One of the hardest things that I went through writing my first book, was going through it mostly alone. I would have grand ideas, and then have no idea how to work them into my writing. Or something about my latest chapter would feel off or like it was leading my characters in a direction I didn’t particularly like, but I found myself initially uncertain on how to fix it.
My husband was there for me every step of the way. He read every version of every chapter I wrote, rewrote, agonized and lost sleep over. Kept my water and coffee full, stepped in with our teenagers when I was deep into a chapter. However, while he could point out from a reader perspective that something sounded ‘off’ or needed something ‘more’. There was a limit reached with how much he was able to help, simply because he is not a writer. This is not a fault, nor does it negate how amazing he was, but there was a gap that required others that write that needed to be filled.
Through a random phone game, I found myself playing with a rather active group of players and the subject of writing came up and I realized that several others in the group also wrote. Over the course of weeks our conversations moved off of the game and into Discord chats.
While I no longer play that game, two of the people I talked with have remained in my life.
One, is a random friend.
The other is Zay, whom, if you’ve read my book, made it onto the dedication page. She has been my alpha reader since the book was in its infancy and absolutely nothing like it turned out. An alpha reader, for those who don’t know, is someone who reads the unpolished, unedited, conceptual version of a piece of work. The brain dump onto a page that somehow turns itself into prose. She’s the person I would ask is this okay for YA? Or hey, what do you think of this idea? Or, I ran into this issue and this is how I’ve decided to fix it, do you think that will work? It is hard to find someone that will walk beside you through the writing process, the concepts, the rewrites, the hours of talking about your ideas. So if you do find that person, cherish them. Appreciate them and make sure to tell them thank you!
In the middle of writing my book, I started an X page, and made my way into the writing community. I slowly built up a small following and eventually ‘met’ Michael. I will be honest, I don’t actually recall my first conversation with him. I think it had something to do with the first SFPit announcement? Regardless, we started talking in DMs about our books. He was querying his and I was finishing edits on mine. I had made my first writer friend. Someone else that was going through the writing, querying, editing journey. When I finished my edits, we exchanged books for a beta read.
A beta reader, is for the edited, considered complete version of your book. Where you’re basically double checking that you haven’t missed anything major, all your concepts and plots and characterizations land. Sometimes, they can catch random misspellings that your brain autocorrects as you read through the same chapter 100 times, other times they catch plot holes and pacing issues. As such, Michael is the first person that read my book from start to finish. The feedback he provided was invaluable. It validated moments in the book where my reader needed the comedic relief that was provided, questioned if concepts were explained fully, pointed out missed opportunities to delve deeper into who my characters were. And in a short time I was able to apply his feedback and it took my book from an 8 to a 10 (at least in my eyes).
When I decided to self-publish he was there with an abundance of knowledge and research that helped make the initial process a thousand times easier.
As such, with him and a few others that I have become friends with, we formed our own critique group called: Book, Beta, and Beyond. Right now there are five of us. We each have our strengths and weaknesses, but I cannot tell you how amazing it is to have writing friends. We post our work in progress pages and offer each other insight. They post their short stories and I get to read some amazing pieces of unpublished and soon to be published work. We keep each other accountable to write each and every day, celebrate each other’s successes, offer insight and suggestions.
Through all of this, I have learned how much having a community matters in the writing process. To have peers that know how to look at a book from a ‘writer’ perspective. While my husband will always get to be the first pair of eyes on a new piece of work, I now have several other sets and I highly recommend to anyone that is struggling with their writing to do the same.
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