The Value of Test Readers
Written by Deb Dorchak - August 4, 2010 10 Comments
Photo courtesy of Deb Dorchak
Tell me if this sounds familiar to you: You’re writing a novel. You’re extremely fired up about it, so much so you eat, sleep and breath that novel and the characters twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Your heart and soul is telling you this is going to be great!
But have you actually shown it to anyone?
Chances are, probably not.
Writers and creative people in general are perfectionists. Perhaps this goes back to our formative years as children where the slightest bit of criticism was enough to make us think our work wasn’t good enough. Even the smallest bit of negativity was and is enough to scrap a project that could otherwise be an absolutely brilliant idea.
I know, I understand how difficult it is to allow someone else behind the curtain before a work is finished. The ironic part is that you’re writing this for the masses and yet you can’t bring yourself to show anyone.
Not About the Fear
There are numerous articles on the web about the fear of writing and the fear of success. This isn’t one of them. This is about another writing tool that will help you write a better novel before it hits the book stands.
After you’ve written your first draft, or have gotten several chapters written, feedback is crucial. This is where a test audience comes in. A test audience isn’t there to boost your ego, or to tell you how great/crappy your novel is. If you choose your test audience carefully, they will give you an unbiased opinion seen through fresh eyes.
Who Makes a Good Candidate for Testing?
Not your mom if she absolutely loves everything you do. Not your best friend if they are the type to spare your feelings. And definitely not some stranger you randomly pulled off the street, either.
Notice I said “if”. Family and friends are fine as long as you know they’re the type of person who will be totally honest with you and willing to do so in a way that will help you.
The best kind of test reader is the person who can look at your manuscript with an unbiased eye. A fresh eye. An eye that will see what you don’t see anymore and a voice that will tell you where those inconsistencies are.
What Do Test Readers Look For?
Proofreading is a bonus, all those typos and grammatical errors are slick little buggers and often need several sets of eyes to find. However, what you really want to know is how your book flows. Is the pacing good or is it unbalanced? Where does the reader get totally absorbed in the story and where are they jolted out of it?
You also want your test readers to look for inconsistencies in scenes and dialogue. Nothing is worse for a reader than to have a character say or do one thing in a previous chapter only to contradict himself in the next, or to suddenly have an object he didn’t have before, or any number of things that will make a reader stop and say “Hey, wait a minute…”
When To Bring In the Test Readers
This will vary from author to author. We were halfway through Bonds of Blood & Spirit: Loyalties before we invited a couple of test readers in. Other authors may want to wait until the first draft is completed. Still others may give out the first three or four chapters to see if they’re on the right track.
In my opinion, you want that feedback within the first draft. This is your rough cut. Both you and your testers know it’s not polished, it’s not perfect. That first draft is meant to be sliced, diced and chopped. If the concept is sound, that’s half the battle.
The feedback you receive will help you put the whole novel into perspective. You’ve been working on it so closely for so long your test readers will allow you (or force you) to take a step back for a panoramic view. Before moving on to your first of many rewrites, this view is absolutely essential.
Why? Because you’ve been looking at every detail for so long your brain and eyes automatically fill in the blanks. What may make sense to you, may not make sense to the reader. If they have to ask you to explain something, you haven’t made it clear.
For example, in our novel, neither one of us thought to mention any of the characters’ actual ages. They’ve been in our heads for so long we took that for granted. One of our readers was scratching her head over a character’s personality quirks and asked “How old is this guy anyway?” Once we told her, his actions became clear.
A Caveat: What a Test Reader Is Not
A test reader is not a replacement for an dyed in the wool editor. You will still need an editor to give it that final polish, make no mistake.
Test readers are not there to change the plot, the characters, the story, or the Big Picture. The story has already been written. It’s your story and this is the way you tell it. You have a plan and what you want from your test readers is to find out if what you have is something they’d be interested in.
If you’ve done your job well, your test readers will be clamoring for more. And if you’re like us, you’ll already have that started.
Want to learn how to conquer your fear of success and get back on track?
Read the Comments
10 Outstanding Responses to "The Value of Test Readers"
Eliza on August 4, 2010 at 8:17 am | Permalink
My brother, Alex, gave me his first novel when he had it all written, but it was definitely in draft mode. What you described in the post, is exactly what I looked for. If the character said or did something in Chapter 5, is it consistent with what was said or done in Chapter 3? Did basic facts about the character change along the way (glasses/no glasses, age, number of siblings, etc)? Did I have to read a paragraph several times to get it? Or not get it?!
I think he had a 2 or 3 of us doing the same exercise. By the time the ‘ready for professional editor’ version came back to us, there were simply a couple of typos. The rest was polished.
I had a blast, by the way, being a test reader. It was like being on a scavenger hunt for inconsistencies.
Cath Lawson on August 4, 2010 at 8:08 pm | Permalink
Hi Deb – This sounds like a great idea. I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to show anyone my first draft of anything though. I’ve been on writing courses where they give you ten minutes to write something, then you’ve got to read it out loud and I hated doing it.
