Treat You Beta; October 23 2021

It’s the middle of the night, I’m waiting on brownies to bake, and it’s technically Saturday! That’s blogging day! Look at this, I’m on top of it, for once!

If you read my last blog post, you know things have been fairly rough… and unfortunately, I still can’t see that light at the end of the tunnel, yet. My outlook’s better, and that’s not nothing. A big part of that is having completed the first draft of NEON BETHEL, and having gotten some very thorough (and fantastic) feedback on it. I have a bit more direction, again, even if it feels a lot like gearing up for Step 1 all over again.

(Oh – I also dyed my hair blue. As almost all of us in the queer community know, major hair decisions have an impact.)

So with my plan still being to get NEON BETHEL cleaned up for December, I’m dedicating November – and NaNoWriMo – to some overhauls and edits. There’s only one thing still on my mind about my exchange with my wonderful beta reader, and it’s what I want to talk about this week.

When she gave me back my comment-riddled document, it was with such an air of caution. I winced when I opened the email and saw that she was already trying to soothe me; naturally, I concluded that she must have loathed it, and prepared for the worst. In actuality, all her comments were relevant, insightful, and even made me grin at several points. It wasn’t all negative – she was sure to note things she liked, as well – but overall, I was left with such a feeling of relief… and regret, on behalf of my fellow authors.

A lot of us develop a healthy attitude towards criticism, and know how to take it. Even if it’s stuff we don’t agree with, I like to think the majority of us know how to take a step back from any hurt feelings, take the time to process the feedback, and be gracious about it. Now, of course there’s such a thing as ‘bad critique’ – maybe your beta reader slammed you for having ‘too many LGBTQ+ characters’ or told you that your middle-grade novel had your preteen protagonists acting too much like children for their liking.

Still, there are correct ways of responding to criticism, and one Definite Wrong Way.

This week’s blog post is basically just a plea to my fellow authors: if you’re hurt by critique, valid or not, don’t respond. Even if you feel you’ve been personally slighted by bad critique, the proper thing to do is to try deleting it from your brain and walking away. No one ever wins in those situations.

It made me kind of sad, in a ‘Ouch, I’ve been there’ way, when my beta readers of the past have gotten legitimately anxious over the thought of being honest in their reviews. I’m an anxious person, myself – I get it. No one wants to be yelled at. If you’re an empathetic person, you don’t want to make the author feel bad, either. Honest feedback is the only way to get our rough-hewn first drafts to shine like the diamonds they become! So please, if you’re an author seeking beta readers, acknowledge that it can be hard to give an honest opinion, too. Chances are, if this person volunteered to read your book, they’re going into it with the best of intentions.

(And this is where I want to give a shout-out to all you beta readers out there. Thank you for offering your time and your thoughts – the best books in the world wouldn’t have ever seen the shelves if not for the work of the honest critic.)