What is a Beta Reader?

Are you a Beta Reader?

Do you need a Beta Reader?

 The key helpers for any author are Beta Readers. They provide valuable input once the book is done but not yet published. There is often confusion about what any readers do. 

What is an Alpha Reader and what is a Beta Reader?

Alpha is first (reader.) That is the author. Alpha readers may also include a critique/challenge team. 

 

Beta means "second". 

A Beta reader is a "reader" first of all - a person who looks at your book the way your targeted audience will. They give you feedback on what works, doesn't work... and possibly typos and spelling although that is NOT their primary function.

What to look for in a Beta Reader

• a person who reads a lot and has time
• a person who reads your genre
• a person who knows NOTHING about your story (fresh eyes)
• a person who will be honest for specific reasons (not nasty comments**)
  

   

  How to educate your Beta readers

  1. Give them a copy of this article.

     1. “How to give constructive criticism.”

  2. Give them a specific list of questions you want them to answer.

  3. Suggest they read the list and then set it aside while they read the book.

      

      ? ASK

• what they liked about the first pages, the characters, the plot
• if they found the story believable - if not, where
• where they laughed, cried, admired the character's actions
• if they were annoyed with how the character acted at any point
• if they were drawn to read the book all in one sitting

...and others in this vein.

More Questions to ask your Beta Readers can be found at this site:  

www.towriteastory.com/ask-beta-reader

Bathing in the Sea during the Regency Period by Rosemary Morris

To learn more about Rosemary's work please click on the cover above.

Mermaids at Brighton swim behind their bathing machines. William Heath 1829.

18th Century to the 19th Century. In the 1730’s few people either bathed in the sea or visited the coast, where each of three towns Scarborough, Margate and Brighton, claimed to be the first seaside resort. By the 1750’s resorts developed in locations within easy reach of the capital and large cities. When sea bathing first became popular the advice was against swimming either after exercise or during warm weather when the pores of the skin were open. Members of the medical profession considered cold water during winter to be best. They advised bathers to swim before 10 a.m. to provide a good start to the day. By 1800 most people preferred to swim early in the morning, but some swam for pleasure all day in every season.

Bathers At first men and women bathed in the same areas but they were soon segregated. In Brighton ladies bathed to the east of the beach and gentlemen to the west.
However, in Bognor, nude bathing was not banned until 1868, and in 1882 byelaws were passed to ensure bathing machines were used to undress in.

Bathing Machines and Dippers. Those, who did not know how to swim but wanted to take advantage of the health benefits of sea bathing, took advantage of bathing machines attended by dippers who dunked their clients in the sea. The bathing machines were wooden huts on large wheels which the dippers or horses pulled in and out of the sea. Female dippers wore gowns with full skirts and hats. In Brighton, the setting for my new novel, Saturday’s Child, Mrs Martha Gunn dipped the Prince Regent and in Southend Mrs Glascock and Mrs Myall dipped Princess Charlotte. For some ladies being dunked was a frightening experience., for example, the novelist, Fanny Burney thought she would never recover.

Jane Austen at Lyme Regis. On the 14h September, 1804, in Jane Austen’s letter to her sister Casandra she wrote. “The bathing was so delightful this morning and Molly so pressing me to enjoy myself that I believe I staid (sic) in rather too long.”

Classic Historical Fiction by Rosemary Morris

Early 18th Century novels: Tangled Love, Far Beyond Rubies, The Captain and The Countess

Regency Novels False Pretences.

Heroines Born on Different Days of the Week Books one to Six, Sunday’s Child, Monday’s Child, Tuesday’s Child, Wednesday’s Child, Thursday’s Child and Friday’s Child.

(The novels in the series are not dependent on each other, although events in previous novels are referred to and characters reappear.)

Mediaeval Novel Yvonne Lady of Cassio. The Lovages of Cassio Book One

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk http://bookswelove.n1et/authors/morris-rosemary

Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley by Katherine Pym

Buy Here

~*~*~*~

 

Martha Jane Cannery was born in 1852 and Phoebe Ann Moses in 1860. Both were show women, and were crack shots. Both were born in upper Midwest, and both had worked in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, but that is pretty much where the similarities end.

Annie Oakley

Annie Oakley (Phoebe Ann Moses) had a more stable life. Even as her father had died when she was still very young, she never went west. She married and remained married to the same man, Frank Butler. They met at a shooting contest. Frank Butler was a fancy shooter, but Annie won the meet. After Frank licked his wounds, they married two years later. It is said Annie took the name ‘Oakley’ from a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. If you go to google maps, it is still there, not far from the Ohio River.

