Hello all!

Today's post is a spontaneous production, born out of a desire to start of the new year with fresh, exciting content.

Or I could be that I was bored. You decide.

As alpha/betaing seems to be the buzzword for me this year, I decided to write a post on my alpha/beta process.

I developed this process from two different influences. One was the peer-reviews in both Creative Writing courses that I took during my secondary/post-secondary education. The other is from my own cadre of alpha readers (who are currently trying to keep my sane as I muddle through TWR's first round of edits).

And now, allow me to draw aside the curtain to reveal the first stop on our tour....


1. The First Read - The Glance-Through

This First Read is to familiarize myself with the plot, the characters, the setting and the writing style. I'll look at pacing and organization too - I call it the "plot hole patrol".

I may find some glaring errors during this read, but I mostly look for the "good stuff" in the WIP during this round. I try to answer the question, "what works in this novel?".

I almost never comment during this read. Which is why if someone has me beta for them in Google Docs that I have almost no activity on it for a long period of time. It's not that I'm not doing anything, quite the contrary. I'm absorbing the story. 


And now, I suggest that you hide the children's eyes for this second stage, it's a rather gruesome site...


2. The Second Read - The Shredder

This Second Read is really intense and comment-ridden. This is when I will shred the WIP to pieces, sometimes quite literally. Anything that I find wrong, I'll point out. Anything that I find right, I'll point that out too. All those mental notes that I made during the first read, are put to paper here.

I'm a firm believer in giving clear direction and telling where the problems and the strengths are. Comments that are just a bunch of flailing go to my head and don't help me become a better author. I'd much rather shred these works now when they're in production than have them published and be shredded by people who paid for the book and were disappointed.

Though I must admit, sometimes I feel bad that I'm shredding it so badly. My poor fellow authors....

And now let's hurry onto the third stage...


3. The Third Read - Revising the Opinion

This is the same intensity as the First Read, in which I glance over everything, make sure I didn't miss any of the big stuff, and make final comments. I revise some of my comments if I'm too blunt or I find that I missed something which makes my comment irrelevant.

Sometimes I skip this reading if I'm on a time crunch. Which hopefully will be kept at a minimum this year...

And that concludes the tour!

And now, I'd like to hear from you! What is your process of alpha/betaing? Any tips to share before I sit in the author hotseat?? 

Scribbingly yours,

Catherine