So, all I have read led me to believe I had to give my manuscript, AKA Baby, over to my longsuffering editrix® in order to make edits. She reads. I get feedback. I edit.

Not so. Though I have been cautioned with balefire about making structural edits without her, I am able to edit. Pitchwars sort of forced me to look for line edits, which I am finished with, for now. But then I had the aha moment of workshopping the entire thing through Scribophile. Or SFF Online Workshop.

But … I’m rethinking this plan, after a week of no sleep.

The issue is that on both sites I have to crit a lot to earn karma to post my stuff so it will be critted. While I (of all people) truly appreciate this fair and gamified system, I need people to just read the whole damn  thing. And give me feedback. That’s the thing I need. I don’t want a-chapter-at-a-time readers.  I don’t want line edits, I need to rewrite it yet. Please just freaking read it. I wanna know if you “get it.” If you do? I’ll know.

And my friends and family are not the people to do this.

If you want people to leave you alone? Ask them to read your book. Seriously.

I have a small group of people who got genuinely interested just from reading excerpts. And my Plotters group. And am going to just go with that. My marketing background demands a larger sample size for my feedback group. But beggars can’t be choosers and all.

The biggest issue I see right now is my inversion. Inversion is something I play with a lot, it’s kind of a theme. But my main character Sara doesn’t appear until several chapters in. I had reasons for this. But I know it’s a no-no. I planned to fix it once i was finished and now I’m sort of trying to decide how to fix it.

Or I could just leave it.

One method is to put in her perspective on every chapter. Even the not-Sara chapters. I can also move one of my chapters. That may be the way to go. There’s a chapter that isn’t super-exciting to anyone who doesn’t wrestle with their muse a lot, but it’s the core of the book. I think I’m going to push it to the first chapter.

The issue is that the first chapter is supposed to hook people. And the chapter I’m considering moving is not terribly hook-y. But it is very relatable. I’m not sure that’s enough? And again, here we go with me possibly changing structure. I’m going to get berated. Soundly berated.

The widely varying crit quality I get is also frustrating.

So there we are. I got invited to a group I’m hopeful about. We’ll see, but I’m definitely going to be working more with Plotters of Dreams.

My hope is to get it to a place where people can’t put it down. I won’t be happy with much else. Thus endeth my week. I have violin lessons today. Am going to get back into my normal schedule, if possible, and stop staying up all night.  My husband and dog will be relieved.