My January, 2012 writing goals were:

1. Finish draft 12 of vamped Molten [This actually should have said, "Draft 13"and, yes, I finished it √]
2. Proofread-via-Kindle Molten [Technically, I finished Feb 1, but my dog hurt his back, and it's done now, so...√. I found a few rough patches, though--it needs another week or two of work.]
3. 5-10 personalized queries for Molten [√ I drafted them, but I don't like them. I need to go back to something very close to my previous query.]
4. (Optional) Draft creepy short story [Got started--about a quarter of the way through, semi-polished.]
5. I also line-edited one submission for my writing group anthology “editing pod.” One more to go.

In my 2012 goal-setting post, I also listed a few anticipated goals for Feb. This updated list supersedes that one.

February writing goals:

1. Finish Draft 14 of Molten. Deadline for having it query-ready: Feb 29.
2. Brief synopsis for Molten.
3. 3 Molten queries, ready to send.
4. Read DEMOLITION all the way through (no editing!)
5. Continue work on short story (I’ve already worked on it in Feb; any further work is optional, but encouraged.) Tentative deadline for complete, polished piece: April 30.
6. Provide editing notes for second member of “editing pod.”
7. Edit and submit my travel piece for the writing group anthology.
8. Proof my friend’s poetry manuscript.
9. (Optional, but highly encouraged) Have version 2 of Molten ready as well. <– yes, I know this makes no sense to anyone but me.
10. (Optional) Rough, brief synopsis of DEMOLITION (for me).

Woah, that’s one busy list. Here’s to a simpler one for March:

1. Edit first 50K of DEMOLITION (participate in NaNoRevisMo)
2. Send at least 3 Molten queries

See you on the other side!

–

Did you set writing goals for January? If so, how did you do? Want to set some for Feb?

Today’s share: a photo/recipe journal of my at-home dairy-free, egg-free and gluten-free fondue feast (that’s a lot of “free”s). Fondue has always been one of my favorite foods (food types? food groups?). Since I stopped eating dairy and gluten, I’ve felt fondu-deprived. No More! My brother gave me a fondue pot for Christmas, and presto! excellent motivation to get creative.

Plated fruit. Chocolate, anyone?

The feast, as it happened–

Ingredients were laid out…

My mom did this.

And this. Isn't she awesome?

Course 1: Vegan, GF cheese + bread

I discovered Daiya vegan cheese at Pala pizzeria in NYC–they also have gluten-free pizza, go check them out, but I digress. I was ecstatic to realize my local health food store carries their products. This stuff melts and shreds and tastes quite a lot like “the real thing.” (And, no, I am not affiliated with Daiya in any way, and this is not an ad.)

    

Time to dig in!

Layla-approved? Yes!

Likelihood of enjoyment by people who eat everything? Not very high. Stick with the conventional version.

For the cheese fondue, I combined this recipe from the Daiya site for “Cheesey Fondue” with this one for conventional cheese fondue from Simply Recipes.

Like so:

1. Split a clove of garlic and rub all over the inside of a small saucepan.

2. Bring 1/2 cup white wine to a boil, lowered heat.

3. Mix in 1 package, or a bit more, of Daiya mozzarella-style shreds, and cook on low-heat until melted.

4. While cooking, stir in 1 tbs of rice flour. Add: Braggs liquid aminos, lemon juice, onion powder, and garlic powder (to taste).

5. Transfer to double boiler insert of fondue pot.

6. Eat! Dip cubes of bread (I used Gluten-free, vegan rolls from the supermarket), cool for a few seconds, and enjoy.

Course 2: Free-range Bison + veggies in olive oil

Ready, set...

Cook meat and veggies in olive oil.

Allow to cool.

Dip in tangy sauce.

Bison is my favorite meat. Feel free to substitute yours (my mom had beef). I used this recipe from Lidner Bison (to find it, scroll down on their site). It’s really simple: meat + enough olive oil to just cover it. Note: don’t use the double-boiler insert for this one. When it came to the sauce, I didn’t have all the ingredients, so I did this:

Tangy dipping sauce:

1/2 cup vegan mayo

1 tbs catsup

1 clove garlic, minced

It was delicious.

Layla-approved? Heck, yeah!

