Here we go! I received my edit letter from Kathleen and wow. Just wow. She hit the nail on the head so many times she built a house.
A surprise only to myself, I have spent way too much time with The Star House to have any objectivity. My manuscript was full of inconsistencies. I even accidentally copied and pasted my class roster from my creative writing class. Eek!
I'm grateful she overlooked that terrible error, along with countless others, and still decided to mentor me. I am really excited to get to work on these revisions. Overall, the big picture changes boil down to this:
One Main Thread: I have two storylines, and I will need to narrow it down to just one. Additionally, I need to develop the character transformation arcs are all four family members.
Point of View: I'm already using an unconventional close third person point of view, so I need to simplify and balance out the narrative by focusing on the four main characters.
The Whydunnit Beat: Kathleen suggested that I pick up Jessica Brody's Save the Cat Writes a Novel in order to even out the 3-Act structure of the story. I read through it yesterday and completed the Whydunnit beat sheet for the hero character.
Those are just the big changes, but that's enough to completely dissolve a good 40-50% of the existing manuscript. I'm okay with that because I believe it's necessary to get the story to where it needs to be.
So, now what? I've reworked the outline and highlighted in different colors things that I need to move, delete, and add. This week, I'll focus on getting everything down and in the right place for Act 1. I plan on writing the whole thing over again in Scrivner. Then, I'll go back through and develop character, setting, and voice. I'll send that to Kathleen to review. There will be plenty to do!
My schedule:
Nov 17 - Finish Act 1
Dec 1 - Finish Act 2A
Dec 15 - Finish Act 2B
Dec 29 - Finish Act 3
Jan 5 - Revise Act 1 & 2A
Jan 12 - Revise Act 2B & 3
Jan 19 - Finalize query, pitch & sample
Jan 26 - Edit everything & prep agent list