Annie joined Frank’s traveling show, but before long Frank realized Annie was the best shot, and the wanted attraction. He relinquished his climb to stardom and became Annie’s business manager when they joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. One of her feats was when she shot a cigar from Kaiser Wilhelm’s mouth.

See how small Annie's waist is???

When I visited the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Museum in Cody Wyoming, there were artifacts from Annie’s time with the show, clothes and guns and things. She was a small person. Sitting Bull called her: Little Sure Shot, and I can attest her waist was tiny, amazingly so. She couldn’t have been more than 5’, but don’t quote me on that. I based this statement on how small her clothes were. 

Annie died of that B-12 deficiency in 1926. She was 66 years old. Frank died 18 days later. 

Hers was a good life.  

~*~*~*~*~

Now, Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Cannary) was an entirely different animal altogether. Her parents, not the best in reliability or reputation, died when she was only 12, leaving her to care for her 5 siblings. Reportedly a big woman and strong (sort of manly), she supported her family as well as she could. Some say she even went into prostitution for a while. This is also where fact and fiction come into play. Calamity Jane’s true actions were superseded by her spun autobiography and newsprint’s tall tales. 

Calamity Jane

There is more than one explanation for the ‘Calamity’, which are vague and nonsensical, so I won’t go into it here. Her brothers and sisters fell out of history, too, with Jane moving through life and their existence never mentioned. She dressed like a man and did men’s work. She rode with the cavalry, saving one soldier on a wild horse ride, after which someone called her Calamity. But who knows.

Everyone thinks she was madly in love with Wild Bill Hickock, who was married. She may have been fond of him, but Bill didn’t like her much. There’s another story where she met him only a week or so, outside of Deadwood South Dakota, before he was murdered, holding the ‘dead man’s hand’, a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights.

Word has spread Jane was a kind soul who helped tend the sick during a smallpox epidemic, but on the whole, she sabotaged every good event in her life. She was a terrible alcoholic. She supposedly married and had a child but gave up the girl and wandered the country. She may have met Annie Oakley in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, but her drinking was too much. She was cast adrift after a short while. She was also reported to have ridden in other west shows that toured the Midwest.

By 1903 she was ill and destitute. She found her way near Deadwood where she died at the age of 51. Her last wish was to be buried beside Bill Hickock in Deadwood.

Hers was a sad life.

~*~*~*~

Many thanks to:

Wikicommons, public domain

And the following websites:

http://www.thewildwest.org/cowboys/wildwestlegendarywomen/199-calamityjane

https://www.biography.com/performer/calamity-jane

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-calamityjane/

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/annie-oakley/

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/famous-female-shooters-of-the-west/

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-buffalobillgallery/

The Who, What, Where, Why and When of Writing - Part 6 – HOW? by Diane Bator

Now what???

Thank you for sticking with me through this labor of love as I’ve explored the five Ws of writing:

Who – as in Who are YOU as a writer?

What – for What do you want to write?

Where – location, location, location.

Why – what drives you?

When – what the best time to write?

But I often here one more question that I’d like to address.

How do I get started?

I actually saw a post on a writing site where someone asked, “I want to be a writer. What do I write about?” As usual, trolls bashed the person. To me, it seemed like an odd question because I’ve always just written. Words come out. I turn them into stories. I’ve never stopped to think about what to write or even how.

In the beginning…

Like me, some people are struck by inspiration continuously. I have binders of ideas waiting for when I’m finished my current work in progress. But how do you get started? One of the best ways I’ve found is to get a book of writing prompts or use Google to search for “writing prompts.” When I started in the writing group there was a standard list of writing prompts for starting writers, “What I remember is…”, “What I forgot was…”, “Why I want to write.”

A Few Guidelines

We all need a plan, so I’ve included a brief outline of things to think about in order to get started.

·       Find a nurturing writing environment.

·       Schedule writing time – even a half hour a day in a hectic day can help.

·       Create an outline of what you want to do, or just write!

·       Focus on writing your book one chapter at a time, even if you write chapter one then chapter twenty then go back to fill in the rest.

·       Maintain focus. Get that book done!

·       Deal with writing distractions before they get out of hand. Put your phone face down. Ask your family to respect your writing time. Sit somewhere alone with everything you need to write.

·       Start writing…Keep writing…don’t give up!!

Keeping the Motivation

Life throws us distractions. That’s a fact. We get sick. Kids get sick. We have to work overtime at work. All of these throw off our plans for writing. As a mom of three who wrote from the time they were little, fitting a little me-time in the day wasn’t always easy. But I did it. My first book was published when my kids were still young. Plus I worked two part-time jobs.

