Please inquire within.
Jul. 6th, 2017 09:42 pmSo. The thing. Yes. The thing. Not a thing, the thing - and not The Thing. Just a thing.
Oh, to hell with it: the book I wrote.
A coming-of-age novel that needs other people's eyes on it. I've finished all the fiddly little bits that needed me to look up specific facts and dates, tweaked a couple of parts that were bothering me, and while there's more I can do, I want to leave it alone for at least a week before going back. And I'd also like to leave it alone until I get someone else's thoughts on it.
So, this is a call for beta-readers. My alpha readers did a fabulous job of putting their hands on my shoulders, telling me I was doing fine and that I should keep going, and letting me babble on at length in chat windows. Which was exactly what I needed for the intitial drafting phase. And now I need people to read this and tell me things about it.
I need to make this as good as it can be before I start pitching it out. Which I'll do. It'd be a shame to have finished this and not try to share it far and wide. So I need help. Not so much with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, but with the story.
I need to know what's confusing about it, where things are unclear in prose or decision-making.
I need to know what throws you out of a story and back into just reading some words on a page.
I need to know what parts are boring and make you want to skip ahead.
I'd like to know what I did right, and made you enjoy yourself.
So I'm looking for seven to ten people to read just a hair over 60,000 words and tell me how well they all work together. I'd like it in five to eight weeks, to have a time limit on things and make it a bit simpler that way.
It's about a Mizrahi Jewish American boy from Saint Louis who discovers magic is real and runs away to Los Angeles in the summer of 1988. You can tell I went outside of my comfort zone because I've never been to Saint Louis. So if you know anything about life in Saint Louis, or Los Angeles, or the 1970s and 1980s, I'd be especially grateful if you could tell me what I need to change to get those bits as authentic to reality as I can. As for magic, it doesn't need to be authentic, but if there are any inconsistencies, I need to know about those too.
If this sounds fun, drop me a line and I'll send it your way.
Oh, to hell with it: the book I wrote.
A coming-of-age novel that needs other people's eyes on it. I've finished all the fiddly little bits that needed me to look up specific facts and dates, tweaked a couple of parts that were bothering me, and while there's more I can do, I want to leave it alone for at least a week before going back. And I'd also like to leave it alone until I get someone else's thoughts on it.
So, this is a call for beta-readers. My alpha readers did a fabulous job of putting their hands on my shoulders, telling me I was doing fine and that I should keep going, and letting me babble on at length in chat windows. Which was exactly what I needed for the intitial drafting phase. And now I need people to read this and tell me things about it.
I need to make this as good as it can be before I start pitching it out. Which I'll do. It'd be a shame to have finished this and not try to share it far and wide. So I need help. Not so much with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, but with the story.
I need to know what's confusing about it, where things are unclear in prose or decision-making.
I need to know what throws you out of a story and back into just reading some words on a page.
I need to know what parts are boring and make you want to skip ahead.
I'd like to know what I did right, and made you enjoy yourself.
So I'm looking for seven to ten people to read just a hair over 60,000 words and tell me how well they all work together. I'd like it in five to eight weeks, to have a time limit on things and make it a bit simpler that way.
It's about a Mizrahi Jewish American boy from Saint Louis who discovers magic is real and runs away to Los Angeles in the summer of 1988. You can tell I went outside of my comfort zone because I've never been to Saint Louis. So if you know anything about life in Saint Louis, or Los Angeles, or the 1970s and 1980s, I'd be especially grateful if you could tell me what I need to change to get those bits as authentic to reality as I can. As for magic, it doesn't need to be authentic, but if there are any inconsistencies, I need to know about those too.
If this sounds fun, drop me a line and I'll send it your way.
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