Fall is officially here and, while I’m going to miss luxuriating in the long summer days, I’m excited for what’s to come. My apartment is de-cluttered and my pumpkin decor is out, I’ve got a slight jump on my Christmas shopping, lots of upcoming Marvel shows & movies to stream, and a pretty solid plan for my writing over the next few months.

At the beginning of the September I had a great discussion with a beta reader over my latest draft. She’s seen this project from its earliest iteration, so it was exciting to hear her take on its evolution and talk through some of the changes that have developed over time, and to find out how pumped she was about all of it. I got some good notes on scenes and concepts that need a little clarification and I’m ready to dive in and start implementing those this month. Once that part is done, I’d like to expand on certain characters’ backstories now that I know this reader had an appetite for more rather than feeling the story was overburdened with it. I’m hoping to have that completed by Thanksgiving, mid-December at the latest. Then I have a couple more beta readers I’d like to have take a pass at that draft and see how those changes click. Based on their reactions, I might make some more edits, but if the notes I get back are mostly minor (fingers crossed!), my hope is to expand that beta reading circle in the early months of next year and have some group discussions before finalizing the draft & preparing a round of query letters.

So, I say bring on the sweater weather and writing days fueled by chai tea! I am ready for fall.