- Joined
- Nov 24, 2019
- Messages
- 24
- Reaction score
- 1
Context: My fantasy novel has received 5 form rejections from literary agents so far. I turned to you guys for advice and you told me to get critiques of my work before expanding.
You guys told me not to pay a beta reader, but I haven't had any luck finding one on Goodreads, so I turned to Fiverr. The beta reader I chose charged $7 to read 15,000 words of my novel. My only instruction for him was to roast me.
He replied in one day with a 1.5 page document.
(Yes - I will critique work on here and reach the 50 post minimum to share my work, but this was for the story and perhaps some decent advice in the process).
The good:
He described my main character as a "blank slate." He told me the sudden romance between two of the characters was unbelievable. He told me I needed to build more tension in one of my opening scenes.
Most importantly, he told me I had critical pacing issues, which I can see now. Now I have tangible plans for revision of my novel.
The bad:
Some of his advice was questionable. For example, he told me to replace this sentence....
"Aveline glanced over her shoulder at her partner, who was cloaked in black feathers, his face obscured by a mask."
with this...
"Aveline glanced over her shoulder at her partner cloaked in black feathers and his face hidden beneath a mask."
Also, he had no credentials, but I was a writing tutor for three years in my college's writing center and our whole perspective was that excellent readers can be just as helpful as talented writers.
What do you guys think about this? Feel free to roast me if what I did was idiotic, as well. I gave him 5 stars for his generosity.
You guys told me not to pay a beta reader, but I haven't had any luck finding one on Goodreads, so I turned to Fiverr. The beta reader I chose charged $7 to read 15,000 words of my novel. My only instruction for him was to roast me.
He replied in one day with a 1.5 page document.
(Yes - I will critique work on here and reach the 50 post minimum to share my work, but this was for the story and perhaps some decent advice in the process).
The good:
He described my main character as a "blank slate." He told me the sudden romance between two of the characters was unbelievable. He told me I needed to build more tension in one of my opening scenes.
Most importantly, he told me I had critical pacing issues, which I can see now. Now I have tangible plans for revision of my novel.
The bad:
Some of his advice was questionable. For example, he told me to replace this sentence....
"Aveline glanced over her shoulder at her partner, who was cloaked in black feathers, his face obscured by a mask."
with this...
"Aveline glanced over her shoulder at her partner cloaked in black feathers and his face hidden beneath a mask."
Also, he had no credentials, but I was a writing tutor for three years in my college's writing center and our whole perspective was that excellent readers can be just as helpful as talented writers.
What do you guys think about this? Feel free to roast me if what I did was idiotic, as well. I gave him 5 stars for his generosity.