Important: This is the 5th last story of 2025. I’ll be taking the last half of December and first half of January off from posting. I’ll be back January 16th, 2026 with the first story of the new year!
Written: 25.10.07, 25.10.09
Words: 2,901
Hallucifer, C2C, 2025’s Thanksgiving
Sam bit his lip as he turned the info over in his head, sitting in the parking lot of a motel, this doesn’t make sense.
“What doesn’t?” At the look, Lucifer shrugged, “What? I can be helpful sometimes.”
“I just…” Sam let out a breath, before turning to half-face the passenger seat, “Why would something that can make itself look like anyone, try to get me to a second location to kill me? Why not try and kill me right there in the bunker? And,” He shifted in his seat, brows creasing, “How’d it even get into the bunker? That thing is warded against stuff we’ve never even heard of! How’d some run-of-the-mill shifter get in?”
“Is that why we’re here?”
Sam nodded, “There might be more waiting for me to come back, I couldn’t risk it.” He brought his hands up, bringing his fingers together before tapping the bottom of his chin, “I can’t believe another holiday- oh shit!” Sam leaned back against the driver’s seat, letting out a loud groan, “I left the stove on!”
“… So?”
“All the food! It’s ruined!” Sam closed his eyes and shook his head against the back of the seat, “Fuck.”
“I’m sure the food’s fine. Your brother said Cas was gonna take care of it.”
“Yeah, but that wasn’t Dean, so the chances he actually called Cas are probably in the negative thousands.”
“Well… why don’t you call him.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Cas, you idiot.” That got the giant to crack an eye open, “He has his angel power back now, right? Get him to smite the shifters then go find your brother.”
Sam opened his mouth to rebuttal, but stopped himself a moment later, shit, that’s actually a good plan. Why didn’t I think of that?
“I mean, technically, you did.”
Liking the story? Read the FULL story (and almost 200 more full short stories) here!
I know I’ve already showed you guys a way to Burn things in Photoshop, but, that was with the Burn tool, which is objectively the ‘easy’ way to add that effect to your pictures.
But, you guys have come a long way since the first few tutorials, and with Halloween coming up, I thought now would be a great time to introduce you to the more complicated way to burn your pictures. This way I’m going to show you allows you to be more precise in your burning, which can be extremely helpful if you’re trying to edit a more detailed photo.
Step 1
As always, we’ll want to start with a brand new PHSH document and an image. I didn’t want to complicate things too much for the purposes of the tutorial, so I chose a simple building.
You can, of course, choose whatever kind of picture you’d like: the image above, a different kind of building, an ex’s face, a car, animal, etc. Whatever floats your boat! This effect should work with any kind of picture.
Once you’ve selected the picture you want to use, we’re going to need to make a Group. To do this, go down to the Layers panel and select the Group icon.
Next, we’re going to need to make a selection of the subject of the image. There’s a couple different ways to do this, so I will say to do whichever one you’re most comfortable with. For me, this means using the Quick Select tool and dragging it around the picture until everything I want is inside the dotted lines. For my specific picture, that’s just going to be the front of the building.
Now, we’re going to add a Layer Mask to the Group. To do this, go down to the bottom of the Layers Panel, and then click on the square that has a black circle in the middle of it. (This is the Layer Mask button)
The Layer Mask should only take on the shape of what you’ve selected. If it doesn’t, deselect (or hit CTRL + Z to Undo the last action) and try selecting the area and creating the Layer Mask again.
If you’re also not sure whether or not you’ve successfully created a Layer Mask because the thumbnail didn’t come up, you can go up to the top menu and then select Layer, then scroll down to Layer Mask and click the Reveal All option. This should make the thumbnail show up in the Layers panel, if it wasn’t already.
Step 2
Once that’s done, we’re going to start adding the ‘burn’ to the picture, which means we’re going to be playing around with the colours.
Before we do this, I’d recommend making a copy of your picture as-is, just in case you mess up/don’t like how things turn out/get confused and need a reminder of what the original looked like.
First thing we’re going to do, is go to Adjustments (which should be sitting on top of your Layers Panel) and add a Black and White Gradient Map and set it to 90% Opacity. The Gradient Map should be the last button in the last row, and looks like a gradual black to white square.
