The third and last critique from a paid beta reader took the longest and included the most detail. It was by a British teacher with two published novels, one available on Amazon. A lot of his feedback was inserted via many pop-ups in the Word doc. Calling what he did “beta reading” does not do it justice. None of my writing has ever received professional editing. So — I am just guessing here — I am giving most of his suggestions the weight of editorial advice.
After I mapped the suggestions from all three beta readers to my second draft (using the Notes space in Scrivener), I realized that my three very different readers were often of the same mind concerning my book’s weak and strong points. By internalizing their mindsets I now find myself applying their perspective to passages in scenes none of them commented on.
While it is tempting to assume that the revision process will always improve the final product, in fact, results may vary. How depressing to realize that some of the blood, sweat, and tears of my second draft revisions resulted in a weaker story. Taking the three critiques seriously will help me make the third draft consistently better. Then, hopefully, a light fourth draft and final proofreading will result in a professional manuscript ready for formatting.
Looking back I admit I almost rationalized skipping this step. Paying for the critiques is not necessary of course. I have no regrets there. I am so thankful I did not skip this step. Mentally I now need to decide what sort of editing to hire out and how to do that.
(first published on 20 Nov 22)
