Questionnaire as an effective way to get critique?

Hi WF'ers (hah, that sounded like WTF'ers when read loud), I'm thinking of asking a set of questions for a critique. I have never done it before, and I'm not seeing it being utilized in this critique thread. Do you think it will be effective? Personally, I think it would be good to control what type of critiques I'll get. Some may be turned off by it, so I think I can add a "wildcard" area on the questionnaire.

The following are questions that I did not come up with. These can be found on this website:
https://killzoneblog.com/2014/06/15-questions-for-your-beta-readers-and-to-focus-your-own-revisions.html

Here are the questions:

• Did the story hold your interest from the very beginning? If not, why not?
• Did you get oriented fairly quickly at the beginning as to whose story it is, and where and when it’s taking place? If not, why not?
• Could you relate to the main character? Did you feel her/his pain or excitement?
• Did the setting interest you, and did the descriptions seem vivid and real to you?
• Was there a point at which you felt the story started to lag or you became less than excited about finding out what was going to happen next? Where, exactly?
• Were there any parts that confused you? Or even frustrated or annoyed you? Which parts, and why?
• Did you notice any discrepancies or inconsistencies in time sequences, places, character details, or other details?
• Were the characters believable? Are there any characters you think could be made more interesting or more likeable?
• Did you get confused about who’s who in the characters? Were there too many characters to keep track of? Too few? Are any of the names or characters too similar?
• Did the dialogue keep your interest and sound natural to you? If not, whose dialogue did you think sounded artificial or not like that person would speak?
• Did you feel there was too much description or exposition? Not enough? Maybe too much dialogue in parts?
• Was there enough conflict, tension, and intrigue to keep your interest?
• Was the ending satisfying? Believable?
• Did you notice any obvious, repeating grammatical, spelling, punctuation or capitalization errors? Examples?
• Do you think the writing style suits the genre? If not, why not?
• Do you have other comments? If so, please let me know.

So, after skimming through that...

Are you intimidated by it, thus not wanting to critique? Too much questions? I'd like to know what your thoughts are if you see this at the end of a written work that's up for critique.

 

I don't think it's a terrible idea, but I do think that it depends on the person giving you feed back. Especially if they are someone who isn't a writer, or even much of a reader, then I can understand trying to give them some clear ways to express feedback in a way beyond "I didn't like X". I would definitely want to tailor what you want to ask to the book specifically though and make them less open; ask about specific parts of the book rather than about the whole book. For a lot of people reading a book is going to be done over a few days at least, if not a week or more, so I think that they'll do better navigating by "Was it believable when the monster ate Dave's foot?" than "Was the whole book believable?" because much of the book won't be fresh in their head.

 

First, let's assume for the sake of discussion that I do approve of the overall idea, and address the questionnaire.

I would eliminate the tail-end questions--the "if not, why not?" and so on. If you fear that people will just yes/no, then a generic "any and all details will be gratefully received" for the whole questionnaire could serve.

There are too many questions. I would group them. I would not treat them as if someone is actually going to treat it as a questionnaire, but instead a trigger for thoughts.

In fact, I just rewrote it. I still don't know if the whole questionnaire idea works.

Rewrite:

Below are some questions designed to trigger thinking about the piece. Of course you don't need to answer them all, but any and all comments are gratefully received.

INTEREST: Did the story hold your interest from the beginning? Was there a point where it started to lag? Was the ending satisfying?

WRITING: Did you notice any errors in spelling, punctuation, or grammar? Any other issues about the writing?

CHARACTERS: Could you relate to the main character? Did you find any characters problematic (in a way that wasn't enjoyable for you)?

DIALOGUE: Did the dialogue keep your interest? Sound natural? Too much dialogue? Too little?

SETTING AND DETAIL: Did the setting interest you? Did it seem vivid and real?

COHERENCE: Did you notice any discrepancies or inconsistencies in time sequences, events, places, character details, or other details?

READER ENJOYMENT: Were there any parts that confused, frustrated, or annoyed you? Any parts that you particularly enjoyed?
​

 

Thanks @ChickenFreak !

Your format looks less intimidating and more inviting. I'll use this in the future when asking for a critique.

 

I've tried it as the author and the reader and it doesn't work. Most readers don't like giving feedback in that way (both my experience and what I've read on critique blogs/discussions) and the author runs a real risk of narrowing down their feedback and cutting out some very useful stuff.

