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Q&A How do I evaluate an unwritten plot/story?

Find a good beta reader or a good editor. I ran into this problem myself: I had a plot which was solid and detailed but left room for expansion, I had characters I absolutely loved, I spent months...

posted 11y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:19Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/9364
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:11:03Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/9364
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T03:11:03Z (almost 5 years ago)
Find a good beta reader or a good editor.

I ran into this problem myself: I had a plot which was solid and detailed but left room for expansion, I had characters I absolutely loved, I spent months in world-building, wrote 125+ pages, and then showed it to a few trusted, intelligent people to get some early feedback.

What I learned: One of my main characters was a complete idiot (and was not supposed to be), the system of government too clearly showed how I'd cobbled it together from other writers, and I could never quite boil the story down to an elevator pitch.

What I _should_ have done was shared it with the readers _before_ writing the 125+ pages, so that I could have made the decision either to fix the problems or abandon the project without having spent another year on it.

So _yes_, without question, get feedback before plunging in. I am of the strong opinion that you cannot create a novel in a vacuum. I'm not a pantser either, and I think the best work comes from getting a vigorous shakedown from good critics.

A good critic is someone who constructively, kindly, thoroughly goes through your work and not just points out the problems but can suggest some solutions and alternatives. This is what I try to do when I'm editing someone else's book.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2013-11-12T21:32:04Z (almost 11 years ago)
Original score: 5