Vegan/vegetarian? Use veggies, and tofu or tempe (maybe spice up your oil a bit)

Course 3: Vegan Chocolate!

Yum.

Dip.

Bites.

Doesn’t that look good? I adapted this recipe from About.com.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup vegan margarine
• 8 ounces vegan chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp rice flour
• 1/2 cup agave syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tbsp soy milk

Prep: Melt chips, butter, and milk in a double boiler. Once melted, add other ingredients. Transfer to double-boiler insert of fondue pot. Enjoy with fruit.

Layla-approved? Total win. This tasted exactly like the one I used to get at my favorite fondue restaurant!

Likelihood of enjoyment by people who eat everything? 99.9% (see last question)

***

One more for the road.

That’s it. I hope your enjoyed .

If you try any of these, please stop by and let me know how they turn out.

Happy eating!

~ Layla

FOCUS–2012 is going to be all about nurturing my creativity. My focus can be summed up thus: Don’t try; just be yourself. & don’t give up. Trust the characters, the story, and your creative process. (Stay tuned for related Molten update, at the end of this post.) Without further ado…

Author Goals 2012:

1. Finish draft 12 of Molten
2. Proofread-via-Kindle Molten
3. Query Molten—at least 3/mo (total of 33 in 2012), or until I sign with literary agent
4. Edit YA dystopian WIP
5. Send draft 3 (or 4) of dystopian to betas
6. Edit dystopian post-beta-feedback (no more than 3 additional drafts)
7. Proofread-via-Kindle dystopian
8. Book proposal for dystopian
9. Submit/query dystopian
10. Write, edit, and submit for publication at least one short story
11. Draft a new novel
12. And, of course, continue to build author-related relationships via social networking & blog
13. Reading goal: Read 50 books (having never before counted my reads, this may turn out to be an insane goal for me; we’ll see)

1st Quarter Author Goals:

Jan:

1. Finish draft 13 of Molten
2. Proofread-via-Kindle Molten
3. 5-10 personalized queries for Molten
4. (Optional) Draft creepy short story

Feb:

1. Send first round Molten queries
2. (Optional) Synop for Molten
3. Read straight through dystopian SNP
4. Synop of dystopian (for me)
5. Draft 2 of dystopian—structural + (optional) fill in blank spaces

March: NaNoRevisMo

1. Draft 3 of dystopian—edit text all the way through (Beta-review draft)
2. Send second round Molten queries

Peeking ahead to the 2nd quarter: While dystopian is with betas, write pitch & synop. Submit/pitch/query dystopian by end of May, at latest.

Molten Update:

I planned to tell a long story about how I came to the realization I’m about to share, but I’ve been journaling all day and I’m tired, so I’ll just share the essence. On Jan 31–in other words, last year, but also just yesterday–I had a conversation with the hero of Molten. And he says he’s a vampire. The de-vamped experiment is thus over. I got three things out of  the experiment: 1. I wished I’d written in present tense; I no longer do. I like the past-tense version. 2. I wasn’t sure I’d gotten up all the metaphorical bones of the story. After reviewing the novel, I’ve filled in the holes I found, but for the most part those were small. It hangs together as a whole. So well, in fact, that I havn’t been able to make the de-vamped plot work. 3. I’d come to doubt my choice to write a vampire book at this time. I no longer do. This is the story that came to me, and the story I want to write. I knew that when I started, and it’s good to be reminded. Molten is, in essence, a about a guy who will not give up on that which he loves. How can I do any less for him and his story?

This decision is reflected in the goals above. I ache a little about it–for the character possibilities I saw that will now never live, at least not in this book–but I think the ache is just part of the process.I remain, as always, willing to be wrong about this. If an epiphany to the contrary strikes, I’ll get back to you .

[Update, Feb 17, 2012: You know how I said I was willing to be wrong? Well Shortly after writing this, I began to dream about the de-vamped version, and I realized I had missed something obvious. Something that makes the whole novel work without vampires just as well, if not better, than it worked before. I am deep in a vampire-free edit of Molten right now, and I am sooo excited about it. Because the changes come out of the universe I already created, they are fairly straightforward. For the bulk of the book, I'm keeping the words I already have, and I'm sticking with past tense. The muse really does works in mysterious ways. Stay tuned for updates!]

