Whelp, I’ve heard back from the beta readers I think I’m going to hear back from. Two are still pending, though one has already warned me not to wait on them. Very positive, constructive feedback. Positive is good, and I’m so glad it was, but the most useful feedback isn’t praise. It’s a handful of places where a fresh reader noticed little gaps in the narrative; leaps I made in my head versus what made it to the page. I guess maybe missing connective tissue?
These suggestions sometimes come across as, “I’d love a scene where…” One can’t add all those scenes, however gratifying it might be as an author to produce a thousand-page headstone of a book. (Though it is nice to hear a beta reader want more.) I want to keep things as lean and paced as possible.
Of the three requests in that vein that really resonated with me, I’ve only added one new scene, showcased through a tight bite-sized chapter focusing on a main character who didn’t get quite enough page time and a plot point that deserved a bit more emotional weight. And it’s a corker, even if five whole new pages went in. I’m so glad it occurred to someone, even if it wasn’t me.
The others, I tackled in different ways. For one, I added a character to an existing scene, altering the nature of the interaction with some new, rather fun banter. Not only did this address the issue of thin connective tissue in that spot, but it really dialed up the momentum of what was already there. Another minor plot question that wasn’t fully resolved, I tackled through additional dialogue. This was trickier; it’s difficult to explain without showing, but it touches three different chapters: something odd occurs to a POV character while something else is going on; he asks another character about it in a second chapter; then he reaches a conclusion and shares it with the reader as he thinks through the implications.
There was some other great stuff in there as well: a reaction that felt a bit dialed down (an easy, fun fix), an inevitable little continuity error. (That’s right, the fridge is stocked with almond milk, not soy milk!)
This is only my second book, but I’m pretty happy with the beta process. There’s far more nodding along and saying, “Of course, that’s brilliant,” than, “Well… maybe.” Sometimes it’s a missing reaction. Sometimes it’s an unresolved consequence. Sometimes it’s just a plot thread that could use one more reminder. Those small observations are easy to miss when you’ve lived inside a manuscript for a year, and they’re exactly the kind of feedback that can make a good draft stronger.
So, with those changes in, one more little read-through, and then off to the editor, I think. Kin of Fae Book 2: “The Lost Season” is slowly but surely on its way.
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