QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR BETA READERS:

What sort of questions should I be asking my beta readers?

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR BETA READERS:

When I send out my chapter to be read over by my beta readers, I always include a set of questions typed out at the bottom, grouped into different categories such as: plot, pacing, character, setting, etc.

You might want to tailor the questions depending on the genre or which chapter it is. For example, if it’s the first chapter you’ll want to ask them about how well your story managed to hook them, or if they managed to easily get an idea of the world you’ve introduced them to. If it’s the climax you might want to ask if the action scenes are fluid, and if the plot twist/s were predictable or surprising.

Here’s some example questions that you could use:

Opening Chapter:

What is your first impression of the main character? Do you find them likable? Annoying? Boring?

After reading it for the first time, what is your first impression? Was it cohesive and compelling? Boring and confusing?

Did the first sentence/paragraph/page efficiently grab your attention and hook you in?

If you were to read this chapter in a bookstore/library would you be convinced to buy it? Or would you need to read further before deciding? Why or why not?

Did you get oriented fairly quickly at the beginning as to whose story it is, what’s going on, and where and when it’s taking place? If not, what were you confused about at the beginning?

Does the first chapter establish the main character efficiently? Do they feel believable?

Characters:

Could you clearly imagine what the characters looked like? If not, who?

Who was your favourite character and why? Has your favourite character changed? (if this hasn’t changed feel free to skip this question)

Are there any characters that you do not like? Why do you not like them? (Boring, annoying, problematic, etc.)

Was there ever a moment when you found yourself annoyed or frustrated by a character?

Could you relate to the main character? Did you empathise with their motivation or find yourself indifferent?

Were the characters goals/motivations clear and understandable?

Did you get confused about who’s who? Are there too many characters to keep track of? Are any of the names or characters too similar?

Do the characters feel three-dimensional or like cardboard cutouts?

How familiar have you become with the main characters? Without cheating could you name the four main characters? Can you remember their appearance? Can you remember their goal or motivation?

Dialogue:

Did the dialogue seem natural to you?

Was there ever a moment where you didn’t know who was talking?

Setting/world-building:

Were you able to visualize where and when the story is taking place?

Is the setting realistic and believable?

How well do you remember the setting? Without cheating, can you name four important settings?

Genre:

Did anything about the story seem cliche or tired to you? How so?

Did anything you read (character, setting, etc.) remind you of any others works? (Books, movies, etc.)

Plot/pacing/scenes:

Do you feel there were any unnecessary scenes/moments that deserved to be deleted or cut back?

Do the scenes flow naturally and comprehensively at an appropriate pace? Did you ever feel like they were jumping around the place?

Was there ever a moment where you attention started to lag, or the chapter begun to drag? Particular paragraph numbers would be very helpful.

Did you ever come across a sentence that took you out of the moment, or you had to reread to understand fully?

Was the writing style fluid and easy to read? Stilted? Purple prose-y? Awkward?

Did you notice any discrepancies or inconsistencies in facts, places, character details, plot, etc.?

Additional questions:

What three things did you like? What three things did you not like?

Can you try predicting any upcoming plot twists or outcomes?

Was there ever a moment when your suspension of disbelief was tested?

Is there anything you’d personally change about the story?

Was the twist expected or surprising? Do you feel that the foreshadowing was almost nonexistent, or heavy handed?

Feel free to tailor these to your needs or ignore some of them if you don’t think they’re useful. Basically, your questions are about finding out the information about how others perceive your own writing and how you can improve your story.

-Lana

for all of you guys getting anxious about the environment and pollution

y’all deserve to hear the good news too, and yes i fact checked these.

7 miles of habitat for bees will be planted in london

the biggest coal plant in north america has been converted to solar panels

roads in edinburgh will close once a month to help pollution

maine has banned styrofoam

new york city and los angeles have both made “green new deals”

The london marathon replaced 200,000 single use water bottles with seaweed water pods

the bees in notre dame survived the fire, and the roof could possibly built in a more eco-friendly way.

the population of flightless kakapos (a cool bird) is rising

the carbon emissions in the uk are the lowest they’ve been since 1998

Another large bee habitat (.5 mil acres) has been created

there is a robot that delivers young coral to help repopulate the great barrier reef

portugal plans to stop using plastic on fruit, vegetables, and bread by 2020

106 new species of bees have been discovered in australia since 2010

a group of Sikhs plan to plant 1,000,000 trees as a gift to the earth

disney has made a mickey-shaped solar farm

Morgan freeman turned a 124 acre ranch in mississippi to a bee habitat

China plans on making a “forest city” to help clean up their air

An increasing amount of countries and states are beginning to ban single use plastics.

A couple replanted a whole forest in brazil (2.7 mil trees) in 20 years, and the animals have come back to live there

The hole in the ozone layer is repairing itself more each year

China plans on spending 360 billion dollars to improve renewable energy and has scrapped plans for coal powered plants that were going to be built.

A national park has been built in the amazon (3.3 mil acres in peru) to preserve the rainforest

Ireland and the uk have declared a climate emergency

The guy who played aquaman (jason momoa) has spent 31,000 dollars to help clean up plastic

South korea is now recycling 95% of food waste

There is a cleanup campaign being planned for mt. everest

Puerto rico wants to use all renewable energy by 2050 and is setting official goals for that

Some schools have special water bottle fill-up stations that encourage you to use refill and reuse plastic bottles rather than throwing them out after one use, these are becoming more common.

