Why alpha readers rock

If you're part of the online writer-blogger community, you've probably heard a lot about beta readers—those friendly, helpful people who read finished drafts of your manuscript and give you feedback. This feedback can range from general impressions to an in-depth picking apart of grammar, mood, pace, character, description, etc.

But there's another kind of reader who can be just as important, and for some just as indispensable: the alpha reader. Alpha readers are slightly different than beta readers in that they don't read the entire manuscript at once, but work with you as you write it, reading scenes or chapters at a time.

Over spring break a couple of weeks back, Big Chimp and I decided to be each other's alpha readers for our current works-in-progress. I have to say, it's been really helpful so far. Though Big Chimp and I first met in a creative writing program and have been working on various creative projects ever since, we've never regularly exchanged work, often finding excuses like "it's not done yet," or "it needs another round of editing."

In our new system, we each write (or edit) a chapter of our novel during the week and submit it to the other person on the weekend. It's only been three weeks, but this system has helped me so much with my WIP that I'm kind of kicking myself that I've never had an alpha reader before. In our first round of exchanges, Big Chimp identified the major flaw in my writing: I've been using too much description—too much showing and not enough telling. This has helped me to see my writing process and how it's evolved over time. In the first draft of my WIP, I concentrated on just getting the story out, flaws and all. As such, I knew there was probably too much telling, too much exposition—something I could fix in the second draft. But when the time came, I went too far in the other direction, ending up with a lot of surface description, but not explaining a lot of the things that needed clarification. Now I'm back to a more natural balance, and my writing is flowing better because of that. But imagine if I hadn't had an alpha reader to keep me on track: it probably would have taken me much longer to realize what was wrong, and I would have had to do even more revision and rewriting.

Reading Big Chimp's work has also benefited me a lot. He's the best writer I know, and I can learn a lot from studying his sentence structure, pacing, and character development. I can only hope that he finds my work as helpful as I find his.

So what about you, writer friends? Do you find alpha and beta readers useful? Do you have a set system or, like me, are you still figuring out what works best for you?