Bogged Down In Beta

Let me start off by saying that "beta" reading is--bar none--the most useful tool for hammering a manuscript into some sort of shape that an editor might be willing to work with. With that firmly established, let me go on to say that it is one of the most frustrating processes that I have ever had to endure.

For those not up on their current "writer buzzwords," beta reading is nothing more complicated than offering what you believe to be the final version of your manuscript (after editing and revision) to someone else so that they can read it and suggest changes, or point out elements that don't work as well as you had hoped. Usually this "beta" reader is a fellow writer, not always. At the very least, he or she should be someone whose opinion you trust, and who can read your work objectively.

I was through three revisions of my YA paranormal novel, The Tronovich Ghost, before I began looking for a beta reader. I was very fortunate to find a fellow in the same position with a YA science fiction novel that he wanted to beta, so we exchanged some personal information, got to know each other a little better, set some goals (i.e., told each other what we expected out of the process, and mentioned particular areas of our work that we wished to have reviewed), and began trading chapters. So far, the experience has been nothing but positive. The guy that I'm working with doesn't pull any punches, or try to blow sunshine up my kilt, but he isn't needlessly heavy-handed in his critique either. This isn't always the case when a writer offers their work up for critique. As I said, I'm very fortunate to have met this guy when I did.

But it's a grueling process. By now, I am already querying agents, and I have outlined and begun work on a new novel. I want TTG DONE. Finished. At least done up to the point that an editor or an agent is asking for revisions. Unfortunately, it is beginning to look like I am going to have to put everything else on hold again, and begin yet a fourth revision of this manuscript. The plot issues are minor-fixes, which is encouraging, but it's the mechanics of the manuscript--the nuts and bolts of it--that are going to require a fairly massive rewrite. POV (I have this disembodied "fourth eye" floating around in the story, popping in for a peek whenever I am trying to skirt a main character perspective that might reveal too much of the plot too soon) and reader confusion in some of my scene transitions seem to be the main culprits this time around.

I know that the story will be better for having gone through this process. I know that every time I go through and revise it, I give myself just that much more of a chance that I might actually sell the damn thing. But I would be lying if I told you that I'm looking forward to it. I'm not. I'm off on a terrifying journey with a 16-year-old girl who is being stalked and terrorized by ... by who? I don't know. And I won't know for a while longer because I'm stuck in some rural Oklahoma town with these other three kids and their g.d. ghost hunters club solving the same g.d. mystery over and over and over again.