Beta Readers

I sent out the call for beta readers last Friday. Yes, it was a last minute SOS and I knew I would be pushing my luck getting anyone to respond to me by this AM.

--Remember: my deadline is tomorrow. I have only today and tomorrow morning to make the needed changes. The manuscript must be in the mail with tomorrow's time stamp on it!

Many people had stuff to do this weekend so I didn't expect a whole lot. So far I've only had 2.5 responses.

--#1 beta reader is my SIL and I talked to her last night. She journals and reads a tremendous amount of books. She's the only person, other than Deb Dixon, to read the entirety of The Leprechaun Connection. Oh, since I couldn't sell that story, I stole some of my characters and put them in this book.--HEY! It's my own stuff, I can recycle. Her input concerned the first two chapters. She felt as if I had changed POV. Well, I had. :-) From the mom's POV to the daughter's POV AND into first person. I need to rework the first two chapters, especially since the daughter thinks/speaks older than her age, BUT I have an answer for that and I hope this will fix the problem.

--#2 beta reader writes MG/YA stories. She had the same issues with the first few chapters and caught some stupid stuff (missing words, wrong word, wrong tense, missing -ed's, that sort of thing)

--#0.5 beta reader was only able to finish 1/2 the story. This reader is published by Harlequin American. Now, this reader was awesome! She found so many missing things that I'm in shock! Definitely, head-whacking stuff. It is amazing how the eye and brain supply the missing words.

--one friend, not counted as an official response, but still has a valid point, is published with Wild Rose Press, has critted for me in the past. She sent me a quick note questioning the main character's maturity for her age and offered a suggestion.

Two things stood out for me. Missing words and MC too mature. Both are fixable in my time frame.
1) I will offer a sound reason for my character's maturity in the first few pages. The scene is already in place, I just need to enhance it.
2) Find and fix missing words/tenses, etc. For me this will involve reading the story out loud. My jaw will get tired, but I'm game.

Heck, I've been reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone out loud to my kiddo before she goes to bed, I think I can do this.

Write on! . . . or should this be . . .
READ ON! . . .
. . . and edit!

How Many Drafts does a Story Make?

It depends.


So many things factor into it. I know many writers who have the best first drafts: clean, consise, great pacing, lovely emotion, blah, blah, blah. Most of those authors are multi-published, so it could be that they've gotten their writing process down perfectly. I also know of writers who puke out their first drafts, send to their agents or editors who suggest revisions, they do said revisions and the 'second draft' is pretty much book ready.


Other writers puke out the first draft, layering the emotion, description, characterization during the subsequent X number of drafts. Blake Snyder had a blog about this.

So when is a story done?

When it is. It could take one draft or ninty-nine. It needs to be as perfect as possible before you start pimping it.


I had hoped to be finished with draft #2 by today. Uh, it ain't happin', people. I'm about half way through MOGG and will be the first to acknowledge this story will need to go through numerous drafts to get it to the point that I think it has the potential to become.

Will I make my Delacorte deadline at the end of the month. Probably, but without input from my beta readers--unless they are super duper fast readers and I wrote a damn good book that doesn't need input . . . ye-eah, ri-ight.

I may spout a lot of bull, but I really don't believe it no matter what I tend to say.

All I can ask is that my readers hang on. I'm working hard and I hope you'll help me when it becomes crunch time!

Write on!