Newbie

EMERGENCE

You stand alone, in the northwest corner of the cellar deck, gloved hands resting on the handrail and face tilted to the sun.

Breathe in.
Breathe out.

Above you, clouds rag-roll an azure sky, while beneath you, an aging platform sways to the rhythm of the North Sea.

Breathe in.
Breathe out.

Solitude. It catches you unawares,…[Read more]

It was the same every year.

She took as many precautions as possible, wrapping everything carefully, keeping the box closed tight until the right moment came, making sure her hands were washed clean when it did.

And then…

Ordering everyone to sit down, sit still. Questioning each participant in turn to make sure she knew their exact r…[Read more]

One week left for the monthly competition!

Here are the requirements:

The other day I discovered that sabulous means sandy or gritty. For this month’s competition please use sand and/or grit as a prompt for a piece of fiction or non-fiction, word range 100 – 500. You can use the word sabulous itself if you wish but you don’t have to.

Be liter…[Read more]

Wowser…beta reading…

As a beta reader, I do try to find something good to say as well as making suggestions for improvements. I don’t think I go into it with a checklist per se – I use gut feeling a lot as to what feels ‘right’ to me as a reader. But I sometimess feel that I’m not an objective enough beta reader – I don’t always ‘get’ other…[Read more]

School literature lessons often had a lot to answer for @Athelstone . I gave up with them and returned to Eng Lit A level ten years later at evening classes. A vastly improved experience 🙂

This discussion is really helpful. I feel a bit fraudulent talking about this stuff as though I spend hours every week beta reading and have heaps of experience. Apart from requests from my self-edit group I generally feedback on short pieces of writing about once a week, if that, on Jericho Writers’ Townhouse. I might also review a synopsis or p…[Read more]

I’m probably too instinctive for my own good. I’ve been told at various times that I have a natural feel for plot and pace, that my characters speak with their own distinctive voices, even that I’m good at that notoriously difficult thing, sex, but I never step aside and coldly think about any of these things. When I see phrases like…[Read more]

I think I’d be a different kind of reader, @RichardB, if I’d been a more instinctive writer. It took me a lot of patience and many disappointing surprises to learn how fiction works, and how my own writing didn’t make the grade. I still have a way to go. Having been quite good at academic writing – though a plodding academic for the short period…[Read more]

A quick reminder to anyone interested in this month’s competition that we are half way through the month. Here’s a repost of the details:

The other day I discovered that sabulous means sandy or gritty. For this month’s competition please use sand and/or grit as a prompt for a piece of fiction or non-fiction, word range 100 – 500. You can use the…[Read more]

I don’t reckon myself as much of a beta reader either. Partly it may be lack of confidence in my own opinions, but mostly I think it’s because I seem to have trouble thinking analytically about writing, including my own. Years ago when I did the S-E Course, I repeatedly had the experience of Debi, or one of the others, telling me I’d been clever…[Read more]

Why do you say you’re a terrible beta reader?

It’s a bit like when I had to read books for exams at school. It was no reflection on the work itself and I’ve read many of the books since with great pleasure. Something about picking up a book for a purpose (a meta-purpose if you like) that isn’t simply pleasure, idle curiosity, whatever, and my…[Read more]

Wow. So so much interesting and useful stuff, @Libby ! It would make a brilliant checklist for anyone. It will take me a bit of time to assimilate it all. I will say though, with my ‘Being betaread’ hat on, that I wouldn’t expect a beta reader of a whole novel to cover all that for me in one go if anyone is feeling a bit daunted.

@athelstone Why…[Read more]

Beta reading other people’s writing has taught me all sorts of things. I wouldn’t want to be without it. It’s satisfying too, that link with someone else’s thought processes and their ambitions for their work.

I can come back with my experiences of being beta read but in the meantime, as Jane says: ‘my experience of the book as a reader.’

Y…[Read more]

Thanks for the topic. May I add that I’m a terrible beta reader. I would like to be more useful and hope to pick up some tips if this discussion develops and hopefully turns into something more.

Yes, in my first passage my MC was being smitten at his first sight of a young lady, and in the second someone was getting blasted with a shotgun. Hmm, content…