Finish Your Manuscript
Most people never make it to this step.
If you are one of the rare few who have then give yourself a big pat on the back – you are already way ahead of the pack.
Once you have finished your draft, you want to make it readable for your first reader. Go back through and fix the things you KNOW need touching up – continuity errors such as eye colour, character names etc. Fix structural issues such as plot holes, and when the story is readable, make sure you run it through spell check, Grammarly, and the hemingwayapp.com before giving it to your trusted alpha reader.
Give It To Your ‘First Reader’
Your first reader is someone you know and trust. Someone whose opinion you value.
They should be someone who will act as a cheerleader for you, encouraging you in your artistic endeavors while also giving honest feedback on what did and didn’t work for them in the story. If all your first reader does is gush about how amazing you and your story are, and how you are going to sell more books than J.K Rowling, perhaps consider finding a more objective alpha reader.
EVERY story has room for improvement, and you need to know what those areas are.
Workshop It Through A Writing Group
It can be daunting and grueling to have your work critiqued by others, but it is the fastest way to level up as a writer and a storyteller (provided you find an appropriate writers’ group). Ideally, you want to be in a writing group where people are writing a few levels higher than you so that you can learn from them.
Nothing grows in a void. You can sit at home and write in isolation and your writing will most likely be at the same level ten years from now as it is today. Or you can get amongst your peers and level up faster – while making great friends and contacts in the process.
Give It To Several Beta Readers
Running your manuscript through your alpha reader and writing group should help you iron out most of the issues with your story’s structure and prose. Now it’s time to test if all your hard work paid off by giving your manuscript to beta readers.
Beta readers function as a test audience, much like the test audiences for movies do. The more beta readers you have, the bigger your sample size, and therefore the more likely you’re getting an accurate reflection of what the general populace will think of your work. You want to get around 5-20 people to function as beta readers. What you are looking for from their feedback is a general consensus on the story. If most of your beta readers tell you something doesn’t work for them, then it probably doesn’t work, and you should consider revising it.
