Your friend has been writing this book for years, and now wants your opinion. No pressure? Pressure! Here’s what to do. My picture.

How To Read Your Friend’s Writing

You don’t want to upset your friend, and you do want to say something useful. Here’s how you handle this difficult social situation.

• Writers are insecure. If your friend invites you to read a work in progress, the reply “Are you sure? Gosh! Yes, I’d love to!” is way better than “Uh, yeah, okay, when I get a minute, probably next week some time”.
• Instead of replying “Got it, thanks” when your friend’s work arrives in your inbox, reply “Got it. I love the opening sentence … and the opening paragraph. Wow. I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of this.”
• If your friend happens to be present when you look at their work for the first time, don’t just glance at it and continue the conversation. Glance at it, read a bit, read a bit more, and then say “Oh no, I mustn’t get hooked now! I can’t!” Then read some more, say “How could you do this to me? I’ve got a meeting with the Joint Chiefs in five minutes!” and insist that your friend takes their work away until later.
• Writers are very insecure. Say something about the work as soon as you can. Even just “Love the opening!” or a more neutral “This is interesting!” is worth sending within hours of receiving your friend’s work. You know that waiting-for-a-call feeling?
• Don’t leave the book for so long that you have to explain why you haven’t found time to read it yet. Not even once. No. Find time to read it.
• Whatever you think of your friend’s work, don’t say nothing. Your range of possible reactions runs all the way from “I really enjoyed it!” at the top, down to “It was interesting” and even “I thought it needed work” — but if you descend to those depths, be prepared to explain yourself. Your friend won’t hold “I thought this needs fixing” against you.
• Praise something. “I really liked [the character] Simon” is good, for example, as is “I loved the way you handled the argument between Simon and Martha on page 279.” If you can praise the dialogue anywhere, do so.
• Be ready for questions such as “Did you like the description of the tree on page 278?” or “Did you spot the hints I dropped that Simon was getting angry with Martha?” It’s okay to reply with “Oh, yes, of course! Now, let me read that again, hold on, where was it?” before reading it (again) and commenting. Your friend will jump at the chance to help you find it.
• If you can come up with a question about the writer’s creative decision-making, do so. “Did you think of making Simon gay?” might be worth asking, while “I did wonder whether Martha was secretly attracted to Simon” might get your writer friend tweaking the story to make it so.
• If the book is fantasy, say something about the world-building.
• Always say something about the ending. If you’ve been thinking about the book ever since you finished reading it, say so.
• Ask “What are your plans for the book?” or possibly “What are you going to do with the book?” Keep the questions open. Chances are, your friend needs to think through the options around about now. Your friend doesn’t need to answer yes/no to scary specifics. For example, “Are you going to try to get it published?” just shuts the conversation down. Yes. [Try to? Excuse me?]
• Published new writing is generally edited, tidied up, revised, corrected, et cetera. Yet-to-be-published new writing is never that polished. What matters is how effectively the storytelling grabs you. Talk about that rather than impressing your friend with all the typos you’ve noticed.
• You haven’t found time to read it yet? Oh, poor you. The stars weren’t aligned and you had to get groceries and then there was another reason and you’ve just come up with something else? Look. It’s no small thing being asked to read this book that means so much to your friend, and the book is no small thing either. But — could you read it now? Please?
• Yes, there will be a list of acknowledgements. Why do you ask?

William Essex is author of Escape Mutation — A Journal of the Plague Years and Ten Steps to a Bedtime Story — How to get a lively toddler to sleep before the supper goes cold, both published by Climbing Tree Books. He also wrote the first draft of the fantasy novel that contains the battle scene in the picture at the top, but he gave that to a friend to read and hasn’t heard back yet.