Middle-Grade Novel Month

My wife has put me to the test.

For months, I’ve been developing my first middle-grade novel (and potential series) about an agency of kid spies. I’ve been working diligently around my day job on plot development, character development, thematic development… but this week, my wife (Katherine Roy, who is an author and illustrator for children’s picture books), said it was time for me to stop riding the fence and write the darn thing.

“How many hours would it take to get it done?” she asked.

“Two hundred, maybe,” I said.

“Okay,” she said, thinking for a moment, “that means you can get a draft done in a month, if you start now. Agents and publishers will be back from vacation after August, which is a good time to shop it around.”

I gulped.

“Are you going to get a readable draft done in a month?” she asked.

After taking a deep breath to calm both my fear and excitement of taking the plunge as a professional writer and accepting a deadline I didn’t know I could make I said, “Yeah. One month.”

So, here’s the Alec Longstreth-inspired chart I made for myself (# of Scenes x Days). By staying on schedule with the top line, I will finish four days early and have time to tweak the draft before I let anyone read it, while keeping up with the second line will get the book done on August 14th (the little X’s are checkpoint goals and the little circle is the halfway point).

Here goes!