What's the Diff . . .

Between critique partners (CP's) and beta readers (BR's)?

This is a continuation (sort of) from Wednesday's post about judges and what you can learn from them.

The rest of this blog is just my opinion based on my experience. I know other writers have different opinions and experiences, but as long as you keep writing and keep improving your craft, no one is a loser.

Critique partners don't work for me. Sorry, they don't. And it's not you, it's me.

Don't get me wrong--I love critiquing, right along with judging contests, but they don't work for me because I am easily influenced and want to please everyone. When a writer goes down the people pleaser path it waters down your story. You can't please everyone, so don't even try. I know many, many writers who have successful critique partnerships. I envy them, but like I said, they don't work for me.

Since I don't belong to a crit group, this is just a compilation of tidbits of knowledge that I have garnered by looking through the window of how many crit groups work. If you are in a successful group and run thing differently, chime in! I want to hear you.
(Yes, Edie, that means you--I know you love your CP's!) :-)

--many CP groups (in-person or online) want a steady amount of product to crit with certain weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly time constraints. I totally hose up with that kind of pressure, plus I tend to let other life stuff to get in the way of writing. Hey, I'm being honest here. Contests do the same thing to me--I stop writing the story when I enter a contest--I have four partially written RS's that I stopped writing because I entered a contest and never got back to writing them. But if I'm finished with the story and have entered a contest (MOGG), I don't care about the entry since I've already moved onto something else.
Definitely a mental problem on my part.
--Honesty is needed with your CP's. This works both ways. You need to be honest with what you want out of the critiques. Do you want a in-depth line edit? Or do you have a feeling something isn't working and need help sorting out the bigger picture? If it's bigger picture issues (characterization, plot, etc), a line edit isn't going to help you because you'll have to rewrite just to fix the underlying problem.
It's up to you to be honest with your CP's with your needs. And they should respect your wishes just like you need to respect theirs. CP's should give you their input about your story. Don't say it's wonderful just because you don't want to hurt someone's feelings--the writer doesn't grow when all they hear is praise. (though it is nice to hear once in awhile!)
--It's up to you to be confident enough (my personal failing--I'm not) to know when to take a CP's advice or when to nod your head and ignore it. Remember, it's your story. Write it the way it needs to be written
--CP's are great for bouncing ideas off of
--CP's are wonderful to brainstorm with
--CP's help you through the angst of story problems and stuckage.
--CP's are supportive all the way through your journey, the good and the bad.

CP's can be awesome, but they aren't for me.

When I started writing my middle grade story, MOGG, I made a decision that I wouldn't let anyone read it until I finished it and worked through the first rough draft. But I needed a complete second draft to be finished because of some serious issues I created in the middle of the first draft: changed POV character, which resulted in total rewrite of scenes. It originally was a mother's POV then I changed to the child's POV. Children DO NOT think like adults. And then I switched from third person POV to first person POV. These are big changes.

Once through the second draft I thought I had a good story, but I needed someone to read it for the big issues, characterization, continuity, pacing, etc. I decided on beta readers. AND I told them what I wanted from the read. I don't want nit-picky stuff because I tend to edit my sentences as I go through fixing the bigger issues. So most of the nit-picky comments would be taken care of in the next draft anyway. I wanted to know about pacing, characterization (Big problem here), and stupid stuff (the television in MOGG had rabbit ears--uh, the digital converter boxes took care of that problem earlier this year and I forgot about it in my story because I have cable). OOPSIE!

I got what I asked for, for the most part. When beta readers are writers they have a tough time distancing themselves enough for the big picture issues. Non-writers are primo. They know something is wrong and point it out. Now, sometimes it is an issue that stemmed from something the writer did on page 12, but it doesn't show up until page 56. The writer has to figure out what caused the reader reaction.

I want to know when they put the book down. When they rolled their eyes. When they yelled at the characters. These are clues for me that I had problems to fix.

--In MOGG, my character acted too old for her age. I had numerous beta readers point it out. Houston, I have a problem.

So I toned down some of the comments/words used by my character and I strengthened her backstory so she helped her mother research her non-fiction stories that she freelanced.

Did it work? I don't know. The jury's still out in the form of queries and partials.

When I started book two in this series, I thought I'd breeze through the beginning. I wrote about it here. I needed a beta reader who hadn't read the first book to let me know if I provided enough information without giving anything away. I had and I could move forward.

Beta readers gotta love 'em!

I know I do!

Write on!