writing tips // beta readers
The topic of beta readers has come up pretty often ever since I joined Tumblr and is very prominent on AO3, especially in the notes. I wanted to add my two cents on the topic of beta readers and how I work with them to get the best I can out of my work.
My beta reader(s) are the only reason my work ever saw the light of day and I will say it again and again. Without them dragging my ass through some chapters and smothering me with hype and affection, I don't think I would have ever finished a project or gained confidence to share.
A beta reader is someone who looks over your work before you publish it. Commonly, the beta reader is used to check for consistency along with grammar, proofreading, etc.
The important thing is to determine what do you want out of your beta reader?
For me, I use a beta reader for:
Flow - the rises and falls in the story
Grammar, punctuation & spelling
Keep in mind, at the end of the day this is your fic, so any feedback given is up to you to implement or ignore.
Where do you find a beta reader?
Anyone can be a beta reader, be it friends or family (depending on your comfort level). It can be other writers in the community, or a reader who has been a longtime fan of your work. Again, it depends on your needs. You'll see that I emphasize this a lot throughout this post.
A good beta reader can work miracles, as long as you know your expectations and set them.
Your beta reader is someone you feel comfortable with, especially if you're a writer who feels especially vulnerable when sharing early stage writing
You trust the person to be timely (if you have a timeline) and communicate well their thoughts, especially if you want to learn from the feedback
Most important of all, your beta is someone you have fun with.
Does a beta reader need to in the same fandom as your writing?
Personally, I prefer beta readers who are not as familiar with the fandom because I take responsibility for the 'canon lore' and decision for the changes, but what I do want is to see if the chemistry of the characters (towards each other and the reader) is strong. That's more important to me than lore accuracy. I also prefer to beta fics that aren't in my fandom or my pairings because I feel like I can do a better job in giving feedback! Probably because I'm not great with canon.
Alternatively, if there is a good writer in your fandom who's writing you enjoy and would like to learn from, definitely reach out to see if they'd be willing to beta! You never know.
Who can I ask if I don't know anyone to beta read for me?
I found this really cool ressource the other day: @needabeta! They have a whole masterlist with people who are willing to beta read along with their fandoms, so check them out.
How does beta reading and beta feedback work?
There is no wrong answer; it works the way you and your beta reader want it to! I'll outline the way I do it, but what works for me, may not work for you!
I'll be using the same steps as my drafting process.
I usually finish my outline before mentioning anything to my beta. If i outline a full story, and it looks like I'm actually going to write it, I'll give her a heads up that she'll have a fic coming. I don't let her see the outline, but I will:
Ask her questions about hyper specific elements (i.e. I was struggling with reconciling the problematic age gap between Faeries and Humans in my fic and wanted her opinion) -- this didn't really need characters to discuss the topic.
Give her an outline of where I want to go or what vibes I'm aiming for so she can keep it in mind: this is where you set your expectations.
For example, I'm writing a prequel for the parents of a character in my fandom -- the relationship needs to have love, but it also needs to be cold and broken. It needs to break, but not so much that it can't be repaired (multiple times). I need this to be a balancing act, more than a full fledged story because it's a side story to give background.
DRAFT 1: SKELETON / JUST WRITE
I'm gonna out myself here, but I'm a writer that needs my hand held 😂 Even through I'm just writing, I'll call my beta in multiple times to:
Do an interest check. "Is this story interesting? Do you want to know more?"
HYPE ME UP (and by GOD my beta is so good at this)
I get bogged down a lot in my impostor syndrome and will often re-write the first chapter of a fic 5-7 times. Having her be my conscience and my sanity really helps. She's so good at hyping me up, but she communicates so well that even when I'm not hitting the right notes, she'll know how to ask without making me feel that I need to restart.
A good example would be, "This section is good, will you be adding more for x and x?" I'll know that's my cue to gauge if I'm doing enough or not enough.
But honestly, at this point, she just drags me to the finish line.
DRAFT 2: FLESH OUT THE STORY
Now that the first draft is done, I will ask my beta reader to go back to the beginning and we will both read and take notes. She likes to comment directly in the doc while I take my notes by hand.
@ellipsus-writes also has a cool feature where you can have multiple drafts of your doc IN THE SAME DOC AND THEN MERGE THEM!! HOW COOL IS THAT!! Anyways, that's a software I've recently transitioned to and I'll eventually make a post about that... eventually.
At this point, these are the questions I ask:
Are there any scenes missing?
How does the story flow? Too fast or too slow?
Do the characters have enough depth? What about their relationships?
Do you have any unanswered questions about the story?
Is there anything that is unclear or inconsisent?
Once I have her feedback, time to write all the additional scenes. Notice how all the questions are focused on content and not polishing.
Once the additional scenes have been inserted, I bring in my beta reader again. If it's my main beta reader, I know she'll re-read the story entirely, but I have additional beta readers to whom I'll provide the 'new' chapters and they'll just read that.
If you remember in my drafting process, this step is where I'll want to do a selective read of specific elements. So, I'll make sure to do that first and send her my questions for each element.
Character descriptions (i.e. Are there any details that jump out to you as inconsistent? Am I too repetitive with eye colour, hair colour, etc.? Can you check for x's hair colour, I struggled to keep that in check so I might have forgotten things.)
Lore elements (i.e Is the world magical enough? In x and x part, I feel like the magic has died, but does it make sense to reflect what's happening in the story? Are there too many magical bargains?)
Dialogue (i.e. Is x sassy enough throughout the story? I feel like y doesn't talk enough.)
Smut (i.e. Does this need lube? More foreplay? Does the scene need to be longer? Do they finish too fast?)
Show vs. Tell (Do you feel the magic? The pain? The love?)
Relationship depth (especially for side characters) (i.e. does it make sense that they fell in love? or that they became enemies? Do his brothers feel like family??)
This also requires self-awareness about your own writing and the points where you struggled in the process. I know writing smut is really difficult for me, which is why I always ask if it's enough.
The best way to get the information you need is to guide your beta as well. Of course, I welcome any additional feedback she might have.
GIRL, IF YOU SEE THIS BC I KNOW YOU CHECK MY BLOG ONCE EVERY FULL MOON 🙏 THANK 🛐 YOU 🫵 fOR 🌈 EVERYTHING 💃 YOU 🥳 DO 💗
The reason I'm giving her a shout out at this stage is because I never ask her to proofread more than she feels like because I think it's very boring and tedious, esp if your fic ends up being long AND YET, HER ASS PROVIDES ME WITH AN IN-DEPTH FULLY REVIEWED DRAFT FOR 100+ PAGES. I am blessed, i am bLESSED.
I don't even proofread that diligently.
Anyway, for anyone else, I would normally just ask them to read over a final time to see if the vibe is right. You could even combine steps 3 and 4, and just have your beta read when you're done editing completely. It's up to you and your beta reader!
When I post, I always make sure to thank my beta reader even if it was a partial read.
I realized that I didn't say where I found my beta reader, but she's my longtime friend, soul-sister, owner of the main shared braincell most of the time. We used to work in marketing & content writing together, which is why we have a formalized process just from years of being on the same team. A lot of the reviewing process is second nature, but I really do hope it helps someone out there!
We also overlap on almost all our fandoms, but enjoy them in different ways, so I love that she understands the vision and at the same time, brings her own perspective. She also gets my inside jokes in the fic, which is why I say have fun with your beta. You're building worlds together! Make the best of it because if it's not fun, what's the point?