Deb Dorchak on August 4, 2010 at 9:21 pm | Permalink
@Eliza: That’s what I’m talking about right there. So often we (the authors) are too close to the work. We stop “seeing” what isn’t there. It takes an outsider to see it for the first time and spot those little glitches. Pete and I make a game out of it with movies. In fact we were watching something the other day where an actor had something, oh, like a scrape, in one cut and the next time the camera came back to him, it was gone. Little stuff like that is enough to toss you right out of the story.
@Cath: It’s all in your head. Look at it this way, you’re writing for the public, you want the public to eventually read it, so start with a very, very small percentage of that public. Which would you rather have? An editor rip it apart or would you like to know where you can fix it first and make it the best it can be before you take that next step?
Davina on August 13, 2010 at 10:02 pm | Permalink
I’m appreciating the TLC and sweat that you and Wendi are pouring into this book. I dunno… this feels really big.
Until now, I’d never heard of test readers. I’m starting to realize there is much more to writing a book than the romantic notion of writing a book. Okay, so I already knew that intellectually, but I’m beginning to understand it on another level. The whole idea of manipulating or planning the story and writing to fill in the blanks between each of the four parts is fascinating. The story structure, the character development… and now you’ve got me reading about first plot points.
I honestly can’t even imagine the depths of intensity that you and Wendi have found during this process. I suspect that if I were to try to imagine it, I would only see the tip of the iceberg.
I’m the opposite of Cath. I get so excited about what comes out of me when I’m writing, I want to share it with the world.
Deb Dorchak on August 14, 2010 at 12:41 am | Permalink
@Davina: Maybe we’re the first to use test readers on a novel? It just made sense to us to see what a small portion of our target audience thought. They do it with movies and television shows, so why not?
The test reader process is what I’m finding fascinating. There are parts we absolutely agree could use a touch of clarification; and areas where I say to Wendi, don’t worry, that’s one person’s opinion, let’s see what the rest of the group says first before we rework that – only because we want to average out the general consensus on a scene. You need to keep in mind you’re working with personal preferences, both yours and your audiences, and you can’t please everyone without sacrificing the integrity of the story. But at the same time, as an author you want things to be clear and you don’t want to have parts that drag either.
It’s a balancing act, and probably the only time I’m comfortable walking a tightrope a hundred feet above the ground.
Eliza on August 14, 2010 at 2:45 am | Permalink
@Deb – nope, not the first . Maybe the second, because I test read Alex’s. But I don’t even think the second. When you read acknowlegements in books (yes, I actually read, or at least scan those parts) authors often refer to test readers. Although, they do use the word test reader. Rather it is flowery blah-blah about how this book could not have been written without the invaluable feedback of so-and-so.
@Davina – I too am gaining a new respect for authors. Not so much the writing part, because having ‘experienced’ Alex’s writing process I know how labour intense it is. Rather, it’s after the book is written that I am gaining respect for. Just the other night I said to Marc that I didn’t think I wanted to write a book after all. This is because of the incredible self-promotion that has to take place once the book is published. I am seeing this from my work at Silver & Grace with all the awesome authors. Hours and hours and hours of marketing which involves social media, press releases, traveling for book signing, etc, etc, etc. This is especially true to those who self-publish. Self-publish also means self-promoting.
Not that I am trying to put anyone off. It just makes me personally go UGH. However, I do think it is important for writers to be aware of the very hard work that needs to go into actually selling your book. Like you said, the thought of writing a book is romantic. Doing it AND getting it sold is blood, sweat and tears. In other words, it’s a job just like any other.
Deb Dorchak on August 14, 2010 at 5:43 am | Permalink
@Eliza: The marketing part has always been the hidden aspect of getting published. Even when an author is signed on to a big publishing house, that individual is responsible for a lot of their own promotion. This meant either doing it all themselves or hiring an agent or marketer to do it for them. I’ve read a lot of articles by authors who were under the impression that once they got signed with someone they thought that was the golden ticket to fame. It’s not. It’s only just the beginning. The determining factor that made the book sell was how they went about promoting themselves.
Like everything else these days, the internet has made that aspect more visible to the public. Just think about all the promotion you had to do for your own things, it’s no different. In the end, it all comes down to you and how much effort you want to put into getting your name out there.
Eliza on August 14, 2010 at 5:51 am | Permalink
Exactly!
Debbie @ Three Weddings on August 31, 2010 at 11:55 am | Permalink
I recently had the honor of being one of these test readers for a friend. The first draft was good, but now she has finished her final draft and it’s amazing how much the story has changed and improved. Now she’s trying to get published and I’m hopeful she will succeed. I will probably never write my own novel, but I see now how important it is to have the test readers. I would have been terrified to let someone read something I wrote for fear they either hated it or would steal my idea. But if you choose carefully, you won’t have to worry about that.
One problem she did have was a test reader who was rewriting parts for her in that reader’s words and style. That is not what she wanted or needed and quickly remedied that problem!
One Trackback
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Wendi Kelly, Deb Dorchak. Deb Dorchak said: The Value of Test Readers http://goo.gl/fb/YxTtO [...]