- Joined
- Jul 9, 2018
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I beta with someone occasionally. She usually shows me her new projects--the plan, the characters, and sometimes the first chapters or so. Now this person is a brilliant writer and is so creative and funny with her works.Today she showed me the first thirty pages of a new project she had showed me a rough draft of in the past. I was super excited to read this but also cautious because I know she takes crits like she would a punch to the face. So I read this story and told her my thoughts. This wasn't emailed or written so I didn't have time to word myself decently. I told her my honest opinion (that it was probably a little darker than what she normally writes). I could see by the look on her face that I had said something wrong. I try to explain but she redirects me into a corner. I try to tell her my favorite things but it's too late. She bursts into tears and hasn't started a conversation since.
I am her only early beta, and I constantly feel like the bad guy in these situations. I always feel like whatever I say is going to be taken harshly. 99% of the books of hers that I've looked at she's trunked soon after. I feel so horrible and sick the way she twists my words. I wish she would realize that not everything I say is a threat. I don't crit hard, but I feel like I rip her to pieces when she does this. Please help!
EDIT: I will say the genre of the sample she gave me was something I don't read in or write in (and she knew this). I feel like if someone who loved her genre more had read it, she would have been showered in great crits.
I am her only early beta, and I constantly feel like the bad guy in these situations. I always feel like whatever I say is going to be taken harshly. 99% of the books of hers that I've looked at she's trunked soon after. I feel so horrible and sick the way she twists my words. I wish she would realize that not everything I say is a threat. I don't crit hard, but I feel like I rip her to pieces when she does this. Please help!
EDIT: I will say the genre of the sample she gave me was something I don't read in or write in (and she knew this). I feel like if someone who loved her genre more had read it, she would have been showered in great crits.
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