Advice wanted on beta reading please

[jongibbs]

I can't believe I didn't think to ask my LJ friends this before. Tomorrow, I hand over Waking up Jack Thunder to my three wonderful beta readers, along with a note (copied below) listing the kind of feedback I'm looking for. This is the first time I've ever used beta readers as opposed to having someone read a draft. If anyone can think of anything

Comments

[positive_pat]

Hi Jon

It looks like you have most of the info needed from a beta in your write up which was very good BTW. You might want to ask about the "flow of the story" I know you asked about the Chapter Ending & Beginnings but I am talking about the "overall feel" of the story. Does it "flow" nicely or is it rough, choppy, disconnected etc? Just a Thought.

Again I think you have done a nice layout for your betas.

Best
Pat

[jongibbs]

Thanks, Pat, that's a good idea :)

[mongrelheart]

Those questions look great to me.

this is the first time I've ever used beta readers as opposed to having someone read a draft.
I'm not clear on the distinction? Aren't beta readers just the people who are reading the draft?

[jongibbs]

Lol, sadly no, they were just the poor suckers I gave an early draft of Fur-Face to, back when I didn't know enough to know I didn't know enough :(

Thankfully, all but one of them still speaks to me :)

[mongrelheart]

Oh! I get it. Hehheh ;)

[ajjones]

Ah, so you're a hybrid cross-genre mutant freak like yours truly. lol Good luck with it, I'm sure you'll get great feedback. I don't know what I'd do without my beta readers.

[jongibbs]

'...hybrid cross-genre mutant freak...'

Yep, that sounds about right :)

[jongibbs]

I don't think it would be fair to expect them to read a first draft (reading a book for someone's a lot of work). This is (I hope) the penultimate one - 10,000 words lighter than the original.

Aside from any changes brought about as a result of the reports, all I'll have to do is read it aloud and make those pesky grammar changes I missed already :)

Hehe, the sad thing is, I actually believe that ;)

[bogwitch64]

If this is your LAST (haha) draft, you might want to consider asking your betas to note any writing ticks you might have. For example, too many 'said' tags, or worse, said bookisms. Do you use a certain word a LOT? Adverbs? Too many sentences starting with But? Does your strange British spelling of 'or' and 'ize' words turn their heads inside out? Ok, I'm kidding about the last one, but some writer ticks really distract a reader, and if you're not asking for that sort of notation, you might change an otherwise great bit because your reader wrote, "A bit boring, sorry old bean," in the margin when it was simply an abundance of dialog tags slowing the snappy banter down.

[jongibbs]

I know what you mean. We all have those personal cliches, stage directing habits etc. Hopefully, that would come under the 'bored' or 'huh?' headings.

As for strange British spellings, all I can say is pthhhhffrrrrrt! ;)

[bogwitch64]

Did you just give me a raspberry? Did you?? :)

Did I ever tell you that I spelled the British way when I was a kid? Color was colour. Realize was realise. I don't know why I did this, but it got me marked off on papers quite a bit. I suspect, because I read a lot, that I picked it up from books; but to this day I have to make an effort not to use "our" in place of "or." I often find it in my writing when going over drafts. Crazy, huh?

[jongibbs]

Dang, I didn't think you'd recognize it the British way ;)

If it helps, 'our' is used when you're talking about something belonging to you and someone else, 'or' is used when you're showing a choice of options.

hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe :)