Plugging away

After the ups and downs of March and April, I seem to finally be back on track with my revisions.  I am a little more than a third of the way through my manuscript, and I have to say, I am marking up a lot of it in places -- from words, phrases, or punctuation I'm not happy with, to entire sections that I want to rewrite.  Sometimes I rewrite it by hand right there on the page, squeezing it into margins or writing it on the blank facing page (the back of the previous page); other times, when I can't think of how to improve it right then, I just draw big circles or brackets or arrows to indicate what I want to change later.

I have a tiered beta reader plan in mind.  I know I have quite a few people who want to read the novel when it's ready, but my husband, Michael, will be the first, followed by a select few.  I'll get their feedback and address any problems they see, and after that I'll let others read it.  I have some beta readers I want to use for general feedback -- what my target audience might like or not like -- while I'll ask certain others to help me watch for typos, consistency, and larger editing problems.

But that won't be for a short while yet.  I have the remaining 180 pages to mark for revisions, and then I have to make the revisions, as well as add a few missing scenes that I haven't done yet.  Still -- I am making progress, and I am pleased with that!