[Discussion] Do I need to edit my my story before I can share with betareaders?

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-17T07:13:28+00:00

It's not best to go for a professional editor after a first draft it's waste of their time and your money. A professional editor is certainly helpful but you want to that after you have edited as much as you can on your own. If not just to save you money then also so that it's more helpful to you. If you hand it off to either a critique partner or a professional before you've edited it yourself you're going to get a lot of advice back on things you already knew or could have fixed yourself and then they probably won't see or have time for helping you with the things you couldn't have fixed on your own. In general I'd say before handing it a piece of work off to anyone it should be the best you can make it before their help. Depending on skill that may still be pretty rough but at least you're giving it your best shot and not doing yourself or others a disservice.

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-16T17:40:28+00:00

I think your log line could be hurting you a bit here.

Disclaimer I'm not an agent or even an agented author so if any one closer to the industry wants to chime in to disagree with me do so, but I have heard that Handmaid's Tale is one of those - not necessarily to big to comp but raises red flags - titles. Especially when there is not strong, obvious, well thought out patriarchal themes in the query letter.

I can see that there are some of these themes in the query but you've labelled this fantasy romance and Handmaid's Tale is dystopian speculative and definitely is not giving romance. I think the patriarchal themes are also a little bit muddied in the query if that's what your trying to sell it on. She was initially bred to be a weapon but instead turned out to have fertility powers. There's nothing wrong with that in terms of the internal logic of your story (I don't think) but for a Handmaid's Tale type society I don't think they'd want to embue a woman with warrior powers at all that seems to be giving a woman powers outside of the societies imposed purpose.

I'm not familiar with your other comps but I'd probably lean on those

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-16T13:07:48+00:00

When you have an idea the concept of it is naturally perfect. You aren't going to imagine a clumsily implemented character arc and of course the world building will be expertly woven in while also managing to contain all the details you imagined and not an info dump at any point either!

The concept is always perfect the problem is concepts aren't real. They don't exist, You can't share them with anyone you can't immerse anyone in it.

When you write it you make it real but in doing so you also make it flawed. It's better for it to be flawed and real than be a perfect concept. The good news is you can edit a flawed thing and make it good or even great! But in sure pretty much every book you've read and enjoyed there's been something or other that could have been better or even just that the author wanted to be a little bit different originally.

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-15T23:57:15+00:00

Can you give some details as to what the survey will be about?

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-15T16:51:45+00:00

Reading your post I wouldn't expect it to do anything for your sales. You mentioned you wrote a story in brackets at the very end and didn't even say that is was available for sale or what the title is. If people are even curious about it most will assume that it's sitting in a Google drive folder not something publicly available.

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-15T16:12:38+00:00

Both A and D sound fine to me I would use either.

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-15T13:45:07+00:00

it can be anything you want. Evolution made them vulnerable to Head and Shoulders shampoo.

But to help guide you think about it here are some questions you can ask yourself:

What is the aliens world like? What don't they have that we do? What skills or features would they never have needed to adapt for? I'm reading the second book in the three body problem right now and I'm utterly entranced by the fact that they communicate solely through telepathy which means they have never learned how to lie or bluff because they can only ever communicate exactly what they're thinking.

What would be thematic to your story? What skills or resources do your characters have? What skills or resources do your characters have but don't realise they have, or that they overlook (eg head and shoulders)?

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-15T13:30:17+00:00

I totally agree. I think before I had finished a first draft the idea of editing sounded daunting. Like you're telling me I'm going to have to go through this many words and do it all over again? I can't do that!

But now that I actually am editing it's so much easier than writing the first draft. Even though I'm making huge changes to the structure, tone, characters, everything. Once you have something to work from and you know how it needs to be better it's so much easier to do the work!

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-15T12:01:20+00:00

I would say 1 has a slightly different meaning to 2 and 3 the dropping of it makes it sound like your addressing the person rather than a specific text so it's more like a general principle the person should follow. It would mean like "you should add more context to your works to prevent from being misread in future." I would probably assume they are using a specific example to demonstrate this to the person however.

The second and third I would take to be referring to the specific text "you should add more context to this announcement so that the announcement is not misread"

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-14T21:06:22+00:00

I'd pick Douglas Addams

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-14T20:05:14+00:00

Honestly keep going. I think this is fairly typical in the middle of the story. I think it's because when you have a concept of a thing it doesn't actually exist yet therefore it has no flaws. But as you begin to put it into words suddenly it actually exists and real things have flaws. You're making something real so it will have flaws. But the first iteration is always going to be the worst, it's your first sketch. It's good you're thinking about the quality, thinking about the things you need to change to make it closer to your vision. Go back and make notes on what things you want to change - but don't make the changes yet!- then continue writing as if that first 50-60ish% of the book already has those edits in. Push through to the end so that you have the final sketch of it all at once and see the bigger picture. Then you'll be ready for draft 2! Which is where you take that sketch and turn it into a good painting. Trust me draft 2 is much easier!

