Halfway through the first draft

So I've got about 150 pages written. Over 30,000 words clocking in at 13 chapters. I had to do a major re-write last week prior to finishing the first draft. I made the rookie mistake of reading the manuscript and I realized I was missing some major plot devices that are necessary to really hook the reader.

Then it started reading well, but of course I hit another snag. So it turns out that when writing a manuscript it's very important to have the page dimensions and margins all set up to mirror the actual book. In my case that was 5x8... I was writing at 8.5x11... Yeah. I re-sized and chapter 1 went from seventeen pages to almost thirty two. That forced me to split chapters apart and shift around the timeline so that events synced up better.

As of two days ago I was finally past all this logistical crap and writing fresh words again.

The inter relationship between Keen'O and Anaya is progressing smoothly. I'm still a little conflicted about whether or not I'm delivering convincing dialogue for a 13 year old girl. I was never a 13 year old girl and don't know any 13 year old girls. I've been watching a lot of tween Disney and Nickelodeon movies to get an idea and I think I got it, but only time will tell.

Anyway. That's the update. Still busy writing and I'm peppering in some conceptual art as I go. I'll probably start the first of 10 key paintings once the first draft is done. The paintings will be used in the submission process of the book. Not sure if it will help improve my odds of being picked up; being an illustrator and author.