A select few can offer useful critiques and suggestions to improve your art.
Photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash
I was recently offered the opportunity to be an advanced reader for someone’s novel.
Since I read daily, I thought it would be fun.
As I’ve been reading this advanced copy of my friend’s novel, I’ve come across one or two minor things that her beta readers and editor missed. Nothing earth-shattering, nor in-your-face off. Just small, niggling bits.
Odds are, I’m noticing them because of my own writing and editing work.
Hesitantly – since this is an advanced read rather than a beta read – I let the author know what I found. Rather than irk or annoyance – she’s been appreciative.
I’ve since shared with her one or two other issues I’ve come across as I read. And overall, they are not taking away my enjoyment of the story.
But I am learning from this a valuable lesson for my own work. Something I’ve given too little attention to.
Sharing with a select few before putting my work out there could be massively beneficial.
The reason was because my protagonist is a woman – and I wanted to make sure that I was not doing many of the stereotypical things male authors do with female characters.
Was she believable? Did she feel genuine or contrived? Did I include anything in her characterization that was inappropriate or frankly wrong?
I was grateful for my beta readers. It made a difference to me that women I trust took a look at my character and how I told her story to make sure I wasn’t making mistakes other male authors make in writing females.
(For the record – not to name names, but I seek to avoid taking away a character’s agency based on gender, expounding on bullshit stereotypes, or exploring thought processes only a male would apply to a female).
But as I’m working as an advanced reader, it occurs to me that beta readers are a lot more beneficial than I’ve accounted for previously.
These select few people are good for gauging the story, if it engages the reader, and will help me to develop and evolve my work.
Beta readers can and will find things that an editor won’t necessarily consider, and that I as the writer am too close to notice. This is why I read all my stuff aloud when editing – since my voice provides a perspective that my eyes alone can easily miss.
It amuses me to no end that it’s taken a dozen already published books for me to truly grasp this. But better late than never.
Having a select few to share with is a matter of trust.
Why? Because you need to trust them not to tear you to shreds (at least without a damned good reason). You must trust them not to steal any of the work you’re doing. And making yourself vulnerable by sharing your art with a select few – before many – can be daunting.
What if this work isn’t half as good as I think it is? What happens if my beta readers find things in my work that tear it apart and force me to adapt ongoing works?
Art evolves. Every great artist in history has different levels of their art as it evolves – or different periods to their art. Picasso, for example, went through many different periods of focus in his work.
How I wrote when I was in my 20s isn’t how I write now, more than 25 years on. But that’s not a bad thing – because my work has evolved.
Sharing with a select few is a good way to make your work more ready for the masses.
As an advanced reader of this novel that I’m working my way through, finding the bits I’ve found and suggested fixing isn’t my purpose. My purpose, as an advanced reader, is to get a review up before the book is released to the public.
As I’ve written before, reviews – even imperfect reviews – go a long way toward increasing how Amazon’s algorithm finds and shares your books. The more reviews, the better for getting your book noticed.
To get there, it’s imperative to share with a select few.
Trust yourself, trust your select few
Does this apply to other arts besides writing? Sure.
Cooking is a great example. When you’re creating a new recipe, sharing the work with a select few might provide insight into something you’re missing. They might suggest a spice you haven’t used, or a different preparation method to improve your end goal.
This comes down to trust. That’s because you must trust your select few to offer constructive criticism rather than destructive. You must trust that they are not judging you, but the work you’ve shared with them.
That’s a huge part of the challenge. As an artist, your work is like your child. It’s precious and special to you. Criticism of it, as such, might feel like criticism of you.
Trust yourself that you can create something apart from yourself – even when it has pieces of your heart and soul within it. Then, trust your select few to help rather than hurt your process.
I can’t tell you where and how to choose your select few. This is something I’m going to need to put more effort into in the future. I suggest striving for a balance. Seek people who will give an honest opinion – rather than those that are always hyper-critical of you or overly praising of you.
When you intend to share your work with the world at large, offering it up to a select few beforehand can be positively impactful. Notice how it’s worthwhile to have a select few look your work over so that you put out the best, most solid, and well-done art you can.
This isn’t about perfection – it’s about doing the best you can with your best effort. This is why no professional artist – author, painter, woodworker, and the like – ever truly works in a vacuum of solitude.
How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?
Please take a moment to check out the collection of my published works, which can be found here.
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