Comments on: Reining in the red pen. http://www.dystel.com/blog/2011/08/reining-in-the-red-pen/ Mon, 26 Jun 2017 15:15:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.15 By: Kristin Laughtin http://www.dystel.com/blog/2011/08/reining-in-the-red-pen/comment-page-1/#comment-24761 Fri, 26 Aug 2011 22:05:35 +0000 http://www.dystel.com/?p=6473#comment-24761 One of my betas is a good friend (I know, I know), and it’s definitely a learning curve. With us, lots of communication helps. Rather than marking up the text too much, we’ll note a few key things and then discuss in person (or online) the need for changes and why things aren’t working. Sometimes we phrase suggestions in a round-about, questioning way, like “Were you trying to _____? Maybe it would work better if you _____?”. It’s more time-consuming and less direct, but feels less like we’re imposing on each other. This works well for us because we’re both very interested in writing and have studied it, we’re not just casual writers working on a whim, and we trust each other to be harsh as possible. We’re also not the only people reviewing each other’s work. Still, this arrangement wouldn’t work with just any friend. I actually have a harder time finding the line with friends who aren’t as close, but that’s because a couple of times it’s resulted in an immature “I don’t care what you think” response from people who won’t take criticism well.

Stay safe this weekend!

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