An update on the novel: I’m at around 226 pages on this first draft, which translates to roughly 87% done, based on my wholly arbitrary target goal. I also wrote out a brief sentence or paragraph about each of the remaining chapters, so that I have some semblance of a plan (which will almost certainly change).

Barring any serious life events, I should finish by the end of next week. Next week! After so, so many failed novel starts, it’s a wonderfully mind-blowing to finally approach this end of a full draft.

My current plan is to let the book sit for a month before I start editing. During that time, I’ll write short stories and plan my next novel (so that I have a rough outline when I start writing).

Also, once fall semester starts — the final semester of my master’s, here at last! — I’m planning to drop my daily word count goal from 1,000 to 200 or 300, to keep from overburdening myself. My hope, though, is that schoolwork ends up being manageable enough that I can still write more.