Different Readers, Different Opinions…
I am sure everyone has their own method in terms of how they utilize readers to assist with their writing process. I’ve found having readers interested and available to provide feedback has proven invaluable to staying grounded. Much of my method and use came into being spontaneously - I learned as I went.
Let me start with what I call developmental readers. I don’t know what the proper industry term is but these are readers who participate in the journey. They read as I write. These are readers who I know, who have shown interest in my project, and are enthusiastic about participating. My older brother Chris was one of the first to read my material. We share a common interest in the Fantasy genre and I can safely say that much of my childhood reading stemmed from something he read first and passed down to me - Steven R. Donaldson in particular comes to mind.
Looking back at my saved files, it appears that I would share anywhere from 5-10 chapters at a time with my readers. (Note the average chapter length of Draft 2 was 7700 words). I would ask my readers to be brutally honest in their feedback and not hold anything back. This is very important! It serves no purpose to have people sugarcoat their feedback. You need clarity and constructive feedback. Someone doesn’t like a section - ok, why? What rubs them the wrong way?
I wanted to know things like the following:
Does a given scene or scenario work? Is it realistic?
I had an early scene where Jhune exchanged a kiss with a woman. Everyone told me that it was out of character and I should cut it - I did.
Does the reader struggle through any sections? Is it clunky or choppy?
There is a gutter fight scene in Buraydah involving Mascherano. Several readers noted that they were confused by the flow of the fight and who was who.
Did they find something funny, sad, or tense?
It was quite entertaining to listen to my twenty-year-old son giggling while reading through a section and then coming to tell me how funny he thought it was.
I appreciated hearing that a pair of readers both cried through a section meant to tug on the heart.
Do they feel motivated to move on to the next chapter? Why? What do they find compelling? I may have shared this elsewhere, but one of my lasting childhood memories is that of my parents sitting in the living room each reading a book - dad on an overstuffed chair with his feet up on an ottoman, and mom seated in a highbacked velvety orange chair. My point is, they are both avid readers and have read thousands of books over their lifetime.
My mom stated that she liked the elements of romance and mystery in the book (what was in the red lacquered box?)
Dad preferred the pace and the action elements - though I will share that when he first started reading Draft 2 (232K wordcount) he found it a little tedious to begin with and almost put it down (GREAT FEEDBACK! - we talked about why he struggled with it early.). My mom insisted that he continue reading and he eventually got hooked. (EDIT 2/27/20 - I cut another 11K words of material from the front end of the book to get to the conflict sooner.)
Typos, word choices, content suggestions.
It never fails, there is always some typo or grammar issue that creeps into the ms (manuscript). There is probably something in this post that I failed to catch.
Differing opinions:
Throughout the development process you will hear different opinions and suggestions on content. Listen to it! As a writer we hold within our heads a vast amount of creative ideas that we attempt to convey in the form of the written word. But we don’t always accomplish it to the satisfaction of the reader. Sometimes we as writers are blind to it because we are too lost in the weeds, or we fail to realize that we just didn’t get our point across clearly enough. The written language is an imperfect thing - its tone deaf, lacks facial expressions, and has no arms or legs to convey body language. We’ve all been party to a conversation where someone struggles to communicate a thought and they end their sentence with “you know what I mean?” Sometimes we look at them and want to say, “No, I haven’t the foggiest idea.”
Anywho… listen to what people have to say because they will share what THEY SEE or understand. Sometimes its quite revealing - you’ll have one of those OOOOHHH-moments! “That’s not what I intended.”
Regarding suggestions on content - listen to it, but you don’t always have to agree. Just make sure you understand why they are suggesting it. I had an instance where a reader suggested that a given scene was inconsistent with the character of certain persona. The scene was central to the story and I didn’t want to change it but I took the suggestion serious enough to ask the opinion of others. They saw no issue, so the scene stayed as is.
I’ve spent time above talking about the developmental readers. They are more involved in the creation process and helped mold some of the direction. Case in point, my brother Chris, (who was always brutally honest to the point that he apologized once, fearing he was being too harsh) shared that I had made Jhune far too strong. I needed to taper him back, create weakness and vulnerabilities. He was 100% correct. So early in the writing, I made changes to what I envisioned for Jhune. One last point to make with developmental readers - I used family members and a good friend to provide me valuable feedback. Some would recommend against such a course for fear of failing to get the necessary feedback. Its a choice. Mine worked because my reader base is highly educated and well-read, I am thick-skinned, I didn’t take offense to any feedback, and encouraged my readers to say what they think.
Enough said. Lets talk about Beta Readers. In the case of betas, I chose people that I do not know personally (two exceptions) but at least have a common acquaintance. One of my readers is the spouse of a coworker. I’ve never met her but she was an amazing resource who even went to the lengths of providing a full line-edit. My second beta reader was the brother of a friend of mine. Never met him before and he lives in another state. Both of these betas were extremely helpful. I had three other readers lined up, two ended up not participating and the third waited to read a later version of the ms.
Once I completed a very thorough self-edit, drawing upon the line edits of two developmental readers, I sent out Draft 3 to the betas. Note Draft 2 clocked in at 231K words while Draft 3 came in at a reduced count of 199K words. They knew nothing about the story and were reading it fresh for the very first time. The first read the entire story in about 2 weeks and gave some great feedback on content and some line-edit info. The second took longer, but only because she meticulously line-edited the ENTIRE 199K words of Draft 3. Amazing work!!
EDIT - below was added 4/12/20 to reflect the final read.
Final Flow Readers. The last read came after another complete self-edit of the ms that further reduced it down to 182k words (Draft 4). I used hand-raisers from the above groups to conduct a flow read. I didn’t want any line edits. I asked them to read it like a normal book and let me know if it moved well and kept them engaged. Each sent me a few clunky items but for the most part it flowed well. My wife, who has been an exceptional resource throughout the write, did circle the occasional typo for correction.