Welcome back to the debut series blog. Today I’m going to share everything about constructive feedbacks, critique partners, beta readers and editing. I’ll keep this decent and short for each section. Last week, I shared how A Forever Summer was born and this is blog is all about - you know - the fun stage of revising the novel and editing out.
I know not everyone like revision. Some people like editing or drafting. I don't like editing. Revision and drafting is fun part for me. Even it takes time. Why is constructive feedback valuable for writers?
Let’s be honest, I didn’t understand why constructive feedback was important. I used to take feedback as a bad thing. Meaning my stories were no good. Made me a bad writer. As a young writer, I should've known better than to say that my first draft is fine. I didn't think it need to revise or edit. I used to write stories and have someone make sure it is good. I quickly realized it doesn't work that way. If I want a good, professional product, then I need more than checking for grammar. I learned to embrace constructive feedback.
You remembered in the blog I mentioned A Forever Summer set in the 80s, well not anymore. And there is a reason for it. A month and half after I finished the first draft, I sent it to a writer friend on Instagram and she read it. She gave me positive and negative feedback. She loved how I described certain things in the plot like outfits and the story itself, yet she kindly pointed out how there were areas that needed work. Like medical procedures in the 80s and city location and the characters. At the time, I was working on other projects and didn’t get back in A Forever Summer till April 2021.
I read it through and find lot of places need some rewrite. I could easily use the story set today instead 80s. It was easier for me to do because I don’t have to do a lot of research for a certain time period. That doesn’t mean I didn’t do any research. I did a couple of things like cancer, city locations, etc. You get it. I spent a few months revising the manuscript and sent two critique partners. They both really gave me good feedback on character arcs and plot wise. Big pictures, they called it. Both of their feedback really helped me to see the story and make it better.
In the past few years, I had few people read my stories, but never did beta reading. But with beta readers, this is where they share what works and what doesn’t. It helps them as readers to understand what the story is about. Plus, the more you have the manuscript critique and beta reading, the less work and easier for a professional editor to edit the book. After many revisions (critique painters, one in between the process, and then sent to three beta readers in October) it was time to send it to an editor.
End of the year I hired Kori Morgan, the editor from Inking Creative Strategies and she worked with me for the next couple of weeks. She helped me strengthen the story, and I did some minor changes by her feedback. Through the whole thing, I couldn’t be any happier. She was a pleasant to work with and quite supportive. Despite it having gone through some rough patches, the story became better and stronger as a whole. Now, you understand why the story has changed from what it used to be into the final product.
Next week I’ll be sharing my process about cover and why I choose to hire a cover designer rather than do my own.
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