There’s a woman in my life, and she’s not my wife. I met her online, and we communicate by email. I hang on her every word. When I get a response from her, I analyze it backwards and forwards, and I think about what she’s saying. When I send her a message, it’s typically very long, and it’s filled with the best prose I can come up with. I put a lot of effort into those mails, and I wait anxiously to hear back from her. When she doesn’t respond, after a couple of days I grow frustrated. I need to hear from her. I need her approval. I need her help.
Now, just to be clear, she’s not my lover. I don’t know where she lives. I don’t know her real name and she doesn’t know mine. I have no idea if she’s married, or if she has kids, nor do I really care. What I care about is her feedback. You see, she’s my reader.
To a writer, there’s nothing more valuable than a reader that provides good feedback. And by good feedback, I mean telling you when you suck, but in a way that doesn’t drive you insane. My reader is fairly good at that. She points out both the positive and the negative. When she loves something I’ve written, she tells me. When she hates something I’ve written, she tells me to change it. She’s excellent with grammar. Knows my story and plot nearly as well as I do at this point, and gives me suggestions that are both valid and interesting. And she doesn’t charge a fee.
To be truthful (and I wouldn’t tell her this) I’d probably be willing to pay for her services if I could. I can’t, so it would be pointless to say so, but the value she adds to my work is priceless. She’s practically my editor, and if I ever publish this, I’ll certainly stick a thank you note in there. My wife and kids deserve the dedication for their toleration of my extended internal hibernation, but she deserves something more than a pat on the back. I wish my wife would read my work, but I haven’t even suggested it yet. She doesn’t read fantasy – or anything really other than “how to” books and the occasional magazine. I’ll probably give the story to my kids to read at some point, but as there are adult themes in it, I’ll wait until they’re older.
How about you? Do you have a good reader for your literature projects? Do you have someone to bounce your material off? Do you wait anxiously for their analysis and crave their feedback?
Good readers are like gold. I don’t buy gold. It’s too expensive, and it might crash at some point. But I certainly appreciate it when I come across it.
Filed under: Daily, How to Write a Novel, Writing Tagged: | Editing Books, Good Readers, Novel Progress, Reader Feedback, Writing
I do have a good reader who’s a good friend in real life. You’re right, they’re worth (their weight in) gold.
A toast to good readers everywhere!
Very nicely said. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about what it means to be a writer versus a blogger versus a dreamer who cannot translate brilliance into words that resonate with others versus someone who puts every thought into words in a desperate attempt for external validation of any kind.
I wish I could have come up with what you wrote instead.
P.S. My Reader’s been inaccessible for a couple of days but now it works. Gracias for whatever strings you pulled.
If I pulled any strings, I’m not aware of it. All I did was bitch about it like everyone else. I think WP kept working on it. Surely they were aware of the problems as well. And I expect it will get better going forward until the next time they implement an interface overhaul. Probably next week.
I tell myself I’d keep writing even if I never got any feedback. But I don’t really know.
I wrote without feedback for years. Still write a lot of things that way. But it’s so much better with someone to point out where things are getting tangled, or where they’re unclear, or where something just doesn’t flow right. Sometimes I don’t see those things. I’m down in the weeds with the plot and I’ve got my head in the characters.
I am NOT a woman. haah
Hence “bear MAN” and not “bearwoman.” Although, given the ramifications of bearwoman and it’s potential misspelling, you might get a lot of hits if you had a guest poster called bearwoman.
Know your audience … even if you they haven’t found you. I’ve virtually met so many interesting people online that I have to say the blogging experience has been an amazingly big door that has opened for me.
Indeed. I speak more of my novels than my blogging, but I know what you mean. People who read blogs are golden too. Have a cookie!
I don’t yet, but I will be looking for readers after doing my “first cut” edits of my finished draft. My goal is to be ready for readers by late spring. I have a ton of offers ranging from real-life friends to blogging buddies. But I’m nervous about selecting someone(s) who won’t be censored in giving honest feedback because they know and like me. How did you find and choose your reader?
We ran into each other on the NANOWriMo forums. Those forums are a great place to collaborate and meet other writers. I highly recommend starting an account there and digging through them. Even if you don’t do NANO, you can participate in the discussions. Everything from plot to characterization and world-building are open for question. And you can put up a synopsis and short excerpt of your story for review. That’s how most people on there find each other. You read other’s synopsis and excerpts, then send them NANO mail if you’re interested in more, or being a reader, or requesting a reader.
http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums
Thanks so much – I will definitely explore this!