I finally tried letting my characters fail hard in chapter 3 and lost 4 beta readers

I wrote a mystery novel first draft where the detective completely messes up the main clue in chapter 3, causing a witness to get hurt. Half my beta readers from my local writer's group in Austin said it made them too angry to keep reading. The other half said it was the most realistic part of the story. Which side do you lean toward when a main character's failure feels too real?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylorm893d ago

Yeah love this approach. Did something similar in my writing group with a main character who froze up in a critical moment and people either walked or wanted more. The ones who stayed said it felt real and made them trust the story more. Keep the failures coming, the real readers will dig it.

rosel833d ago

oh man that reminds me of a buddy of mine who writes thrillers. he had this scene where his detective hero gets the wrong guy arrested based on a bad hunch, and the real killer gets away and hurts someone else. he lost like half his early readers too. the ones who stayed said it made them actually scared for what would happen next, like the stakes were real. but the ones who left told him he ruined the book for them because they needed to root for the hero. my friend kept the scene in the final book and it ended up being the thing people talked about most in reviews. i think you just gotta accept that some readers want a power fantasy and some want to watch someone figure it out the hard way. both are valid but you cant please both at the same time.