So, The Widening Gyre is currently still in beta. I’ve heard back from all but one of the beta readers, and that one gave me some basic feedback, so I’ve been going through all the beta reports. I thought my process might interest one or two people.
First, I read the overall feedback I was given, and made notes of things more than one individual said or that struck me. In one case, one of the readers said something about the end of the book that sounded capital-R Right to me, so I asked the others what they thought. All of them agreed, so I’m reworking the last two chapters.
Second, I went through the in-line comments. I essentially reviewed each comment, and if I liked it outright or thought it had merit and should be considered, I would copy it, then move over to Scrivener and place the comment into the text where the reader would put it. When I’m done reworking the final chapters, I’ll then go through the manuscript comment by comment, making sure I address each one, and then I’ll do a final pass, with or without final readers if I can find some, to make sure their are no typos or bad grammatical constructions that shouldn’t be there.
Then it’s time to search for an agent. Gulp.