If, like me, your Gradient Map turned your Layer Mask the wrong colour, don’t panic! It applied the last/current colour in your Colour Swatches. (The ones showing in the swatches on the left-hand side at the very bottom of the Tool menu)
All you have to do to change this, is click the drop-down arrow next to the gradient that showed up in the Properties box, and then click a black to white gradient from the list.
Then, we’re going to add a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment (the sun looking icon in the Adjustments panel) and set the Brightness to -50 and the Contrast to 50.
Then we’re going to add a Curves adjustment (the 3rd icon in the Adjustment panel, that looks like an ‘s’ on a graph). The Curves adjustment values you change will depend on the initial colours of your picture, so if at the end things don’t look quite right, you can come back to this panel and re-adjust the values to see if it helps.
And finally, we’re going to add another Brightness/Contrast adjustment with the values of:
Brightness: -40
Contrast: 100
Once those are done, the picture should look like a higher contrasted black and white of the original.
Step 3
Create a new Group and name it something appropriate like Burn, Soot, Ash, Char, etc. And drop the first Group we made inside it.
Next, add a Layer Mask to the new group and fill it with Black. You might be able to do this by simply pressing CTRL + I on your keyboard. If not, you can Invert the colours by right-clicking and selecting the Invert Colour option.
Step 4
Now comes the fun part! We’re going to use any kind of Brush you want, and use it to brush the Layer Mask over any/every area of the picture you want to appear ashy/charred/burned. Make sure your brush colour is set to White, otherwise it won’t work.
You might find it helpful to separate the different areas of char into their own Groups. As long as you keep them all under the umbrella Char group, the brushing will work to uncover the black and white. Breaking them into different groups can be helpful if you uncover part of the mask where you didn’t want it and go to Erase. If it’s close to another area, you’ll end up erasing that part, as well, whereas if it’s in it’s own group, other parts won’t be affected.
Step 5 (Optional)
If you chose a picture with a smooth surface, (like a person’s skin) you can make the burn look more realistic by adding some texture to it!
To add texture, you can use any picture of a plain textured surface you may have, or, go to Filter – Texture and then click on the texture you’d like to add.
If using the picture method:
Place and re-size the textured image to fit the confines of your picture. You’ll also want to add it to whichever Group corresponds to the area you’re texturing. (Just so things don’t get confusing)
Once you’ve got it in the correct position, you’ll want to make it black and white. To do this, go up to Image – Adjustments – Black and White.
Next, you’re going to adjust the image’s Brightness and Contrast. The exact values will depend on the colours of your own image, but I’d recommend starting with a Brightness of -93 and Contrast of 100.
You’re also going to want to change the texture Layer from Normal to Overlay, so you can see the part of the image it’s over better. You’ll want to use Overlay here instead of Screen, because Overlay often darkens images, and Screen tends to lighten them. If however, they look the same to you, or if for some reason they are inverted (Screen makes the texture darker) use whichever one you prefer.
Lastly, you’ll need to repeat the texture overlay for every part of the image you darkened with the brush.
If you picked a picture that had a lot of texture already, like I did, you can go ahead and save your project once you’re happy with the results from Step 4.
And that’s it!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and if you’re looking at your finished image and feeling like something is ‘missing’, don’t worry – the next tutorial I show you will be an effect that builds on this one.
The corner of his mouth pulled up into a smirk as he stepped through the doorway, “Why not?”
“Because of the r-restraining order.” She swallowed hard and took a few steps backward, how did he find me?
“Pfft, please.” He waved a dismissive hand and veered into the living room, inspecting it, “You thought a piece of paper was gonna stop me?”
She did her best to ignore the sudden pounding in her chest as he stopped in front of the end table that was displaying all the figurines he used to make her hide, “I can have a dozen cops here in a second.”
“Yeah?” He cocked his head to one side as he picked up one of the cow figurines, “Neat trick.”
“A-all I have to do is scream.” She mentally beat herself up for the shake in her voice and licked her lips in a failed attempt to stop it, “There’s already a car outside.”
The chuckle that floated through the air next sent ice down her spine. He replaced the figurine before turning away from the small table – action allowing her to glimpse the knife that was tucked into his waistband – and he raised an eyebrow, “Do you honestly think if that not-so-undercover car was still there, they would’ve let me walk in?”
