Weekly Writing Intentions: Sending to Beta Readers
Daily Diary, June 18, 2022, Day 657:
If you followed along with this week’s short daily posts, you will know that I was, in fact, able to get my goals met. Yesterday, right before dinner, I finished editing the last chapter.
Therefore, my intensions for this week are to do one last quick skim of the manuscript and hand it over to my husband to read today. Tomorrow I will make any changes he suggests, and then send out to beta readers on Monday. I am limiting the number of readers for a variety of reasons (my goal of a quick turn-around, the need to get feedback from people who have read the whole series and enjoy the shorter works that are heavy on character and light on plot, etc.)
Knowing a manuscript is in the hands of the first readers is always a bit nerve-wracking, so the rest of the week I will fill up with staying busy at other tasks.
First of all, I want to get back a better balance to my days because I let a fair amount of stuff slide these last two weeks. So, back to walking twice a day, doing exercises, getting caught up on the reading I do to keep informed on the publishing industry. I also need to get back to writing putting out a few Historical Tidbit posts and get back to my Indie Author Journey posts.
I also want to do some work in what I call the Heron Garden that a friend created for me out front. This means working for very, very short intervals pulling a few weeds, cleaning out some dead leaves, moving some of the decorative rocks. If I do more than about 15 minutes at a time, I inevitably pull some muscle, or get bored. You might say gardening is definitely not my happy place.
I also have a new anthology of time travel short stories that I want to read. This is because my next writing project will be to take a time travel short story that I wrote for a workshop last year and see if I can’t turn it into a short novella. More about that later.
The rest of the week will be filled up with usual miscellaneous tasks. The yearly mammogram, regularly scheduled phone and zoom meetings, and looking at the beach paraphernalia (folding chairs, boogie board, buckets, etc) that I put away 3 years ago when my grandsons last visited. Who knew it was going to be 3 years before they made it back here, and who knows what shape they are in, and what needs to be replaced.
Well, looking at this list of things I'm planning on doing, good thing I didn’t say I was going to take a break now that this stage of the writing is done, because I’m not sure where I would fit that in! (smile)
You all have a great weekend.