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I Hired Beta Readers and Almost Vomited

Nausea set in the moment my cursor hovered over the Submit button.

That’s when I got a thought. I love dragons too. Why don’t I write a story about a dragon?

Sounded fun.

Pulling out my laptop I started typing away. Didn’t really care where it was going, I let the plot create itself and the characters appeared where they did. It was like the story was telling itself.

A total BLAST!

The story did end up with some dragons, but it wasn’t about dragons at all.

Interesting how that happened.

When I finished editing my first draft, I knew it needed a lot of work. But I was so excited and sent it to my sister (who can write very well).

Holy moly!

She butchered it!

I mean… she took a knife and stabbed each page multiple times. Blood (in the form of red ink) splattered all over the pages.

Be careful what you ask for, right?

Looking back, it was the best thing for me. Her critique was invaluable and it took me a hell of a long time to go through all her edits and advice.

I stopped.

I got ill and ended up in the hospital for two months. Crazy sick for about a year.

I’m all good now, but that was a long pause. It took me two years to think about the manuscript (tucked away in a simple folder on my hard drive).

Before I had a chance to return to my manuscript, I had a crazy and amazing dream!

Flying out of bed I started typing away — my NEW manuscript! A completely different story altogether. Got about halfway done and took a small break because we were moving.

Then I started to question if I had any talent at all. Was I going to embarrass myself? Embarrass my family?

My poor husband.

So, both manuscripts were tucked away, again.

Now, here we are, years later. I finally have the time to finish my manuscript. It’s either do it or hit the delete button.

So, just as the title says… I got serious.

Determination!

I pulled out my butchered manuscript and worked my way through my sister's edits and my own. After taking so much time away from my work, it was easy to see where I needed to make improvements.

It was UGLY!

Yes, my manuscript was the worst!

Literally should have used it as toilet paper during the time TP was hard to find.

Chapter by chapter I painfully edited the doo-doo out of it. It was slowly getting better. As a new writer of fiction, I had a lot to learn about writing fiction. It’s nothing like writing non-fiction — doesn’t even come close.

After I finished, I ran it through Grammarly.

Good grief…

Grammarly butchered it!

Thank the heavens for Grammarly. And no… I did NOT take all of its advice. If I had, my personality would have been stripped from the pages.

My first draft is really done. So this time, I wasn’t going to torture my sister again. I need someone that I don’t know to read it and give me the feedback I need.

I learned you can hire beta readers on Fiverr.

Yippee… people I don’t know!

Professional beta reader!

I found three beta readers with different backgrounds and ages and contracted them to beta read my manuscript.

Uploading my work felt like I was delivering my child to school for the first time.

It was me (my crazy mind) that was uploaded and submitted across the internet to complete strangers.

And I got nauseous — still am.

So, I’m typing this story in the hopes my anxiety calms — because a stranger is reading it right NOW!

They probably look like this poor reader.

Happy writing, folks!
Jupie

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