Don’t judge me, people. You can a learn a lot from Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews in all situations. Plus my inner tween really loved The Princess Diaries when it came out. (And for those who are behind on what Pitch Wars is and how I’m in it…click here)

Okay, so it’s one month into the revision/mentor process and one month until the agent round of the contest where my pitch and first 250 words will be displayed for super awesome agents to review. And I’m literally still feeling like this:

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I’M THE PRINCESS OF GENOVIA!

Because, let’s get real. Being a writer who has had her fair share of navigating a weird learning curve regarding the wiley ways of the publishing world and rejection, I still can’t believe I get this opportunity. I mean, my everyday writerly existence was pretty much like this:

But when I applied to Pitch Wars, I got picked by a super cool mentor, Rachel Lynn Solomon, who not only said she liked my book, but saw enough potential in it that she wanted to help me to take it to the next level over the course of the next two months.

And with Rachel’s help, I’ve been able to see some things in my manuscript I never realized were problematic (I mean…how in the world did I have the word “just” in my manuscript 519 times? Excessive much?)

But it’s okay! Because she assures me that there is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel and that someday (hopefully soon), an agent will really love THE TRUTH ABOUT TWO-SHOES and want to represent me.

Sure, sometimes revisions have been like this (Like completely cutting two characters)…

And yes… I’ve combed through every word (and still combing. The “justs” are now in the one hundreds. PROGRESS! Still need to do more).

But overall, I can’t believe how my language is tighter, my pacing is quicker, and my characters are stronger!

So I’m very hopeful that by November 4th when the agent round rolls around, THE TRUTH ABOUT TWO-SHOES will be ready!

One thing I didn’t take into account about this extended Princess Diaries analogy is that I guess that means my mentor Rachel is really secretly Julie Andrews!

Which I guess also makes her MARY POPPINS!

Yay Pitch Wars!