I wrote because I loved to write. Because it kept me sane when life sometimes spun out of my control. To sneak in writing time, I carried a small notebook everywhere I went. I wrote on napkins when I didn’t have paper. I also wrote while I ate lunch and before the kids got up in the mornings.

Finishing Your Book

I know so many people who have started short stories, started novels and have yet to finish them many years later. One quote I found somewhere was “what makes you an author is the ability not to start a project, but to complete one.”

Anyone can be a writer. All you have to do is write.

Starting something – pretty much anything – is easy. You need to find the tenacity to sit and finish your story or your book. Whether you give yourself a daily or weekly word count, have a beta reader who will expect to see a chapter on certain dates, or hold yourself accountable by giving yourself a gold star or some other reward for each day you write. Whatever keeps you going back to work on that next page.

One thing not many people will tell you is to expect negative feedback. Even the biggest name writers get trolls and others who say things that are hurtful. Don’t take these seriously. If you get nine out of ten readers repeating the same criticisms (i.e. typos or unbelievable storyline or characters) do listen and see if those are things you can change in your next book.

Think of Book One as your first child. You don’t have things 100% figured out. There will be mistakes or things you could have done better. Let it be a learning experience. Listen to the suggestions and take the ones you think will make your next book even stronger.

Before you publish, it’s very important to have your book edited by someone who knows what they’re doing! Not your Aunt Jenny, unless she’s a professional editor. Editors are great for giving advice and pointing out things that you won’t see because it’s your baby. Just like with raising kids, when we read our own books, we see what we want to see and ignore the bad stuff. To us, it’s perfect.

Once you’ve written that book and had it thoroughly edited, you have two things left to do.

1.     Find a publisher, either traditional or the many self-publishers who are out there. Just be wary of the vanity presses. Those are the ones who ask you to pay thousands of dollars upfront in order to create your work. Many of these are scams and you could get stuck with a garage full of books. DO ready their websites very carefully to find out what genres they publish, what they require for submissions, and who you need to submit your work to.

2.     Write your next book.

Good luck!!

Diane Bator

Author of Wild Blue Mysteries, Gilda Wright Mysteries and Glitter Bay Mysteries

Mom of 3 boys and 2 cats and one less mouse... He’s been evicted.

You can find me at:  http://bookswelove.net/authors/bator-diane-mystery/

 

