The first draft is FINISHED!

My long-time followers may remember when I started my WIP back in April of last year. I was fresh off of a Teen Book Conference high having just met my hero, Stephanie Perkins, and I'd finally been struck with an idea for a story set here:

Taken from the Roman Forum

and here:

View of Manarola from the ferry - Cinque Terre, Italy

with a window view like this:

View from the apartment we stayed at in Riomaggiore - Cinque Terre, Italy

which I had been dying to do since my trip to Italy in 2009.

In June, I finally came up with the title If Only You Were Italian, and I'm happy to say that I still love it. 

Then over the last couple months, you've all heard me whine about how close I've been to finishing the first draft, pushing my self-imposed deadline out again and again (because apparently I don't do self-imposed deadlines). Well, i'm proud to say, that Saturday morning at 2:30am on the dot, the last chapter was completed!! I tweeted my good news but all my cheerleaders had long been asleep for the night. I wasn't completely alone though--my Australian followers were very willing to throw streamers at me! *waves to Jade and the gang* 

Now that the celebrating has happened and one of my critique partners has now read everything I've written on this story, the reality of the revisions before me has set in. So many things need to change. So many things I thought were smart when I wrote them are, in fact, LAME. Sigh. But that's the fun of it right? Transforming the bare bones (that may or may not be 15-20k words too long) into a story with good flow, pacing, and character development so that everyone in the world (that likes YA Contemporary) will want to read it!

*rolls up sleeves*

HERE GOES!

How's YOUR story coming?? Any revision tips or methods to share?