A Good Reader

I've written in the past that it is crucial to find a good reader for your writing. What I have not written is what makes a good reader. So let's do that now.

A good reader is useful and constructive. How they do that is relative. A good reader blends with you. What they say makes sense and it helps you write better works. However, since every writer is unique, the qualities that make a good reader depend on you. There are a few pieces of advice that are universal among good readers, so let me share those first.

Rule #1: Do not utter the cursed phrase. "It was well-written." This is the most offensive thing I have ever heard when people read my writing. It is worse than "I liked it" or "I didn't like it" because at least those tell me that it had a noticeable effect. Telling a writer that their work was well-written is like eating a meal and telling a cook that they didn't burn down the kitchen. It may be true, but it is thoroughly useless. (Sometimes, it is a compliment to say that the word choice and sentence structure is particularly delightful to read, but even still it needs to be emphasized that you are not saying it is well-written as a cliche.)

The purpose of rule #1, aside from not insulting the writer, is to help you as a reader be constructive and useful. Once you are not allowed to say anything safe and neutral, you now have to pay attention, which leads to the next main point.

Read the piece. It shouldn't need to be said, but it does. You need to read the piece so you have something to say. Read it one time and write down all of your first impressions (or tell them to the author). Then, if you can, read it again, even more closely. I recommend multiple readings for two reasons. One is that the audience will only read something they don't like once. That means that the impressions from the first-time reading need to have a certain effect. They need to be good enough to make the audience either read the piece again or like it the first time through. However, nobody gets the entirety of a piece with just one reading, so you need to read something multiple times to make sure that your first impressions aren't inaccurate.

When you finally do talk to the author, be honest. If you lie, you hurt everybody. If a particular sentence was terrible, say so. If five pages are terrible, say so. If an idea or a paragraph has confusing wording, say that you were confused and weren't sure what was going on. If something sounds unbelievable or just plain wrong, then again you have to say it. However, remember that criticism is not necessarily negative. If a character has a great line, point it out. If something made you laugh, share it. If you loved a sentence more than anything else in the piece, tell the author, "don't you dare change this sentence."

Although you should be honest, the way you say it is a whole other story. Aside from finding somebody who says something more than "I liked it", the hardest part of finding a good reader is finding somebody who says things in just the right way. Writers have different preferences in criticism. Some cannot handle anything negative. For these people, you have to be critical without being negative. Phrases like, "I think I would like it more if you. . ." and "What would you think if. . ." are going to be your bread and butter. Other people want to be torn apart. You may have to try to be vicious to appease these people. They're rare, though, so don't worry about it. Most people are somewhere between these extremes (though a majority are more toward the former).

What I've been talking about so far is being useful. It's saying things that have value and meaning. The next step is being constructive, helping to make the writing better for the next draft. What that comes down to is application. When a reader says, "I really didn't like this passage; it sounds awkward", the next thing they should say is, "Try saying it this way." This is usually focused on negative criticisms, which makes sense. If there's a problem, it should be fixed. But positive things can also be constructive. For example, "I loved the comparison of the pilot as a watermelon seed. I want to see that comparison expanded throughout the story."


I have two tests that I use to see if I will like somebody as a reader. The first test is if I want to continue working on my piece after a session. If the talk and advice is so good that I want to immediately start working on the next draft, I know I have a good fit. The other test is if they catch the sentences I don't like. I don't purposely put in bad sentences to catch my readers, but I do occasionally come by a passage that I just can't make sound right. I end up doing the best I can and moving on. My best readers point out those spots (without any help) ten times out of ten.

If you can learn what style of criticism you respond best to, you will be able to find a good reader for you. If you can figure out what a writer does and doesn't respond well to, you can be a good reader for anyone.