Alpha readers provide feedback on your storytelling techniques, whereas Beta readers provide feedback on the story itself. The questions below will focus their feedback on the questions you need answered and make it more likely that their feedback is relevant to your story's genre or subgenre. General Do you read to be entertained, informed or emotionally engaged? What is your favorite genre, books, TV shows, and movies? What makes you happy, sad, angry, fearful or sorry? Title Did the title leverage your curiosity into story? Give you an in-the-background context while you read? Give you an “Aha!” when you saw its relevance? Help you remember the story and recommend it to others? Beginning Do you feel as if the beginning promised you something? Was it clear that the character had a problem to solve? Was the problem too trivial to keep your interest? Or subtle enough to ignite your curiosity so you kept reading? Middle Hold your attention by deepening the problem implied in beginning? Deepen your understanding of the characters? Reveal how they felt on the inside about what happened on the outside? Did it avoid side trips that distracted you from the core issue? Was the climax revealed as choices the character struggled with? Did cause-and-effect, stimulus-then-response ripple through the story? Was it clear who was speaking without he-said and she-said? Was there enough emphasis on characters trying to influence each other? Did dialog reveal the conflict between the characters? Does each scene flow naturally into the next? Did you have to reread anything to know who was doing what? Do scenes need more setting - place, time, and circumstances? What confused or left you feeling dumbfounded? Did the technology and science make sense, seem believable? Did the middle muddle, get too slow or uninteresting? Did the twist surprise you, make sense or come out of nowhere? Did you skip some parts to get to a more interesting part’? Did the dialog or narration over-inform (info-dump) anywhere? Did you get a satisfying picture of what each character looked like? Did the cast of characters help you keep track of who was who? Were you able to keep track of the time and location of each scene? Ending Was the problem solved by them or by luck or divine intervention? Did you feel the characters changed from the beginning to the end? Did the end reveal how the outward change led to inner closure? Were things resolved because facing this problem changed their lives? Did it tie up the loose ends but foreshadow a possible future? Did it match the rest of the story—did guns & gore end with gosh & golly? Did it satisfy your expectations, give you an emotionally realistic journey? Did the story help you see the world and yourself differently? Did it validate or contradict your view of life and human nature?
