be Hulk hahah! Just kidding~
Well... at least they're honest. Better than unconditional praise. If they're willing to notice your work is flawed then they'll be willing to give some advice to help. If they refuse to expand on anything more than "this sucks" then dump them. I had art college teachers like that, they will rip apart your work and make you feel like shit but at least they gave criticism in between telling you your work is a flaming dumpster fire... let's hope these people are the same lol
Oh my gosh thank you so much! That has to be the most constructive insightful criticism that I've heard about the comic so far, I'll gladly take your advice and try to improve, thank you so much!
Thank you so much for the offer! I am a bit nervous as this is my first superhero comic and I'm writing a character who's from a completely different ethnicity/religion so I want to do my best!
I want your beta readers tbh! Seem they're brutally honest, but honest! I do feel they have a couple of dumb complains, but at least they're being honest!
A couple of dumb things:
* You don't have to justify everything. You know how the story is going, so If someone is like "why does this happen..?" And you know the answer and don't want to tell it, you don't have to. Example: Interracial relationship...People fall in love, period. Unless your characters are racist, they don't need a justification. It's just common sense, but many readers don't get it (because they're dumb, not you tbh)
* Some readers are gonna be dumb or distracted, always. That's why in movies or shows you may see people repeating what happenned more than once so the reader/viewer gets it.
* Check your beta readers age and culture. If they read little to none and are used to ONLY watch TV... They will be dumber on getting your story. Sorry. Sounds harsh but it's true. Now, a comic will be easier on people like that because there are images. You have to make sure they get it with images as well with words <3
* It's on you that both dumb and smart people understand your comic, that with paneling, composition, etc.
¨Good luck, lovely!
I have been seeing this is your first comic. So... Usually anybody's first anything is not as good as what you will be able to achieve.
Mm something I did when I started publishing (though this is my 41th story/comic) is that I started with one of my short stories to see how it went. So, If you can/want you can do a short story to go learning. After you learn more you publish your super long masterpiece! Idk this is a silly suggestion unless you like it.
I don't want to echo what everybody else has said so I'll keep it short and say that they're not being constructive with their criticism.
Also, sorry if you said and I missed it, where did you get the beta readers from? Randomers are no good because you need to have a little experience and discipline at giving feedback. Equally, I've heard that you shouldn't ask people too close to you. It's good to join in on some of the feedback threads on Tapas as most people here have been doing their stuff long enough to know what and what not to say.
Honestly, these beta readers reflect the average reader that will come across your story online. Most people are not gonna be kind or articulate properly what's wrong, but knowing that something is wrong can steer you in the right direction. What I can tell is that your story Is not hooking them. We've all been there. Perhaps ask them what changes they would make or how is it cliche? Ask them how they feel about the main character. If they don't care enough about your MC to give a rats behind about what happens to them then Houston you have a problem. Perhaps it would help to keep these readers but join a writers group to dig deeper into the feedback you're getting from them? You can also put yourself in their shoes as a person who only knows the story by what they've read. Would you keep reading your own story?
And like mgart1937 said. Your first will probably not be a masterpiece anyway. Keep it up! You'll learn a lot by continuing and asking your readers some questions.
you should ask them how you could improve on your stuff! dude i cannot stress how much i love these comments, because they give a lot more perspective into how your work is viewed by the general audience. nice comments are great, and they make the receivers all fuzzy inside, but these are the comments that really help the creatives improve! give a listen to negative comments and constructive criticism, and maybe try to experiment with the points they give- you may not like how it sounds on paper, but you could fall in love with the concept when fleshed out~
After reading over everyone's responses, and seeing your own, here's my stance on it:
Has any of the advice they've given actually helped?
Has any of these beta readers explain why they don't like your work or clarified to you what is lacking? Have you been able to improve in your work?
If the answer is yes -- make sure you keep that reader. It's good to have someone who can catch some errors in your work. We all need constructive criticism.
However, if these readers have not bothered to explain or clarify and just give you blatant"oh, this will never work", this is where I disagree with a good number of replies that said to still "keep them".
When it comes to a negative comment and constructive criticism, there is a fine line between someone "trying to help" and someone" trying to tear you down". In a lot of cases, people cannot tell the difference between the two. So someone can think they're helping. But if all they give is negativity without:
A) Explaining why they felt that way
B) How you can improve
Then they're not really helping.
The same goes with "good feedback". If they're not explaining why and all they say is "wow, this is awesome!" -- they're not helping.
They're beta readers -- they have to be able to explain why things just didn't click or did click for them. It's a two way street, and you have to deliver just as much as they have to give feedback. But you can only deliver if you have good, concise, STRONG feedback.