Show, Don't Tell, Session One - Avoiding Adverbs

Over the next four months, I'm going to write about Showing, Not Telling a story. I've been reading a lot lately, and wow, I'm amazed at how many writers tell a story, rather than show it.  A recent series I've read, the author actually told step by step how he made dinner. Seriously. Something like this: and then he turned on the stove. Then he put the broth in a bowl. Then he added flour. Then he mixed it. Then he added it to the pan to make a gravy.  I'm not kidding. It went on and on. He even told how he set the table from taking the dishes out of the cupboard and silverware out of the drawer. Now don't get me wrong, the dishes he made sounded delicious, but there's a way to give a recipe without step by step. Besides, he never said how much of anything he added.So today, I'm starting with Avoiding Adverbs.Session 1- Avoiding Adverbs –.Writing without adverbs??? Then how do we describe people, tone of voice? Some writers think adverbs are the only way to add description to a story.Wrong – the use and over use of adverbs distracts from your story.  It puts YOU, the AUTHOR, in the story.  And we never (one of the few nevers in writing) want the author in the story.There are better ways to add description.  Let’s take this sentence for example:  Roy walked leisurely down the street.  - Okay you, the author, just TOLD us how Roy walked – you interfered with the story.   How much better if you would have showed us how Roy walked –Example:Roy strolled down the street. (Notice how just changing the verb and taking out the adverb shows us how Roy walked.Roy is not in a hurry -strolled implies leisurely without the author saying so. But let’s take it one step farther the author can show more. Roy breathed in the spring air. He loved this time of year with the trees budding, especially the smell of fresh cut grass. He stopped and looked at the sky.Now the author hasn’t even told us that Roy strolled. We know Roy’s not in a hurry because he notices everything around him.  People in a hurry don’t take the time to notice the buds on the trees. They wouldn’t stop to look at the sky.  The author has showed us something about Roy besides the fact that he’s not in a hurry.  Roy loves spring and he loves nature. Other people wouldn't necessarily notice the buds on the trees, even when they’re not in a hurry. People react in different ways to show us they aren't in a hurry.  Maybe they'd lollygag along, watching the traffic, or kids playing. That shows us something different about them.  People see different things and so should our characters.Adverbs can never replace strong verbs. As in the above example, strolled is a much stronger verb then walked in showing us how someone went on his way. Yet, there’s still a better way to show without telling us he strolled. It shows Roy doing something and tells us something about him. We always want to show our characters. If Roy was a grumpy old man, he wouldn’t have noticed the same things Roy, the nature lover, noticed. More than likely, he’d notice something negative, litter on the street or kids yelling while they play, which annoys him. Think about your character before you write. Know him inside out. Know everything about him, his hobbies, occupation, even his favorite color. Make a character worksheet, listing not just his physical characteristics, but his occupation, hobbies, favorite things. I’ve shown example after this lesson.Adverbs combined with strong verbs – He ran quickly – are repetitive.  We already know he ran, that tells us he’s moving fast, why repeat it.  The adverb has the same meaning as the verb.  By adding the adverb we weaken the verb and the sentence, and it shows us nothing. Avoid the use of adverbs whenever possible.  When you feel tempted to add an adverb, stop and think about what you want the reader to know. Is there another way to say it?  Usually there is. Adverbs to describe how someone speaks are also interfering.Example: “Stop, just stop,” John shouted angrily. Well, I don’t know about you but if someone is shouting that usually means he’s angry. Why not show us the anger with an action.  “Stop! Just stop.” John slammed a cupboard door.Now that shows us he’s angry much better than the adverb angrily? And we didn’t have to use the tag line he shouted.  We can say, he shouted and slammed the cupboard door, but does that reinforce the anger? Not really. The action works better alone.Now don’t get me wrong – there are places to use adverbs, but the key is to use them sparingly.  Readers want detail, they want to see and hear the story. They don’t want someone to tell them what happened. They want to feel the anger, sadness, happiness, laughter, and tears.  Readers want to feel our character's emotion.  Characters who display emotion are strong characters.  And readers remember them. They become real, believable. And if we have believable characters, readers will remember us.So next time you write, she hurried quickly down the street, STOP!! Reread what you just wrote.  Do you really want to repeat that she was in a hurry?  Hurried already implies she was going quickly.And next time you write – “I can’t do this anymore,” John said sadly.  Rethink it – is there a better way to show John sad?  “I can’t do this anymore.” John wiped the tears from his eyes. Notice I didn’t say John said as he wiped the tears. You can also eliminate the he said/she said tags and insert an action tag that shows us more of what’s happening. By saying John said sadly, we know John is sad – but we don’t know he’s crying. In fact we don’t know anything about John.  We add so much more to the story by eliminating needless adverbs.  We all enjoy reading strong stories, why not write them.
   Below is a character worksheet I use for my characters before I start writing. I like to know them inside out.CHARACTER WORKSHEET

1. Name – Nickname

1. Age – Birthday

1. General info – Hair color, eyes; height; weight

1. Favorites – color, sport; food

1. Hobbies

1. What do you think of when you first see him/her – phrase or word to describe. Thin fit, tall, short, muscular, flabby

1. First physical impression. Sloppy distinguished, snobby; sophisticated

1. What do you sense from his/her personality? Shy;confident;bold; loud

1. What type of clothes does he/she wear at work? At home?

1. What is his/her voice like? Rough, raspy, soft, smooth, shrill, Is there an accent?

1. Where does he/she live? Why? His/her choice? Necessity?(job school)

1. Where was he/she born? Describe his/ her background. (family life etc.)

1. Who most influenced his/her life?

1. What’s are his/her priorities? Daydreams, fantasies

1. What motivates him/her?

1. What are his/her conflicts? Does he/she settle them him/herself? Or does she have help?

1. What are his/her goals? How far would they go to achieve them?

1. What are his/her fears? Does it keep her/him from achieving their goals?

1. How important is it for him/her to win?

1. How does he/she react to children? Animals? How do you know?

1. How does he/she interact with others in the story?

1. How does he/she shape the plot

1. What are his/her undesirable characteristics? Faults? Quick tempered/impatient?

1. What are his/her quirks? Special talents?

1. What does he/she do for a living?

1. Why does the reader care what happens to him/her?

BWL Publishing Inc. New Releases and Free Read for September, 2019 - http://bookswelove.net

http://bookswelove.netSeptember new releases are listed below.  Visit http://bookswelove.net and find each of these covers hyperlinked to the author page where you can read descriptions, reviews and purchase information from all your favorite etailers.




AND A SPECIAL TREAT FOR SEPTEMBER, MULTI-PUBLISHED BWL BEST SELLING AUTHOR JANET LANE WALTERS' "ROMANCING THE NURSE" IS FREE FOR YOUR DOWNLOADING PLEASURE.  VISIT JANET'S BWL AUTHOR PAGE, AND CLICK THE COVER ON HER PAGE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY.  ALL BWL AUTHORS ARE LISTED IN THE INDEX ON http://bookswelove.net