Two Steps, One Pause

Alright, let’s get into this quickly. There is a lot to do today. I’ve been making steady progress on two of my three projects. Namely, the middle-grade monster academia and the dark young adult urban fantasy. The young adult contemporary… Yeah. That one has been a bear.

I’m rapidly approaching completion of the first half of the middle-grade. Right now, I’m going through with some light revision work a page at a time because this is also the one where I realized I was just repeating the same 3 beats. Once I get back to where I left off, I’ll be moving forward to the second half of drafting.

Likewise, I’m moving along very well on the dark young adult urban fantasy that is intended for February. To be clear, before I go further, unless I actually give a specific date these are tentative targets. Therefore, the goal is February. The reality? That remains to be determined. For instance, Tír na nÓg was planned for March of 2026. It released on June 1st.

Now, as to progress on the YA. My goal remains unchanged with it. I’m drafting 3 manuscript pages per day against a target count of 195 ±5 manuscript pages, which is comparable in length to Tír na nÓg. I’m not quite a quarter done with it yet, but will be getting there very soon. Likely over the weekend, in fact. So wish me luck.

Then there’s the young adult contemporary. Yeah. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. This one has been a problem child. I’ve managed to write maybe 2 paragraphs all week. It’s not for lack of creativity or direction. Time has been its big killer. My goal is to give it 2 manuscript pages a day, but I find myself with an abundance of responsibilities and obligations versus a distinct lack of time in the day. She’ll get there, but the balancing act still hasn’t established itself in such a way that I’m quite there yet. Fortunately, this one is planned for a June 1st launch, so I have time to work on it. Unfortunately, June is much closer than it sounds when it comes to drafting a novel.

What I’m planning on doing is adjusting when I do what. In the mornings, I’ll be working on both of my YAs since they tend to take a greater chunk of creative energy, and I have both more free time and creativity in the mornings. Then, in the afternoons, I’ll move over to the middle-grade since it isn’t as demanding, and I am still in the revision process as is. Hopefully, this should help instead of making me feel like I’m moving forward and standing still at the same time.