Beta Reading, proceed with caution.

Welcome to the wonderful world of beta-reading, where one goes about critiquing another's much loved masterpiece of a MS, while they try to make sense of your chicken scratch piece of *beep. (Or at least this is how I feel every time I add a new beta to my repertoire.) And it's rainbows and butterflies and everyone lives happily ever after. The end.

It most often does not end like this.

Now, don't me wrong, I luv readin'. Been doing it since I first picked up that, 'I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always', book. But critiquing someone else's work, that they've put time, sweat, money and tears into... it's intimidating. I never know if I'm being too harsh, or too soft, or too repetitive ;)

I try to be honest. But honestly, my honesty is not something everyone wants to hear. I know what I like, punchy dialogue, dark themes, high concepts, plot twist after plot twist, and most importantly real-feeling characters. Characters who jump off the page because they are so like that *sshole lifeguard you worked with during your summer job at 'Ragin' Rapids'. Or that ridiculously peppy barista who serves your coffee every morning with a complimentary life story snippet.

You know, Real People.

Real people swear.
Real people blurt things without thinking whether or not it's insulting.
Real people think/talk/do sexy time, and it's not always glamorized.
Real people are obnoxious.
Real people sometimes make you hate people.

This is my biggest thing when I'm beta-ing someone else's work, and the biggest issue other beta's have had with my work. I'm not the expert when it comes to prose, grammar, technical sh*t, but I do know people. Teenagers specifically. I live in a house full of them, and 'twas not too long ago I was a part of their ranks. So when I advise a beta that a particular scene doesn't feel real to me, it's because they are wading in the shallow waters of teenage hell, too afraid to dive down into the total depravity it really is. (Okay so I'm exaggerating... slightly.)

In summary, Beta Reader etiquette is this: If my advice seems sh*tty to you, just let me know and we can part ways. No hard feelings.

If I'm coming across as a jerk on twitter... still let me know. No hard feelings.

I really don't have feelings. :)

End rant.

PS. To all my beta-readers past and present I love you, even when you're mean.

Recycling

This is from the now defunct 'A', which I've reworked into AR. I just rewrote this scene a couple days ago for AR, it's much more tense/higher stakes now. The relationship between these characters is complicated, and in AR it's even more so. 

I never like to let a cut scene go to waste, if I can recycle some small part of it then I feel like it has some purpose. 'A' helped me get a feel for all my characters which I carried on over to AR.

Anyone else recycle past work?

Yoinked.

Cue good song.

Stalemate

BA... BA... BA
(My attempt at ominous background music)

I've hit the dreaded 'plateau', in my WIP. The point where I've climbed an emotional peak that I cannot rappel down from (might as well jump off that cliff). It involves two characters who's relationship is altered, dramatically by a single event.

Does anyone else have this problem?

I feel like I've written myself in a corner, and I don't know how to write myself out.

In other news, one of my writing buddies received a harsh crit after I'd already given her my crit. She's writing a very trendy, cool YA Steampunk.

Check out her blog HERE.

It got me thinking of how different everyone's pov is. One man's diamond is another man's rock... I guess. I just don't see the point in being unnecessarily cruel when critiquing someone else's work. Pointing out a flaw and offering no way of fixing said flaw is not helpful. Offering helpful insight is the whole purpose of a Beta reader.

Also, I think I single-handedly keep my local Starbucks in business. MMMM Americano.
Which reminds me, I've been meaning to try this.

Character Flaws

So AR is coming along, decently. I'm about 35k in and probably somewhere close to half-way finished. I've found my pace has slowed considerably. Mainly due to my characters: their inner quirks--and their major flaws.

FLAWS.

Take my MC Finn, his ridiculous vulgar inner dialogue combined with his rash outer demeanor, conflicts with his protective/soft tendencies. He's a see-do-(hold the think) type character <--- Sure this makes him interesting, but it also makes him stupid.
So stupid.
I'm banging my head against a wall right now writing a scene for him.
It's not that I don't love him, I do. Too much so. I don't want to see him fail, but sometimes he does. He has to make those mistakes because it's in his character to do so, but also because it furthers my plot.
(On a side note: keeping up his rude/witty commentary is hard-- after the 'Big Event' this becomes less of an issue, Yay)

Then there is MC Rohan, who started off personality-less. I wrote Finn with such strong personality that she fell by the wayside the first go around. Finn is blunt and states right off the bat who he is, what he wants, and what he's about. Rohan is secretive and sly, and mistrusting, but the further I get into the story--the more I discover about her. Her paranoia has been something I've started sprinkling in here and there. Paranoia is fun.
The one thing that I worry about constantly is whether I'm portraying a strong female character. Physically she is not strong, but mentally-- she is the strongest of them all. That is the point I want to get across, due to the subject matter of AR. Mental strength is of extreme importance.
This is especially evident, after the 'Big Event'. Wherein Rohan transforms--Finn not so much.

Both of my POV characters are flawed, both of them make bad decisions, and both pay consequences. But will both learn from their mistakes? That is something I haven't allowed myself to think about yet. As of this moment I'm putting my characters through hell without any hope of coming out unscathed.

Cue Good song.