Remember when I swore I would take two weeks away from the manuscript? I made it twelve days.
My family took off for an impromptu weekend trip, and I printed that draft out so fast, the ink was barely dry before I was sitting down to read.
As I promised, I did not change anything on the first read. However, I did mark things that needed changing. Little tweaks to the story. Big changes to characters’ backstories. Continuity errors. Lots of notes for a later sensitivity read.
To my great relief, the draft did not disintegrate upon rereading.
The work was CatButt approved twice over, which also helped.
Raise your hands if you want practical bits!
I write in Word because it’s what I have. I printed the draft double-spaced with twelve point font, double sided, and put it in a binder. Next time around I will add dividers to separate the major sections of the book, but not having them wasn’t a deal breaker.
I finished the read in about twenty-four hours, spread across one week. Gold star to July me for having the foresight to track my time. There was an emergency run to Staples for extra post-it notes, but otherwise I didn’t hit any major roadblocks.
Next up for August is typing up my notes. The small edits—copy editing, continuity, and sparkling up sentences—is my absolute favorite. I actually think I’m kind of good at copy editing. That major chapter rewrite that solves the awkwardness of section one and clarifies the tension between the two MCs? Not so excited about that one.
Research will continue in my spare snippets of time. The next-largest focus, after making the edits so the beta read can happen, is organizing the beta read itself. Because after this round of edits is printed and read by me, it is time to bring in the readers! I reached out for suggestions on social media and I am so grateful to the authors who responded. This first run will have a little bit of a DIY flair, but I will be doing my best to ensure the readers have a clean copy and clear instructions for what I need out of the read!
(Have any of you hosted a beta read, or served as a beta reader? There is still time to make suggestions lol).
Readers ready? Let’s gooo!
Allison Ringness 