September is starting strong, C’est La Vie readers - we’ve officially moved from the hellish mountain of revisions into the exhilarating yet terrifying valley of beta reading.
Many of you receiving this newsletter are probably on that beta reading email distribution list, so hey-girl-hey! 🙋🏻♀️
What a climb these last few months have been. Let’s review, shall we?
May 25th: finished my so-called sh*tty first draft
May 26th-June 23rd: revision 1.0
June 24th: breathed a sigh of relief and sub’d the whole thing for a dev edit
June 25th - July 14th: lived in the blissful clouds of freedom
July 15th: received completed dev edit
July 16th - August 30th: revision 2.0
September 1st: submitted the whole manuscript to *way too many* beta readers
Whew. Who else is tired?
Now, I get to live in that blissful cloud of freedom for a few weeks while biting my cuticles to nubs, anticipating feedback from the people whose opinions matter most. The ones who will be first in line to buy copies of my book (or will bring me tequila and ice cream if publishers pass).
There’s a weird concept, one which I’ve heard echoed amongst other writers, so I know it to be true:
Wanting to publish your book inherently means sharing it with *the* world, but sharing it with *your* world… oh baby, that’s a whole other ballgame.
The anxieties created from sharing a story with the people closest to you, even if they are the kindest, least judgmental humans walking planet Earth, are very real.
Having those wonderful humans read your work is extraordinarily vulnerable. Why is that? It’s because the universal truth of writing (yes, even fiction) is that there’s a part of you (the author) in that story.
It might only be an itty-bitty fragment - like a name or a setting. Or it might be an unmodified version of your last therapy session. Regardless, you (the author) are in there somewhere.
My current manuscript definitely fits somewhere on the spectrum closer to the therapy example. Those folks who are beta reading for me will undoubtedly recognize that. *Gulp*
It might have been less scary to breach HIPAA and email them all my session notes.
Writing a book has been the most fascinating roller coaster to experience for the first time.
When you have a blank page staring at you and a half-baked idea rolling around in your head, writing feels like the biggest hurdle. But, then you do it.
Then revising feels like a monster you never wanted to encounter. That gets slayed one page at a time, too.
Beta reading is my next hurdle. With this step, I’m opening up the ~75k-word world I’ve been holding onto with a vice-like grip…literally requesting judgment. It feels like asking someone for their honest opinion of whose baby is cuter.
But, I know I’ll get through this phase because I desperately want what lies ahead.
Those final steps toward getting published will, without question, be the biggest hurdles yet. I’m going to summon blind optimism. Channeling the courage and determination that have served me well through the last stages, confident they can and will get me to my final goal.
To any of my current (or future) beta readers: you guys rock; I love you to pieces. Also, please don’t ask me what’s real. I’ll just give you my doc’s phone number.
To my other writers: what stage of the battle are you in? What reminders are you leveraging to help you rocket to the next level?
Until next time,
Megan
So relatable and so true. Your beta readers are in for a treat!
loved the book and can’t wait to read it again when it’s published!