Progress Update VI

Those of you who've been following along will know Round Two of Beta Reading has been jammed packed with highs and lows, with betas first experiencing a windfall of, well, let's call it "hard hitting emotional experiences" before universally achieving a significant milestone in their lives.

For those just tuning in: people had some drama and then got engaged, married, pregnant, had kids, had promotions, found the love of their life, got a puppy-you name it I've seen it.

My Optimism Meets My Inbox c. 2022

While wonderful for my Round Twos (and, let's be honest, in this world it's always nice to see good things happen to good people) it's also caused a bit of a fustercluck with my record keeping and, indeed, progress. A lot of them were set to finish out (IE complete the manuscript) but, due to the understandable necessity of their having to alter priorities, opted to withdraw from the beta process to better focus on making the dream work with team work, as it were.

I feel like this is where I should be mad, or frustrated, but instead I'm like "understandable, have a good day." I mean, its not like they promised the world and then ghosted me- they committed, gave results, and then life came a knockin'. Can't really fault anyone for that, especially as I've been there myself! So to any of my former Round Twos out there I say: Thank You. You may or may not have finished reading it, but my book will be all the better from having your eyes roam its pages.

In any event the proliferation of resignations has led to an awkward melding of "the old guard" (the OGS from Round Two) and the ever increasing "newbloods" (those merry souls who were kind enough to jump in when OGs had to bow out early). This has made R2 a bit of a Revolving Door/Struggle Bus/Whirlwind were I've got some people who've finished, some people who had to leave prior to finishing (and some were almost done, oh, be still my heart) and some people who started a while ago while others literally started yesterday.

It's a mad, slapdash kind of time, dear reader, but as a wise sage once said: shit happens.

Indeed

Unfortunately that same brand of metaphorical defecation has kept me tied up more than would like. My goal was to use the "waiting period" between beta responses to dive into the Querying process while building up my list for readers in the event I deemed it necessary to do a Round Three of beta and, if had any time left, work on an outline for part two. Instead, I've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off as I juggle responses, exit interviews, and offboarding departing betas while onboarding new ones (and, of course, trying to have a healthy work/life balance in between. Whee!)

It's been part fun, part hot mess, but I guess any progress is better than no progress, right?

So that's where I'm at, dear reader: Rome is burning, but I'm not so much fiddling as it burns as trying to make a couple of really good 'smores. Hopefully things calm down before too much longer and people can get into a rhythm but we'll just have to wait and see!

Until next time.