My Mentee Experience So Far

I'm into my second month as a mentee in the Rocky Mountain SCBWI's new Mentoring Program. Claudia Mills is a terrific mentor. First she makes me feel like a Newberry winner by identifying the parts of my book she loves. Then she hones right in on problem spots and is so good at voicing what's wrong with them, I wonder why I ever wrote it that way in the first place. It's up to me to fix the problems, of course, but Claudia remains so positive that after our discussions I can hardly wait to tackle the changes. My first chapter is now 3 chapters. Many writers are told to do just the opposite and start the book at a later place, but my new beginning feels so much richer. My character and the setting came more alive in those earlier chapters. I'm about a third of the way through my novel, and even though I've revised this story several times, I'm excited to work on it again, almost as if it's a brand new book. I have some hard revisions coming, though, and it'll be interesting to see how these go.