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necessarian) wrote2018-01-01 07:19 pm
necessarian) wrote2018-01-01 07:19 pm
Entry tags:
[Archiving] Advice on Advice
Originally posted: 9.6.'16
following on from this post (which i recommend reading first), because apparently i can’t resist talking back whenever aro writes something, i wanted to pass on some advice i got recently about… well, advice about taking advice. writing, especially on the internet, is an inherently communal experience. the characterisation of a writer as a lone genius is as fallacious as it is widespread. writing goes hand in hand with editing. it is a process of feedback, from yourself, from others. we aim for perfection—or if not perfection, then at least an attainment of our own standards—and we cannot do this without input.
as a young & fresh writer, i didn’t understand what a beta reader was for. i’m the kind of person who is meticulous about spelling and grammar and when i was 15 i wasn’t in the habit of staying up until 2am to finish a scene—2am is when the most typos happen, okay—so i generally thought there was no need for a second input on my stories. haha. as i developed as a writer, i realised just how useful and important it is to have a second set of eyes look over your work. it can be just about spelling and grammar, but it doesn’t need to be just about spelling and grammar. it can be about characterisation, consistency, plot, word choice, sentence formation.
and here’s the thing, you don’t need to directly follow everything your beta reader tells you. this isn’t really a radical new idea. you and your beta are different people, and ultimately the story is yours. i mean, if you spelt something wrong, you would probably take their advice, right? but maybe they think you should’ve used thunder instead of lightning in that one scene, to create a more aural environment. if you’ve had the image of lightning in your head since you started writing, then keep it. the lightning is part of that scene. still, don’t ignore your beta’s comment outright.
here’s the part where i (finally) pass on the advice i was given: there is something in every comment. maybe you don’t want to put thunder in that scene, but it’s still stood out to your beta reader as lacking something, so it’s worth a second thought. even if you don’t follow through with it, give it that second thought. your beta thinks there should be a more aural environment, that the scene lacks a soundscape. what does that mean? it doesn’t necessarily mean thunder, or even the sound of rain on the roof. it means that this stood out as needing something more. and you never know—maybe after consideration, you decide that, no, the scene is perfect as it is. but what matters is that you did consider it. every piece of constructive advice you receive has a grain of truth in it, because it’s somebody else’s truth. maybe the scene stays as it is. maybe you see a tree blowing in the gale-force winds, maybe its branches bend perilously close to the power lines. maybe you move the bit about the lightning to the beginning of the scene. whatever—you have reconsidered it, you have edited it. editing is feedback, and feedback is so much easier when there’s someone looking at it who hasn’t read it over five hundred times already.
to get back to the point about taking in feedback and advice from as many sources as possible—this is not to say that you should get ten different people to beta your stories (that, of course, is a matter of preference), but that if enough people are saying something, it might be worth listening. not just beta readers; writers on tumblr, writers on ao3, writers in books and magazines and newspapers. they might not be saying what they think they’re saying, but you, the writer, can interpret their voices, and you can learn, grow, take the sound of other voices and use it to make your own voice stronger.
maybe you listen to that sound—maybe you add the thunderclaps alongside the flash of lightning.
as a young & fresh writer, i didn’t understand what a beta reader was for. i’m the kind of person who is meticulous about spelling and grammar and when i was 15 i wasn’t in the habit of staying up until 2am to finish a scene—2am is when the most typos happen, okay—so i generally thought there was no need for a second input on my stories. haha. as i developed as a writer, i realised just how useful and important it is to have a second set of eyes look over your work. it can be just about spelling and grammar, but it doesn’t need to be just about spelling and grammar. it can be about characterisation, consistency, plot, word choice, sentence formation.
and here’s the thing, you don’t need to directly follow everything your beta reader tells you. this isn’t really a radical new idea. you and your beta are different people, and ultimately the story is yours. i mean, if you spelt something wrong, you would probably take their advice, right? but maybe they think you should’ve used thunder instead of lightning in that one scene, to create a more aural environment. if you’ve had the image of lightning in your head since you started writing, then keep it. the lightning is part of that scene. still, don’t ignore your beta’s comment outright.
here’s the part where i (finally) pass on the advice i was given: there is something in every comment. maybe you don’t want to put thunder in that scene, but it’s still stood out to your beta reader as lacking something, so it’s worth a second thought. even if you don’t follow through with it, give it that second thought. your beta thinks there should be a more aural environment, that the scene lacks a soundscape. what does that mean? it doesn’t necessarily mean thunder, or even the sound of rain on the roof. it means that this stood out as needing something more. and you never know—maybe after consideration, you decide that, no, the scene is perfect as it is. but what matters is that you did consider it. every piece of constructive advice you receive has a grain of truth in it, because it’s somebody else’s truth. maybe the scene stays as it is. maybe you see a tree blowing in the gale-force winds, maybe its branches bend perilously close to the power lines. maybe you move the bit about the lightning to the beginning of the scene. whatever—you have reconsidered it, you have edited it. editing is feedback, and feedback is so much easier when there’s someone looking at it who hasn’t read it over five hundred times already.
to get back to the point about taking in feedback and advice from as many sources as possible—this is not to say that you should get ten different people to beta your stories (that, of course, is a matter of preference), but that if enough people are saying something, it might be worth listening. not just beta readers; writers on tumblr, writers on ao3, writers in books and magazines and newspapers. they might not be saying what they think they’re saying, but you, the writer, can interpret their voices, and you can learn, grow, take the sound of other voices and use it to make your own voice stronger.
maybe you listen to that sound—maybe you add the thunderclaps alongside the flash of lightning.