feedback Archives - Karen Hugg

Maddie the Cat, Who Is The Second Most Valuable Beta Reader? https://karenhugg.com/2015/12/19/writer-friends #writing #betareader #writing #feedback

In early November, I sent my novel to three trusted friends for feedback. One is a freelance editor and writer. Another is a memoirist. And the third is a fantasy writer. They were all happy to take on the favor of reading my manuscript and agreed to an early December deadline to return feedback. How Interpreting Silence Can Be Dangerous While awaiting their feedback, I set the novel aside and caught up on non-writing tasks. I cleaned the house for the first time […]

Being Married to a Beta Reader Can Be the Best Blessing

June 26, 2015July 1, 2018

Last month I finished my to-do list of edits on my novel. The next step? It’s what it always is: ask my husband to read it. He’s my most trusted beta reader and best editor. I’ve come to realize how precious getting his feedback is. So we do what we always do. I send the chapters in email. He reads them on screen. Then we sit together and go through them one by one. “These paragraphs on page one need […]

Manuscript Feedback That’s Gracious yet Demanding

January 6, 2014June 4, 2018

In an issue of The Writer’s Chronicle from a few years ago, teacher Catherine Wallace wrote an interesting article on how to solicit manuscript feedback from editors, teachers, classmates, friends, family, whomever. She discussed the dangers of fault-finding criticism while outlining what kind of feedback she believes is most helpful. She argues that caring for a manuscript is not unlike raising children: you must praise them for behaving. Otherwise, fault-finding reverses creative momentum. It drives the writer back to what’s already written […]

Tagfeedback

Who Is the Second Most Valuable Beta Reader?

Being Married to a Beta Reader Can Be the Best Blessing

Manuscript Feedback That’s Gracious yet Demanding