To be honest, I did not think I’d get much done this month. And maybe that approach led me to actually write something when I expected just a bit of editing and hope to finally find a beta reader or two.

As I’ve said in the previous month, the lack of progress in regards to finding beta readers (something I am still relatively clueless in so any tips would be welcome) was the main reason I was expecting little to no progress.

At this point, I am trying to determine whether I am at a point where I could be able to provide any decent feedback myself and thus try to go for a swap which might give me better chances than an one-sided ‘deal’ – and it’s something I’d like to figure out soon.

While I’ve had some answers to my thread on Goodreads, it went like this: 3 people came with paid offer which I’m very reluctant to, in case there’s a lot to edit afterwards – repeating the cycle after paid beta is not something I’d like to do. I did my best to politely explain that – and one of them gave me a bit of useful advice, which brightened my mood a bit.

Then, 5 people answered as potential free betas. When I contacted them as they replied, 3 of them did not answer at all, one requested a chapter (after which he did not reply anyway) and one requested a ‘few chapters’ after reading the samples I have on my weblog here with the same end result – silence. Part of me expected feeling of frustration but, maybe because all I’ve managed to learn about writing so far, the reaction it got from me is stoic acceptance. At this point, I am giving betareader.io a try though I pragmatically expect a similar result unless I manage to go for a swap. I’ve actually received a swap offer but we ended up in a cycle of issues I have yet to determine whether they are because of the website’s system (beta swaps are in beta) or by the other person doing something wrong.

Among all of that, I eventually got to work a bit on the early draft of Legend of Sagittus, the prequel to my trilogy planned for 2025. Being in the mood for writing, I’ve decided to ‘write a bit’ which ended up with two 4-hr sessions at ~5000 words each and a bit the third day, for a total around 11,5k words. I’ve also made some progress on the concept for the further chapters and believe I might have this in early draft (or at least complete concept) by the end of the year.

This, however, starts looking like a problem. At this point, I have four works in progress (the Eternal Defenders trilogy and the #0,1 Legend of Sagittus prequel) with fifth – internally labeled as #0,5 – being ‘put to ice for a while’ since I’ve made a rough concept of it from the scrapped initial prologue of #1. When I add the yet-unused ideas to the pile… I guess you see where I am going.

A few times, I’ve considered using my monthly update posts to ask for betas but I don’t know how many people have matching genre tastes – or, considering some of them are writers as well – could potentially have the time to beta a 181k monster.

As a closing thought: 21.7. was a four year anniversary since I delved into writing and a few days before it was two years since I started this blog. So, I have drafted a five-post ‘series’ that’ll share the story of how I got to writing. It’s tentatively planned for late summer, possibly after my current sunday ‘death in writing’ series.

So, this is it from me for this month. As always, I’m open to comments or questions.

Until next time, have fun.

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Footnote: If you’re considering to give betareader.io a try and feel like helping me, I can give you my refer-a-friend link.