_Writers know when they need to stop and have a section of their writing constructively critiqued.  I went though that stage yesterday. I chose my own beta readers, though there are web forms that specialize in this.  I did not want my work read by a stranger as I want it published and wish to strive to guard the copyright.

My picture is of a crowd in a showground, the sort of area where store keepers need to know how to be aware of shoplifter prevention and this issue was dealt with in a chapter of my NaNoWriMo novel.  I was keen that it 'worked' as a part of a novel and not seeming like a lecture, so I had this chapter constructively critiqued.

I asked for a constructive critique for one chapter in my novel from a trusted proof reader and she felt my characters had expressed things well and it wasn't too long, the two main questions I had.  This was a quieter chapter prior to a big action chapter.  It is great to get some feedback part way though the novel's editing.

I was trying to express without preaching, the  'situation' the mixed race children in my novel find themselves in, where everyone in some locations assumes they are going to be thieves.

I have seen it so often from QLD though to WA…you set up a sales display and the first thing you are told is 'don't let the half cast kids come into your shop they are all thieves.'
Well I always did let them in, invited them to handle the best soft toys, was friendly to them…guess what..at the end of the say their mum would be brought in to my set up and it would be my store they bought at. 

I think in five years of trading though those areas I was shoplifted from once and had night time break and enters with valuables stolen, once from someone I didn't know and the other from a fellow store holder.   So I wanted to tell that experience in my novel somehow, try to put it right for those kids.  Yes of course many were making a game stealing from the stores but this was in retaliation, 'you treat me like I'm worthless and I'll show you what I think of you,' behaviour.

Cheers Kathy