Feedback from a beta reader changed how I outline scenes

Last spring a beta reader in my writers group told me my dialogue scenes all read like people waiting for a bus, no tension. She suggested I write down the emotional shift each character needs before I start typing. Has anyone else gotten criticism like that that made them restructure their whole process?

1 comments

1 Comment

xena_murphy22d ago

Cause I got the same note about my fight scenes once. Different beta reader though. She said every punch landed like a pillow fight, zero stakes. So I started writing the worst case scenario for each character before the action even starts. Now I have a note in my document that says things like "if she loses here, her sister dies" and that's my whole outline. And honestly? My scenes got messier. More panicked. That's the good kind of messy though. It took me three drafts to stop overcorrecting and just let the fear drive the page. But yeah, that one comment flipped everything for me too.