“So, what?” Sam turned out of the salvage yard, starting down the road toward the store, “You’re just gonna…. leave me alone now?” He let out a humourless chuckle and shook his head, what kind of torture tactic is that supposed to be?
He hadn’t seen the devil in a couple days, but he knew better than to get his hopes up – there was no way his hallucination was gone. You can’t actually fix that kind of crazy, no matter what his brother said.
“I’m driving,” Sam made a left-hand turn and couldn’t help but flick his eyes up to the rear-view mirror, “You sure you don’t wanna pop-in right now and try to make me crash?”
The car remained silent as the giant completed the turn, but he was anything but calm. He knew Lucifer was planning something – he was the devil, after all – so he couldn’t relax. Couldn’t lower his guard until he knew what was coming. This tactic of not showing up was weird, but it wasn’t exactly send-Cas-a-fruit-basket weird.
Like the preview? Check out the FULL story over on my Patreon!
I post NEW stories every 2 weeks and have just under 200 for you to discover!
Started as a Song!Fic, based on the BC Jean version of If I Were a Boy. (Listenhere!)
Started: 17.08.01
Worked On: 22.02.02, 22.03.04
Finished: 25.08.25
Words: 5,243
NFF, Dark-ish
“Didn’t I make myself clear last night?” Benny hissed into the phone, closing the bathroom door behind him.
“Oh, I heard what you said. I just thought I should give you a chance to change your mind.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Silly me, didn’t I tell you? That camera that’s in the corner of my bedroom? It was accidentally on during our ‘meeting’ yesterday.”
Sonofa- “What do you want?”
“Guess.”
He sucked his teeth, “I don’t have time for your shit, Nikki.”
“Oh, okay, guess I’ll just send the tape to your wife then. Have a good-”
“Wait,” he took a deep breath, damn it, “what do you want me to do?”
—
“I thought I was stuck with you all day?”
“Well,” he shrugged himself into a button up, keeping his back to her, new boulder of guilt settling into his stomach, “now you won’t be.”
“Great…”
He licked his lips as he heard the hurt in her voice, just one more lie.He breathed out a sigh as he started buttoning his shirt, what was I thinking, agreeing to her stupid demands? It’s always the ‘one more’ that gets you caught…
Maybe he shouldn’t be doing this.
He shook his head, I have to if Iwant any shot at keeping her. He pulled his watch off the dresser before taking a breath, steeling himself as he turned back around to face his wife. He felt like he’d been punched in the gut when he saw her face. Iswear, I’m trying to do the right thing.
“I’m sorry,” he closed the distance between them and pecked her cheek, “it’s not like I can not go.”
“I know.” She rested her head against the door frame as she sighed, “I was just looking forward to getting sick of your face today.”
He gave her a tight smile before moving passed her, heading for the steps, “I won’t be too long. One, two hours max.”
Aside from actually finishing a story, naming your characters is the next bane of any writer’s existence.
Not only are you expected to encapsulate their entire personality into one word, you also have to pick a name that’s unique enough it’ll make readers remember, but isn’t too far out there, lest it becomes a meme (like the ever popular Twilight baby, or Bubblewrap Cumberbun) and, it needs to be a name you actually like. (Yes, even if they’re your villain)
Picking the perfect name for a character can be as hard as naming your child, because… well, characters are essentially the same as your kids. They’re extensions of yourself that eventually become their own people with their own thoughts, feelings and opinions. And so when you’re there, looking down at them when they’re nothing more than a squishy little personality-less blob, it can be a daunting task to slap a label on them. Especially because it’s something they’ll have for life.
No pressure.
Now, I know there’s a ton of different articles out there all telling you they’ve unlocked the only secret ‘right way’ to go about naming characters. There’s everything from mundanefully helpful like looking up common names for the region/country you want your story to take place in, to the way out there, like feeling the name’s aura, or you should pick a certain name because Mars is in retrograde.
Would you like to learn the real secret?
There is no one ‘right’ way to name them!
