I’ve been giving presentations quite a lot lately. And one topic is repeatedly requested: “Beta Read Your Way to Better Writing.” I’m going to give a quick summary of the principles and strategies here. For the full presentation, message me to come speak to your group.

Reading is the best way to improve your own ability to write stories.

Watching movies and talking are great for learning storytelling, but seeing words on the page and recognizing how the author strung them together in fragments, sentences, paragraphs, to create the feelings for a reader — this is to learn how to write stories.

Corollary:

Do not only read the genre you write. The more widely you read, the more strategies and techniques you can bring to your own writing. The wonder and lyricism of a children’s story, the heroism of the individual and the power of friendship in the middle grade or YA adventure, the reeling out slowly of clues in the mystery, or the tension-building in the thriller.

Forming relationships with other writers is good for your writing career.

Writing is a lonely process — but talking about your writing with other writers is the best way to keep your mood up. We love our families — and for some of us, they’ll give us the space to write — but some things about the madness of writing only another writer will understand. And unburdening ourselves from time to time is the way to maintain your mental health.

Six (6) Things to Remember

1. Put on your READER hat – leave comments, not edits
   • how does the story make you feel?
   • what makes the characters relatable?
   • comment where the author did something interesting or that made you feel deeply – positive feedback is always important
   • don’t comment how you would write a moment differently
2. When confused or curious, ask open ended questions, not yes/no questions
   • Why did the character do this? (not “should the character do this?”)
   • Where did this guy come from? (not “is this guy supposed to be here?”)
3. If a description is lovely, but goes on so long you forget what’s been happening in the scene, that’s called “info dump.” Leave a note.
   • If a description is lacking enough detail for you to figure out where the characters are, or what they’re doing while they’re talking, that’s a problem, too. Leave a comment.
4. If you had to leave the story to go look up a word, leave a comment. Not all of these need fixing, but some may need context. And some may be malaprops or near-homophones. We all have brain-farts from time to time.
5. Here are 15 questions you can answer about a story you’re beta reading to focus your comments on the story elements.

Remember: If something feels missing, assume you missed it, not that the author didn’t have the support for it somewhere else in the story. By leaving a comment, you are letting the author know there’s a disconnect. Let them solve the problem if there is one. Perhaps they’ll come back to you with “the detail for that was back on page X”.

And that leads to the last step in beta reading your way to better writing…

6. Open a dialogue about the writing

If you have been considerate in your feedback, the author will almost certainly reply to answer your open ended questions from step 2. This is a perfect chance to ask questions about how they structure their stories, or broader questions about plotting conflict, character development, or world-building that may directly help you with your writing.

And you might get a beta reader of your own writing out of the bargain.

Happy beta reading — and writing!

~ Lara