One way to pick up on good feedback is as follow:
They may or may not provide both cool and warm feedback. The former is when they tell you exactly what can be improved and why they feel that way. The latter is when they tell you where you went right and maybe how you can lead with that idea. Unless you're just completely new to something, you should at least have one thing good going so far.
They will give "Why and How". The Why tells you why it did or didn't click for them. The How is how you can improve your work. Clarification and Elaboration are needed, always, if you're trying to give criticism. Thing like "this is so cliche, like wow" or "this is hot garage" are not good examples because they didn't explain anything. What's a cliche? Can they point it out? Why is it hot garbage? How can I do better? If they can't answer those questions, they're not really being helpful.
In the end, it's up to you to either ignore some feedback or take some in. I say it's better to look closer at feedback where the person took time to explain themselves and their perspective. At least then, you know someone took time to read over your work and try to see where you were going. It's also good to have readers with some experience (writing, drawing, story-telling, whatever).
But remember -- there is a difference between people who try to help and people who try to tear you down. And there is a difference between someone helping and someone trying to fluff you up.
And it's up to you to know that difference and improve from there.
Thank you for your reply. In the past I have asked them questions as to why, but they are unable to give me a real reason behind their criticism. They'll say that I'm a bad writer and I'll ask them how can I do better and they'll just shrug, so yeah...I guess they're not really helpful sometimes...
It's no problem! It's great to have several pairs of eyes looking out for your work, and it's real nice to have people who don't just fluff you up. But as you said:
They weren't really helping you. I think you can find some good beta readers here in the forums. Mostly everyone here is experienced with comics and writing and could definitely help you out.
I do wish you the best of luck!
Oh! And also another thing that I should've mentioned in my first post!! (I also want someone's opinion on this)
One thing that I'd like to also say is that the reason why some of my beta readers wanted me to explain a character's background is because she is from an interracial couple, one where foreign marriage is highly uncommon, so they felt like I should have some EXTRAVAGANT explanation to it, but I mean I feel like no explanation I could give would really satisfy them other than (aliens invading and forcing these two to get into love), but I mean love is love right? I see all kind of couples like this on youtube and their how they met story is just them meeting, falling in love, and wanting to get together no matter what, so I don't know what to do. it's kind of frustrating and makes me a tad bit frightened that the character I made my offend some people.
Hmm...well, I can see why they might ask that question.
If it's highly unlikely for that marriage to happen, it can do some good to do research on that cultural background you have.
However, it can also be a good way to create more development for the parents involved and the character.
- Where did her parents meet and why were they drawn to each other, despite such different backgrounds?
- How does the character cope or embrace with being in that cultural setting?
- Does the character still live there, or do they live somewhere where such interracial couples aren't entirely seen as "out of the norm"
It's true, it doesn't have to be a crazy complicated story on why the parents fell in love. Just so long as you did your research and do it all respectfully, it shouldn't matter too much.
That and, despite how much you try not to and do the work and effort to make sure you don't, you will still find people offended with your work, and that goes for a lot of us. I think the only thing you can do is to just make sure you've done good research and did it all in a respectful manner 
Ok thank you! I know some people in real life who share the same ethnicity (well partially) as the character so I usually double check things with them first.
Hi everyone,
thank you all for your helpful feedback I really appreciate it, and I'm going to take your advice to try to find new beta readers/ editor. This week I was talking to one of my beta readers about another comic and when we were talking about it, I pointed out to her how the very same things she said made my comic terrible, cliche, and made me an 'amateur' writer were being used by this professional writer and how she slammed me when I did yet praised them when they did it and asked her what was the difference. She just shrugged and said she didn't know and she guessed comics weren't for everybody.
Yeah, when people don't know why they like/don't like something, their feedback is not useful.
While is common for some stories to use certain conventions/tropes/clichés is important to know why they work/don't work, because putting them randomly will only be counterproductive.
@Purplegirl I found a great video that teaches about the good/bad use of clichés. This youtuber has surprisingly insightfull advice.
Most of the time he gives his advice in a hillarious sarcastic way, but in this specific video he explains it upfront.
Yeah I have never facepalmed so hard everytime she says how cliche the story is, I'm like 'how? You know I'm only halfway through the second chapter? How is it cliche?" and she can never answer. But I look forward to watching that video you send me! So far I've been asking for feedback on the third chapter from some other people and it's mostly been positive so I'm kind of excited.
Thanks a lot for the video, it's definitely changed how I'll think and approach cliches from here on out
@DiegoPalacios I watched the video, too. Funnily enough I had subconsciously learned what to do with cliches, but that video taught me how to do the same thing consciously. I need to write my cliches better either by changing the way my cliche characters act or by playing them straight in a deconstructive way. There was a lot more in that video, but anyway. It's a very thought-provoking learning opportunity for both me and the others. Thanks for introducing the channel.