WIP CHALLENGE CHECK IN - DAY 23 WEDNESDAY

[peachpai]

Happy Wednesday! How's writing?

-Wrote something, woo!
-Planning, outlining, note taking, research, etc.
-Editing
-Sent something to my beta
-It's done! I posted!
-Thought about writing
-Taking a day off
-Something else (discuss in comments)


Wednesday Discussion: When do you send your work off to your betas? After you've already polished it up yourself? The second you finish the raw first draft? Multiple times during the first draft? Do you email your beta crying after two agonizing paragraphs?

Comments

[frogfarm]

This morning, outlining with a bit of writing. This evening, hopefully more of the same.

As I was just telling my first ever beta reader, I've burned through betas like cheap cordwood, and currently haven't had one in years. But back when I did, I'd usually wait to send a piece on until after I'd applied at least a bit of polish. I wouldn't mind having one again, but relationships are so fragile these days.

[peachpai]

I feel like there's a story behind this, but I won't pry! I personally don't beta anymore because of past experience with my low empathy causing friends to feel sensitive about their work.

[frogfarm]

If I'm sensitive enough to spare most peoples' feelings, it bowdlerizes me to the point of silence. Like my mom said, "If you can't say anything nice..."

It's actually a somewhat amusing story that spans over twenty years, but the tl;dr is that in addition to my counter-productive perfectionism, I drove more than one beta away when they were turned off by my authorial choices, especially regarding ships.

[peachpai]

You lost betas because of your ships...when they agreed to read it?? As a staunch multishipper and hardcore supporter of Ship and Let Ship, that sounds utterly bonkers to me.

[frogfarm]

Let's just say that when you throw multiple partners and bisexuality into the mix, however brief and fleeting, a lot of sacred cows can be all too easily gored.