This one was a new experience. I half wrote this a few months ago, and then picked it up and finished it at work. This new job I have gives me time to do schoolwork and writing etc. In between calls so it's been kind of nice. I'm looking forward to getting through school quicker, and getting more writing done now than has been possible in the past.
In this book, my character Elias has his story continued. It also acts as sort of a bridge between the two other shorts I wrote, "The Choice," and "The Black Oak," (I might need to work on more original naming schemes)
I am going to try and do something else different this time around as well. The other two shorts I released I did a "Free for five days deal." That isn't happening this time. Doing that garnered no reviews or feedback and didn't seem to do much for my stories. This time around I am going to keep the price at the $0.99 and see what I can do with that. If someone decides they didn't like it, all they are out is a buck. If they do like it, hopefully they will go back and check out my other shorts.
I am presently working on getting a battery for my Laptop. When this arrives I will be able to write and work more efficiently at my job. No emailing files back and forth. I look forward to it. Then I will have the Dragon's apprentice Book 1 finished in the next couple of months as far as edits go, and I will hopefully have Grimmack the Goblin poke his head up sometime as well.
I am looking forward to considering myself a writer again, as I've kind of had a hiatus from working on my projects due to school and work. I'm glad to be back.
I am working on a short story that will soon be up on Kindle. This one will bridge my other two shorts "The Choice," and "The Black Oak" and create a connection between them, while continuing Elias' story. I'm very happy with this piece so far and I am enjoying having time between phone calls at work to devote myself more to my writing. I look forward to getting some long awaited editing done once I get a pass for my laptop, and I hope to do NaNoWriMo again this year.
To get feedback I let two of my new co-workers read through the short. It's not a long piece, at the moment sitting at about 5.5k words and it's meant to be quick and to the point. I made a point of actually not digging into details that weren't pertinent to the story. And happily I got two levels of feedback.
The first reader said he rather enjoyed it, pointed out a few punctuation issues I might need to work on but pretty much left me at that. I enjoy getting the feedback and the praise and happily discussed my other two shorts a little with him, and he may pick them up on his Kindle (If not, I'm not worried about it.)
The second reader immediately started discussing very technical aspects of the fey, as they are part of my story, pushing about whether my demon was the christian version, more elemental, etc... etc... He went into naming schemes, base roots of these different aspects and pulled things a lot deeper than I had an intent to go. I found that fantastic but heavy feeling.
I bring this up because these are both two kinds of Alpha readers you may get, and they both have great points, and bad ones.
First of all, remember the first person you are writing for is you. If you aren't enjoying it, question why and fix it. Feedback is great, but measure it against your vision of the story. Take everything you hear and consider it, but don't get married to any one idea someone else gives you.
The first Alpha reader was great, but I didn't get anything constructive from him. I am glad he enjoyed the story, but I was hoping i could at least get an answer to "was there anything that felt out of place, or glaringly inaccurate" Instead I got a warm response, and that's good but it doesn't help me improve.
The second Alpha went the opposite direction and I was getting information overload. While he had some great mentions and ideas I may add and use, a lot of the information he thought I needed at the end of the day does not fit my vision or the feel of the story I am working on. I am not looking at giving people a deep discussion on the Seelie/Unseelie courts or spending a long time defining my demon at this point. That is beyond the scope of the story I want to tell. Some of the information is important and likely to be added, but if I double my word count just to go into tangents I'm really not treading the path I want.
The point is, remember when you get feedback to balance it. Look for good feedback but don't worry about taking it all. I will probably share with both again in the future. I will also be better prepared on how to elicit feedback, or temper it from each now that I know what to expect.
The best alpha reader I have had to date, and I have to give him credit, is Brady Frost. On the first book I finished for NaNoWriMo he gave me incredible feedback. That book is still being changed and edited, and I'm hoping someday to mail him a signed copy so he can see all I did to it. He gave me great feedback, didn't push too much information, and spent a lot of time making great notes. Part of the reason I want to finish that book and publish it, is because of his contribution to it.
That is all I have for the moment. If you have opinions or comments, as always share bellow. Feel free to tell me I'm full of it, or add to the conversation.
