I've done it! As of 12:30 HST, I have completed the full Round 1 revision of THE STAR HOUSE. It's a little rough around the edges, but I'm very pleased with this new version. And I'm so darn relieved to have reached the end of this long dark tunnel.
There's no easy way to compare this version to the previous one. I deleted the house's origin story. I deleted one point of view. I stretched out the mystery. I developed all four POV threads that remain. It's a totally different story from the one I sent to Kathleen in September, but I'm proud of myself for wrangling this beast.
Aside from being the one to put the words down on the page, the credit really has to go to Kathleen for cheering me on along the way. She has been an amazingly supportive mentor. I'm so grateful and lucky. If it weren't for her, THE STAR HOUSE surely wouldn't have seen the light of day. Now it has a chance to be in other people's hands -- and that excites me so much!
I've done it, but sadly I'm not done. I still have at least one more important round of smoothing out the story (developmental) and editing (prose level), which will take one intense week. And I haven't given any thought to the 'pitch' part of Pitch Wars either, so there's still a lot of work to do.
But I'm pleased with Round 1. It was the hardest one. The others should be 'easier.' Next week I'll address the developmental edits that Kathleen sent me + print and line edit. I'll also send her the 300-word pitch and opening.
But yay! Time for a brief celebratory something (massage maybe?) before I dive back in.