The Importance of Trustworthy Friends in Writing

Sorry ran a night late on this post.  Wasn't feeling 100% on Thursday.  But, on to today's topic.

So, you've finished a novel, novella, short story, whatever... now what?  Well, just about everyone will yell back, "Edit!"  And yes, that's very true.  Editing is certainly what follows--a necessary evil for us all.  But you want to know what you can do before that if you have friends that you deem trustworthy?  You can have it beta'd. 

What is a beta?  So happy you asked.  This is a person, or group of, that you send your writing type thing to for them to read.  They then provide you with useful feedback on ways that you were both awesome and sucked terribly.  Note, this is not the same as asking your mom or dad to read your stuff.  I mean, sure, maybe your mom or your dad is a good, honest beta.  But, in most cases, not.

But why do they have to be trustworthy?  Well, because you want to keep your work your own, do you not?  There was an incident I remember reading about concerning a certain famous author--won't mention names in case I accidentally miss-remember some of the details of this tale--concerning a book she was going to write.  It was going to be one in a series she had going that was totally popular.  She passed it to some friends for beta reads.

And then it was on the internet.  For all to read.  Before it was finished, edited, whatever.  She was so disheartened, she posted publicly that she had decided to stop writing on the project.  It would never be published.  To my knowledge, she's held true to her word.

What a real crappy thing to do.  You see, myself, I have two--three, on occasion--beta readers who I trust explicitly.  I know that all three of them know enough about the publishing world to know that nothing of the work I send their way can be placed on the internet. See, some publishers, they are very picky about what they considered "newly" published.  Some consider works published on free websites--like fictionpress--as having already been published once before, despite never getting paid.  See where the worries begin?  You've got to vet your beta readers.

Next problem, you've gotta make sure they are honest.  And I don't mean just in the above regard.  You've got to make sure that if they find something sucky in your work... they'll tell you.  They don't have to be cruel.  They just have to tell you, "Hey, this doesn't work."  This is where most of you can't send stuff to your mom and dad, since it is more likely they will just tell you that they liked it whether or not they actually did.  I lucked out.  My mom always told me when stuff sucked.  That sounds mean, but I don't mean it that way.  I mean that she pointed out the bad with the good, so I could improve. 

To bring up an author I already mentioned in a previous post, I read in an interview with Marissa Meyer that her advice when it came to beta readers' remarks and opinions was to use them.  That's my next point.  Don't send your stuff off to friends then get offended at every "this doesn't work" you get back your way.  Don't huff and ignore them out of spite.  You asked them for help.  Take it.  I just got done editing a novella I'm hoping to submit to a call opening soon, and I had two of my three trusted friends read it.  Folks, I used the heck out of their advice.  I mean, realistically, you can't use every ounce of what they say--maybe they misunderstood what you were going for, artistically.  But I used about 90% of what I was sent back.  Maybe more.  It's helpful, and a hell of a lot cheaper than hiring a professional editor.  If you are going the more traditional publishing route, save that step for when a publisher can use one of their in-house editors.   

I feel like I'm rambling.  It's very late, and I have a very busy day ahead.  But here's my main point: there's a lot of advice out there about writing and publishing.  Some of it is crap, romanticized crap.  But beta readers?  That's not crap.  That's pure gold.  Otherwise, you may spend most of your time convinced that your stuff is the worst--like I do sometimes.  It helps to have fresh, realistic eyes on your words that aren't your own, wearied eyes.  It's a nice break so that it doesn't feel like the same old, same old.  And... I do believe that's my blog for today.  Sorry for the lack of images.  I didn't really have any that fit the subject.  Let me know what you think about this subject.  See you next time--on Thursday, hopefully.

Some Literary Confessions

Normally, I have a bad habit of beginning blogs with a big "About Me" post.  I'm skipping that this time.  Here's what you need to know:

I'm a writer.
I'm a reader.
Those two things are what this blog is primarily going to be about.
But I can also be random, and that might pop up here too.

There.  Now that that's out of the way... I have a confession (or maybe two) to make.  Here it goes.  Oh, boy, is it a doosey...

I, um, I don't think that, um... I don't think I'm that into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  Phew.  You have no idea how hard that was for me.  For those of you who might read this who know me well, you might be surprised.  After all, I love weird stuff.  And Alice is the epitome of weird, right?  Yeah, I won't argue that.  But here's my second confession... I also have never read the original novel.
That's right.  I went all the way from Kindergarten to getting a Bachelor's in English for goodness sake, and I somehow missed out in ever reading Alice.  Read a lot about it.  But that's not the same, one might argue.  And you'd be right.  Just... it just never came up.  I'm open to reading it.  Maybe it will change the way I feel.  But...  I doubt it.  Here's why.

