How do you find other like-minded writers to form a writer's group, or become beta readers. What are the advantages or disadvantages of sharing your work prior to publication?
Well, it’s my turn to be the contrarian (again). I do not, have not, and have no plans to be a part of any writers group. I have never used beta readers, nor do I plan to. Ever.
If you want to, have at it. Whatever gets you to that last page and THE END. For me, I don’t care about input from others.
It always sounds harsh when I bluntly lay it out like that, but it’s true. I don’t care what you think about my writing while I’m writing it. It’s still mine. Maybe the only time it ever will be. Down the line there will be notes, edits, critiques and thoughts from other minds as it goes through the publication process. Once a book is out, it belongs to the readers. Some will love it, others won’t. I can’t concern myself with that.
But while I’m in the middle of it? Hands off.
Part of this surely comes from my day job as a TV editor. I spend my whole life getting notes. Fixing things. Making adjustments large and small and often from people whose opinions I do not respect and whose notes actively make the end product worse. Such is the case with network executives and anyone working in Hollywood will tell you the same.
So my writing is mine.
And novels are still respected in a way that screenwriting never has been. I used to go around and around with script notes, making change after change as the original story faded farther into the mist. I’ve been in pitch meetings where the new ideas start to come out before I’ve even laid out the entire plot. It’s infuriating and demoralizing.
I know writers groups are all well-meaning and supportive places allowing for a free-flowing exchange of ideas. But if I ever struggle with a plot point, or a feeling like a scene isn’t working, I feel like that is my job as the writer to solve that problem. Hell, that’s half the fun of the job. If I bring my problem to another writer and ask them to fix it, I’d feel obligated to add their name to the list of authors. Love it or hate it, if you read one of my books you can know that you are reading only my ideas and words.
Not to say that taking advice from other writers is cheating or somehow makes your book less than your own. For most people, it’s a vital part of the process to talk it out, bounce ideas around, get some fresh perspective.
Just not for me.
I never cared for the idea of a writers room in TV. I get it. I appreciate that many great scripts have come from that process. I just like the solitude of writing. I like the lack of input. I like the ownership.
Comedy writing is different. If you can be in a room with funny people and all pitch jokes until you land on the funniest line, then the group writing process is 100% worth it. But a novel isn’t that.
I don’t have confidence in many areas of my life, but I do in my writing. I’ve never encountered a plot hole I could not fill. I don’t have structural problems that cause the whole story to collapse in the third act. I work at it to avoid those things.
I remember in a screenwriting class in college another student came up to me after class one day when I’d read my latest pages in what I was working on, and he told me that if he’d been sitting in the theater during that scene (in which someone gets a finger cut off) he would have gotten up and left.
Uh…okay. What am I supposed to do with that? Why do I care what one guy thinks? His feedback was meaningless to me because he didn’t get the story I was trying to tell. And fine. So be it. I don’t get a whole lot of stuff out there. Things that are very popular. Books and movies and TV shows, all of it. Would any of it have been any better with my input? No.
That’s the flip side of this issue too. You don’t want my opinion just as much as I don’t want yours. If you’re stuck on a plot point and you want to commiserate and vent, then I’m here for you. But I won’t give you any ideas. The ideas should come from you. Unless we officially agree to collaborate on something, then my opinion should be worthless to you.
I worry again that this all sounds too harsh. I’ll reiterate: you do you. Stay in your group. Share and brainstorm and support each other. I’ll be over here, writing.
Alone.
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