Beta.

[dragonlady7]

Dave laughs when I talk about beta-reading. Being a software engineer, he is agonizingly familiar with the whole software development process from which the term "beta" originates.
I am going to follow the guidelines of that process for the development of this novel, because it is a very thoroughly-considered and easy-to-understand workflow model. Most people are familiar with the concept of a "beta release", thanks to Google and now even Amazon's free usage of that phrase for some of their services. It is also heavily used in fanfiction writing.

But, as understanding of anything other than "betas" is a little sketchy, I'm going to write the whole process out, partly to prove to Dave that I do know what I'm talking about.



The first stage is, of course, development. You have the concept, you come up with a general design. The equivalent in writing is the research and outlining and freewriting I did before Nov 1. I didn't post that, as it was quite nebulous, apart from a few vaguely-related short stories that I posted over on treigylgweith.

The second stage is the alpha release. This is a rough, rough version, wherein you've done the basic structural work and may have a bit of it polished up. The alpha is a proof-of-concept, and it is used as a demo for investors, to show them that yes, you can do this, you have done most of it, and it will work. And see how cool it will be?
The alpha demo is the kind of demo where you don't let anybody else touch the computer, and you take the program through a very carefully-rehearsed route and don't do anything important, because you know the program will break if you so much as sneeze at one of those greyed-out buttons. But enough of it is there that you can show it, and have parts of it look shiny.

This is what's posted so far on treigylgweith, friends-locked. Those scenes are mostly unpolished, and may contain continuity or characterization or grammar or spelling errors. The alpha draft is the entire novel, structurally, and I've proven now that I can write a whole novel (squee!), and you could probably even read most of it and find it okay. But God, you wouldn't publish that.

The third stage is, of course, the beta release. This is usually the longest stage. Everything is there, and it looks like it works. You may even make a public beta, once you've tested it on a smaller group (think Google News, which has been in public beta for like three years now and never breaks). The purpose of a beta is to discover where the thing is broken, and to fix it. This is best done by having a number of people use it for real-life situations, including really wacky stuff you never envisioned them needing to do. The most important part of the beta period is feedback. You want people to break it and tell you what's wrong.

This is what I'm starting to post right now on treigylgweith. I'm going through the alpha draft, weeding out obvious errors, rewriting so it flows better, and posting it chapter by chapter with questions for beta readers about what I think might be broken and whether they find a problem there. I am very interested in feedback now.

The fourth stage is the release candidate. Once you're confident you've fixed what people were breaking in your beta, you put forth a release candidate. This is a version that you think works (unlike the beta, that you were just pretty sure worked). You put it out and people keep trying to break it, but if your beta period was any good, it shouldn't break. If it does break, you had darn well better fix it and put out a new release candidate pronto, because it shouldn't break. (But, it usually does.)

The final stage is the Golden Master. This is a release candidate that nobody could break. This is the version of the software that you send to Production. It's called the Golden Master because it's what you burn on the CD (CDs are usually gold on the underside, or used to be anyway-- mine are all green now). The Golden Master is what ships.

In my case, the Golden Master is going to be what I send off to publishers. And then hopefully they're going to break it so I can fix it to their specifications. So the analogy doesn't quite hold up. But, as far as I'm concerned, it holds up well enough-- this whole phase of writing, on the livejournal and all, is to make the best novel I can. It may not be the best novel to sell. Publishers have different concerns than me. I just want to do the best I can, with a little help from my friends. :)


So, that's what I mean when I say that Currently Still Untitled Novel (The One About Vikings)* is now in beta over at treigylgweith, under friendslock: I'm posting a second, more polished draft, chapter by chapter, and am starving for feedback. Go on over, comment or email me to be added, and hopefully enjoy the read. You don't have to promise to give feedback to read it. You can just read it, like it's a real novel. But if you see something broken, please say so.

(in re: the title-- I could just be like Friends and call it The One About The Vikings-- they titled all their episodes like that. Though how that worked out over all their seasons I can't imagine. How many of them were called The One Where Ross Fucks Things Up With Rachel? I only watched like six Friends episodes ever and they all coulda been called that. Not that the first season or so wasn't funny.)