Shoutout to the beta reader who told me my dialogue was all 'on the nose'

I was working on a scene where two characters were arguing about a secret, and every line was basically them saying exactly what they felt. A beta reader from my writer's group just wrote 'people don't talk like this lol' in the margins. So I went back and rewrote the whole thing with them talking around the issue, using short sentences and interruptions. The scene feels way more real now and it actually made the argument more tense instead of boring. Has anyone else had a piece of feedback that totally changed how you write a certain part of a story?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat_murray537d ago

Honestly, I gotta respectfully disagree with @the_viola on this one. A beta reader writing 'lol' in the margins might seem wild, but it's the kind of blunt honesty that actually sticks with you and makes you rethink your approach. I had a similar thing happen with a fight scene where every character kept saying 'I'm angry because...' and a beta just wrote 'this is a therapy session, not a story.' Rewrote it with them snapping at each other over totally unrelated stuff, and it made the tension way more real. That kind of feedback stings, but it saves your writing.

the_viola7d ago

Your beta wrote 'lol' in the margins? That's wild.