I am running across more and more articles that talk about writing being a solitary endeavor. I see how it CAN be lonely… but really, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Yes, to an extent you need to write on your own (Unless two or more authors write a book together, but I’m not talking about that.)

Anyway, you write on your own, but if you find yourself a great group of writing friends, they are always there to bounce ideas off of, or to rant with when the words aren’t flowing, and to celebrate with when those worlds are flying like dandelion seeds in the spring breeze.

Also – and this is the most important and fun part for me – when you are done writing your fourth or fifth draft… after you have taken the story as far as it can possibly go… you get to hand your baby over to these trusted friends and they can tell you all the wonderful things wrong with it!

And yes, they will be wonderful things, because every comment is an opportunity to make your great manuscript even better! And then you revise, and send it to someone else, and if you are lucky enough, they find even more wrong with it.

Plot hole? Really? Bring it!

Police in rural North Carolina don’t ride on horses? I did not know that!

You can’t see the Aurora Borealis in Florida? Wow! Good catch!

Okay, I made some of that up, but my beta readers find tiny little things like that all the time. Silly little things that read perfectly fine to me, but shout “No way” to someone else. Different life experiences bring something new to the read. It’s those little tweaks that excite me!

So yes, in the end my name is on the cover of the book, but it is really a team effort.

I am nothing without my beta readers. They way I look at it, the more eyes the better.

Don’t write in a little box all by yourself.

Find yourself a team.

It’s fun!

hello out there!

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