By Catherine Hudson
Last
time I wrote for ACW I talked about Beta readers. You can read that post here. Now I want to talk about after
you’ve received your work back from the Beta readers.
First
of all, breathe. All that red ink may be giving you heart palpitations and we
don’t need a coronary on our hands.
What’s
needed now is a teachable spirit.
Huh?
Well, no one ever grew or changed for the better without hearing some good home
truths that motivated change. It can be hard to have someone find fault with
your manuscript, and it can feel like a personal attack. You may even sit alone in
your office and yell at the Beta readers and critique partners.
But that backstory needs to be there!
Otherwise the reader can’t possibly understand why she avoids falling in love!
But that cliché is the perfect
description!
I’ve cut 50,000 words. It’s impossible
to cut any more!
The
classic: But my mother loved my story!
Or
in my case, My dialogue is not torturous!
That’s how they spoke in 1870!
Ok,
let’s take another deep breath and grab some tissues. This is not personal,
it’s not the end of the world, it will pass, it will be worth it and you will
thank the Beta readers—after you finish yelling at them in the privacy of your
office. Don’t go emailing them. Sit on it a day or two. A week or month maybe.
And, most of all, pray.
As
Christians we know that we have a flesh or sin nature that can inhibit our
ability to see things as they truly are. We can agree and disagree over the
same issue more than once in our lifetime and retrospect gives us the ability
to see the benefit of a painful truth—but generally only later.
As
Christian writers it is essential to have our hearts soft enough and in tune
with the Holy Spirit to hear and address what is necessary. This is a
teachable spirit.
Our
writing (or us personally?) will grow—but only if we move past the point of
hurt, anger or offence, and be willing to hear. I didn’t want to hear that my
dialogue was torturous.
But. It. Was.
I
took those hurtful words and researched better writing craft. And I realised
something—I could make the necessary changes without loosing the message
contained in my story. If anything, most advice will tighten your work and make
the communication clearer and more appealing—it did for me.
And
isn’t that what we want?
Industry
standards are set for a good reason, but we cannot benefit from those who have
gone before us unless we are willing to listen, change and grow. All that
starts with a teachable spirit.
I’ll
leave you with something my prayer partner taught me. If there are two ways to
take something and one offends you—choose the other option. More than likely it
will leave you a better person, or in this case, writer.
What’s
been your experience? Tell us a time you had a cry/rant/rave then decided to
hear the truth of what was said, and put in the time to improve your manuscript
(or yourself).
Andrea
Grigg will be posting on 4 April, offering us another attribute
needed to get through the dreaded editing-after-beta-readers. Look forward to seeing you then!
Catherine Hudson writes Historical and
Contemporary romance for the CBA market. She was a finalist in the 2013 MARA
Fiction from the Heartland contest.