What works for someone else might not work for you, and that’s okay. It’s called a process because there’s no one way to do it. Every tip others give you can help, but don’t think any one person knows the be-all, end-all of how to write ‘properly’. I don’t care if they’re professors who’ve spent their entire 30+ year careers unravelling the structures of the craft, or the most famous writers in history. No one person knows everything about writing.
No one.
You can take the tips they’ve collected over the years and use it to help your writing, but don’t you dare let any internet trolls – or your imposter syndrome – tell you that you aren’t a ‘real’ writer if you don’t follow what they tell you.
Yes, this even goes for the advice I give you here.
I hope to God you aren’t only following my advice. There are tons of things I don’t know! I just learned this year that ‘spaghetti westerns’ weren’t named because cowboys ate spaghetti, and that you can’t drink salt water even if you boil it first. I am an idiot!
And so is everyone else.
That’s what makes humans the crazy, weird, fascinating beings we are.
You know your characters best, and only you can pick a worthy name.
Doing things like using a baby name website or a random name generator can help your brain get unstuck when you begin to panic-spiral into ‘I need a name to keep writing but can’t think of one, oh my God just pick something already, it’s been 4 months!’ but you shouldn’t just pick the first name you see or one you generate.
Feel it out.
Does this name actually fit your character? Think about it! Let it roll around in your head for a few days, or weeks. Make your other characters say it. Does it fit in their mouth? Does it feel like an anvil that just completely kills the conversation, or does it flow? Does it fit with the other circle of friend names?
It’ll look weird if your story revolves around Molly, Michael, Millie and Gilbert, if that stand-out name doesn’t stand out for a reason.
It’s true, fiction can be whatever you want it to be, and rules are more like guidelines. However, if you are going to break certain ‘rules’, you need to know how it’ll be perceived by your audience. Most people will spend your story waiting for the ‘weird’ name reveal, and will become disappointed if you don’t point it out, or explain why it’s there.
It needs to serve a purpose.
Also, when naming a character, you can test out a few names. Just because you pick one doesn’t mean you have to stick to it! If you’re using a placeholder name, or a name you’re on the fence about, continue writing and re-assess. Now you’ve continued fleshing out the character, are you feeling like a different name would fit them better? Then change it! Hell, give them more than one name. Give them two, or ten!
Does the name you picked lend itself well to nicknames? Are you planning on making it a joke that the character’s legal name is one thing, but their much-preferred nickname is nothing even remotely close to it? Was their name a family relic, so they keep it as a tie to the family they’ve never known? Do they like their name? Do they hate it?
Did you even ask them?
That last part sounds a little crazy, yes, but it’s also effective. You sit there and hallucinate about people who aren’t real talking all day anyway, what’s one more imaginary conversation? Picture yourself asking them if they like the name you chose. What do they say?
How do they react?
Like this article? Check out more writing tips here!
Dean felt his stomach rumble and he rolled over, curling up onto his left side, shut up, you’re not getting any more. You went 300 calories over today.
His stomach growled again defiantly, and he let out a sigh, the sooner you fall asleep, the sooner you can wake up and eat.
He snaked one hand over his stomach, squeezing it lightly, tip he’d read a few months ago popping into his head. After a few moments, he let out a surprised breath as the noise stopped, huh.
Now that it was quiet, his mind began to wander… could he keep this up as long as he needed? How much shit would he be in if John found out? What would he say if Sammy called him on one of his lies?
And, oh God, what would he do once holiday season started?
Dean shook his head and rolled over onto his back, I don’t have to figure that all out right now. He absently listened to the crickets out the window, just try to get through the rest of this week. You’ll have time to make a long-term plan when Sammy’s gone on Saturday.
He let out another sigh and felt his body finally start to relax into his mattress, just 60 more pounds to go.
Like the story? Check out my Patreon for more FULL stories!
I post new ones every 2 weeks and already have over 100 just waiting for you to discover!
Dean grunted as he pulled his suitcase over the lip of the front door. He kicked the door closed behind him as he made his way inside. He’d been wanting to move back home since this whole stupid custody thing started – it felt like forever – but he never thought his finally coming home would be like… this.
Just him and Cas, kids being forced to live with some other family. Kind of put a damper on the excitement he should’ve been feeling.
They were going to get the kids back – absolutely, no question – but the hoops they’d been forced to jump through were starting to get to the hunter.
