Beta Reader Feedback Style

[Djmac1031]

This is an excellent example of what I was talking about.

Look, at the end of the day, it's your personal choice, and if you prefer not to use beta readers, I have no desire to try and beat you over the head to convince you otherwise.

Most of us here have obviously disagreed with your take on beta reader input and how it affects the originality of an authors story.

if you've found success doing things your way, then go with it.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Look, at the end of the day, it's your personal choice, and if you prefer not to use beta readers, I have no desire to try and beat you over the head to convince you otherwise.

Most of us here have obviously disagreed with your take on beta reader input and how it affects the originality of an authors story.

if you've found success doing things your way, then go with it.

I don't even think it's a matter of agreement and disagreement. It's just a matter of who we are and what makes us tick.
I see a lot of rational reasons to use beta readers. I can clearly see how useful, even precious, they can be. It's just that it bothers me somewhat. That part of me isn't entirely rational, if at all.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Two words… Iron Man

To get this thread back on track, the above wasn’t precisely a derailment. It perhaps illustrates one aspect of how @Djmac1031 and I collaborate, and is - I believe - pertinent to @AwkwardlySet’s question.

Anyway, I’m writing a novel. It’s got some erotic elements, but it’s not a fuck-a-palooza. It has six parts and I have a written a first draft of Parts I - IV and am working on Parts V and VI, both of which are about half done. So far it’s 80,000 words give or take, so will probably be in the region of 90,000 words when done.

Maybe other people are much stronger and have greater reserves of willpower than me, but I don’t think I could have kept going for that long without having a friend along for the ride. That friend is the much maligned (mostly by me) @Djmac1031. Other people have read part or all of it and will be acknowledged in the footnotes, but DJ read and commented on every section as I wrote it.

But what about Iron Man? Well let’s say he’s a Marvel fan and I’m not really. Toward the end of Part IV, there is an initial confrontation with someone who will become the main antagonist later. I was keeping my powder dry for Part V, and so skipped the fight scene and wrote just its outcome.

DJ felt I was selling the reader short. He got that I wanted to have the big fight later in the novel, but thought that I’d done a lot of build up to then skip the first fight entirely.

Here we go with the artistic ownership bit. The fight might be a bit one sided as the main protagonist was developing a range of powers. He suggested that maybe the antagonist could have some special suit that evened things up. This is where I called him on an Iron Man fixation. But he was right otherwise.

I wrote my own abbreviated fight scene (no suit involved), which I think made the work better. But I wrote my fight scene idea, not his. That’s how it works. It’s pointing out things that don’t work, then me fixing them. On occasion, I might take DJ’s advice on how to fix a problem as well. But it’s normally me who figures out a) do I agree it’s a problem, and then b) how / whether to address it.

 

[Djmac1031]

That’s how it works. It’s pointing out things that don’t work, then me fixing them

This.

As I said in an earlier post, I make suggestions to Emily all the time. Some she accepts, some she declines.

And even when she agrees with me that the story needs something, she's never been obligated to use MY suggestions. Most times, she comes up with her own solutions.

Another example; Emily tends to write stream of consciousness, then edit after. So i often get the raw writing first. There are many, many times ill point out an awkwardly phased sentence and provide an example of how to clarify it and make it flow better.

Emily almost never uses MY example, even when she agrees the sentence needs fixing. Instead, she rewrites it herself.

 

[lc69hunter]

I don't do a lot of Beta reading, though I have been a editor on a few. I primarily look for the obvious, like their, there and they're, etc, and one that drives me nuts, discreet vs discrete. I try and leave the story alone. One, a couple of years ago, I was asked to review a story from one of my favorite authors, who wrote a story that I absolutely hated. It almost broke up a good "friendship" as I said things I should not have. I apologized.