Well friends, I have worked myself through my entire manuscript for what seems like the hundredth time.

It has a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Yay!

So is it finished?

I doubt it.

I'm sending it out to my beta readers at the end of the month and I'm anticipating a lot of notes. I have held this project very close - so close that I don't think I am capable of spotting the flaws I'm sure it has - which is why it's so important to put it in front of other people with fresh eyes, who don't know the story (and back story) inside out.

I'm hoping to be alerted of gaps - places the story doesn't make sense because pieces of it are still stuck somewhere in my head.

I'm hoping they tell me where things are too slow, too fast, too sappy, too wordy, too simple, too stupid...

I'm hoping for brutal honesty that is constructive and not destructive.

Does it scare me?

Yes!

I'm terrified.

But taking the next step is always a little bit scary, isn't it?!