McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Test Audiences...helpful or hurtful?

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CarolM:
I'm not a writer but one of my friends in the US is, though her stories are mainly based in the Buffyverse. I read a lot of her stories just after she's written them, but I warned her at the start, the fact that she's my friend blinds me to some of the faults in them. I do comment if the plot seems to be moving too slowly, or if I think a bit more backgound or character insight might be useful, but otherwise I just look out for spelling mistakes, grammar and that sort of stuff.
I admit a lot of my queries start "Do you spell/phrase that like that in the US? ;D Sometimes I have to ask what a phrase means, though the flood of US programmes on UK TV screens helps me understand most of what you say.

Richelle Mead:
Yep.  I have a handful of friends who beta read for me as a I finish my chapters.  It's actually a good motivator to keep writing because if they like it, then they bug me for more.  The thing to keep in mind in those early stages is how much feedback to take seriously.  If all of them have the same critique, then I pay attention.  If one person doesn't like X, someone else doesn't like Y, etc....well, I usually don't alter my course since everyone will always have some sort of small nitpicky thing.

blgarver:

--- Quote from: Abstruse on January 13, 2007, 07:04:12 AM ---I gave up on that.  I kept giving stuff I'd written to friends to get opinions and the conversation, no matter how well-read or educated the person, would go like this:

Me: So what did you think?
Them: It was good!
...
...
...
Me: And?
Them: And what?
Me: Care to expound a little more?
Them: What?  I liked it, it was good.
Me: Well, what did you like?
Them: Everything.
Me: Was there anything you didn't like?
Them: Not really.  It was good.
...
Them: What?
Me: Seriously, you're not going to hurt my feelings.  Just tell me honestly what you thought.
Them: I liked it!
...
...
Them: What?
Me: <mumbled> Thanks.

And I just don't have the heart to tell them that they did NOTHING to help me.

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

--- End quote ---

Yeah, this sort of thing is very annoying.  I'm lucky that my friends are writers too, and are all aspiring to authors so they'll tell me straight up if it sucked.  And they have done that several times.  But they also tell me why they thought it sucked and what worked and what didn't.

But I try to stay away from those friends that aren't really close friends...the acquaintance types.  I find that people at work are good for this kind of thing, because I know them well enough to feel comfortable handing them a test chapter, but we don't know each other well enough to worry about hurt feelings. 

Tasmin21:
I have one friend who edits everything I write paragraph by paragraph as I write it.  She's a high school English teacher, and she's awesome.  (someday, when I can afford to, I'm actually going to pay her)

I also have a select group of other friends that I spring large chunks of completed work on, to get a fresh pair of eyes.  My problem there is that no one reads as fast as I need them to (I have zero patience when waiting for reviews), and when they do, they want to take their sweet time giving me their thoughts on it.  All I truly want is a first look, gut reaction on whether or not this story interests them, and if they would keep reading it if they picked up a book that began that way.  Unfortunately, they seem to be overthinking things.  *le sigh*

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: Tasmin21 on January 14, 2007, 04:18:35 PM ---All I truly want is a first look, gut reaction on whether or not this story interests them, and if they would keep reading it if they picked up a book that began that way.  Unfortunately, they seem to be overthinking things.  *le sigh*

--- End quote ---

So basically what you're saying is, you and the Abstruse One should swap friends ?

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