The Beta Read Comes to a Close

3 Comments

First and foremost,

Thank you to all my Beta Readers who participated and gave me much needed feedback on my first novel.  If anyone has any questionnaires left out there, I still will gladly accept them if you wish to share your thoughts.

It has been a challenge as the edits came in to look at all my errors laid bare.  I did ask for you to be honest and brutal, and thankfully you all have, just as much as you have been encouraging and supportive.  My ego took some serious hits, but that is good.  Dishonest praise is worse than honest criticism.  The fact that I got lots of both, all done out of love and caring was best of all.

So once again, thank you.

Now, the future looks like the following.

  1. Finish NaNoWriMo.  This has been stumbling thanks to my discovery about derivative works.  I have not been so enthused to finish the project since I cannot publish it.
  2. Plotting the NEW book 2.  Yes, what I have previously written will be bumped to Book 3 in the series, and a whole new Book 2 written.  The goal is to be ready to start writing this when I finish with…
  3. Finish the 4th edit of Reimarsoga.  All those suggestions, edits and conversation come home to roost.  I hope… HOPE I will be done before the end of December because…
  4. Send last edit to professional editor and hire a cover artist.  My true deadline is the 1 year anniversary of me starting to write the first novel.  If I am really fortunate, I will also find a way to pre-order the book.  So, here’s hoping all goes according to plan.  So if you have some Christmas money you saved up for buying a book, get ready for pre-order pitches.  I will announce more where you will be able to purchase your copy as time gets closer.

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3 Comments

  1. Good read. Brief points:

    Watch for past/present tense verbs.

    Dungeon scene:

    1) Too preachy – find a way to capture the essence of the message without being blatant. Preaching the Word must be done in the vein of the era depicted. The message read like a modern evangelical outreach/revival. It felt forced, contrived, and not in sync with rest of the story.
    2) Cultural subtext – Finn needed to communicate w/o “Christian-ese”. TMI would scare off potential converts. Communication should have been similar to Apostle Paul @ Aeropagus on Mars’ hill, using relatable, cultural subtexts.
    3) The girl would not have understood “Adoni”, “Savior”, “Lord” unless there was an equivalent in her culture. She would not have understood sacrificial substitution.
    4) Conversion and deliverance should have been more dramatic. If Reimar, being a child, had extensive deliverance in a Christian world, then the girl would have been more so because of her demonic world.
    5) Finn’s temptation – considering his predicament being placed in a room full of women with seductive accoutrements, there should have been more internal battles (paralleling the one outside), especially when in the dark (literally and figuratively). [It escalates suspense and tension for the characters and readers alike.] Demonstrating Finn’s human weakness despite his spiritual prowess, but showing God’s power to preserve his people.

  2. Thanks for the points to consider. I am no studied theologian, to be sure, but these are some things I need to consider on what I can do that will not get in the way of the overall story. I definitely need a little more context added to explain some of the points on why they evolved the way they did.