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Lyn Fairchild Hawks

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Bless You, Beta Readers

Lyn Hawks · August 11, 2015 · Leave a Comment

There’s no motivation like real, red-blooded beta readers to make you dive back into a manuscript and rip it up.

The beginning dragged, a couple readers said. I dispensed with the first chapter and wrote another.

Blessing Christ, Savior of the World by Bernardino Luini. Photo by Dennis Jarvis.
Blessing Christ, Savior of the World by Bernardino Luini. Photo by Dennis Jarvis.

No one uses the word “frosh,” said a couple others. I hit Command-F and did a nice little replace with “freshman” and “first year” (depending on how eager Minerva Mae was to impress her feminist mentor).

I despise Minerva, said one. She’s a female Holden Caulfield, said another. I hold these two comments in constant tension and wonder if the hate a character inspires in one reader is indeed the flip side of love another might feel. As the Holden Caulfield commenter shared with me, “Trust that a strong emotional reaction is just that…and different than an objective set of criticisms.”

Personally, I prefer hate to apathy.

Comments ranged from serious questions about character choices to concerns about whether Minerva should wear cords, jeans, or cargo pants. All of it mattered; all got attended to. Because there is nothing like getting a play-by-play set of reactions in the margins of your manuscript to make you care about your story in a whole new way.

Thank you, Antonia, David, Erin, Gordon, Jamye, Katherine, Maureen, Sara, Stephen, and Tracy. Your diverse views gave me a robust portrait of how my character affects a range of people.

Minerva has a whole new life now thanks to the hard work of these kind folk who could be reading or binge-watching or retweeting something else. (I know my competition, and it is fierce.) Minerva is ready for agents, and yes, another round of beta readers.

Because an author’s work is never done. I know the novel can’t be all things to all people, but it darn well better try.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: audience, beta reader, beta readers, contemporary YA, critique, critiques, editing, How Minerva Mae Christopoulos Set the Record Straight, How Minerva Mae Christopoulos Set the Record Straight, LGBT, Minerva Mae Christopoulos, revising, revision, YA

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About me

“author

(Photo by My Friend Teresa Studios)

Could I live without words, writing, story? Probably not. I love telling stories. I love teaching stories. I love helping other people find theirs. That’s my story. [READ MORE...]

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From Instagram

It’s so wild to read this developing news when I It’s so wild to read this developing news when I knew in my gut back in 2012 and 2013 that something toxic this way comes… In other words, the relatively new obsession back then with phones was not only toxic to teen mental health, but also dramatically altered my conversations and daily interactions. I remember being made fun of because I didn’t have an iPhone in 2016. In my most recent young adult novel, Minerva struggles to keep up with social media, and feels horribly inadequate looking at the way some peers use it. She feels horrified at the bullying, but she can’t look away. She feels conflicted because someone who wants to be a journalist needs to pay attention to social media, right? Something’s gotta change, but how? IRL this author has begun leaving the phone in other rooms so that it can be forgotten. I am trying to invoke some kind of mantra that says, “It’s OK to not be connected all the time. It’s OK to not be on emergency alert just because an emergency *could* happen or news might be breaking. It’s OK to not be hip, or in the know, or constantly available, or the recently evolved/expected version of a ‘good’ person who should respond in a nanosecond to all possible crises.” And I wonder why I’m more anxious than I was before I had a “smart phone”? I’ve turned off notifications. I look at social media less. I am happier.💜💖💜
#happier #socialmedia #yalit #youngadult #journalism #journalist #nerdssometimesknow #yougottafollowyourheart
I love a good journalism movie. I love it especial I love a good journalism movie. I love it especially when female journalists are the focus. Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey ought to be household names. I also thought that these three words from this Slate review–“persistence, persuasion, and pleading”– really do sum up the job of a journalist, trying to get the story, build trust, and out the truth. Now I need to read the book!
#Journalist #TruthWillOut #movie #MovieRecommendation #FemaleJournalist #Journalism
2013. @ nervesofsteel is set in that time, when ce 2013. @ nervesofsteel is set in that time, when cell phones went from maybes to mandatory in teen life. Ezra Klein’s most recent podcast delves into the research about the effects on teen girls’ mental health from social media and constant online engagement. My book tells a story that begins on Instagram and ends on Twitter. 
#bullying #metoo
#mentalhealthawareness #yalit #historicalfiction #2013 #books #book #youngadult #mentalhealth #truthwillout

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