How to Seek Helpful Feedback on Your Story
Unless you write a perfect first draft, you'll need to revise your work. This goes beyond correcting grammar and punctuation. You'll want to look at the big picture: plot, pacing, setting, character likability, and clarity. It can be helpful to ask an objective person to read your work and give you feedback. Here is a Top Ten list of questions to ask them about your work!
1. Clarity: What, if anything, is confusing about the story?
2. Pacing: Does the story move to slowly or too quickly? Show me where the flow feels off.
3. Description: Can you visualize the scene? Am I using too much detail or not enough?
4. Characters: Are the characters distinct from one another? Are they too perfect? Are they likeable?
5. Setting: Do you feel grounded in where and when the story takes place? Do you understand how the world inside the story operates (rules of magic, government, customs etc)?
6. Plot: Is the story continually moving forward? Is the tension increasing? Is it logical?
7. Dialogue: Does it ring true? Is there too much or too little? Does the dialogue move the story forward or reveal something about the characters?
8. Praise: Where does the story shine? What do I do well?
9. Repetition: What phrases, words, or descriptions repeat too often?
10. Who to ask: Seek readers who enjoy the genre you're writing. Someone who doesn't appreciate sci-fi or animal books or mysteries probably doesn't read them. They may not be the best judge of your work unless they are truly able to set their reading preferences aside.