Happy 2012!

p.s. Oh! I just realized I forgot to share a token person goal. Want to know what I’ll be up to in 2012? Well, I’d like to go on at least one in-person date. Wish me luck!

1. Revise Book 1 and have it proofread. √ <– by which I mean, “check,” not “square root”

2. Query at least 3 agents/month until I gain representation. This goal is still in the works, so I’ll just sum it up by giving myself a √. Agent feedback prompted me to return to the manuscript to a) edit again for a stronger (quicker) opening, & b) see if the book can be re-written without the vampires.

3. Write Book 2. I wrote about 40K on this book, 20K of which I figured was usable, and which I also edited. Then I put it aside to attend to the above edits, especially since if I end up going with the de-vamped version, this sequel is unlikely to work.

4. Make money in writerly and writing-friendly ways. (Still clarifying the shape(s) this will take. In addition to novels, possibilities include coaching and copywriting.) Attempted. Got a job for a resume writing company. Hated it–felt it took mental energy from my novels. Decided to revaluate my budget to avoid need of this extra job.

5. Upgrade my website. √ Tried two new versions, actually. I <3 this one. Pretty, no?

6. Continue social networking. √

7. (Optional) Edit Book 2.

8. (Optional) Write, edit, and submit “experiment project.” This beginning of this project is in the metaphorical drawer. Maybe it’ll come out some day, maybe not. 

In my mid-year goal review, I replaced this goal with “Draft YA dystopian Shiny New Project.” For this I get a √. Thanks to NaNoWriMo for getting me started. Thanks to me for finishing. *patting self on back*

9. Read good novels. √

My favorite reads of 2011: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma. The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead (yes, I know I’m a bit late in reading this,) the Darkest Powers  series by Kelley Armstrong, & The Willows: Havenby Hope Collier.

On Goodreads? Compare favorite books with me at Goodreads.com/layla_messner.

Lastly, the two personal goalsI mentioned: “deep-self-listening practice” & “wear perfume.” √√ Two resounding successes.

Stay tuned tomorrow for 2012 Writing Goals and, in the meantime *sets off fireworks* enjoy the party.

p.s. My writing highlight of 2011: meeting 2500 wds/weekday goals from Nov 1 through Dec 20. What about you?

Accomplishments:
1. NaNoWriMo: I wrote 57K words this November. Rah!!
Aprox 10K of those were for Molten (vamped and de-vamped), the balance were my SNP (shiny new project)–the YA dystopian idea that came to my on my camping trip this past summer.

2. 2500 words/day. Since Nov 1, I’ve written at least that many words each weekday, with only two exceptions (the day I moved rooms, and the day I wrote extra words the day before.) *proudness*

3. I’ve been running 5 days/week, and doing quick AM Pilates 6 days/week for three weeks. *more proudness*

4. (This isn’t really an accomplishment, but) I ready The Now Habit: A strategic program for overcoming procrastination and enjoying guilt-free play, by Neil Fiore
It’s awesome, and I completely recommend it. *big thumbs up*

Molten vamped/de-vamped update:
Remember how I’m playing around with de-vamping (taking the vampires out of) my first novel, Molten? I originally thought I’d use the first 20-30K of the vamped version and basically write the rest of the book from scratch. I planned to use NaNo to draft all those extra words, and I started November with that intention. Well, after a week of re-writing the same few scenes, it became obvious that I don’t have that many new words for this projet. If the re-write is going to work it’s got to be a pretty much direct replacement (vamps out, other plot point in) using the words I already have. I look forward to seeing what happens.

In the meantime, while continuing to draft the dystopian project, I’m chipping away at the last few edits on the vamped version with a tighter beginning. Soon that will be ready to go back out on query. Yay!

Writing Goals & Self-imposed Deadlines:
Dec 21: 80K on Dystopian. Or finish draft 1, whichever comes first. (I’d love to finish, just to say I wrote* a book this year. But in the greater scheme of things more words is better, because I cut a LOT when I edit. Of course, if I write a bunch more just to boost the word count, I’ll just end up cutting it. So I’ll write until I run out of plot.)
* Where “wrote” = drafted.

