I am starting to wonder when is the right time to seek out someone to read this, if they have the chance. I am talking about a complete stranger on this site or another site.
I refuse to ask family and friends, they are too busy and I just don’t want them to.
I haven’t started the second draft yet, that needs to get started. However, I need to at some point find a beta reader or critique partner after I complete the second draft.
I was on Scribophile, but I no longer want anything to do with that place. It stressed it out far too much that I don’t ever want to go back.
Social Media sites are too risky, way too risky. The amount of distractions and toxicity is not great for me.
There is Reedsy, yet I’m hoping they don’t ask me to pay for a beta reader or some critique partner, that sounds suspect to me.
My only option is this site, unless some other site can help me out. So, yeah, I am limited on such things, in terms of where to go.
There is also me doing all of that, but waiting months to go back to drafts, yet I genuinely want another person’s perspective on my stories.
The sites @Akje shared seem to have a lot of places you can go check out.
Also, a note of advice: try to get a variety of people and try to ask the questions you actually want answers to instead of generic questions found online which are supposedly a must to ask. Something I made a mistake with the first time I asked for betas is not asking the right questions to the right people in the right places and so, not getting helpful answers.
The second time around was much better. It was a healthy mix of critique, edits, and reader feedback because the questions were better, and the variety of people was better.
I found one beta reader here and the other one was a friend of my aunt’s from her church. I’ve been struggling to get feedback even tho I’ve asked for beta readers in a multitude of places. However, I did get some people in a discord server saying they would beta read for me. I haven’t heard back from any of them yet, but I did join the server just this month, and it is the busy holiday season, so I still have hope some will get back to me. If you’d like, I can ask for an invite link for you.
Unfortunately, it’s been my experience that you only get a few people who say they will read for you and even fewer that actually do and give feedback. Honestly, I’d love to be your beta reader or a partner where we can do read for read if I had the time, but currently I’m swamped with school and a new job, so I don’t have the time at the moment. Maybe I will by the time you finish your second draft tho! One can only hope.
I plan to start working on my third draft the beginning of January. New year, new start, and all that.
Working on other projects is good for taking a step back from your main project so you can come back to it with fresh eyes. Sometimes we get too close to the story and need a break, so working on ither stories is a good plan in the meantime.
Have you ever used hiveword? I used it to help give me a very loose structure for my story and it did wonders for my second draft. You only have to do as much planning as you want and use what features you like on the site, so it’s not too strict or overwhelming. It has been a while since I logged in, so I don’t know if it’s still around or if there have been changes made to it, but it might be worth looking into.
I’m sure there are several. I know a lot of people use sites similar, like scrivener or Notion (I also use notion and it’s even looser/less restrictive for pantsers). Those are the only ones I can think off right now, but I know there are lots of writing tools out there. I just know hiveword is free. Notion is also free unless you want to pay for additional tools. I’ve never used scrivener or any other ones tho, so I can’t vouch for them.
I tried Notion, I hate Scrivener, I tried Milanote and might go back, yet I can give hiveword a try.
The thing with outlining stories is that I am too much of a spontaneous person that, even a simplistic outline is restrictive. That’s annoying because as I am taking writing seriously, I can’t write out a novel series, by just going with the flow or my gut or instinct.
What if those things fail me? I can’t always trust that.
I don’t know, I need a balance that I can work with. I am going to see what hiveword is about.
You could always ask around on here or Discord writing servers to see if someone is interested in critiquing your work/ Beta readers. I know that some people here will give you 100% feedback, if you ask them. Look around in threads, or just make one yourself. I think there is an editing group called Just Desserts here, and I think they still accept members, not sure. If you’re happy enough, they will read your stuff and you can read theirs.
Other than Wacky, I have very few suggestions. If you can’t find writing groups or critique groups in your local area that you can go to in person, and none of the websites suggested before are your cup of tea, you might have to rely on some social media. That doesn’t mean you’ll have to build a following though. You can just appear in a writing-related group on FB and ask for beta readers (while following the group guidelines, of course). I’ve seen people like that. They get responses.
