I have finally finished the first draft of my middle grade fantasy novel, The Dark Wizard. The final wordcount came to about 42,100, which is just about what I was aiming for. (As I mentioned in a previous post, the midpoint wordcount was 21,000, so I was hoping for the final wordcount to work out to 42,000 and I hit my target rather nicely.)

I still have plenty of weaknesses to work on with a second draft, and a query letter to hammer out, so those are my next steps before beginning another agent search.

My main struggle in this month of February has been my wildly fluctuating sleep schedule. I just can’t seem to get it on track. My circadian rhythm seems to really want me to sleep from about 9 or 10 AM to about 6 PM, which just doesn’t work. I’m trying to force it back into some range of normalcy by staying up for periods of 24 hours or more, but it hasn’t been working. Not sure what else I can do though.

Anyway, it’s slowed my writing, making it hard to focus on projects that take concentration. So I’m not finishing the first draft of this middle grade fantasy novel, The Dark Wizard, quite as quickly as I’d like.

But I’m almost there. The novel’s wordcount is now at about 38,000 words, and I have three chapters left to write. So close, I can taste victory in the air. I’m tempted to rush it, so I’ve been forcing myself to write in a notebook with a fountain pen. It further slows my progress, but it also forces me to take my time and think. You can’t rush art!