The Search For Truth (and other things I was wrong about) --Beta title

Please Read

PLEASE READ

Hi reader! My name is Morgana and I'm a 28-year-old writer who hopes to one day publish her first novel. I've written countless numbers of things in the past attempting to make this dream a reality and nothing really stuck until this. I'm truly obsessed with this story and these characters, particularly the world they live in. 

I've always loved space and had a fascination with the idea of living there, since it is unlikely in my lifetime I've instead decided to create a fictional world set far in the future where humanity has at last moved into the vacuum. This story is my heart and soul and I have spent a long time world-building and fleshing out these characters to feel like people and creating a storyline that is exciting and interesting. 

But I need your help. Have you ever created something-- a drawing, a photograph, a poem-- and the longer you look at it the more you hate it? The more flaws you see? The more you start picking it apart looking for weaknesses? Yeah, well that's what happened here. I am entirely unable to see my work objectively.

This is where you come in. I chose to upload my raw writings onto Wattpad so that I could hopefully source some beta readers and get feedback on my story. This is VERY raw writing, I've done absolutely NO editing apart from spelling and some grammar. I mostly haven't even reread what I've written. 

What I'm hoping to get is feedback on the story, the characters, the world. The writing is not eloquent or very profound, I know I can do better, but what I want is to know is it worth it? 

So I'm asking, no really I'm begging, that you please give my story a chance and if you can find it in your heart to leave a comment or any sort of feedback it would be greatly appreciated. I've detailed below the kind of feedback I'm looking for if you're the kind of person who works better with a nice checklist of clear instructions. 

This story is my heart on paper-- a friend once said to me "Your thoughts deserve a decent place to live" so here they are. If you read even a small part of what I've written, thank you. If you leave feedback thank you even more. And if you came here from Tiktok...whatsup nerd happy to see you here. If you've read my Sirius fanfiction prepare to be disappointed, this is not nearly as good. 

Thank you for spending time with my words. <3

-Morgana

Guideline for leaving feedback.

Reminder: This is a ROUGH draft, it is not going to be perfect. There will be spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, typos. There may be places where continuity is broken, or the sentence structure doesn't make sense. These are all things I can fix later. 

You do not need to answer all these questions or follow this guideline. I am appreciative of any and all feedback, but I know many people, including myself, are more apt to give feedback if they know exactly what the author is looking for. I've detailed below plenty of questions that I'd like answered about the story that would be helpful to me moving forward. Again you do NOT need to do this, but if you want to give feedback and are unsure of where to start I've made this little guide to help out. And thank you again to anyone who takes the time to leave feedback. 

What I am NOT looking for:

- Technical feedback on: Grammar, Spelling, Sentence structure, readability. 

-Unhelpful negative opinions. Please refrain from leaving negative comments with no feedback, saying "I don't like this" or "I don't like this character" is not helpful.  This is a sci-fi story set in the future on the moon. If you don't like stories like that then you won't like this one. Telling me is neither helpful nor necessary.

What I AM looking for feedback on:

-The characters:

Do they make sense? Are their motivations clear? Are they behaving the way you expect them to based on information given about them? Are they likable? Do you feel like you could have a conversation with one of them? Do you have enough information about them to feel like you know them as a person? Do they need more depth? Do they need better descriptions? What is lacking from making them feel 'whole'? What do you want to know about them? 

-The story:

Obviously, the story will reveal itself more as it goes on but based on what there is currently (as it becomes available aka as I write it) ask yourself these questions. 

Is it believable? Does it make sense? Is it moving in a predictable direction? (this is neither good nor bad, the story should be somewhat predictable) Is it flowing in a natural way? Is it confusing or hard to keep up with? How is the pacing? Are we moving to fast past certain things? Or is it dragging on with unimportant details? Is it interesting? Is it fun? Do you want to read more of it?

-The world-building

Do you understand the universe the story is set in? Is it believable? Does it make sense? Does it feel whole? Can you imagine, within reason, the space where the story/scene is set? Does it need more imagery? Less? Is it too technical? Or does it need more specifications? This story is set in the future in space, there is a lot that has to be made up but I want it to follow our current understanding of physics as much as possible. Do you feel like it does that without detracting from storytelling? 

-The dialogue 

I am obscenely bad at writing dialogue, or rather I feel like I'm bad at balancing out dialogue with the rest of the scene. PLEASE if you have any feedback on dialogue let me know. 

Is there enough? Is there too much? Does the dialogue add to the scene or detract from it? Is it easy to follow who is speaking? Does it flow naturally? Do the characters each have their own "voice" or does it feel monotonous when conversation is happening? Is it interesting? 

Quick bullet points to help you give helpful feedback

What I am most concerned with knowing...

1. Does the story flow?

2. Is the story interesting? Are the characters?

3. Does the world feel "real"?

4. Is the story too much "telling" and not enough "showing"

5. Is it balanced? As in: are the dialogue, descriptions, and worldbuilding flowing together naturally and in a balanced way? Or is there too much of one? 

6. Is it good???????

One last note: While I understand I'm asking the world to look at my story and critique it I do ask that you please be kind in your feedback. Remember that there is another person on the other side of the screen who will read what you wrote and take it to heart. I want this story to be good, I want to know where I can improve and the truth hurts sometimes, I can take that. But please refrain from leaving hateful or negative comments and/or phrasing your feedback in a negative tone. 

By putting this out there I'm inviting you all into my home that I've created, if you don't like the decor feel free to let me know politely, and as always remember that not everything is for you. This story might not be, and that's okay. But it might be for someone else and those are the people I'm aiming to please. 

Thank you so so SO much for reading all of this and thank you even more if you leave any kind of feedback. I know I've said it a million times but I really just want to show my appreciation to anyone who sees this even if it's just one person.