The Beta Readers
I finally have a first draft of my latest novel! I’ve done a couple of read throughs and made minor revisions. Now it’s time for the beta readers, each of which brings different expertise to the process.
- Jeannine Norris – Jeannine is a picture book author, (TONIGHT YOU ARE MY BABY). Because Jeannine writes short, she’s great at spotting awkward sentences, overused descriptions, and passages which need clarifying.
- Diana Sharp – Dr. Sharp is a reading researcher and creator of The Reading Machine, an iPhone/iPod touch/iPad app for beginning or dyslexic readers. My current protagonist has a reading disability and Dr. Sharp will lend her expertise to make sure I handle the disability in a realistic way.
- Cynthia Chapman Willis – Cindy is a novelist, (DOG GONE and BUCK FEVER). She’s great at pointing out what’s lacking in my manuscript: passages that need more description, characters that need fleshing out, and plot points that don’t hang together.
All of my beta readers bring “fresh eyes” to my work. They’ll uncover problems that I’d never see on my own.
I’ve been letting my life slide to finish this novel. It’s time to take a couple of weeks and just breathe.
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Hey, thanks for the mention, Shannon. I love reading your novels. We all need readers with their fresh eyes to scan our work, I think. Enjoy your breathing time. : )
She who shall remain nameless critiqued my manuscript so fast that I forgot to breathe…I'm revising instead! 🙂