We've been reviewing other's stories since 2014, and started simply as editors. The first time Silbrith sent feedback on one of my chapters, she marked up the document with corrections of my typos and asked how much detail I wanted for the next time. It was a great level-setting of expectations.
The next time around, I also sent questions along with the document. For instance, there was a 9-month-old girl in the story, and I asked Silbrith's opinion of whether that was too old to call a baby. Other questions were more general, about how sympathetic characters were, if a specific scene made sense, etc. At first I included those questions in an email with the document attached, and later I placed my questions at the end of the document to avoid spoilers.
A few chapters later, I wanted feedback on how a chapter worked toward achieving my overall goals for the story. That marked the first time I provided an overview of where the story was going, and we found that knowing the full context of the story helped us provide even better feedback. For me, that feels like the point where Silbrith graduated from editor to beta reader.
Around that time I learned that I could send documents to my Kindle Fire, and I started using that device for editing my own stories. It helped to see the stories on a different screen than the one I used for writing. The ability to highlight in four different colors led to the next innovation: color-coding. I'd highlight in yellow parts that were unclear or where I added a note about a change I should make. I'd highlight in blue the parts I wanted to delete -- because losing great lines or even whole paragraphs often makes a writer blue. Orange highlighting was for pointing out words or phrases I used too often.
When Silbrith sent me chapters, I applied the same convention. I used the fourth color -- pink -- to highlight things I particularly liked. That included a clever line, a great word choice, something that made me laugh, or an action that was perfectly suited to a character. I'd do the highlighting on my Kindle, and then transfer the colors and notes to the document I sent back to her. This second review during the transfer prompts additional feedback. The transfer is straightforward; pink highlighting becomes pink text in the document I send to Silbrith, for instance. We use MS Word's comment feature for adding specific notes and questions. Silbrith adopted the same color coding in her feedback to me, and it was a great way to visualize what was repetitive, what was too wordy, and what made us smile.
We use a lot of pink.
Whether it's conveyed as pink text or a note in email, sending praise has always been part of our editing and beta conventions. I've read best practices for giving feedback to authors, and they mention the same thing that we've found useful: combine praise and criticism. The value of a beta reader comes from seeing what I need to change or improve. The joy of it comes from learning what worked. Where it becomes particularly squeal-worthy is when a suggestion or question inspires a whole new aspect to the story. Sometimes it's a new scene, other times it's a new way of looking at a character's motivations. Getting a beta's perspective brings themes and options to my attention, and makes the story even more nuanced and exciting.
Sending color-coded documents with embedded comments for questions and corrections has been our norm for... months? years? It's been working, and we could continue doing that without problems. However, before the retreat we sent each other multiple chapters. I sent Silbrith the first third of my novel, and she sent me all of the chapters of the next story she was ready to start posting. Neither of us had time to mark up that much text before the retreat, and that led us to consider a different approach that would take advantage of being face-to-face.
At the retreat, we opened the notes we'd scribbled on our initial reading, and had a conversation. It ranged from "you're missing a period here" to "in light of the revelations at the end of the story, this aspect was particularly impactful, but this other part isn't consistent with what the characters learned in their journey." It's the same information we could have conveyed in comments in our documents, but this time we had a conversation about it. We explained the reasoning behind the choices we'd made, and brainstormed alternatives. We didn't always reach agreement or land on a decision of what should change, but the discussions continued to spark ideas even after the retreat. I jotted down notes of things to change or to ponder further, and those have been a source of inspiration as I edited the first chapter of my novel.
We enjoyed the process so much that we said we'd like to replicate the experience with video chats. We decided we'll read a handful of chapters in advance, make note of what we want to discuss, and then continue our conversation with the next best thing to being in the same room.
I'll point out that what we were doing before worked fine, and we could have continued using the same method for feedback. Sometimes trying something new simply serves to keep us fresh and creative. And it's fun. Because we're creative, we'll continue to tweak our process and we may find that different stories -- or different elements within our stories -- need different approaches.
One thing that I must call out regarding our success is that we have a lot in common as readers. We were drawn to similar types of plots, characters, and themes. Therefore I enjoy Silbrith's stories, and she enjoys mine. That foundation is one of the reasons we don't get burned out as beta readers -- we're each eager to read what the other has written. On top of that foundation is respect. We take care to acknowledge the effort and skill that went into writing the stories we review, and we balance our critiques with praise. The end result is the cherry on the sundae -- a friendship that extends beyond our writing.
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