Thread by @orsonscottcard

“Who should give me feedback on my first novel?”

You don't want just any reader. Also, you are inexperienced in understanding feedback.

Most of the time, for instance, when a reader says “It felt long” or “it was too slow” you will think that means you need to cut.

The opposite is true. 🧵

Usually it means you moved so quickly through the story that you didn't give the reader time to care about the characters and their relationships. Without emotional involvement, it FEELS slow or long, but when you give us more details of life and relationships, the longer version will FEEL more involving and important, and it won't feel long.

You won't know how to decode vague responses. You need to TRAIN a wise reader to give you USEFUL feedback. The less literary training this reader has, the better, because literature classes teach students to concentrate on things that are utterly unimportant in the storytelling process. They'll look for themes, symbols, metaphors, etc.

But your wise reader will read with pen in hand, not to correct errors, but to take note of the reading experience.

The reader needs to make a slashing mark in the margin for each time when:

1. The reader catches herself thinking about something else, or looking around. This is the “so what?” response. Their attention has wandered because the story hasn't engaged them.

2. The reader finds herself doubting that the event would happen that way, or the character would respond that way. “Oh, come on, he wouldn't say that, or do that, or think that …” This is the “oh yeah?” response. It means you haven't laid the groundwork necessary to make the event or response seem true to the characters and the world of the story. You need to give us the information beforehand that will make it more believable when the important stuff happens.

3. The reader is puzzled about what just happened, and has to reread a little just to figure out what's going on. This means you didn't write clearly enough. We don't understand what's happening. This is the “Huh?” response, and while your reader will assume it's her fault for “bad reading,” YOU will know that whenever the reader gets confused and has to reread, it is always the writer's fault for not achieving clarity.

“So what?” “Oh yeah?” and “Huh?”

These slash marks in the margin are the only responses you need. You don't want writing advice — they don't know how to write your story. Their only job is to report to you on their personal gut responses to reading.

In other words, you don't want their diagnosis and certainly not their prescription. All you want and need is the SYMPTOMS they experience while reading. You don't want them to think about or analyze these things. You just want them to make that slash in the margin and then KEEP READING and reporting on their symptoms.

Then you will look at your manuscript when they are not present. You will look at that slash and read a couple of paragraphs around the mark. It will be clear to you which gut response they're experiencing.

This will guide you to understand where your manuscript is not working and why. Then it is up to you to figure out what to do about it.

When you understand what you did wrong, don't fiddle with your existing manuscript. Go back and start over, writing a new first draft without saving anything from the previous draft. You'll write much better because you'll know whether you need to work on believability, clarity, or relationships. (Readers only lose interest when the characters’ relationships don’t matter to them.)

Then, if their slash marks guided you to a useful understanding, you will know that you can give them other manuscripts in the future. But you will NEVER give the same story to the same reader a second time. Only their first response is worth anything to you.

What if your wise reader is a respected, successful author. Or what if it's me? Don't waste your time or mine. I can tell you how I would write it, but I'm not the author. I can't tell you how YOU should write it, because I don't know.

It's your job to tell a story that YOU believe in and care about. When you write it clearly enough, telling what happens and why, you'll know that you're nailing it because you really care about and believe in it.

And if it still doesn't sell, you won't be worried because before you hear back from agents or editors you will have already written your next book, which is NOT a sequel to the first book. (You never write a sequel till you have a contract on the first book.) No, while your manuscript is out to editors, you are already immersed in writing completely different stories.

Wise reader. Slash marks to report on symptoms. No analysis but your own. You are the only authority on your story.