What’s in a Beta Reader? Part 2
My eye (Photo credit: neuroticcamel)
“I rolled my eyes around the room, searching for her.”
My beta red-flagged this sentence, and made her remarks in the margins.
“Unless your MC is physically removing her eyes from their sockets, she can’t roll them around the room. Or is that what you mean? Can she?”
Um, no.
No, she cannot physically remove her eyeballs, and roll them around the room. I had to laugh, and then rewrite the sentence. These are the tiny errors that we as writers, all caught up in our story, usually miss.
I write fantasy, so the MC removing her eyeballs from their sockets wouldn’t be too far-fetched. But, no, she can’t. Nor is that what I meant to say.
I meant to say that she gazed around the room. Looked around the room. Eyed the room.
Our betas are useful for finding a wide array of issues. This was one of my funnier ones. They aren’t always funny. But that is something to keep in mind when reading comments from a beta (or proofreader, or editor). Humor. Don’t hold so tightly to your story that you become blinded by what others tell you is wrong. They are supposed to find problems. And we are supposed to fix them.
Have you tried to roll your eyes across the room lately?
WRITE ON!
*Related Posts: What’s In A Beta Reader?
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Laney McMann's Blog 
Not lately. But I did have a dream about a week ago that I pulled my eye out of my socket and put it in a container… Great advice even though sometimes we don’t want our mistakes caught. Better they catch them than our audience.
Janet
March 27, 2012 at 2:02 am
Ha! Well at least that was the intent in your dream, odd as that is. 😉
I am definitely at the place where I want my mistakes caught, and corrected. I’ve been at this game for quite a while now. Ready to let #1 go, so I can concentrate on #2.
Have a super day, Janet 😉
March 27, 2012 at 8:24 am
The old “Wandering Body Part” I love it!
April 14, 2012 at 10:31 pm
Right! I have had quite a few odd happenings of the human anatomy. Sounds like you have as well. 😉
April 15, 2012 at 9:46 am
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