I donβt even have all the feedback yet. Just little tidbits. A few comments dropped casually over WhatsApp on the opening pages. A clarification here. A question there. A pause. A βWait, what did you mean byβ¦?β Enough to confirm a few things I was already side-eyeing, eye-rolling, and unhinged staring.Enough to make me feel a new kind of fear I didnβt even know about. Last week I wrote about sending my paper-baby, virgin novel, Forget The Fairytale, to my beta readers. Letting go. Resisting the urge to tweak my work to death, even though I didnβt have one more logical thing to give it. Giving it to other, yet trusted people and…
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The Trap of Over-Editing: Why βPerfectβ Never Wins
In 2025, I tweaked too hard. As in editing and re-editingβbecause perfection got the better of me. And I know good and well: perfection is the bitchiest bitch in Bitchville. Enter: The Beta-Reader draft Itβs 2026 and Iβm in the phase called editing the next draft of my book, also known as the beta-reader draft. Insert quiet internal screaming. My 2024 word of the year, COMPLETE, stretched across two years and wrapped damn near at 10:21:09 PM on New Yearβs Eve. I was grateful, giddy, and fully aware I could not tweak this print baby any more. It needed new, fresh reader eyes. Beta Readers: Those exciting, terrifying humans A…