Trust yourself... and your Beta Readers

Hello again!

Once again, I've decided to talk about something I've already dedicated a lot of posts to: Beta Readers. I realized I've constantly said that you should listen to your Beta Readers while also exercising your author privilege in deciding what advice to take. While I do stand by this sentiment, I realize it's a little contradictory, so today I thought I'd go into this in greater depth.

To start, I honestly believe that most writers know what's best for their books, especially when it comes to major plot points. If a Beta Reader suggests changing a huge part of the book and you know in your gut that they're wrong, then it's absolutely ok to leave it as is. Then again, if multiple Betas get stuck on the same point, it's likely that there's an active problem that you need to fix.

A big part of this lies in choosing Beta Readers you can trust, and to demonstrate this, I'd like to share a few stories from my own adventures with Beta Readers. 

In one case, it was abundantly clear that my Beta Reader wasn't a good fit for my book; most of their advice didn't make sense for the genre, let alone my specific book, and they were less than helpful when I asked for clarification. They were a bad Beta for me, so I ignored their advice and moved on. 

Another Beta that I trusted, thanks to a history of good advice, suggested changing the climax of one of my books. I wanted to reject this summarily because of how much work I'd already put into writing that scene, but when I sat back and looked at it, I realized they were right. It took a lot of work, but I rewrote the entire section, and it was a lot better for it.

But even when I'm working with trusted Betas, I don't always see eye-to-eye with them on every single point. And those are the moments when you need to step back, and slowly read the book with their suggestions in mind. Try to be as objective as possible, but never forget that you wrote this story, so your opinions hold a lot of weight.

At the end of the day, the best advice that I can offer you is to read and honestly consider everything your Beta Readers tell you. If they're right, then consider how best to address the issue. If you're absolutely sure that it's okay as is, and that you're not just reflexively rejecting their advice, then follow your instincts. 

Have a great day, and keep writing!