Hi, fellow writers.
I trust your day is proceeding as planned and whatever you’ve created so far has inspired you to continue.
I am writing my first novel. I have given my draft work to my wife for reading and comments, but she likes a different genre to me. I have given some snippets to some of my friends for reading, and received some positive comments, but I wanted to get some more detailed thoughts on my writing, my story, etc. I found someone who is finishing her teaching degree and I asked her if she would read a snippet of my work: she did, and she gave me some great feedback. She said she was happy to read my work and give me feedback as I progress.
My questions to the group are:
Do any of you use readers?
What was your experience with the readers?
How many readers to you use?
How helpful to your writing process are readers?
Thanks, and have a great week my creative cohort, AWT.
I haven’t advance to using readers, but got some useful feedback from this site: Critique Circle
Not as good at finding someone who can read your whole manuscript, but good to get multiple perspectives quickly.
The other thing I found is that through commenting on the writing of others, I was able to develop a good understanding of “what works, and what absolutely does not” to put it politely. Everyone is trying to improve…
The good news is that submitted works are grouped by genre, so you can focus on what you love and ignore that which you have no interest in. I suspect others do the same, so I think when I get a person commenting on my work, they are doing so because they probably write in that genre themself.
If you do it too soon it might turn against you.
You have to accept that you will have to rework your manuscript anyways, and wait until you have a story that at least you, as your current reader, are happy with.
You’d be amazed at how easily a comment from someone who has a vision different from yours can derail the composition process, if too early.
There is nothing worse than doubt.
My advice is to just do your best for a good while. Take days-long breaks, to reset your objectivity. Read from other authors as much as you can whenever you can.
(Opinions from friends and family are usually (or at least really often) worthless. … They want you happy.)
IMO, finding a community of writers and then, within it, critique partners is a better idea than looking for strangers on the internet. Especially in the beginning.
Regardless of where they come from, you want to be very clear about what you are expecting and what readers should expect. Giving a rough draft to someone expecting publication quality is likely to have disastrous results. Likewise, it’s not a great idea to ask for feedback before you’re clear on what the story even is. It’s also not a great idea to ask for a critique when what you really want is affirmation.
Overall, readers can tell you what’s wrong, but can’t (and shouldn’t) tell you how to fix it. So I would say they’re most helpful in the middle, when you know what the story is about, but aren’t sure whether what’s on the page reflects what’s in your head.
Much appreciated K.
As a first time writer, I am finding my fellow writers have great insight, and you taking the time to share your experience is invaluable to me, so thanks again.
TAHAGW K, AWT.
Well said. The only thing I would add is that when I read other novels, I avoid reading any that are in any way like my story because they mess with my head too much.
