Last week I finished the first draft of the fourth volume to my children’s chapter book series. It’s also know as the Jasper, Amazon parrot series. It caters to middle grade children.

I was able to accomplish this due to the sheet above that challenged writers to write something every day for a month. Jasper 4 had already been started so it only took me a couple of weeks to finish it up. Since I still had half the sheet left over I worked on editing the first draft.

When I reread the whole manuscript from scratch I saw so much work was going to be needed to get this work in tip top shape. The loopholes I saw were huge. The grammar well I am not good with grammar so I didn’t get discouraged from that. Though I am getting much better at it since I started this career as a writer.

Knowing how much needs to be done is daunting. To date I am about half way done doing the first round of edits on this volume. I am a stickler for getting things right when it comes to the animals, what they do, the issue I am addressing in a book and so much more. This will be read by kids or to kids by parents. I want to make sure I make it as accurate as possible. I don’t want them to just read it for fun. I want them to learn about the animals, the region, care about them and the topics that plague this area. Just because it is a children’s book doesn’t mean they don’t deserve the same treatment that other target audiences receive.

But you know what? I am done the first draft. I am done. That feels so good to say out loud. Jasper is flying one more time with new characters, new issue and more camaraderie with family and friends.