Tag Archive: audience
This week I got 8 people lined up as “Beta-Readers” for my second novel “THE SHIP”.
For those not familiar with beta-readers, they are basically test readers for you book. They will read the story and give you feedback on what they thought of it. But what kind of feedback am I talking about?
Well this may vary from writer to writer. For me I’m looking for the following feedback:
1-Did they like the story? (this is a given, I have to know whether or not the story is even working for my readers in the first place)
2-How was the pacing? Did the story drag a lot, or was it too-fast paced and hard to keep up with?
3-Were the characters likable and did you come to care about them? Did they intrigue you? Did you want to see more of them in the future? (I’m working on an ongoing series where I will rotate some of the cast from time to time)
4-Spelling errors? (I’ve done my best but some things will still slip past me so a few more sets of eyes doesn’t hurt)
5-Grammatical issues? (I’ve chosen my team from a variety of people including a few authors and grammar nazis who will be more than willing to point out areas of concern)
6-Did the story flow well? Were there areas where there were contradictions in who was where during an action sequence? Was there an idea that got confused and hard to follow?
7-FINALLY: What did they think of the piece overall?
This is a lot of questions I know, but this is the book’s testing ground. One of your last chances to work out the bugs and iron out any problems before you unleash your work on the public. And trust me, sometimes the public can be unforgiving and harsh. Remember, most of them will be putting out money to buy your work, so make sure you strive to put out a really good product. Your reputation is on the line whenever you put out a book. Never slack off on quality or it’ll hurt the sales of your next book.
As I mentioned earlier in this entry, I’m doing a series. So one of the things I made sure to do was get at least a couple of beta-readers who did NOT read the first book. People are not always going to buy your books in order, so make sure you keep each story neat and self-contained that anyone can jump into whatever part of your series they happen to spot. Give enough references to past events from earlier books so intrigue them enough to maybe want to check out the earlier books, but not detract from the one in their hands at that moment.
Beta-Readers can help your work tremendously. And like editors, you don’t have to take EVERY suggestion they make to improve the book. You want to keep faithful to your own vision, but weigh the pros and cons for each change. Some may prove to be a master-stroke, while others may not. After all beta-readers will not know your long-term vision for your book and have all the insights you do. So be careful how you take their advice.
Finally, always be gracious even if they give advice you don’t agree with. Remember, they’re trying to help your book become something even better.
Until next time, take care and keep writing.
As most of you know by now, I’ve started work on my third novel. What makes this book different though is the fact that I’m writing in the first person instead of the third person. In the third person one tends to do a lot of “he said,” “She smiled”, etc. Whereas the first person is a bit more personal in my opinion.
Just about all writers like to let the audience inside their characters heads. Some will do it in the “omniscient” style, where they let reader see inside every characters head in the same scene all at once. We’re allowed to know what they’re thinking, even if they don’t share their thoughts with the other characters. Or the author will let you inside one character’s head at a time. This is called ‘limited perspective’ which is what I use a lot, where I only let you inside one character’s mind at a time, even within the same scene. But I’ll indicate the ‘change’ of who’s head you’re inside of by putting a space break between paragraphs and clearly letting the audience know who’s point of view we’re now watching through.
However, in first person perspective, you get a narrator who tells the entire story. You’ll see a lot of “I said…”, “I thought…” etc. etc. While powerful, this point of view can be limiting since the audience can only know what the narrator knows. We don’t get inside the heads of the other characters to see what they’re thinking, unless the author switches narrators between chapters. This is kind of what I’m doing with “The Vampyre Blogs”.
Like a real blog, the entire book is made up of entries, only in this case they are created by the different characters. Each speaking in the first person perspective. Bram Stoker used this style in “Dracula” and it worked really well. Since I’m doing a vampire piece, using the same style seemed only natural.
But what I didn’t count on was how much fun I’m having with this style. With each entry, I get to play with a new character. Now, I took theater back in high school and had a blast with it. I’m finding doing these ‘blog entries’ by different characters to be a lot like my theater experience. I really get inside whichever character’s entry I’m working on, and get to be them. I really get a chance to see through their eyes and get to know them in a deeper way than I have with my characters in the past. Then when I’m done with that entry, I get to take mentally shed that character and don another persona and repeat the process. I sometimes feel like I’m doing a one man show in front of an audience. Only I’m doing it from behind a computer screen instead of being on stage.
Now I know for a lot of writers, getting inside a character’s head is normal. I did it for my other novels, but as I mentioned just a little while ago, I feel like I’m getting to really know my characters more in depth than before. Will I be able to keep going this deep when I return to the third person perspective? I don’t know, yet. I hope so. Because I’m really enjoying the experience. Just so long as I don’t get too caught up with them and lose myself so to speak.
This whole experience is a fascinating journey of discovery for me. What have some of your experiences with writing and getting to know your characters been like gang? I’d love to hear about it. Please feel free to share your experiences with the rest of us in the comments section below.
I’m afraid this is all I have to share for now. Take care and keep writing everyone!