Matthew Scott Campbell

So, my first draft was completed during the Christmas break. I started writing it near the beginning of October and the content just flowed from my fingers. It was truly an amazing experience.

I read my whole book cover to cover (so to say) and I thought it was really good. I rewrote my first chapter as it was pretty awful compared to the rest of the book. I performed two rounds of additional edits. When I posted the edits to the draft it resulted in over 2500 updates and that includes ONE update for the chapter rewrite.

Now, I am just trying to find someone to read the book and tell me that they think it is good or not. I don’t want to be one of those people on American Idol who think they are good singers but cannot really sing.

Once that happens, I will start really considering future plans with all of this. Self-publish or traditional publish. Cover Art, etc…

I’ve asked a few close friends to read it but they are taking a while to do so. The problem is that I do not actually have many friends to begin with. Most of them do not read. And the ones that do read do not read sci-fi. So, I’m grateful for their help but I know that it can be a challenge for someone to do that.

So, the anxiety is killing me now waiting for someone to give me some feedback that is meaningful. I’ve found that this anxiety is making it worse to try and start writing other material. For example, I want to write some novellas for this site to entice readers. I’ve got the ideas that I want to write on but getting the motivation and focus to initiate the writing is proving to be difficult.

I have considered asking for Beta Readers but I am not sure I am ready for that. I do not know if I should have them read it first and then do copy editing or if I should do copy editing and then have Beta Readers.

I never realized I would be in the situation where I felt like this and it is rather alarming. I am hoping something moves soon so that I can get back to writing.