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Join a writing group. This is much better than using friends because everyone commits to reading what you wrote and commenting on it, because you're doing the same for them. It also makes you act...
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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39411 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39411 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
Join a writing group. This is much better than using friends because everyone commits to reading what you wrote and commenting on it, because you're doing the same for them. It also makes you actually sit down and write. My group meets about once a month and 3 of us present one month and 3 of us the next month (so we each present every other month). It may take a while to get a groove with the people in the group but it can help a lot with seeing large structural problems, chapter issues, character issues, etc. Hiring an editor is also useful (my husband used one for his first large work) because they can help you figure out the market and how to approach things for that (but is less useful if you're not in a specialized market). He found one that only charged in the neighborhood of $300 for hours of work. But she was not his first attempt at hiring one. But for a novel that isn't in a rare genre, I'd go with the free option: the group. I found mine when someone posted about it on Nextdoor (which is a free online posting place all over the US and maybe in some other countries too).