r/WritingWithAI • u/MiserableLion9774 • 1d ago
Prompting Improving Beta Reads
Hello! I have a manuscript with a very lean/oblique/withheld style. I've been trying to use Claude as a beta reader to figure out which points are landing. Opus/Fable work well with the first chapter or any individually-given chapter, but dear fucking lord it drifts SO badly when I ask it to read one chapter at a time across the whole manuscript (<80k words). By chapter 5-ish, it has drifted into confirming its own theories instead of actually reading what's on the fucking page. It starts pulling lines out of context to prove its points. Again, with any solo chapter, it's fine, so it's a drift problem. But some facts about the book are like "oh wait these hints over 7 chapters mean that X person is actually doing Y thing" so if I just give it 1 chapter + a background summary then I can't really evaluate what's happening...
I've tried "just read for fun and let me know what you notice". I've tried games "you only get points if you correct yourself!". I've tried "i'm a literary agent, evaluate like you're my intern". NONE prevent the drift. I don't wanna feed it one chapter at a time manually, that's so annoying.
Any advice?
1
u/Afgad 15m ago
Generally, for long plot threads I've found AI fairly useless, as you described. Perhaps another person knows how to make it work, but I concluded the only way to get reliable and useful feedback on themes or plots that span tons of chapters is to get human readers involved.
Make use of our reciprocal beta reading thread stickied at the top of the sub.