They weren’t even allowed to try and petition the court until 90 days had passed!
Dean shook his head as he made his way up the few steps into the living room, pausing as he looked around. The house looked exactly the same as when he’d left – there were still family pictures up on the wall, the same magazines were littered on the coffee table and he couldn’t see it from where he was standing, but he’d bet if he moved his chair, the crudely drawn crayon family portrait Taylor had drawn on the first day she called him and Cas ‘Dad’ was still there – but the air had changed.
Now it felt like… unimaginable grief.
Dean could’ve choked on it, if he let it get to him.
But, he had to be strong. He’d never get the twins back if he fell apart.
“Doesn’t feel how you thought, does it?”
Cas’ voice got his attention off the living room and toward the stairs.
Dean shook his head as he re-picked up his suitcase, “Not even close.”
Like the preview? Read the FULL story over on my Patreon!
I post new, full short stories every 2 weeks!
Subscribing to my Patreon allows me to keep the lights on around here, and gives you cool insider benefits!
For almost as long as writing has been a thing, so has showing a trusted friend a piece of work before showing it to the masses. Yes, beta readers themselves are almost as old as the invention of writing, but that hasn’t stopped modern day writers from having a divide between whether or not using them can be helpful, or hurtful.
So, should you be using beta readers?
Well, the answer, perhaps frustratingly, is ‘it depends’.
Everyone has different reasons for writing, and for sharing their work, and the use of beta readers being needed or not can only be determined by you. Like many other things – such as word webs, outlining and font style – beta readers are just another tool writers can use to complete their work.
But, this doesn’t mean you can’t get any concrete answers!
Below I’ve listed a few pros and cons of using beta readers that might help you make your decision.
Pro 1: They Catch Mistakes
Writers are humans. And as humans, we tend to make mistakes! Especially if we’re writing in the dark at 3am, lit by nothing more than the glow of our computer screens.
But even if we’re typing away in broad daylight, fuelled by much more than just coffee (or whisky, if you’re going for a classic writer motif), mistakes can still happen. Misspelled words, funky punctuation and other weird typos can all slip passed even the most intense of proof-reading sessions, and getting a fresh set of eyes on a story (or article) before you publish it for public consumption – or say, hand it over to a professional publishing house – can help you catch mistakes you may have missed.
Does this mean that your work will be 100% perfect after having a beta reader look it over? Of course not! Beta readers are humans too, and chances are they won’t catch every mistake, either. No matter how good of a job they do.
But does that mean you shouldn’t bother at all? Some writers swear by beta readers and refuse to publish any work that hasn’t been beta reader certified. Others just type whatever comes to mind and hit publish not 5 minutes after a work is done coming out of their brains.
Let’s say for example, you use a beta reader, and they catch 90% of mistakes that are in your work. That means that piece is 90% more proof-read/public ready than it would’ve been if you hadn’t.
Con 1: Your Work Is No Longer Just On Your Timetable
As stated above, beta readers are humans. And that means that they have their own lives that they need to tend to. This can mean your timetable of publishing a work has to get pushed back if a beta reader hasn’t finished proofing a work you sent them.
Yes, some writers give beta readers certain deadlines to follow, but again, that doesn’t mean the human you handed your work over to will stick to it.
Whether it be an unforeseeable emergency, getting lost in knowing what day of the week it is or poor planning, they might just not be able to meet your deadline. And then as a writer what do you do? Do you give them the benefit of the doubt and wait until they’re able to finish? Push back your timeline to accommodate their schedule?
What if they say they’re half-done? Do you bite the bullet and wait or have them just send you what they have? Or, do you find another beta reader and start the process over from scratch?
Speaking from experience, feeling like you’re stuck being at the mercy of someone else’s life/timeline when all you want to do is get a work out there can be extremely stressful.
Pro 2: You Get (Almost) Instant Feedback
Do you hate having to wait months or sometimes years to find out if the masses liked your work? Do you wish you could get an immediate feel for if your audience would enjoy a project before you devote another six months of your life to it?
Enter, beta readers!
They can give you feedback on a work much more quickly than waiting for a general audience publishing could.
