Magic Thursday: Using Critique Partner and Beta Reader Feedback to Improve Your Writing with Lauren Rose!

Before submitting a manuscript to an agent/publisher, sending it off to an editor, or self-publishing, it is important to ensure it’s the best possible version. But not everyone finds this as easy as others may, so how can we make the most of our resources?

Critique Partners

A critique partner is a fellow writer with whom you swap manuscripts. You work together, sharing parts or all your work, and swapping feedback. The great thing about working with them is that you can redraft using their feedback and then continue to swap drafts until you’re 100% happy with your work. Working with a critique partner during the writing process is not only a great way to keep yourself motivated and on track, but they can help you shape your writing as you go.

Working with one throughout your writing career can help you improve your overall writing and critiquing skills.

Beta Readers

A beta reader is someone who reads your work as an average person would, providing feedback and comments from the point of view of an everyday reader. They can provide feedback on things such as the plot, characters, and how parts may confuse them. Using their feedback is a great way to find out why your text isn’t working, such as plot holes or flow issues, and they can share what they liked about the overall story, and what they didn’t enjoy.

Using beta readers to test your work before sending it off is a great way to ensure readers will get the most out of your book, and ensures you understand your novel as a reader and not just as an author.

Source: Deposit Photos

In my opinion, fellow readers and writers are the best resources we writers have to improve our writing and shape our manuscript into something seamless before we send it off and/or share it with the world. 

I have my own personal critique partner – a friend and fellow writer E.K. Earle, who has been my critique partner for many years. With her help and invaluable feedback, I was able to craft my novel Brute, which I self-published on the 23rd of May this year. 

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Brute

Handsome. Strapping. Revered. It seems like Narcisse has it all – and he does. That is, until he sets his sights on Bluebell, the local beauty, and making her his wife. And Narcisse always gets his way. But you know what they say - happy wife, happy life. And his new wife is decidedly unhappy.

Things only get worse when people from the village begin disappearing and fear begins to haunt their movements, as an evil enchantress comes to claim old debts.

Can this brute win over his wife, and stop the evil plaguing his home?

Lauren Rose

Lauren Rose is a paranormal fantasy romance writer from South Australia. She has a fantasy short story filled with romantic elements published in an anthology, and has many more stories underway that she hopes to share with the world soon. With a BA in English and creative writing, and an MA in editing and publishing under her belt, she has always had a connection with reading and writing, and is looking forward to a career where she can work with and help others who share the same passion.  

When she’s not reading or writing she’s binge watching TV shows, playing video games, or harassing her cats with her partner in crime. You can find out more about Lauren Rose and her current WIPs at laurenrosewriter.com