This year I think I’ve done even more beta-reading than last. I find it so interesting getting to see what other people are writing, but also recieving notes back on everything my brain missed. It’s funny how often the feedback overlaps—you mention to someone they haven’t grounded you in setting, and they tell you the same.
The more I beta read, the more tools I have to spot holes in my own work. But I think there’s another often unspoken side to beta reading that is more important to me than all of that: community. I have a regular group I swap with, which both makes me feel less alone on this journey, but gives me a goal to work toward each month, to keep that ‘pen’ on ‘paper’. Each feedback session is a chance for disscussion on work otherwise very privately-held, and, arguably more importantly, time to shoot the shit and catch up with writer friends I never would have met without taking that first plunge with Bianca Marais’ beta matchup.
So, with all that lovely soppy stuff in mind, when Tea and Tales asked me to do a live-beta reading session with two new people, I jumped at the chance. Was it chaos? At times. Would I do it again? Always.