It's Finished!

I almost can't believe it's finished! I've worked on this novel for so long now,

through the doubts and the rewrites, the character changes and the editing. It's all led to this point: the novel is completed.

Well, I say completed. I've given it to people to read and get feedback. I've already had some feed back that my descriptions are too detailed and don't leave enough to the imagination, which is brilliant as that gives me a focus should I go through it and edit it again.

I was worried that my dialogue was a bit, the same. The characters tend to have my voice and all sound the same. Two of my characters have distinctly different voices, but the rest? I wasn't sure.

Beta Readers

It's always scary giving your work to someone to read. I've given people snippets, but really, I'm the only person who has lived in this story. I've had a few people volunteer to read my novel. I'm so grateful that there are so many kind people willing to give up their valuable time to help me with my book. I aim to pay it forward.

The beta readers have the novel at the moment and I will be making changes depending on the feedback I get from them. I'm excited and nervous at the same time, wondering what they're going to say.

Part of me wants to have negative feedback so that I can act on it and improve my writing accordingly, but on the other hand, I want the readers to enjoy the story, find it page-turner-y and to connect with my characters. I want them to find the story immersive, entertaining and care about what's going to happen. But, that's only if my writing is good enough.

What's Next?

I'm going to spend a little time catching up on writing I've not been able to do because of this novel. I'm going to take a break from the novel for a week or so. It'll help me come back to it with fresh eyes after the beta readers have given me their feedback.

After that, I'm going to be researching agents to query. Once I have the feedback from the beta readers, I'll make changes accordingly and start querying.

Wish me luck?