August 21, 2017

The beta reading process: 10 critical steps

I'm starting to get beta feedback on the last draft of TUBE (just in time, before I plunge into final revisions in September), and since I shared some of it, many of you have asked about my beta reading process: how I do it, how many beta readers I have, what I send them, in what format, what I ask for in return, etc.

I dug around in my blog archives and found not one, not two, but four posts on the same topic. One from 2012, on luring beta readers with cookies. Two from 2013, on connecting with beta readers and on adapting their feedback. And one from 2015, on 10 things to know about beta readers.

I think it's time for an updated post, since it's 2017 and my process has improved. So here goes.

1. Finding beta readers.

September 9, 2015

My 4-draft writing process

by Ksenia Anske

The more I write, the more I seem to understand the process of writing and drafting and the less fear I have when approaching a new book or a particular draft. All that angst and anxiety and uncertainty and doubt is mostly gone and now it's just work, hard work that pays off and that sometimes gives me a glimpse of what I could be as a writer in the future as I'm still searching for my identity and I suspect it will take me many more books to find it.

I tweeted this understanding one night and it seemed to have resonated with many of you so I thought, hell, I'll expand on it in a post and years later I'll read about it and and see what changed (if anything) and how.

You know that the most drafts I've done is five and the least is three and so far the median number of four holds true to me. It takes me roughly four drafts to write a novel and it could take me more if not for my brain that has a new story idea pressing by the time I'm done with the last draft and the pressure is overwhelming and I simply have to start writing a new book so as not to lose my mind.

July 13, 2015

My writing process is changing

by Ksenia Anske

Yesterday I have embarked on my usual task of reading the first draft of TUBE from start to finish in as short a time as possible before starting the next draft, and in these two days I have witnessed a huge change in my process. It came out of nowhere, on its own, unbidden. I had but to oblige and let it take over. It startled me. I wonder if this is some kind of a milestone or something, but I'll write it out here so it will make more sense to me, and maybe shed some light for you on your own writing process. Or tell me how yours has changed over the years, as I find it fascinating and would love to learn from you.

1. In the middle of reading I suddenly felt compelled to write a summary.

February 11, 2015

My creative process, or why it's important to be naked

by Ksenia Anske

So Tina Mailhot-Roberge asked me about my creative process. "How do you come up with ideas for books? Do they come up naturally, from beginning to end, assembled in your mind? Or do you need to brainstorm a while before a story forms? What's your creative process?"

Well, let's see. I strip naked and climb on my neighbor's roof and, flinging my post-babies boobs (they look more like shaved rabbit ears), swear at the sky both in Russian and English until either a bird craps on me and makes me shut up, or lightning strikes me and I go up in in flames, or an idea falls out of a cloud on my head in the shape of a brick and I end up writing from hell. You know, dead, but still writing. Really, this is my creative process. Okay, I forgot to say I drink hedgehog blood every morning. And at night I sleep in a sock drawer. Socks keep my skull warm, because there is no brain there, as you can see from all this nonsense I just wrote and you read. Why you're reading this, I have no idea.

October 3, 2014

HOW TO EDIT: hack your draft to pieces

by Ksenia Anske

In the frenzy of preparing to write my 6th novel, CORNERS, or 4th, really, counting SIREN SUICIDES as 1 story, I've been asked about editing. "How?" Cried a fellow writer. "How do you edit?" "Oh." I said. "It's very simple." I petted the writer. "Please stop tearing out your hair. When you get rich and famous, you'll have none left." Indeed. What a question. We all do it. Writers, I mean. Right? We all edit. Write and edit and edit and edit to death. But how? How do we do it? Is there a technique we all use? Certain rules? Do we slap ourselves 4 times on the thighs for good luck? Do we listen to the call of a corncrake before we start? Do we rub ourselves with tallow and roll in honey and walk into a cloud of buzzing bees? These are fine methods, I tell you. You're welcome to share your secrets.

Here is my secret.

It's a very secret secret.

VERY VERY SECRET SECRET.

So don't you share it with anyone, it's for you and for you only.

I TEAR MY DRAFTS APART AND CUT MOST OF THE STORY OUT.