on a project! It would've been painful waiting and not writing or editing something for a novel.

aint that the way, though...

angeliz2k · Nov 18, 2019

I've found that directly after finishing a WIP, I usually can't get it completely out of my system. I've ended up writing what I call "epilogues". I call them that because the first one or two I wrote took place after the end of the completed novel in question, but a lot of them take place before or even during the novel in question. These are really just additional scenes that don't fit into the novel proper, and it gives me a bit more time with the characters/setting and allows me to, I dunno, depressurize slowly so I don't get the bends, so to speak.

On my latest, I was dealing with a story about real people and didn't have much leeway to write extra scenes, and it's just about killing me, ya know? I ended up going back and doing a light editing pass while I waited for beta comments. It was fine, because I cleaned up a bunch of typos (oops) and knew I wasn't intending to make any big changes; I just wanted more time with the WIP. But I wouldn't necessarily recommend that.

Real talk: I don't know what regular people do with their free time if it's not writing, lol. Is that how other people have quote-unquote "lives"?

Also real talk: when I'm not writing, I can't stop this strong need to create, so I've taken up sewing.

Elfriede · Nov 19, 2019

I don't know whether to make a new thread or not but since I've got this one so recently I'll use it.

I got my first beta's feedback!

...

And it was exactly as I expected. She loved my characters and the setting but my attempts at literary symbolism and imagery fell kind of flat. And, worse still, she felt it totally hecked up the pacing as a whole! I'm thankful for the loving mauling and I have a TON to work on.

But I think, above the negatives, is that I'm just glad she liked my prosaic style and didn't think I was being derivative of Cormac McCarthy

Cephus · Nov 24, 2019

I have somewhat of a system for never having any down time. While waiting for betas, I'm working on my next book. I give my betas a month, which means I can get most of my next book through the first draft.

Biffington · Nov 27, 2019

A bit late to the party, but I have a response to Indianroads, as to why you'd send things to a beta reader when it's flawed. Sometimes you know you have a problem, but you don't have a solution. As an example, in my current work, I'm trying to keep the pace to just shy of a thriller. This means my word count is stupid low for a novel, and I can't world build the way I'd like. The first murder happens only a few pages in.

But this means I don't get time to describe everything I'd like. It's third person deep, and the character doesn't notice his own appearance at all, except to be frustrated at how short he is. He describes everyone else well enough, but taking time in the middle of the melee to reflect on his appearance breaks the flow of the story.

On the other hand, all of my alpha readers have said they want a description of him.

So yeah, I've sent it out, flawed, in the hopes that my beta readers either won't notice that (but they did) or will have an idea for a solution to the problem.

kujo_jotaro · Dec 4, 2019

Elfriede said:
I handed my fundamentally broken baby over to readers just over a week ago, with about a week left... But I don't know what to do in the meantime!!! I don't write short stories. Editing another novel wouldn't work in such a short time. My anxiety isn't letting me forget about all the plotholes they'll find that I haven't picked up on. It's scary!!!!

What do you guys do?

Spend quality time with my family.
Go for a run or to crossfit.
Watch anime.
Get comfortable with my playstation.
Read a book.

There's so many things you can do that don't involve writing in the meantime. I highly advise that you take good, quality time out to enjoy and experience life as well. After all, what would we write about if we didn't?

What do you do when waiting for betareader feedback?

Elfriede

mccardey

Dan Rhys

Unimportant

No COVID yet. Still masking.

MaeZe

buz

edits all posts at least four times

Brightdreamer

Just Another Lazy Perfectionist

mccardey

Elfriede

Woollybear

Marian Perera

starting over

Aimless Lady

Head in the Clouds

Elfriede

Woollybear

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

Elfriede

ALShades

Elfriede

Paul Lamb

mccardey

angeliz2k

never mind the shorty

Elfriede

Cephus

Biffington

Father of a thousand spawn

kujo_jotaro