WHAT TO DO WITH CONFLICTING BETA READER FEEDBACK

It's officially August! How is everyone recovering from Camp NaNoWriMo? I edited for over four and a half hours on the last day in order to meet my goal, and now I'm a little worn out from all of that. I tried writing two different posts before finally settling on this topic -- sometimes the words don't like to word and it annoys me greatly. -.-

This post is inspired about a message I received from the lovely Jeneca:

"I'm confused about what to do with all my beta reader feedback. Some said the dialogue was natural, others thought it not. Some thought the christian elements were natural and well done, while others thought it was too easy and the characters wouldn't reach such conclusions. What did you do with conflicting beta feedback?"

I had many of these same problems when I sent my novel to beta readers (w o w it's been over a year by now). So after some messaging back and forth, here are the tips Jeneca and I compiled:

1. STUDY THE FEEDBACK

In my novel, there was one character in particular that everyone had different opinions on. Most said he was their favorite, but several others said, "eh, he falls in the background and I feel like I don't actually know him." I could've just gone with the majority, but instead I took the time to study his story and his role and realized that yes, he's a likeable character, but I should dive into his thoughts and mind a bit more. He wasn't as developed as he could have been, and that's what the scattered negative opinions picked up on.

Evaluating comments and the story will take a long time, but it isn't supposed to be an easy process. Use your feedback for brainstorming and re-outlining. Your betas have given you an immensely helpful gift.

And hey, if making pie charts and graphs and all that fancy stuff is how you roll, DO THE THING. 

2. KNOW WHO YOU'RE SENDING THE STORY TO

This kind of goes along with studying the feedback. But are the people you're sending your precious little baby to fantasy and sci-fi readers? Have they beta read before? Are they your mom (because chances are their opinion might be a liiiitle biased)? Do they read the same genres as you? 

Knowing their tastes, likes, and dislikes, can help you discover if their feedback is a preference or an actual problem. Different people like different things. Goodness, sometimes I scroll through Goodreads and find it crazy how someone's one star read is a five star read for me. You're not going to please everyone. It's easiest to accept that now.

3. CONSIDER ASKING YOUR BETAS FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS

I hated doing this step, because my betas had already done me a HUGE favor as it was... but, say, if several people struggled with the worldbuilding in your story, considering asking them, "What exactly about it was unbelievable? What sparked the confusion?"

Sometimes digging deeper into the why it was a problem can make the answer clearer. I had to ask one of my betas to expand on their feedback with my own world, which made me realize that I needed to expand my culture and history and traditions of my desert land.

One way to help avoid this is to have really clear and specific questions for your beta readers to answer. Some people I know are crazy talented editors and able to point out problems without being prompted. But if you're wondering about the structure of your story's ending, be sure to ask your critiquers!

4. REVISE AND RESEND

If you're 100% stuck and have no idea which way to go on some of the issues presented... ask another set of eyes to give it a read through. Maybe this person can solely focus on the struggle you're having with a certain character or plot point.

But whether you're having problems or not, it's a good idea to have a couple rounds of betas. They tend to comment on the parts that are most problematic, so once you fix those, you can send it off to a new group of people and dig a little deeper into the revisions. 

5. SOMETIMES YOUR GUT IS THE WAY TO GO

Gentle reminder that this is your story -- your heart's story, so make sure not to take the heart away. You wrote certain parts in certain ways for very specific reasons. Studying the logic and reasons for the beta reader's answers will help make things clear, but in the end it's your decision. Fix and keep what's best and stays true to your novel. <3

Don't be afraid to kill your darlings and hash them to pieces for the sake of making your story the best it can be.
("darlings" being the words + phrases in your novel, and not the actual characters haha)

<3,
katie grace

have you ever struggled with conflicting feedback?

how have you dealt with it?