Don't even own a copy.  Image borrowed from an image search.  Don't own this image.

    I recently decided that I wanted to read a standalone novel by a YA (that's Young Adult for those of you unsure) author that I've grown to love.  I bought and (just within a week or two ago from writing this) finished Heartless by Marissa Meyer.  I was so excited to read this.  I really was.  I just knew I was gonna love it.  After all, I devoured The Lunar Chronicles by Meyer.  (Sci-fi fairytale retellings).  It started--Lunar--with a retelling of the Cinderella tale, and I've never been a fan of that either.  But dude, do I adore this series.  So, understandably, I was pumped for Heartless, which is a "the real story of the Queen of Hearts" story.  A la Gregory Maguire (I'll get back to this).  I'm always down for a good villain backstory, so I was pumped even more.  And then I read it... and...

Look at this cover.  Doesn't it scream "read me"?

Meh.

Yeah, I didn't expect that.  You might have, given the beginning of this post.  But I sure as hell didn't.  I read the whole thing.  Refused to DNF (Did Not Finish) it.  I caught several familiar characters, places, and the like.  Despite having never read the source material, I recognized these things from their usage in re-imaginings, retellings, continuations, and even the Disney flick (which I also never really liked... eep).  But I just kept waiting... kept waiting that that exciting "OMG it's___!" moment.  Never came.  I mean, there was a lot of it written in there, where diehard fans I'm sure were having a lot of those moments.  They just never hit me like that.  I was just like, "Oh, yeah, sure" at every turn.  (Save for the appearance of a certain nursery rhyme character... I think he was the reason I kept on, and no, it's not the one you think.)

Then there's the book I'm currently reading--actually, a little less than 100 pages off from finishing at the time of this post.  Written by the previously mentioned Gregory Maguire of Wicked fame, it's called After Alice.

Maybe I'm being seduced by covers.

 This is a little bit of nothing book (meaning that it's short, less than 300 pages).  I'm currently on page 219, and my LORD am I bored.  Bored bored, so freakin' bored.  Guys, I powered through The Scarlet Letter (and loved it, actually) in high school and Sense and Sensibility this past June (really understanding why the movies cut what they do with that one) and this one might be the most boring thing I've read yet.  You follow a minor (I'm assuming) character from the original source named Ada, a crippled friend of Alice's as she stumbles into Wonderland after the titular character.  But half the book is also spent with Lydia, Alice's older sister... Lydia's story is more interesting.  See the problem there?  Ada is in freakin' Wonderland, and Lydia, in the real world, is more interesting.  Still not to say that it's incredibly interesting, just that it's more so than Ada's story.  I'm almost at the end of the damn book... and I don't care.  I try not to DNF books, and since I'm so close to the ending, I'll finish this one.  But... Lord... I can't tell you how often I've nearly fallen asleep reading this one.  In the middle of the day... in my work's break room.

But what does all that have to do with me being pretty sure I won't care for the source?  Because both of these authors... they're fans of the original.  They love it.  I've heard so many people say, at least of Heartless, that it does everything Alice justice.  If all that's true, what hope is there left for me?  I think maybe my problem is the fact that Alice is always presented as a child questioning the craziness of Wonderland... which is fine, and makes sense to a degree.  I think my greater issue is that every time I see young Alice in Wonderland questioning everything... she's doing so in a manner that implicates that she's annoyed with that world's antics.  But... wouldn't a child, especially an imaginative child, love Wonderland in some way?  Maybe I'm missing a key point.  If I am, please let me know.  Because I just don't get it. 

Funny side note, when I confessed my probable dislike and lack of reading Alice my husband gave the strangest stare.  I don't know if it was because it does seem like something I would enjoy, or because he loves it.  Or some combination of the two. 

Also it could be, at least for After Alice, that I'm not all that into Maguire's writing style.  After all, I attempted Wicked--the novel the Broadway play is based on--and couldn't get into it.  I could also not be all that into The Wizard of Oz either.  There's your third confession and a probable post for another time.

But, what does everyone out there in the world at large think?  Fan of Alice?  No?  Also, I'm hoping to start posting on this blog as a serious venture every Thursday night, as well as sharing it on all my social media pages.  Part of trying to get my name out there as a writer, as it appears that that is what one does now.  Thanks for sticking with me through this, and I'll (hopefully) see you on the next post.