Hey Jes ~ I checked out your new "About Me" page ! You are a writing genius ... ! What a collection of credits ... impressive ... you could definitely teach me a thing or two ... Tell me one thing , please ... explain to me about beta-readers and critters ? I haven't the foggiest ... but I always see writers talk about it ! What exactly is the role of each ? How does one go about getting a beta/critter ? Sorry to be a pest ... I'm quite a 'tard when it comes to these sorts of things he! he!
Ha!~ I had to go check it to see what you were talking about, hmm hmm. I think every writer, reader and editor can teach another quite a bit--yourself included!
A beta reader is (at least, to my knowledge)someone selected by an author to read through a novel/story/whatever while it's still an informal manuscript. Beta's can make suggestions about plot issues, themes, whatnot, and also spelling and punctuation, etc. But they aren't, you know, someone to whom you send your novel as a professional, in a nice pretty envelope with a query letter and synopsis. That comes later. Beta's get the messy mess.
A critter is just writer slang (look, jargon, ooo!!) for critique partner. You can find or create critiquing groups pretty much anywhere, for any stage of the writing process.
There are a number of places you can find betas/critters. Friends/coworkers with a good eye (and who aren't afraid of being mean, lol), former teachers/professors, or online. I've heard Absolute Write is good; for a while I was on *thinking thinking* Review Fuse, but there's a point system on there which made it more effort than it was worth.
I hope this helps! Ask around, that's what I'd do!
I write like... me :)
ReplyDelete*laughing* Oddly enough, I write like me too! Who would have thought...
ReplyDeleteI confess I haven't read anything by Mr. Doctorow--but that will change, because now I'm quite curious.
Hey Jes ~ I checked out your new "About Me" page ! You are a writing genius ... ! What a collection of credits ... impressive ... you could definitely teach me a thing or two ...
ReplyDeleteTell me one thing , please ... explain to me about beta-readers and critters ? I haven't the foggiest ... but I always see writers talk about it ! What exactly is the role of each ? How does one go about getting a beta/critter ? Sorry to be a pest ... I'm quite a 'tard when it comes to these sorts of things he! he!
Ha!~ I had to go check it to see what you were talking about, hmm hmm. I think every writer, reader and editor can teach another quite a bit--yourself included!
ReplyDeleteA beta reader is (at least, to my knowledge)someone selected by an author to read through a novel/story/whatever while it's still an informal manuscript. Beta's can make suggestions about plot issues, themes, whatnot, and also spelling and punctuation, etc. But they aren't, you know, someone to whom you send your novel as a professional, in a nice pretty envelope with a query letter and synopsis. That comes later. Beta's get the messy mess.
A critter is just writer slang (look, jargon, ooo!!) for critique partner. You can find or create critiquing groups pretty much anywhere, for any stage of the writing process.
There are a number of places you can find betas/critters. Friends/coworkers with a good eye (and who aren't afraid of being mean, lol), former teachers/professors, or online. I've heard Absolute Write is good; for a while I was on *thinking thinking* Review Fuse, but there's a point system on there which made it more effort than it was worth.
I hope this helps! Ask around, that's what I'd do!
Hehe, I remember that I put a sample of my writing in, and though it was a contemporary romance, it apparently sounded like Stephen King.
ReplyDeletelol-- I used a sample from my just-for-fun JUNO project, whatever that means!
ReplyDelete