BETA Business

Two more beta responses this week. Not much to correct. I don't know if that makes me a genius or a friend of idiots. ;p Guess we'll find out in a week. Hopefully I'll get more responses because Saturday is the beta due date. If not, I'm sending the manuscript back to my agent on Sunday and seeing what she thinks.

Should the Reader be Confused?

So, here’s my dilemma. Every so often, I get a beta reader who hands me back my manuscript and says, “I was really confused about X, Y, and Z.”

At first, I was distressed about it. Then I went through a short period of denial and thought they must be stupid because everyone else got it and they didn’t.

And then, I realized something: Hello! This book is written in the FIRST PERSON NARRATIVE. The reader is only getting the information that the main character is getting.

So, if the main character is confused by the information she’s getting, shouldn’t it follow that the reader also be confused? And doesn’t it make sense that only some of my readers are freaking out about it because many readers submerse themselves enough in the character to realize they are supposed to be confused and the answers will eventually reveal themselves?

I’d like some feedback. When is it okay to confuse your reader?

Spirits

No, that's not my arm. I am not that hairy...or a man.

I'm in excellent spirits lately (If not a little anxious). I've been done with the latest edit to Scar-Crossed for a while and I've been waiting on beta reactions for more than a month. Needless to say, for me, waiting on other people is the hardest part about being a writer. But, patience is a virtue. Just one that I don't possess in great quantities.

Anyway, I'm slowly getting responses and so far, I seem to have done what I set out to do. Let's just hope my agent thinks so too! I've still got ten more days until the beta deadline hits. (BTW, How sad is that, I'm not counting down days till x-mas because I want gifts, but because I want edits, lol. I'm flirting with the idea of taking bets on how many of my betas actually finish by then. Who knows, maybe they'll surprise me and I don't have to be disappointed by another dozen-some-odd people who say they will do something for me and then completely fall through on it. Yes, that is a bitter tone in my type.

Besides that, I'm in high spirits because what I have heard so far is good and I'm hoping to hear some more good. I'm also finally plugging away at my Steampunk. Slowly, but surely. I just like to visualize myself as one of the half-baked pieces of machinery in my novel. Capable of great things, just very slow at achieving them. I'm trying to get the bulk of it on paper by the end of the year and spend the next few months polishing it.

I'm also seriously wrestling the sequel to Scar-Crossed. I know I should have it on the back-burner, but my fans are getting restless and I feel I might have a demi-revolution on my hands if my beta readers don't get to find out what happens next. Originally, I had most of it written and then decided I didn't like it. Yeah, story of my life, I know. But, I've been getting a lot of ideas lately, so hopefully one of them will lead to the golden egg. Hopefully it's this really good idea I had this morning...

Cause I can and It's Wonderful

Get up and shake your booty kids!

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