I had the pleasure of interviewing Beth Green, freelance writer and aspiring novelist, for the first edition of the title of this post! I first met Beth through one of the Manuscript Wishlist (MSWL) holiday party Google Hangouts in 2016. Lot’s of great resources for aspiring authors there too. Anyway, we chatted and offered to help each other with beta reading. It was so great to have feedback from her and to get to know her over the past year or so. Thank you to MSWL for having such fun online events. Okay, onto the actual Q and A. First, let’s learn a little more about Beth…
Beth Green grew up on a sailboat but these days is most often found ashore—currently in Prague, Czech Republic. Beth is a former reporter, English teacher and travel blogger; she is now a full-time freelance writer. When not writing for clients or plotting international crimes to take place in her fiction, Beth enjoys reading, scuba diving, and the art of slow travel.
What do you write? (genre etc)
I write crime fiction because I am fascinated by the darker side of the human psyche and I love both reading and writing stories where the world is torn apart and then set to rights.
Favorite book that you think is underrated?
Ooh, tough question! I am not always sure how the books I read are viewed—I am pretty much an opportunist when it comes to reading, so I don’t always check out reviews before I dive into the book. That said, I know that I love the fantasy and dystopian books by fellow Prague expat author Sonya Lano and that she doesn’t have the readership she deserves. Her book The Ever Spirits is dark and beautiful and immersive and her ongoing Heiress series (Heiress of Healing, Heiress of Magic) is captivating!
Favorite book from childhood?
Oh, so many! I am an only child who was homeschooled on a boat (that’s another long story…) and I read ALL. THE. TIME. A few children’s titles that I read and re-read were classics: The Princess and the Goblin, the Narnia books, Harriet the Spy. I also read a lot of adult fiction even when I was a kid (a lot of it went over my head, I’m sure!) with favorites that I still re-read regularly: The Valley of Horses by Jean M. Auel (hence my current pre-historical projects!), The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy, Jurassic Park. I also went through a phase at 10 or 11 when I scared myself silly reading Dean Koontz and Stephen King late at night.
Use three words to describe what keeps you writing and persevering?
The story wants to be told. (That’s not 3 words, sorry. I’m not good at word limits…)
Where do you draw your inspiration to keep writing?
From travel and meeting people and questioning everything.
Do you have any tricks/tips for aspiring authors you’d like to share?
Try new things! I switch up what I do and how I do it all the time. Some stuff works, other stuff doesn’t, but trying new stuff always helps me—whether I’m looking for motivation or inspiration or to level up on craft.
As a writer who/what is your muse/familiar?
If I were a witch I’d 100% choose a jaguar as a familiar. But the Pottermore test told me my Patronus is an orangutan or something else ridiculous, so IDK. How well do we really know ourselves?
What was one of the hardest scenes for you to write?
Generally, for me, it seems that if a scene is difficult in the first draft, I have missed the mark somewhere—in my plotting, in my assessment of the character motives. Usually, it’s a sign that I need to go back into the planning phase and rejig it until I can get in the zone and make it just flow. In my current project (a thriller set in Europe), I am stuck on the transition between the second and third acts for one of the POV characters. I’ve tried to write it about ten times and keep coming up on a wall. I have been avoiding getting back to the outline phase and ripping stuff up, but I know I will have to do it before I can move on!
What do you think helps you to become a better writer?
Reading. Reading lots. Getting over the fear of having other people read your work and owning your style, including its flaws.
How do you think being someone else’s beta reader helps inform your own writing process? Or helps you become a better writer?
Being someone’s beta reader is so helpful! (Like yours, Christi!) It’s helpful on several levels. First, on a craft level, it’s important to train yourself to look for the things that a reader responds to in a work in progress and to ask yourself, “Why?” Why did the author choose to do this? Why does it work or not work? Why does it seem out of place or unpolished or effortless or deft? Why does it produce an emotional response? You can do this of course with a published book too, but when you’re in the beta process you’re at a place where you might be able to get a dialogue going with the writer. Then, on a more emotional level, it helps build up the expectation of criticism. Getting feedback on something you’ve written and poured so much of yourself into can be distressing. Putting myself in another writer’s shoes, trying to couch feedback so it’s helpful but not devastating, helps me put the feedback I get on my own work in perspective. Plus, it’s just so cool to see books that are on their way to the world!
Thank you, Beth, for sharing your insights!
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You can also connect with her on Twitter @bethverde, Facebook.com/bethgreenwritesor Instagram @bethtravel.
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