Beta Readers Needed!

[stephen.samuels]

Hi

New to the website joined for open discussion and to try and find some betas! Been working on this project for some time and in real need of a good set of uber critical betas. Not scared of criticism, at this point it is very much needed in order for the work to really progress, I think. It is a incomplete work but current material totals somewhere between 60-100.000 words so plenty to go at!

Please get in touch and I look forward to hearing from you. All inquiries welcome, willing to disclose certain details before you agree to beta the project

thanks

Stephen

 

[Brian G Turner]

I think you're getting carried away with yourself.

If you've not had any input on your work to date, you only need post a short excerpt in our Critiques board (once you reach 30 posts) - as the feedback you get from that will almost certainly show the weaknesses in your writing.

Chances are, your writing is still riddled with errors - but it's up to you to correct as many of these as possible before asking for third-party input on a finished novel.

If you want help with plotting points, simply ask here, but don't show us any examples unless absolutely super-incredibly necessary.

 

[stephen.samuels]

Actually I have had a lot input from my writers group and regularly revise my work. Do you still think the critiques board would be a good place to go? The reason I'm on here because my writing group don't really do fantasy (there more the poetic type).

So the reason I'm here is that I want knowledgeable fantasy writers to improve my work. What do you think?

Stephen

 

[Erin99]

Hi, fellow Yorkshire person, Stephen! Welcome to the Chronicle, home of the batty, the genius, the weird, and... struggling writers.

Getting advice from people who write in your genre is always a good idea - and the more people read your work, the better your idea of where your work stands. Plus, there's always new stuff to learn no matter how many years you've been writing. And it's easy to let little errors creep into your writing, too, like mixing your homophones (they're/their/there, it's/its, etc.). We can spot these things if you post in Critiques.

You do need a minimum of 30 posts to post there, though, because we like to help members who've shown - and will continue to show - an interest in this place. So sit back, relax, and take part in any of the chats you see going on - there's lots to reply to and lots to learn from posts here!

 

[The Judge]

The reason I'm on here because my writing group don't really do fantasy (there more the poetic type).

So the reason I'm here is that I want knowledgeable fantasy writers to improve my work. What do you think?

Well... if that's not just a typo I think Critiques is a very good place to start...

In any event, I'd echo Brian and recommend you put work in Critiques as and when you've got the necessary 30 counted posts. Asking members here to look at 60,000 words minimum when we know nothing about you or your writing ability might be thought to be a little presumptuous. Even critiquing a few hundred words can take a great deal of time -- the effort involved in critiquing a whole manuscript is considerable. Frankly, you're unlikely to get many people offering until we've seen that your work is actually of a standard to warrant that effort (which I'm sure it is -- but until we see it, we don't know) and that you can indeed take criticism (which I'm sure you can, but regrettably we've seen too many new members who ask for complete honesty and who become aggressive when honesty is given). You may also find people reluctant to help you until you've been around for a few weeks and have shown yourself to be an active member.

I see you've already started to give your thoughts in Critiques. Carry on and join in with other threads, get to know us**, get your 30 posts and put something up and take it from there.


** which will also be of help to you -- until you've seen how we critique, you can't be certain you want us to help you!

 

[Brian G Turner]

The reason I'm on here because my writing group don't really do fantasy (there more the poetic type).

Getting readers of fantasy novels to provide feedback on a fantasy novel I would say is essential.

Additionally, I can pretty much guarantee that your prose will be riddled with errors - not because you are individually a poor writer, but because every aspiring writer does this - and because your work is unfinished it is still effectively in a first draft - and therefore a critique of an early sample will hopefully help point some of the issues out for you to correct through the rest of the piece.

If you later post a critique that reads as very soon, and by then you have also made connections in this community, it may well be by then people will be interested in beta-reading. Until then, it would be extreme bad-manners to barge into a place and ask total strangers to commit masses of time reading an infinished draft.

In the meantime, I'll lock this thread so that we can keep the focus of this board on helpful writing discussions.