Testing your Story's Popularity Potential
Testing your Story's Popularity Potential!
Legal Cheating: Test Readers
Write your glorious tale then get your hands on a few Readers and have THEM read your stuff BEFORE the publisher gets it.
Not proof-readers - NOT line editors!
I have a hard-core line editor and he only gets the book when it's COMPLETED. I never do typo or grammar checking until the very end. Stopping for grammar kills my creative momentum. As it is, I rewrite so much, that by the time they tell me I have a typo or repeated something, I've probably already corrected it or moved it.
NO SPOUSES.
Spouses are either too critical or not critical enough.
AVOID Critique Groups.
(Unless you KNOW the people involved.)
They are your Direct Competition and it is in Their best interest to cut you down and discourage you. Especially if you're good. Make darn sure that the people critiquing your work are worthy of your TRUST!
You want Fans.
People who already like your stuff. Fans will be gentle in their disparaging remarks and quick to praise. Your best test audience is SIX bodies - three female, three male.
Key:
Guys like ACTION.
Girls like EMOTION
Everybody likes a smart-ass - so practice your witty repartee!
You want to know if they Liked it, if it Worked, if they enjoyed the world you created... You want an Audience Opinion - not a Critic's opinion, not an Editor's opinion, but a Potential BUYER's opinion. What you need from your Readers is a taste-test.
The Reader's Taste-Test
Popularity Potential Questionairre
Is it BORING?
Does any part of the story Drag?
Are their parts that you skip?
Do I over-inform anywhere?
Did it Work?
Did it make you laugh?
Did it make you cry?
Did it make you hot?
Is it Too Much?
Is there enough downtime between intense scenes to allow it to build to the next?
Does any part of it make you cringe?
Where have I crossed the Comfort-Zone line?
Is anything confusing?
Does one scene lead logically into the next?
Can you SEE everything clearly?
Did you have to reread any part of it to understand what was happening?
(You are not expected to know WHY things are happening - those secrets are revealed later, but the events happening should be as clear as a movie reel in your mind.)
How about the Characters?
Are the characters Believable? (For what they are supposed to be?)
Does the dialogue sound realistic?
Do their reactions seem logical & realistic?
Who did you like best and WHY?
Who did you hate and WHY?
Who got on your nerves and WHY?
Does any one character get in the way of the STORY?
The answers to these BURNING questions will keep your fiction crisp, focused and Popular. If your test readers liked it then loads of other people will too.
(I still think that if George Lucas had used a few fans for test readers - the scenes with Aniken as a child would have been much shorter - and made more sense, Jar Jar Binks would never have appeared, the romance would have been well, a Romance, and the clone war would have been well, a Clone War. But that just MY opinion... )
Morgan Hawke
www.darkerotica.net
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posted by Morgan Hawke at 7:45 AM
2 Comments:
You have gained a not so humble student.
I got a chuckle having stumbled on this today.
I’ve recently refused to join critique groups and have caught a lot of flack from it but honestly I've tried before and the attempt to keep up with my own work as well as ploughing through posted material, leaving meaningful feedback for five to ten people got to be counter-productive. I spent more time on other people's stuff than my own.
I also got a lot of "You're such a talented writer. Why waste it on such meaningless dribble?" (Erotica, SciFi, Fantasy and Horror.) My response "Because that’s way my brain works, you vanilla shmuck?"
I mean honestly. I never once arched a brow at another wirter’s damsel in distress managing to remain a virgin from Chapter one to the Epilogue, while in the company of ‘her dashing rogue’ of a pirate kidnapper who eats virgins for as snack food yet cannot bring himself to soil her virtue unless he give up his wicked ways, becomes a Christian and then marries her.
Okay so I did arch a brow. But only while no one was looking.
So I decided this time on a more selfish approach. To create a group test beta-ing my own writing ... I thought I might be insane until I read your suggestion here today. Kinda like having a sign from heaven. Ha-ha.
And I have a request?
Wondered if I could borrow your The Reader's Taste-Test
Popularity Potential Questionairre as questionnaire for my own readers ...
Claudia G
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I find this very informative and I too would like to use your questionairre for potential readers, if that's ok with you, let me know. I'm now a 'fan'!
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