Post by The Beta Reader Admin on Dec 9, 2015 6:37:19 GMT
One of the things that I’ve noticed that I’ve been doing when I get a manuscript is wanting to edit it. It is SOOOO hard not to edit it. But don’t. You aren’t an editor. That part will get taken care of for the author later.
Yousee two words stacked to gether and mispellings? It isn’t our job to edit that. We aren’t here to murder manuscripts with red ink. We aren’t the Dexters of the writing process… lol. That one is great.
Just blink, reassure yourself and keep reading.
As a beta, I’m looking at the flow of the writing. The story itself.
Did you have trouble imagining something? Or were there inconsistencies in description? We can mention that.
How about the characters? Could you relate to them? Were they realistic? Did someone’s eye color change? Do they have five left arms? These things matter too.
What about the dialogue? Was it wordy? Was it annoying?
The list of things that we have to think about is a pretty huge list and getting hung up on the grammar and word spellings isn’t what these authors are hoping for. They want to know what you like or didn’t like.
I know that this is a difficult thing to stop yourself from doing. It is for me. I like to edit things. Even in real life. If I make something that has one sloppy corner…or if tiles look off somehow… these things drive me nuts! But this is like that, you can’t do much about it.
Help your authors out. Read the story, not the errors.
Yousee two words stacked to gether and mispellings? It isn’t our job to edit that. We aren’t here to murder manuscripts with red ink. We aren’t the Dexters of the writing process… lol. That one is great.
Just blink, reassure yourself and keep reading.
As a beta, I’m looking at the flow of the writing. The story itself.
Did you have trouble imagining something? Or were there inconsistencies in description? We can mention that.
How about the characters? Could you relate to them? Were they realistic? Did someone’s eye color change? Do they have five left arms? These things matter too.
What about the dialogue? Was it wordy? Was it annoying?
The list of things that we have to think about is a pretty huge list and getting hung up on the grammar and word spellings isn’t what these authors are hoping for. They want to know what you like or didn’t like.
I know that this is a difficult thing to stop yourself from doing. It is for me. I like to edit things. Even in real life. If I make something that has one sloppy corner…or if tiles look off somehow… these things drive me nuts! But this is like that, you can’t do much about it.
Help your authors out. Read the story, not the errors.