: Re: How to get feedback about the quality of one's fictional writing from friends unbiased by the friendship? It is a little strange to ask, but are there ways to get feedback from friends about

Choose your friends wisely! I started with a group of ten friends when I first started writing who had volunteered as beta readers. Five responded very quickly that they really loved my first book, even though I felt it still needed a lot of work. Three more came back a week or more later with glowing remarks. The last two took at least a couple more weeks, but both of them came back to me with questions, suggestions, and criticisms. Guess which ones are still beta readers five books later?

Make sure you tell your "friends" that you are looking for true, honest feedback. Tell them that they are not going to hurt your feelings (although in my case that turned out to be wrong, but I ultimately agreed with the criticism). Let them know that you truly NEED constructive criticism or feedback or suggestions and you need it to be brutally honest. Lastly, make sure you choose people that already read your genre (that was a mistake for me with two people who later admitted they really didn't read much of the first book).

Because they are your friends, their first inclination is going to be to encourage you and reinforce you, even if it means lying to you to not hurt your feelings. If a friend is willing to tell you the truth, even when they know it will disappoint you, then that is a friend you can trust!

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: Re: How to get feedback about the quality of one's fictional writing from friends unbiased by the friendship? It is a little strange to ask, but are there ways to get feedback from friends about

More posts by @Murray165

: How can I edit my own, very old work? I have about a hundred pages of a novel I wrote in high school, I like the concept behind the writing but I'm finding it extremely difficult to go

: Is it frustrating not to know the narrator's gender? I have written a 1st person piece and reading it I realize it's very difficult to tell if the narrator is male or female. There are one

: How can I get book my non-fiction book reviewed by professional reviewers? I had my book reviewed by people who are interested in the topic of the book. Now interested in reviews by professional

: Inventing names for Sci-Fi characters How can I invent names for fictional characters in a future-setting Sci-Fi story so they won't be connected to any existing culture? I considered the following

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