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Q&A Can I improve my beta reading skills to aid a close person's writings?

Finding beta readers were suggested to get unbiased feedback for a writer. Can one work on oneself to be able to give a more unbiased feedback to a close relative, friend, wife/husband, etc.? Can ...

1 answer  ·  posted 12y ago by n611x007‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:33:33Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/6533
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar n611x007‭ · 2019-12-08T02:33:33Z (about 5 years ago)
Finding beta readers were suggested to get unbiased feedback for a writer.

Can one work on oneself to be able to give a more unbiased feedback to a close relative, friend, wife/husband, etc.? Can one set one's mindset to decrease the effect or overcome the bias? Can one deliberately forget to some degree that this was written by someone I know closely?

One problem is that you cannot choose from writings from different writers as a beta reader when there is only one candidate. This somehow gives a biased start.

The other problem is that one can't get one's finger on the energies of the text, ie. can't easily tell if I'm reading this because it's good stuff or because I promised it to friend/wife/husband/etc.

Are there any walkarounds/solutions to these problems?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2012-10-23T00:29:05Z (about 12 years ago)
Original score: 7