The month in the #writemotivation world, the imminently cool,
KT Hanna, decided to do a critique/beta match up for all of us participating. It's an interesting idea and I've seen several other groups doing things like it. Basically, everyone writes up what they need and then people pick the person (or people) that matches what they need. It's awesome and I am really looking forward to the match up. For those who don't know: a critique partner is someone who digs deep into your story and points out the nitpicky stuff. A beta reader is someone who just reads it and says, this worked or that didn't work so well. A beta reader is more surface stuff whereas a critique partner is more in depth.
So, what does this have to do with honesty? Well, a lot. In any relationship honesty is one of the foundations of success. If you aren't able to be honest, you don't have a relationship. This is true for all relationships. Honesty breeds trust and if you trust someone, good things happen. This is Relationships 101 and not Rocket Science.
In a critique partner/beta reader relationship, honesty and trust are also so very important. In these types of relationships, you are trusting them to be honest enough to tell you if something doesn't work. These things can make, or break, your chances at getting noticed by a publisher. Or, if you are going the self-publishing route, keep from having people dedicate entire blogs to pointing out all of your mistakes. If you don't believe that this happens, just check out the
50 Shades of Suck website. It's sole purpose is to make fun of the Fifty Shades trilogy.
Luckily, I have been blessed with several good beta readers and critiquers (is that even a word?). One of them is my 10 year old son. He reads each chapter as it leaves the printer. As my son, I don't always believe him when he tells me that what I'm writing is more interesting than Rick Riordan. He and I have talked about that and he has told me, in no uncertain terms, that if it sucked, he would tell me. I guess I'll have to trust him. :D
Anyway, he just read chapter 16. He looked up at me and said, "If you had gone into more detail with this last scene, I would have thrown it at you and told you that you went to far." I just stared at him. Up to this point, I had not heard anything like that. It was actually good to hear. Chapter 16 had some intense content in it and I was worried it would be too much. Good to know that I did it just right.
#writemotivation goals
- Finish WIP: About to start Chapter 17 of 24. With only two weeks left, I'm still not confident that I will make it, but I will be really close. 7 chapters is a lot to do, for me, but with school being done, I won't have any other writing distractions.
- Blog once a week: YES!
- Cheer on my #writemotivation peeps: Yup!
'Till Next time (sorry no random pic!)
