Inviting beta readers opened a window onto fresh perspectives I never saw on my own. In this post, I share how I crafted a guided Google Form, started weaving early feedback into the manuscript, and am gearing up for a second full developmental pass.

When I first finished my novel’s first draft, I felt…weird. Proud yet conflicted, excited and uneasy to step away from my characters. In this post I share how I discovered developmental editing—why it’s the vital “zoom-out” pass after drafting and how I map every scene in a simple spreadsheet.