: Re: How to best pace information reveals to the reader Some of my beta comments fall under the category of 'I the reader am frustrated by what I do not know' - and I've gotten this comment in

@Sue2132873

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I think your problem is just an artifact of the beta process.

Beta readers don't trust the author. They are reading something knowing that it has not gone through the editorial process, so they often see mistakes where the author intended to make something strange.
Let me give an example from my writing. At some point I have a character using a gold sword. When reading a seasoned writer in a published book, readers will think "is the sword magic? is there a reason he would use such a bad material for a weapon? Maybe that's the only way to kill the monster" In beta reading the response incited is "gold is soft and makes a poor weapon. You should change it"

If you are going to explain something two paragraphs you should not worry about comments like that. In a real book people will take it as normal and trust you to answer the question when you need to. The only feedback you can get here is that readers want to know the answer and you should make sure to have it at some point. DO this enough and the beta reader, and hopefully the end reader will learn to trust you and your mysteries.

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