How early readers keep a story on track
Blessed are the early readers – and the late ones too – for they shall spot the untightened gears and pulleys that might otherwise derail the hurtling train.
I retained quite the retinue of early and late readers for my debut novel On The Way Out: Barry Maguire, Brian Joyce, Carolina Batista, Colm Burtchaell, Conor Hughes, Declan Varley, Dymphna Culhane, Eamon Loughlin, Eilín O’Carroll, Emma Horan, Helen Bree, John Culhane, Kellie Thornton, Marie Shannon, Mary Halligan, Maurice Horan, Michael Horan, Michelle Horan, Mike Quinn, Noreen Gilligan, Pat Conway, Peter Browne, Sinead Horan, Siobhan Corcoran, Stephen Carolan, Suzanne Walsh, Shirley Byrne and Veronica Keys.
Colm Burtchaell was an early reader of On The Way Out – and launch MC too. Pic: Patrick Joseph Howard
And, of course, my editor Aisling Moroney, the ultimate early and late reader.
Apart from anything else, if I could persuade all of them to buy the book, I would be well on the way to a best seller. Needs must…
On a serious note, their generosity and curiosity bring so much to my writing. What I’ve learned about early and late readers is that you must understand that square pegs fit only into square holes, not round ones.
I have readers who are best when given the first chapter. I have others who can handle a later chapter without any earlier context. I have some who must read every line chronologically and others who can dip in and out.
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Some can handle an unexpected diversion and others who like things to be as they expect them to be. Some love humour; others gravitate towards the melancholic. Therefore, it is crucial when sending something to an early/late reader that you know why you have chosen that reader for that tract.
This is not to say that you simply seek out readers who will tell you what you want to hear. To the contrary, you seek out early readers who are best equipped to critique what you are sending them.
Quite regularly you will get feedback that doesn’t just simply wave you through. That’s when readers really bring value – challenging you as the writer, forcing you to look anew, perhaps drag you back from a self-indulgent riff.
What I have learned works for me is that it is best to have only two or three early readers reading your stuff at any given time.
You can get too much feedback.
Siobhan Corcoran and Peter Browne, two of my early / late readers.
You can get too many opinions.
The danger is that you lose your relationship with what you are writing. Early readers are not rewriters. They tell you what they like or what they don’t like. But they also accept that all final decisions are yours. And they also respect your instinct and aspiration for the piece. Otherwise, they shouldn’t be one of your early readers.
If you are lucky enough, as I am, to have a large group of early readers, you can also hold some of them at bay and bring them in – super sub like – as a fresh pair of eyes at the right time.
If Eddi, your early reader (lame enough word play that, I accept; but Eddi Reader fans will hopefully appreciate it, and here’s the beautiful diversion of an ER song, while we’re at it) only gets to the novel when you’ve nine chapters done, and is someone who can embrace nine chapters, you they will give you a very fresh perspective.
People can only read a piece of work so many times before it begins to blur.
There is a very special category of late reader who joins the fray purely to find the typos and clangers. In gory films, they are the ones who mop up the crime scene. Nothing fazes them. Nothing impresses them. They’ve seen it all before. Their families don’t even know what they do.
Apart from being eternally grateful to my early and late readers for their great work, I also enjoyed their burgeoning relationship with the novel. Many of my early readers turned up at the launch of On The Way Out knowing that this would be the very first time they’d have read the whole thing.
Buy On The Way Out in your local bookshop or from our online store
They were keen to see how various suggestions they made had come to pass and how I had handled certain things and where the story had got to.
I raise a glass to the early and late readers of On the Way Out, and early and late readers everywhere. You know who you are.
Yours is a noble calling, rewarded only by a mention in the Acknowledgements section and – now, witness the death of my best-seller hack above – a free signed copy of the book.
MORE ON THE CRAFT OF WRITING: See HERE. I’m adding to this on an ongoing basis.
