I hope that I am on my penultimate thorough edit of my novel.
Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, I thought I would experiment.
Although, I am on my penultimate edit of my novel. I asked my ten year old, my thirteen year old, and my eighteen year old nieces to read a print-out of my manuscript, before I started what I hope is the penultimate edit.
I did what any good uncle would do to secure their help. I bribed them with money. It worked.
I am not seeking praise off family members as that is useless. It is a psychological fact.that most auhors who submit their work for scrutiny are seeking praise.
All I wanted from my nieces, was to know whether they understood my plot and storyline . Also, is the dialogue, streams-of-thought and descriptions clear to them.
I hope that the experiment will confirm that my target audience is for ten year olds and upwards.
I will consult my nieces opinions at Easter.
I try to share my work with as many people as possible and consequently get a whole range of feedback. I share with reliable friends who I know have a good knowledge of grammar and the written word, my brother, because he is ruthless but honest, my daughters, my mother and of course my trusty editor when I can afford it. I shared the preface and chapter one on here also which was helpful.
I think it's also good to sift through the feedback, be brutally honest with yourself, and put to use the comments/suggestions you decide will benefit your work. Sometimes though, if someone is reading just one or two chapters they aren't always seeing it in context as they don't know where your book is heading so beware.
Hi Victoria.
It should prove to be an interesting and worthwhile experiment. I will not ask my nieces leading questions when I next see them.
I have spent eight months editing my novel. Editing is an unenjoyable, time consuming, exhausting process. It is ongoing, but I am quietly confident my novel is already in excellent shape. It will further benefit when I complete the last two edits.
I did not want my first novel to be a trial-run. I have strived for perfection in the hope that my novel is written to the best of my capabilities. I can but hope that my dedication will be rewarded.
My first beta-readers made all the difference and set lots of changes in motion. What interesting ages your nieces are, though. They are likely to have very different opinions. I'm quite grateful that happened to me because I learned instantly that I wouldn't be able to please everyone and what was important was not upsetting any reader to the point they stopped reading. In actual fact, one of my first readers kept reading because she was so annoyed with the characters. I suppose if your reader feels anything then they have invested in the characters and want to read on. It's if your readers struggle to finish you know something is really wrong. But you might find the money is incentive enough with your nieces so it may be hard to find out if they struggled with any of it.
Bet you are their favourite uncle, though. Good luck with critiques. I'd put on your best rhino skin for kids of those age-groups!