Friday Free For All!

photo cred

I'm needing some writerly opinions, so naturally I'm coming to my blog buddies for help.

We'll call this the question of the week.

Hypothetically...

You finish a wip then send it out into the world for a little beta lovin'. While you're sitting around returning the beta favor or reading books, maybe actually even experiencing life again, your writer juices creep up.

Oh you know what I'm talking about. They're the juices with side effects like bodyquakes, a constant glazed expression as you plan a 300 page book in your head and a perma-smile.

All because of your shiny NEW ideas!

You may have been trying to put a lid on them while you were finishing your last project, but they're plowing you down with reckless abandon right now.

My question then is this:

Do you take one of these new, fresh ideas and mold it into something right away, or do you put it on the back burner and continue working on what could be book number two for your recently finished piece?

I hear some say, let your creative juices flow. You never know if your current wip is even going to catch an agent's eye.

Others say, no, do book two because an agent is going to want to see what you have planned after book one.

I'm a query newbie so I I have no idea which is the best route....if there really is one. So please sound off.

Which would you choose. Write the new book or continue the series?

And for those of you who say both, well, I bow down to you:)

Have a great weekend peoples!

Baby Got Back

And by back, I don't mean a big ole booty that jiggles when you walk. Though I do have one of those too.









Nope. I mean, one sturdy, iron steel back bone. Because it's what you must have in this writing world right?



I'm getting mine nice and chiseled for next week, because I'm going to send my manuscript FOR THE FIRST TIME to a group of beta buddies.
Edit: Okay, scratch the "very first time" bit. I just realized that I have had a beta buddy before with the very first manuscript I ever wrote. Jordan McCollum (who is going to have her debut novel out in 2013!) She was one who thrashed me...in a good way, she was very kind through it all. But it was the most helpful thing I think I've had on my writing road thus far. I will be ever grateful for her:)
For those of you just starting out on your writing journey, a beta is basically a reader with fresh eyes. They haven't critiqued your work line by line, like your critter group. They haven't read any of it really. They're there to pick up on plot holes, pacing, the real nitty-gritty kind of stuff. The stuff that makes a book a page turner vs a dusty old thing forgotten on a book shelf.

So yeah.

Gulp.

I'm four days away from sending my baby out into the world. Am I scared? Heck yeah! But you know what? I'm more excited than anything else, because I'm ready to get the thrashings I need in order to make my book the best that it can be. I can't believe I've finally made it to this point. It feels sooooo good!

So what about you? Are you tough as nails when you send your blood, sweat and tears out into the world? Or are you so protective over it, that one negative slash to your pages will send you in a downward spiral? Maybe your somewhere in between? I'd love to know how the beta process works for you all.