I've done dozens of beta reads and had three novels beta'ed. Through lessons learned, my approach now is to give free rein to initial feedback and then ask any specific questions that the reader didn't cover. Or, if I'm the reader, I give my thoughts and let the author know I'm happy to answer any questions I didn't cover.

I guess it comes down to what you want from the beta read. If you only want feedback on certain areas then a questionnaire may be the best way to go, but do you really know what the weak areas of your manuscript are? If you do, why are you getting it beta read? And if you don't, why are you focusing on these particular questions? For me, beta reading is all about getting a reader's impressions of my manuscript. If I lead them, or tell them which specific areas I want them to look at, I'm not getting their true impressions. I want to filter critique myself, not have it pre-filtered.

 

That's a fair point to make. Just by asking the questions you shape the kind of answer you get. Just scanning down those first questions someone could answer them very fully and thoroughly and you not know if they liked the book or not. They aren't bad questions per se, but it's very possible for someone to say that yes, your book makes sense and holds together but they just never clicked with it.

I think what matters with betareading is actually having a proper talk as well as getting the first set of feedback where you can ask both specific questions about areas that concern you, as well as try and get to the bottom of what exactly they mean by a character not being sympathetic.

 

I think a questionnaire is a great idea to get beta reader feedback, and I would also be happy in answering one if I were a beta reader.

I would also add: make sure the questions aren't biased. Asking "Do you think I revealed that X was the killer too early?" Or "Did Y and Z fall in love too soon?" is not the right approach because you are immediately drawing attention to the fact that you think you might have revealed a plot twist too early, which may never have crossed the reader's mind. Even if the reader tries to put that out of their mind, the unconscious bias will always be there.

With those sorts of specific questions, I think it's better to phrase them simply as "What did you think of the reveal that X was the killer?" Or "What do you think about the relationship between Y and Z?" Try to get the reader to express that Y and Z fell in love too soon without placing thoughts into their head that might not have otherwise existed. Let the reader say their piece, and if you need them to be more specific, only then follow up on it.

 

I have a brief questionnaire I've sent to a few betas. I think they can be useful for organizing your thoughts as a reader and making sure you get a good spread of thoughts as a writer, but it has to be optional - you're already asking someone to read this novel and give feedback on it, and you don't want to make them do homework afterwards, too

 

I don't see how these questions are going to help you get better feedback. They seem like pretty standard things that a beta reader would think about while giving critique, and I agree with the others who said this might actually limit the feedback you get if someone thinks they should stick to the questions you asked. I don't know. The idea seems a little condescending to the beta reader. Why are you going to someone for help if you don't think they know how to give you that help? A specific question or two maybe. But this long list of generic questions would be a major turnoff for me.

 

I generally agree, though I could see having it in your back pocket for someone who says that they don’t know what you’re looking for—though in that case, maybe pause to think about why you wanted them to read.

 

To elaborate on something I said in my earlier post - frequently it helps me to organize and get down my thoughts if I have some sort of checklist to 'fill out'. Usually it expands from there and the finished product is more free-flowing and not so much of a laundry list, but some guidance is helpful initially. I've learned to deal with this by keeping an internal list when reviewing / beta-ing something, but I assume that having an external list could be useful to someone who hasn't done that.

This is the one I use:

• At what point did you feel like “Ah, now the story has really begun!”
• What were the points where you found yourself skimming?
• Which setting in the book was clearest to you as you were reading it? Which do you remember the best?
• Which character would you most like to meet and get to know?
• What was the most suspenseful moment in the book?
• If you had to pick one character to get rid of, who would you axe?
• Where did you stop reading, the first time you cracked open the manuscript?
• Finish this sentence: “I kept reading because…”

It's shorter and has more pointed questions than the one in the op, I think. when I first found it I cut out some questions that I didn't care about to tailor it more towards what I'm interested in, which I guess is mostly how well the pacing and tone work. I also saved it with people who aren't writers in mind, because I think writers - especially ones used to doing critiquing like on this forum - are going to be more likely to think about things like pacing in those terms, whereas it's easier to ask someone who's solely/primarily a reader, "So when did you really get into it? When did you put it down for the first time? Which parts dragged?"

