Here to learn? You’re in the WRITE place!

Do you remember The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein?

I picked it up for the first time in decades (literally) while visiting my friend’s baby at her house. She asked me what I thought the book meant. I told her. She was surprised by my answer and then told me that every other person she asks interprets it differently.

I was fascinated.

What exactly is a Beta Reader, and why should you care? The term ‘beta’ is borrowed from the software industry, meaning the beta ‘tests’ (reads) your full, finished manuscript to help you eliminate ‘bugs’ (problems) before it’s published. Here’s a more official online definition I like: “An alpha reader or beta reader, also a pre-reader or critiquer, is a non-professional reader who reads a written work, generally fiction, with the intent of looking over material to find and improve elements such as grammar and spelling, as well as suggestion to improve the story, its characters, or its setting.”

All true, but they left out the most important benefit.

Beta readers are invaluable to your writing. Here’s why…

We know how to become better writers. As with anything in life, the way to get better is to practice.

That said, there’s two kinds of practice. There’s the competitively oriented kind where you run drills to improve, like soccer.

And then there’s the process-oriented kind, where you mindfully return to it over and over, for the sake of the experience itself, like yoga.

If you want to be a better writer, you have to practice like you practice yoga.

When asked why he wrote horror stories, Stephen King once said that he wrote about the things that scared him the most.

He went on to say, writing horror stories was therapeutic in a way; a method to overcome his own insecurities and phobias.

Have you ever felt like you needed help with your writing process, but didn’t know where to turn? Perhaps you’re new to this writing thing, or you’ve been too scared to tell anyone what you’re working on.

Or, if you’re like me, you’ve spent so much time in the writing process, so much time writing, editing, pitching, and educating yourself on the process that you truly believe you’ve done all you can possibly do on your own.

What should you do now?

I’m beginning a long season of travel. Yesterday, I got home from California, where I had a few meetings and spent time with family. In July, I’ll be in Portland for World Domination Summit (if you’ll be there, let me know!). In August, there’s Plywood Presents in Atlanta, and the Tribe Writers conference in Nashville, where I’ll be speaking (you should come!).

What this means for me is that I have to explain what I do for a living a lot. It’s not easy, at least for me. I am a writer, yes, but what does that really mean?