Dear Geist,

What can I do with the manuscript of my novel, after three experienced people read it, and all said it “needed work” but gave me almost no details? Everyone says it's good to get fresh eyes on a piece of writing, so I did, and I'm right back where I started.

—Carlee, Campbellford ON

Dear Carlee,

If you paid your readers, you can insist on a reader's report with specific notes. But if your readers were colleagues, perhaps students or graduates of writing courses, we recommend you write a short list of the questions most important to you, and ask them to comment with more detail. Was there anything they didn't understand? Were they surprised by the climactic scene or did they see it coming a mile away? How did they feel about the main characters? Did it make sense that Rhonda was an excellent horse trainer? Were they rooting for Rhonda or for Eugene? And so on.

Another tool that can be very helpful in revising (or writing) any story, fiction or non-fiction, is a good manual on how to write a screenplay. The precision of the advice—where exactly to insert plot point #2, how many pages exactly for the denouement, how exactly to distinguish plot from conflict—may seem like lifeless cookie-cutter stuff. But it isn't. There is a shape and a rhythm to all stories in a given culture, and the screenwriting formula codifies it. Books and courses on screenwriting lay out and describe every signpost, explaining each one, saying where it goes and how it relates to the others in building a strong story. This can be quite illuminating and very useful for writers of stories in any genre or medium, with interesting examples and comments along the way.

—The Editors