How much fixing?
My high compliance beta found an error...
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In this issue:
How much fixing?
Writing Prompt
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
How much fixing?
My high-compliance beta discovered an error.2 That’s what he’s for. Because he doesn’t actually read—he listens—so he can’t catch things like typos.
Usually he tells me I used the wrong word. Like, so far he’s told me to say portable power station, not small generator, and that this dog I talk about shouldn’t be muscular. I fixed that last one by saying something about how he was “somehow still” muscular. Some things are easy fixes.
He just pointed out a bigger error, though. It’s not a whole-story error, it’s just a sequence error, but I’m going to have to fix it. Because he’s totally right. It’s an error.
Way back in the day I probably would’ve approached the error from the point of view that the whole scene needed a total revision. I think that’s common. I remember beta reading this story about a girl in junior high who had a college-aged friend. I told the writer that it didn’t ring true. The writer was a college professor who taught writing, and she still thought I was telling her to change the whole story.3
“No, I’m saying explain in the text why and how they’re friends.”
A single sentence would do it. She used to babysit me when she lived next door, and now we keep in touch. Or Our parents used to be friends, and when her mom died, we kind of adopted her. Or whatever. Just something that lets me, the reader go, oh, okay, and keep reading.
The error I’ve got to fix feels big, but I’m going to address it like it’s no big deal. I’m going to look for the smallest way to fix it. An explanation. An extra thingamabob or two on hand whereas before the story only had one. And an explanation of why there might be more than one. Easy peasy.
(And I succeeded! I’m done again.)
Incidentally, my typo beta who has already finished the story didn’t point out this error. Not her fault. She doesn’t read for this kind of thing. She reads for a good story. As long as it’s entertaining (and for the first time ever, she gushed about this one), she’s along for the ride regardless of the bumps.
My typo beta is your typical reader, according to stats. Only about 20% or so of readers are high-compliance and will get kicked out of the story if you get something wrong. For the other 80%, as long as you’re entertaining them, they’ll mostly let your logic errors slide.
But if you can find a high-compliance reader to be your beta, you’re doing yourself a huge favor.
Writing Prompt
Character: HERMIT
Light Attribute: Seeks solitude to focus intently on inneer life. Serves personal creativity.
Shadow Attributes: Withdraws from society out of fear or negative judgments of others. Refusing to help those in need.Setting: A loft apartment.
Object: An armchair, a brass handle, tea.
Emotion: PEACEFUL. Calm, serene, centered.
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
As mentioned before, I’m making a deck of craft cards to quickly remind myself of techniques while also having a convenient place to keep track of elements like character, conflict, and theme specific to each story. This week’s card is Midpoints. ‘Cause I’m coming up on the midpoint of the current project I’m working on.
Thank you for reading!
I hope this helped you, and I hope your writing goes well this week.
Keep at it,
Megan
WritesWithTools
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I call him my high-compliance beta because he took one of those personality traits tests that said he was high compliance (the same test said that I am not; I am mid-compliance), meaning, in the context of reading, he notices when things don’t follow logically. And if it’s a book he paid for, he’d be annoyed.
Like I said: very common. Everyone thinks their stuff is crap.