when I sent the first draft out to beta readers ALL of them were like 'well we love character A, we like character B, don't care at all about character C,' and I sat there like open-mouthed Pikachu because I had thought that character C's POV was going to be the most obviously relatable one from the get-go and it was going to take a lot more work to get people to see where characters A and B were coming from lol, it's such a shock to get different perspectives on these things! (I had the opposite experience--one beta reader said "A's arc is great and really works for me" while another said "I think you need to rewrite A's arc heavily for it to jibe with her character as you've presented it," what am I supposed to do, add together and divide by two?) (also, though I should've put it in the correct post, congratulations on all your publication news!)
when I think a character's reasons for doing things are clearly obvious and relatable, that is probably a sign that I'm likely to under-write their rationale on the page because it seems obvious to me, and conversely if I have to put more work into understanding it on the page myself, it's likely to be clearer to the reader too Oh, that's a good point. I am something of a chronic under-writer, out of fear that I'll over-write something and spell it out boringly in words of one syllable, so this is a good guideline.
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lol, it's such a shock to get different perspectives on these things! (I had the opposite experience--one beta reader said "A's arc is great and really works for me" while another said "I think you need to rewrite A's arc heavily for it to jibe with her character as you've presented it," what am I supposed to do, add together and divide by two?)
(also, though I should've put it in the correct post, congratulations on all your publication news!)
when I think a character's reasons for doing things are clearly obvious and relatable, that is probably a sign that I'm likely to under-write their rationale on the page because it seems obvious to me, and conversely if I have to put more work into understanding it on the page myself, it's likely to be clearer to the reader too
Oh, that's a good point. I am something of a chronic under-writer, out of fear that I'll over-write something and spell it out boringly in words of one syllable, so this is a good guideline.