This can help ease immense stress if you tend to worry about the performance of your work. Or, if you have an idea for a new project, but you’re not sure how your audience would feel about it – maybe you deviated from your usual genre, or just feel like spicing things up – handing a rough outline or bullet points of the new idea over to a beta reader can give you immediate feedback on whether or not this is something worth pursuing, or if you shouldn’t try to re-invent your wheel.
Con 2: They Might Give You Too Much Feedback
Humans can’t help themselves when asked to give their opinions on things. We love to give our opinions on every- and anything we can. Whether it’s a new trend, whatever the ‘it’ colour of the season is, or a new fad drink – we feel almost compelled to tell anyone who will listen our opinions… whether it was asked for, or not.
Most good writer-beta-reader relationships have been built by years of back and forth, mutual respect and, perhaps even becoming friends.
And despite maybe starting out with a more professional and very transactional relationship, as you both get more comfortable sharing your opinions and views with each other, some people tend to over-step and start commenting on things you never asked for.
For example, say in the beginning of your relationship with a beta reader, the only thing you asked them to proof in your work is grammar. Or punctuation.
And for a few months or even years, that’s all you got. Just works with circled grammatical and/or punctuational errors. (If that’s not a word yet, then it is now, you’re welcome, world)
But then through the going outs for coffee, or video chats, you two became comfortable around each other and the next work your beta reader sends back has more opinions than you asked for.
Sure, maybe they’ve still circled missing commas or periods, but now there’s also stars by the beginnings of paragraphs and notes like, an evil twin plot twist? Isn’t that a tad cliche? or actually, bunnies are quite cute and adorable, why would you take the stance of them being demonic?
Suddenly, they’re giving you their two cents on the plot of the story, or the topic of your article. Cents you never asked them to give! And now you’re in an awkward spot. Do you tell them you appreciate the extra feedback, but you’d prefer if they kept to the scope of their duties? Do you try to argue your reason for the evil twin twist, or show them the evidence you compiled about the bunnies secretly being satanic?
It can be a hard scenario to navigate, and at worse, it may lead to a following out and at that point, you wouldn’t just be losing a beta reader, but also a friend.
Pro 3: You Have Someone Rooting For Your Work (Other Than You)
Being a writer can be a pretty isolating experience. You spend the majority of your time plopped in front of a computer, typing away with headphones on, staring at a screen, basically hallucinating while ignoring the world.
But, on the flip side, you’re getting lost in these wonderful world’s you’re creating, and following along with some of the most exciting people you’ve never met through amazing adventures you’ll never get to actually experience.
It can be breath-taking and awe-inspiring to be a witness to such wonderful things…. and then it can crush you right on down to dust to realize no one else can get excited with you. (Yet)
Being super passionate about things usually means you want to share them with the world, but, as a writer, you often have to wait months (or years) until being able to unleash your creations.
It can be hard not to have anyone to geek out with when you feel like you could explode with excitement. And sometimes, the waiting can turn those excited voices in your head to critics. Your once bubbly thoughts have turned to some serious over-thinking.
Why did you choose to go with an evil twin twist? Everyone and their mother has seen that done before. Did you really think you could get away with doing it in a fresh and exciting way? Or worse, even get away with doing it at all? Who do you think you are?
Enter: Beta reader! (Again)
Before you manage to spiral completely into an overthinking cloud of shame and regret, your beta reader can help shed some light on why that plot does make sense for your story, how it captivated them when they read it and how they share your excitement for having the world learn of the twists and turns that unfold!
Yes, I used just a fictional writer in the example above, but the same can be true for a non-fiction writer! Maybe you did a risque expose on some local stores in your area who don’t seem to be selling quite what they advertise, or maybe you were told a story wouldn’t be worth your time, but you decided to pursue it anyway because you just had a gut feeling it was bigger than what it seemed.
Sometimes having a cheerleader of your work who isn’t you is just what the No Overthinking Doctor ordered. It can help you keep things into perspective and help re-ignite your excitement for a project that perhaps you finished months ago that is finally getting it’s turn in the spotlight.
Con 3: They Might Steal Your Idea
Before anyone decides to come at me with pitch forks and torches, let me explain.
Unfortunately, not every human on this planet is a decent one. Also unfortunately, sometimes, the bad guys pretend to be good guys so they can swindle unsuspecting actual nice people.
