Even though I am still some time and work away from finishing my story, apart from writing, I am trying to make progress elsewhere.

Since I am active Goodreads user (though so far as a reader) I was slowly trying to see if fellow readers and writers alike could help my efforts even without any specificity. Plus, it’s where I’ll most likely start my search for beta readers later next month.

So, I’ve been increasing my activity there. I joined a large and quite active group focused on SF and Fantasy some time ago (half a year maybe) and since then I am doing my best to participate in discussions when I have something to say on the topic.

That means joining discussions of writers, whether published already (regardless of method) or in the process like I am. Some discussions were really helpful or inspiring – whether started by someone else or my own hunger for advice or the experiences of others. To see the different approaches people take for every single step was really enlightening experience, especially if they shared not only what works but why it works for them.

A month or two ago, I joined a second group (still not suffering social anxiety from being in contact with far too many people) aimed towards self-published authors of any genre.

Even reading discussions about a specific work (or part of it) even if it was far from my genre was a good help: I believe it gave me some glimpse into how to give and receive feedback. Some discussions in the last days were far more than I hoped for. Eventually, I managed to give some insights of my own, to people asking for an opinion about their cover art or their book’s description.

In fact, I struggled to not alt-tab to GR discussions every fifteen minutes when writing, so eager I was for more useful tips from people that were sharing the journey or already walked it and willing to help the others.

Of course, it’s far from complete beta read or complex feedback to my own work but it’s a step forward and the last weeks made me less anxious about the approaching beta stage, giving me some hope it might not be as bad as it feels, especially to a loner like me.

So, that’s what I wanted to say this time. I’ll probably post my monthly writing update in the next week, which will be slightly more specific about my progress. While this post was unspecific, should someone want to ask something or add their own insight in the comments, it’ll be welcome.