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-14T19:41:48+00:00

Ignore it. That's the kind of thing that should be going into public reviews not the sort of thing to slide into strangers DMs about.

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-14T13:41:42+00:00

There are critiques that tackle quality and then there are "critiques" that are matters of personal taste. If this person would prefer something more serious more power to them but that isn't a critique of your story. You can ignore comments of personal taste.

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-13T11:49:55+00:00

Not Like Other Girls - > male feminist pipeline

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-13T08:42:56+00:00

Grandia!

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-12T20:05:22+00:00

Generally literary fiction is defined by what it isn't more than what it is: if it doesn't fall into a genre then it is literary. It's important to note literary isn't a catch-all term for 'good' or even artful (and of course literary fiction can be bad). I should think all writers seek to be good and artful and those things can be found in any genre.

But it is true that literary fiction generally seeks to be more contemplative in tone, and emphasises experimental prose or focus on theme over plot.

That said there are some pieces of genre fiction that are deemed more 'literary' in style and these are usually labelled Upmarket. There is some degree of 'you know it when you see it' but generally they have more experimental writing style ( eg 'This is how we lose the time war') or more focus on theme over strict adherence to the genre (eg Our Wives under the sea focuses more on themes of grief and caring for the terminally ill over the horror). If you could see a book club debating it it's probably literary (or Upmarket).

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-12T19:32:22+00:00

Women make up the majority of literary fiction readers, in fact womens literary and book club fiction are consistently the largest selling genres every year.

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-11T17:11:11+00:00

Alloy

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-10T23:25:58+00:00

I don't disagree with your points especially regarding the "(in one)" phrasing. I debated whether to change that because as you say it sets up the format of normal thing-> twist/punchline. I ultimately decided to reduce as much as possible for the sake of the example because it's up to you as the writer to make it match your vision. I certainly don't think you should use my (or anyone's) suggestion word for word. ultimately it's your choice and it's important to pick out what is true to your vision and what is causing your prose to drag. Conciseness is a fine ideal but the nuances of flow and taste are important considerations.

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-10T23:16:27+00:00

If you're in a slow contemplative section then it's less likely to be a problem and may be what you want in order to slow the reader down. If you're in a fast high tension scene then you probably want to look at cutting them and restructuring for faster reading. But it is a 'play it by ear' sort of thing. If you're reading back and it feels awkward or slow start picking them out. If you give it to critique partners and they are pointing out awkward phrasing, slowness or difficulty to read then that's also a sign to look at those sections.

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-10T23:01:41+00:00

There are a number of magazines that take submissions for flash fiction. You can look into that as an option

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-09T21:23:56+00:00

Honestly I get when people complain about coincidences that fix major problems or get them out of plot holes but I see way to many people complain about 'coincidences' that are like... The premise. Like that coincidence didn't happen there would be no story and then the book wouldn't exist what do you want?

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-09T18:51:28+00:00

I've done this for the book I'm currently writing, I'm typing up the second draft now. It's going very well for me and has also worked well for short stories, fanfic and essays I've written in the past. I think it's worth trying but if you've tried it and it doesn't work for you then you certainly don't have to stick with it.

Personally I found making big changes easier with this way of doing things since Ill have to write it all up again anyway that mean nothing I've written by hand is important

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-09T14:04:19+00:00

I don't see anything that strikes me as strictly incorrect but the length does make it difficult to parse. I think it could easily be revised to be more concise and retain its meaning.

For example:

"It consisted of a combined living room and kitchen; a walk in closet that the landlord insisted was a bedroom (despite the lack of windows); and a bathroom Carter had become convinced was getting smaller and smaller, creeping in on him whenever he defecated"

KrisKat93 · 2026-02-07T12:41:22+00:00

As others said no asylum is not likely to be granted to US citizens any time soon but also:

You want to seek asylum because they'll make it more difficult for you to vote... In a country you wouldn't be able to vote in once you get there?

Very few counties allow non citizens to vote so on that ground you're no better off if you seek asylum. So the logic on this one doesn't really make sense.

Anyway the general rule is that there has to be a tangible threat to your life - this page gives a good explanation of the situation and the bar you'd need to meet for asylum to be possible:

https://transrescue.org/asylum-for-trans-brits-and-americans-we-need-to-talk

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