As a writer, each of your ideas is probably closer to a baby than something you’d decide to throw away, and it can be extremely hard to trust letting another person in on an idea – especially if you know it’s one that will take you time to execute.
The first person you let in on a concept that exists nowhere except for inside your brain is an extreme act of trust, and unfortunately, some people will use that trust to their advantage. They may take your idea and rush to the finish line, putting it out ahead of your schedule and claiming it for their own.
Or worse, they might even just copy/paste what you send them and post it word-for-word somewhere, just because they can.
I’m not saying to be paranoid and never let anyone see your work, I’m just saying you should be careful. Do not just place a Craigslist ad for a beta reader and then e-mail over your entire unpublished manuscript to the first guy who answers!
Have at least some sort of vetting process in place. Make sure you trust the person before signing them onto your team. And, keep in mind that even with vetting processes, people still steal ideas from each other every day.
Look at how many movies there are about that exact concept! Or even, at how many knock-off brands that exist.
Some people just want to take the easy way for whatever reason, and as a creative, you should be as careful as possible, especially as I said, when it comes to things that don’t yet exist outside of your brain.
These obviously aren’t all the pros and cons of using a beta reader for your work, but I think, they’re some of the biggest things you’ll want to consider before deciding if you should – or shouldn’t – use one.
And if you’re curious: I don’t personally use beta readers.
I like doing projects from start to finish all the way through on my own. I like learning as I go and think it’s cool to see my body of work reflect that.
As I grow, my work grows.
That’s something that I’ve always thought was cool, even way back in elementary school when I used to read. Finding a spelling mistake or a missing word in a published book was like a secret game between me and the author.
Of course the author would never know, since 8 year old me wasn’t going to go to the trouble of mailing them a letter pointing out the mistake, but I still enjoyed it.
One example of this that I have myself, would be when my sixth book, Broken (which was published back in 2021), came out, my father bought a copy to support me. He called me when he was about halfway through the book and – after telling me he loved the characters and could see a whole series with them in it – told me I had apparently mixed up ‘starring’ and ‘staring’. He said, at first, he thought I had done it on purpose, but as he continued reading he realized I actually just didn’t know which spelling was for which word.
Did I go back and re-upload the whole book with the changes once it was pointed out to me? Nope.
If you buy a copy of Broken today, the characters will still be ‘starring’ into each other’s eyes.
But, every story I’ve written since I got that phone call? Has the correct spelling.
Some might say it makes me look ‘unprofessional’ for leaving spelling mistakes in my books/stories, but I think, if you stick around a while, it’ll just show you how far I’ve come. Like watching a Youtuber who starts with hanging a white bed sheet behind them who uses their laptop’s built-in-microphone, then seeing them grow into having actual background or green screen behind them and a professional mic.
Seeing the journey is part of the fun… right?
Like this article? Check out more writing tips here!
“I can’t believe you would do this.” Peter was shaking his head, hands on his hips as he failed to take in some calming breathes, “We were this close to getting him!”
Neal’s hands were up in mock surrender, despite facing the agent’s back, “You’re the one who told me to go left.”
“Oh, don’t even-” Peter spun around and cut himself off. He stalked a few steps over to where his CI was standing – much too calm considering the circumstances, “Why? Why do you continue to do these things?” He studied the con-man’s face for a moment, “It can’t just be about the thrill anymore. You’ve built a life here! I don’t understand why you keep jeopardizing it!”
Neal shifted his weight, glancing down to the ground and sinking his hands into his pockets as he did so – the kind of movement the agent had come to know as the ‘before I lie to Peter’ stance – before he gave a half-shrug,“I never said I was working with him.”
“Right, it’s just a coincidence we found two of the best forged paintings in his apartment that’ve ever been discovered.”
Neal gave another half-shrug, “There’s tons of forgers in New York.”
Peter scoffed at that, “I’m not stupid, Neal.” At the twitch of the CI’s eyebrow, the agent let out a huff, “If you are helping him, I will catch you. And all this? June’s house, the 2 mile freedom, Kate? It’ll all be over. Forever.”
“I’d expect nothing less.”
Liking the story and want to keep reading? Finish it – and find all other FULL short stories – over on my Patreon!
