On Saturday, I attended the annual conference put together by Austin’s chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. As with all the SCBWI conferences I’ve attended the last few years, this one gave me a much-needed jolt of inspiration.

But this time, something happened that’s never happened before.

I registered to get 6 critiques of my manuscript. That’s not the new part. I always try to snag a critique slot. But I should have submitted my NaNoWriMo 2008 manuscript—you know, the one that’s actually been edited. But I was still riding the high from my NaNoWriMo 2009 win and completely in love with it, even in its unedited rawness. So I chose the first 10 pages of that zero draft to submit for my critiques. All 6 of them.

Flash forward a month. I sat down across the reviewer for my first critique. And it quickly became clear that I made a grave mistake in submitting my newest manuscript. Duh, right? Lesson learned.

Still, the critiques—especially those from published authors—lit the foggy path of revision.

And then. I was in my last critique of the day with an author. An award-winning author. She showered me in encouragement. She had suggestions for improvement but also pointed out the parts she loved and the things I do well. She wanted to hear where the story was going.

Then she pulled out a sheet of paper and started writing on the back of it.

“I’m writing down my agent’s contact information,” she said. “I want you to do one revision and then submit this to her.”

It took all my strength to pry my jaw from the floor and force my mouth into a coherent “thank you.”

She saw enough goodness in my zero-draft writing to give me this gift. A gift of motivation, a gift of support, a gift of a DEADLINE. Because I know this opportunity will expire if I let it.

This is a small step, I know. But it’s the first glimmer of success I’ve had on my road to publication. So I’m going to bask a teensy bit before I get to work.

Your Turn

Do you have advice for how to revise a NaNoWriMo draft in, say, 8 weeks? Or for how to get my head out of the clouds and in the revision game?

Photos by RIPizzo and Saparevo.

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