9 endangered species are thought to make a comeback this year

20 countries in africa are planning to make a “green wall” of trees and plants that will span the width of africa to stop desertification

recently, a lot of volunteers and organizations are planting a ton of trees.

Awareness about the environment and climate change is growing super fast right now among people and countries, which will only help us

Most pollution is caused by like 100 companies, but a few of those (like pepsi) are trying to cut down on that.

if this stuff keeps happening things will get even better, and the only thing stopping us really are those big companies who don’t want to pay the money to switch to more eco-friendly energy sources. i know the media tends to cause fear and stress about this stuff for a lot of people, but there really is hope.

easy things we can do:

Recycle

Plant gardens in your yard for bees if you can

Participate in community volunteer things that plant trees and gardens

Theres this search engine called ecosia that plants a tree for every 45 searches you make, it has almost 2 mil users.

Pick up trash if you see it when you’re at the beach or in nature

If you have a fair amount of money, consider donating some to trustworthy environmental organizations

Start using a reusable water bottle (like those ones at target) rather than relying on single use plastic ones.

Cut the plastic rings on plastic milk bottles. You know, the little spiky plastic ring near the cap. Birds get those things stuck around their neck and die, so cut them so that they can’t get stuck on a neck.

If you can afford it, get some of those reusable grocery bags and sue those. most grocery stores have them, and it saves a lot of waste.

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galaxy62

5 years ago

life saving surgery for my dad

this is posted July 2, 2019!

Hello, I just discovered that Gofundme does not work in the country I live in! More coherent post now that I’ve calmed down.

Hello! My name is Caleb and I am a trans guy of color who loves folklore, storytelling and drawing! I am raising money for my dad’s surgery + us getting back on our feet. He is 56 years old and his surgery is to remove kidney stones that are causing him significant pain + is life threatening . My dad is a funny and incredible guy, He loves cats and singing and he had sacrificed everything for my mom, my sister and I. Both him and my mom are diabetic and disabled, as when I was 9 years old, my mom had suffered a sudden sepsis attack, which had caused her to go brain dead for a few minutes, before being revived and fall in a coma for 3 months. When my mother woke up from her coma, she was paralyzed, even her vocal cords were paralyzed!! Ever since then it was just me and my dad who took care of our family, and then, when I graduated college, it was just me as dad got sick as well. I am only in my very early twenties and the sole caretaker of my family, my two disabled parents, my sister who is a minor, and our cats and dog. My dad’s surgery was estimated to be 120 thousand pesos- 200 thousand pesos, which is 2,345.88 US dollars at least, and 3,909.80 US dollars at most.

I have a job, I just need a little bit of help.

1 US dollar = 50 Ph Pesos We live in the Philippines, and my dad is taking an ultrasound tomorrow to see just what they can do about it. I will try to update as much as I can. Anything extra will go to my mom’s diapers, toiletries, etc, my dad’s maintenance medicine, and my sister’s lunch money for school. Thank you and sorry for my english;

(I used to have a youcaring for this, but as youcaring merged with gofundme, I believe that all the existing pages have been deleted. I have gathered about 30 thousand pesos on youcaring, and about 25 thousand pesos + today. I cannot thank you all enough) Thank you so so much for taking the time to read this, and I hope you are all well.

I will update as much as I can!

Here is my fundrazr page;;!! It’s a website that’s like gofundme but international!

here is my paypal.me!!

https://www.paypal.me/calebhosalla

here is my ko-fi!!

https://ko-fi.com/A2619OE

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galaxy62

5 years ago

reblog if you hate nazis and don’t think they should speak on college campuses

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galaxy62

6 years ago

BEAUTIFUL!! 💜💚

Gwenvid Doodle Dump!!! Ugh I Love Them So Much.

Gwenvid doodle dump!!! Ugh I love them so much.

526 notes View Post

galaxy62

6 years ago

BEAUTY!! 💜❤️

first drawing on my new desktop to test things out !! ofc its rayllum,,jfgunhfd

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galaxy62

4 years ago

all the tips I found for drawing a fantasy map are like :) “here’s a strategy to draw the land masses! here’s how to plot islands!” :) and that’s wonderful and I love them all but ??? how? do y'all decide where to put cities/mountains/forests/towns I have my map and my land but I’m throwing darts to decide where the Main Citadel where the Action Takes Place is

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galaxy62

4 years ago

what were the most common injuries in medieval battle, and how would they be treated, or how long would they take to heal?

https://inky-duchess.tumblr.com/post/174751317743/fantasy-guide-common-battle-wounds-and-how-to-fix

WRITERLY

Fantasy Guide: Common battle wounds and how to fix them

Arrow wounds: Now if the lung, heart, kidney, other major organ is hit, there may be little to do. The kidney has a back up, so maybe a skil

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galaxy62

5 years ago

I Wrote A Novel… Now What? Your Revision And Editing Checklist

I Wrote a Novel… Now What? Your Revision and Editing Checklist

If you’ve completed a first draft of your novel, congratulations! However, after the hustle of getting that draft written, you may be wondering… what do you do with it now? This January and February, NaNoWriMo’s “Now What?” Months are here to help guide your novel through the revision, editing, and publishing process.

To start you off, we’ve taken some inspiration from previous blog posts to create this handy-dandy Revision and Editing Checklist. Don’t know where to start? Use this guide to help you navigate the tricky waters of novel revision!

Image background by rawpixel on Unsplash.

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