The Privilege of Beta Reading

We had to start somewhere, and I couldn’t write another about me! If you’re not familiar with me please find me on Threads or Insta (my most common social places these days), or almost any other mainstream social site - I’ll be @writingqueer. And maybe one day I’ll write a proper introduction post ;)

Today though, I want to start off with a bit about beta reading. What it is. What it isn’t. And why I think it’s one of the biggest honors a writer can give. It’s the ultimate trust in the writing process.

So what is beta reading anyway?

It comes in a lot of forms. Some people call it beta reading, some alpha reading. And most folks use the words to mean the same thing or absolutely different parts of the process. What it comes down to is writing a rough, maybe even unfinished, draft of a story and usually offering feedback in some way. What kind of feedback greatly varies from writer to writer and is often determined by where they are in the creation of that story.

You might be reading with an eye for plot cohesion or character arcs. For worldbuilding. For pacing (the flow and roll of the story). For missed opportunities - or even for opportunities that maybe shouldn’t have been taken (to this note in the case of representation, sensitivity reads can be incredibly useful and where possible should be paid opportunities). There’s also reading for line edits and copy edits.

Myself, I like it best when the story is still messy and oozing with possibility. I feel like I can give my best advice then. I like stretching the shape of a story out, looking at it, and nudging at the places I think the writer should dig into and explore. Give me all the chaos zero drafts. Make me fall lin love with characters when all you’ve got is vibes and a soupçon of plot.

What it isn’t though is telling a writer how to write their story, or what they should do. It isn’t making the story something you think it should be or want it to be.

Beta reading is absolutely reading in good faith, trusting the writer has intended the choices reflected on the page and helping them shape the story they’re hoping to tell.

The privilege of it

The folks I read for often send me their early drafts. Drafts so messy and chaotic that names haven’t fully settled, characters appear and disappear, and plot is a wiggly line. the folks I regularly read for send me drafts they’d never want out in the world. They’re looking at me to help them shape their story and there’s such a immense honor in that. They know that I’m not going to get in the way of the story they want to tell. I’m only their to offer an outside perspective on what’s on the page and what it’s done for me as a reader, and talk about the  craft of the story and what tools could be useful, what tropes and designs. What vibes. What themes. And sometimes even, how do we answer, or not, the thematic questions posed by a story.

For a writer to trust someone else to see their unfinished work is a responsibility. And yes for some more than others. I know many writers that cast a wide net at any and all stages, looking for insight from any and everyone and I know other writers that don’t share until its closer to publication ready. At any stage their trusting you with several things.

The biggest one, and the one we don’t talk about except when things go sideways because we don’t want to imagine someone in the writing community would do this is stealing work. I’ve seen books that are unagented, slated for self-pub, agented, contracted, and just about any pre-published status, we’re I not me, it would be incredibly easy to lift the work and repurpose it.

Beta reading is an act of trust.

Not just with the ideas and the work, but the intellectual property itself. And yes, I know the legal waters are murky and those words mean very specific things in a legal context but none of it makes stealing someone else’s work morally justifiable.

And so it goes

The real joy of it though is getting to peak inside all my brilliant writer friends brains. To get to help them shape their stories and then, when those stories are released in the world, hype them to no end.

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