It’s amazing what a kind word can do. An encouraging word. Or four.
In my last post, I wrote about the crash that often comes after things appear to be going well.
This is where beta readers can be helpful. In my case, these are really gamma readers. These are readers who combine affection for me (I hope) with a certain critical nous. They encourage while letting me know where things are going wrong.
I call them gamma readers because they read the first edited draft. Beta readers get to see something closer to the final cut.
I have two gamma readers at the moment. One of them is my wife, Laura.
Today, after having read chapters two and three of the revised draft (“a few times”, she said) she told me it was good.
“I would read it,” she said.
Putting aside the emotional bond and the fact that I was offering chocolate as a bribe at the time, those four words mean a lot.
And now I get back to work.
(Dryer photo courtesy of Ryan McGuire at Gratisography)