Beta Readers Process

The first half of this year has been dedicated to finishing my first draft of my latest novel, Late Bloomer.

Late Bloomer and is about an optimistic, quirky almost 30-year-old newly transplanted in Phoenix who is dying to lose her virginity. From online dating and set-ups from friends, it’s filled with humorous and cringe-worthy dates on her mission to become an “adult” and be in a real relationship for the first time. In the spirit of Bridget Jones Diary, everything seems to go wrong for Christine, but her positive outlook on life almost never stops her from putting one foot in front of the other.

The story came to me while laying on the couch thinking about a friend of mine who has referred to herself as a late bloomer. As I talked about the book idea with more ladies, I was surprised to hear so many women related to this notion of feeling "behind" the rest of their friends. So I got busy writing the story of Christine and her humor-filled antics.

The first version of the book is in the hands of beta readers and feedback is coming through. I can’t wait to gather all of their thoughts and structure my next dive into edits. This step, although exciting, is also the most stress-inducing part for me. Organizing the ideas/thoughts/feedback, finding the trends, deciding on the biggest and best feedback to use in the editing process and weeding out the parts that don’t work can at times make my brain hurt. With that said, it is such a critical moment in a book’s evolution and I am so freaking grateful to have amazing beta readers who’ve given me killer feedback.

The rest of my summer I’ll be working away on my first big round of edits.
I hope your summer is treating you well and has been all things adventurous and blissful!

Cheers,
Rachel