I dunno - I've had mixed results. One beta sent me a ton of really helpful loose form thoughts, filled out the questionnaire, and followed up when I asked her some more questions. One answered the questionnaire and didn't say much else. The former has always been a helpful and reliable beta and the targeted questions kept me from having to ask them later if they didn't come up organically, while the latter has always been a bit on the vague side and having specific questions helped to get a bit more out of her. But if they seem like a chore, I'm not gonna be like, "No, you have to do this." I still do think that's key.

 

I personally wouldn't mind a few questions, but a big list would be kind of off-putting. A few specific questions and a paragraph or two of the readers own thoughts would probably be a better balance.

 

To me a questionnaire seems like something that would depend on the reader- some people might struggle with figuring out what things to say so having that 'form' to fill out would help them give concrete feedback. Others might be able to have good solid discussions without the need of one. I do agree that the questionnaire should be kept small with some general questions though, I think I prefer izzybot's. I might have to steal borrow that when I get to the beta stage.

 

Yes. Excellent. That's the way to do it, I reckon. Group the questions, and get the reader thinking about these issues without making it look like some kind of a test, where they have to answer every question.

You could cut it down even further, if you wanted to.

I think the best things a beta can give you are the things you can't really give yourself.

Presumably at some point you will do your own proofreading, so the question about spelling, punctuation and grammar could be a more general one. I suspect the last thing you need from a beta reader is somebody going though your MS with a fine-toothed comb, correcting all errors and rearranging your sentences. It's too easy for them to focus on that and stop actually 'reading' the story. Just a general comment ...grammar needs work, spelling needs work, sentence construction is clumsy, etc, should help the writer focus on these issues later on, but won't impede the reader or get them sidetracked with proofreading issues. This is especially important if these SPAG issues are a real problem. (Too many to count, etc.) The occasional spelling or punctuation mistake (especially if it's a typo) can certainly be corrected, if the beta feels moved to do so. But I wouldn't get them to focus on this. I reckon that's a proofreader's job, not a beta reader's job.

I'd get the betas to focus on the following three groups:

1) SKIMMING - I'd say the 'lagging' issue, or identifying spots where the reader starts to skim is of huge importance. That probably means the pacing is wrong. The readers were expecting to discover what happens next, and instead they got dragged into a bit of the story that's not very interesting to them AT THAT POINT. If the information in that part of the story is vital to the story, and the reader skims over it, you're in trouble. So see what you can do to get the reader to pinpoint these spots, and then work to either put them elsewhere in the story, or create a better transition into these passages. Or condense them, reframe them—or eliminate them altogether, if they're unnecessary tangents.

2) PLOT HOLES - Pinpointing plot holes (coherence, continuity and discrepancies) is also of major importance to a writer. In other words, get them to look out for events and situations that don't make sense. Get betas to be on the lookout for this common (and scary) mistake. It's scary because this is the kind of error that can be difficult to correct. If you've based half your plot on something that couldn't have happened, or made things happen too quickly, or made a journey impossible to complete in the time you gave the characters to complete it, then your story won't be believable. Yikes. I still wake in a cold sweat worrying about THAT one. So easy to make that kind of mistake, if your story is based on research of some kind. (How many actual miles can a person travel on horseback in a day? And over what kind of terrain and in what climate? That kind of thing....)

3) READER CONFUSION - If any part of the story confuses the beta, that's also a good thing to know. If there is a part of the story where they picked up the wrong end of the stick, or can't figure out who said what, or didn't follow what was going on, this is good to know. As a writer, YOU know what's going on, but you might not have conveyed this to the reader as well as you might have done. I'd say don't ever dismiss this kind of criticism. Even if some other readers don't struggle with that particular part of the story, still do what you can to make things clearer to the ones who did. It won't hurt.

As far as liking things like settings, characters, plot, etc, I think those reactions will emerge as the writer engages with the beta. This is where betas will differ, and that's not necessarily something that needs to be corrected. This is where you use your judgement as a writer, and if what the beta says makes sense to you, then make changes. If they don't like what you were trying to do, then that's a grey area. That's where I'd have a long hard think about what they've said. It's also where you might want to compare the reactions of several betas. Obviously if nobody likes your story, characters or settings, you might want to rethink the whole venture. But if a few of your betas don't like it, while the others do? I think that's a more realistic outcome. You're never going to please everybody. No author ever does.