You’ve likely heard of beta reading or beta testing before, where you get a nearly final product to test out or read and give feedback to make the version released to the public the best it can be. But does anything come before beta? Yes! Alpha testers or readers are the ones who experience the rawest form of the product. In writing, that means the very first draft. If you’ve ever presented a piece to a writing group or workshop, you’ve had alpha readers.
My alpha reader is a good friend I’ve known for many years. I’ll drop sections or whole chapters for them to read and they give me honest feedback on how to make it better. The sections may not be completely raw, but they are the first to see a work besides myself. Alpha readers look at your work in much the same way beta readers do, searching for plot holes, loose ends, and anything else that will distract a reader from the story. What they don’t do is point out editorial mistakes like spelling, grammar, sentence structure, or punctuation – unless there are glaring mistakes that distract from the story.
Does your alpha reader have to be a fellow writer or an editor themselves? No, but since they’re reading your first draft and looking to help you make the story better, it can help if they know a little about the process. This friend of mine isn’t a writer, but asks intelligent questions and makes thoughtful comments that makes my writing better. You could consider them ‘casual readers’ whose feedback helps build the story into the product that beta readers, and ultimately the reader who buys the book, will experience.
Do you need alpha readers? Yes! And us writers have used them whether or not we know it, and you have, too. Remember back to your school days of writing book reports or other long works and you gave the paper to your mom or another family member to read the first draft – that person was your alpha reader. With their suggestions, the work got better and when you returned it to them after the suggested revisions, or presented it to someone else, that person was your beta reader, and the teacher you turned it in to the final audience.
The value an alpha reader brings is that they don’t live with your story daily the way you do. They’re a set of ‘fresh eyes’ that can point out the flaws you’ll never see, even if you self-edit a dozen times and give the story a rest between reads. You know it too well, know what you want to see, and see it.
If you’re a writer looking for an alpha reader for the first time, you may not even know what to ask of them. If you’ve been enlisted by a writer as their alpha reader, here are some questions to ask or answer to help make the work better:
Did you have any questions once you’d read it?
What’s working here?
What’s not working for you?
What do you think of the alpha reading process? Let’s talk more on Facebook!
Today would have been a great day to announce the release date of my upcoming novel, but alas, it’s stuck in proofreading. It’s the last step before publication, and I’m itching to get it done. But there are other ways to celebrate.
– Tell me about your favorite book
– Tell me about your favorite author
– Give that person’s latest work and honest (even if it’s negative) review
– Buy a new book
– Check out some books from the library. Maybe look for some dusty ones that haven’t been checked out in a while, you may find a new favorite!
– Support a local author. Many bookstores and libraries have sections featuring local authors!
How will I celebrate? Likely by writing or editing one of my current works in progress.
Hi. I’ve never written a blog post before. It’s something I usually have my secretary do because she’s more tech savvy than me. The biggest tech I deal with is my cameras for surveillance. But you all want to know about me, right? That she can’t really write about.
So, here we go. My name is Paul Boulder and I’m a private investigator in the Glass area. I’ve done a lot of work over the years to help families stay together, but also it sometimes ends in a split. I did want to be an officer with GPD, and was even in the academy with Detective Ellison.
But, as it does, shit happens. Both of my parents got sick, and as an only child and the only family in the area, I had to step away and step up to take care of them. They both died, within hours of each other. I broke. I couldn’t function. At all. I thought going back to the academy would be a great distraction from the pain and loss, but it wasn’t. I got through academy and lasted about six months before the grief swept me away.
I ended up doing odd jobs, office work – anything to make money and keep living. It was all I could do to keep my head above water and focus on life and not contemplating my own…well. I’ve put that in the past. There’s nothing to do about it anymore, and I’m a strong person who doesn’t take shit.
That led eventually to becoming a P.I. I knew I could never be a cop. I’m too old to start at the bottom like that, and I don’t want to be some administrative paper pusher when what I love is law and law enforcement. So I opened my firm and started taking jobs. Ell will tell you that I’m ‘one of the good ones.’ For the most part I stay out of active police investigations, unless somehow they cross paths with my own investigations.
The case of the Glass Creek Murders is a bit unique though. There’s so much going on. I can’t give you specifics because, well, because. At the moment, any client I have may be connected to this case. Whether it’s marital problems or helping to correct a good kid gone bad, I feel like there’s going to be a connection somewhere, somehow, at some point.
I don’t know what else to tell you. That’s really just it unless you want like baby pictures and stories or something. No? Okay. Well. Thanks for listening.
