Novel Writing Made Less Impossible -- Considering Your Beta Readers' Advice

Last week, we talked about recruiting some beta readers to go over my original prose stories for my new book, The Haunting Scripts of Bachelors Grove. In sort, I recruited almost 50 people to read and critique two new short horror stories as well as an original novella.

In the end, I wound up with around a third of them who actively read their stories and reported their impressions back to me. Heck, most of them tackled two, sometimes all three of the stories.

Fortunately, everyone liked my work, overall. That made me feel good because I hadn't written any horror prose in 40 years and wasn't sure I had the chops to do the genre justice. I guess I do. WHEW! (For full transparency, the submission in question was a vampire story submitted to HUSTLER Magazine right after I graduated from college. The story was rejected, but the editor -- whose name I cannot recall at this hour, darn it -- rejected my story as someone else had placed another tale with a similar concept. However, the editor enjoyed my style and wanted me to submit more to him. Unfortunately, the editor moved on not long afterwards and my next stories received the boilerplate "Thanks, but this does not meet our current publishing needs" letter. But anyway ...)

With no less than 15 people reading each of my three stories, my guidelines for their advice was as follows:

1) Any feedback I received would be seriously considered to see if any rewriting was needed.

2) Three or more people who took issue with an aspect of a story meant it was a trend and I would almost certainly rewrite the passage(s) in question. I believe the most "you should change this" wound up being two people. I changed the passage anyway.

Often, someone would offer a suggestion or observation that made me rethink parts of the story. Thus, I would rewrite certain parts to strengthen the narrative.

Some of those observations included my skimping on dialog or description in an (usually subconscious) effort to shortcut the story. C'mon, I had all the time in the world so I could spare the words to fill out the story and make it flow better. So I indulged myself and added the words.

I didn't want to be seen as "padding" the story. On the other hand, the extra wordage helped the dialog flow a little more smoothly and bridged scenes less abruptly.

My most overused word, this time, proved to be "however." A couple of years ago, Jennifer McDonald (my editor on "Faster," my story in Metahumans Vs. the Ultimate Evil) noted that I overused the phrase, "made his way to" and so I made an effort to find new ways to say that. Now, I need to work on diminishing the use of "however" in my writing vocabulary. However, it won't -- um, I mean it won't be easy, but I'll make my way to doing it ... er, never mind.

Also, I never gave it any thought, but one of the "heroes" of my story was a total scumbag. I mean he had NO redeeming qualities whatsover and I'd have shot him myself, if I saw him. However, being the man who'd fallen the farthest, my readers were grateful that he'd redeemed himself so thoroughly. I like to offer my characters an opportunity of redemption. If they don't take it, then they pay the price. This view on redemption came when watching The Rocketeer with William Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, and Timothy Dalton. Towards the end, when Cliff Secord (Campbell) must hand over the rocket pack to Nazi Neville Sinclair (Dalton), and Jenny (Connelly) tells the latter, "You said you loved me. Everything about you is a lie."

Sinclair appears to be hurt. "I wasn't lying, Jenny." A slow grin spreads over his face. "I was ACTING." And I'm sitting in the audience, thinking, "You bastard! I don't care if you were James Bond and Prince Barin, you deserve to BURN for that." (SPOILER: wishes do come true)

The Rocketeer is one of my fave movies EVER, and was running in the back of my mind when I wrote THE ORIGINAL SKYMAN BATTLES THE MASTER OF STEAM. If you haven't seen it, you should. If you liked the first Captain America film, you'll love this one too. Anyway ...

On the other hand, a character in one story, a creation based on a real-life person of my acquaintance, was made a little more dishonest than the person I knew. The rude and selfish acts this person committed in the story were all based on how I'd been treated by him over the course of a couple of years. So I was elated when several people recognized him, because he'd done these things to them too.

And one character, a supervisor in a telemarketing firm was a total jerk. Many of the readers told me how thoroughly they hated the man. He doesn't even appear for more than one scene that takes up less than a full page in a fifty-plus page story, but he was THAT memorable. Sounds like I succeeded in my job, eh? Self high-fives!

One person felt an ending was predictable, which was valid. The type of ending couldn't help but be telegraphed. On the other hand, many beta readers told me that the journey to that ending was worth it and the climax of the story wasn't cliched.

And one story, which was relentlessly darker than anything I've ever written, met with almost total approval. Indeed, many betas encouraged me to not hold back, to embrace the darkness of the tale. I like the results and think I might have another genre to work in, which, in turn, opens up new venues for personal appearances.

What remains now is to credit my active betas in the new book, to collect addresses for their payment (a signed copy of the book as well as a special gift for those who read more than one story). I also plan to survey my active betas to learn what I could have done to make the process better for them. For this, I'll probably use Survey Monkey for this, rather than send out, and manage, the questionnaires on my own.

So now, the rewriting happens in earnest. One story is completed and as I type this, the second is almost revised with the third one waiting (but it received the least amount of criticism). The Haunting Scripts of Bachelors Grove is on target to be released in late January.

I promise to keep you posted. Try and stop me.

NEXT WEEK: Some tricks to keep you working on your writing.

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