I hope you all are enjoying this month about what goes into writing, and some of my writing in particular. One thing that’s always a part of a fiction (or any) writer’s routine is research. As I said last week, I’ve researched the size of entrance and exit wounds for various bullets, the various stages of decomposition of a human body (gross, by the way), and looked into what exactly a detective does to solve a case. All of this has informed my writing to make it the best, most believable it can be. Part of that is due to my dad, a former police officer, who sits and scoffs at TVs, movies, and books that add a little sparkle and flair when it comes to keeping an audience’s attention and keeping them entertained.
My goal, of course, is to entertain you, but also not distract you from that entertainment by being patently false in how factual, real events are carried out in every day life. Without knowing who everyone in my audience is, there will likely be former police officers or detectives, former military, and average fans of the genre who know a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to how other authors have handled these factual aspects of fiction.
Two of my most recent works in progress have revolved around a U.S. Air Force veteran. So I made contact with one online. We chat about his experiences, I ask questions on specific facts or details I’d like to cover, and he answers if he can. The interesting part about this dynamic is that I can send a message whenever I have a question I need answered. I’m not boxed in to a single interview, or scheduling multiple and taking up his time as well as taking away my own from writing, editing, business, and family time.
I leave a question, he leaves an answer, and when we’re both available, we chat or I take the opportunity to conduct a real-time interview that’s not set up and stuffy as it would be if it were scheduled for a specific date and time. I get more honest, off-the-cuff answers and shades of his personality rather than stilted, scripted interviews.
These ‘real-time’ interviews have colored my writing in a way no other research or interviewing style has. The depth and detail of knowledge I’ve gained from the more informal nature of this communication has done wonders for my writing. I hope you’ll get to see it soon!
Has there ever been a time when you’ve used online tools in this way? How did it change the dynamic? Did you respond differently? Did the person you were interacting with respond differently? Let’s talk on Facebook!
Writing comes with research. Unless you’re writing about yourself and what you know, there’s going to be something you don’t know. My debut novel coming out soon is a murder mystery. I knew nothing about several aspects of the story, including stages of decomposition of human body, size of bullet entrance and exit wounds, how detectives actually do their jobs, and a lot more. Some of this knowledge you’ll see directly in the pages of the story, and some is background information that helps me write the best story possible.
Another work featuring a U.S. Air Force veteran has required extensive research into basic military training, Air Force specialized training, and more. I’m working closely with someone who has been in these shoes before. He has taught me a lot, and some of it, like in my upcoming novel, I use as background information that helps me write an accurate story and some of it goes into the character traits and plot points reflected in the characters and story.
Working with him is fun but also frustrating at times. He still uses his military acronyms and jargon when communicating with me online and many times I don’t know what they mean. I ask, or I make up my own acronym and it clicks in his mind that I don’t know context. He quickly corrects and explains, and it has helped what was once going to be a short story for my own entertainment become a novel-length story I may one day share with you all.
One of the major focuses of discussion one day was everyday carry, or EDC. To him, it’s EDC and everybody knows that. I had to admit I didn’t. Then he made a joke: ‘in your case it would be EDK. Every day Keri.’ Haha. As with other things, he quickly corrected and explained. With the new data, it has become a central part of the main character’s personality – always having a certain set of items, no matter the circumstances.
Reflecting on the discussion, I realized everyone has some degree of EDC. It’s a collection of items the person finds useful to be carried consistently every day. There are different reasons like utility/usefulness, self-sufficiency, or preparedness. Keeping these tools close at hand helps the carrier with every day problem solving of mundane tasks like opening packages or changing batteries in a device to first aid and and self-defense. The Scouting American 10 Essentials list could be considered part of EDC.
As I mentioned, EDC is the ‘stuff’ you decide is important enough to have close at hand on a daily basis. Your cell phone, wallet, and keys are basics you’re never far from. Pens or pencils and small notebooks, glasses, a small first aid kit, and even a gun or knife could be part of your ‘kit’ as well.
When I asked how he carried it all, he told me pockets, and a special belt. All his gear adds another 13 pounds! This is where my mom would make a joke about my purse being heavy. She’s not wrong, and for much the same reason as my military friend here adds another 13 pounds of ‘stuff’ to his life: I find it beneficial to have daily. His things run the gamut of primary reasons I listed earlier, and my reasons are more utility and preparedness than self-defense, although that should change. Defending oneself in this changing world is getting to be more and more apparent as a necessity.
Enough about my research. I’d like to hear about yours. Is there something you had to research for work or school? Did I pique your interest and cause you to research further than you needed – for your own fulfillment? Let’s talk on Facebook!