**optional** Dec 21: Complete final edits on vamped version of Molten.

Dec 22-Jan 1: VACATION!

Jan 13: First draft of Dystopian finished. (This leaves aprox. 6 weeks of “sitting” time before NaNoRevisMo.)

Jan 31: Vamped Molten proofread + one round (5-10) highly personalized queries ready.

**optional** Jan 31: 1st 50 pages polished of De-vamped version.

Feb: Work on De-vamped re-write Draft 1

March: NaNoRevisMo – Dystopian

—

Well, there you have it. What is everyone else up to? Belated congrats to all the NaNo winners!

As I mentioned, I plan to enter contests and query again. In the meantime, NaNoWriMo (who’s with me?) should reveal whether the Devamped version has a life of its own. And I no longer feel as though I’ve given up, but like I’m playing around with my manuscript–much more fun!

I started querying in at the beginning of April (fyi: as my fellow writers know, six months is not very long to spend querying) and I’ve received some comments from agents who like/love my premise, but don’t feel optimistic about selling a YA vamp paranormal romance right now. This alone is not enough to warrant the re-write, in my opinion. I believe that there will always be vampire love stories and that they will continue to enjoy wide readership. But, these agent comments did get me wondering.

Could this story be true to itself without vampires in it?

I’d asked myself this before, when I was still writing and looking for agents to query, and I kept coming across agent bios that specified, “NO VAMPIRES.” The answer was always, “No.” My tale was a vampire story because the plot necessitated that creature. (Well, zombies would have worked, but they just don’t do anything for me.) There just wasn’t anything else I could use. I LOVE vampire stories myself. And, as I mentioned, I believe vampfic will continue to sell because people like the read it.

But, recently, I got to talking with my buddy Hope Collier who reminded me of something a fact that should have been obvious: I’m a writer; I can just make it up. That got me thinking some more and, long story short, I came up with a way to write vampires out of the story. The question then became: would this re-write be truer to the soul of the story than the vampire version? I have been meditating on this since the beginning of September.

Option 1. Stick with the vampires (at least for now.) Do one more edit (including a faster paced opening), and continue querying. If I don’t find my agent match, I can always try out the other idea.

Option 2: Shelve the vampire version and do a major overhaul following this new idea. If it doesn’t work, I can always return to the vampires.

I was originally going to go with a mix. Edit the vampire version, and while querying that, experiment with the new version. But I’ve decided to go full-out with Option 2, and here’s why. In On Writing, Stephen King gives a metaphor of novel-writing as an excavation–the writer’s goal is to see how much of the skeleton she can unearth–and I have always felt I didn’t get the whole shebang with this story. Now, I think this is always true; you don’t ever get all of it. And I think another edit might get just enough more. And I truly believe that, if I continued querying, I would eventually find the agent who loved the vampire-version enough to sell it. BUT, now that I have the new idea, I have this feeling I can’t shake that replacing the vampires will unearth a lot more of skeleton (get me to the story behind the story, if you will), and I have to find out if that’s true.

So, I am de-vamping my novel (and, as I said above, I can always return to the original manuscript if the hunch turns out to be wrong. Or if I get an offer from one of the agents still reviewing it!)

This re-write is also going to include the faster-paced opening, and I am translating the story from first person past, to first person present tense. I have long felt that if I could do one thing differently with this book, I would have written it in present tense, because I feel it suits my voice better. I was talking with Lorna Suzuki on Twitter the other day, and she commented in passing that she’d originally planned to write three Imago books, but ended up writing nine! Well, I’d been thinking, “Hey, past tense is fine. Hopefully, I’ll write a trilogy, and then I can do my next book in present tense.” Oops. Gonna go ahead and take care of that now. And I am aiming for the new version to be about 8,000 words longer, for a total of 70K.

My goals for the next month and a half are as follows:

October: New beginning (√ done). Work through ms converting past–>present & replacing vampire elements. Cut what won’t work.

November (NaNoWriMo): Write 50K new words from which to take the extra words I need to make 70K (I won’t need  full 50K, which is good, because I tend to cut 30-40% of my raw material.)

Oh, and to go along with the re-write, I have also completely revamped my website (ironic, isn’t it?).

Now, the part you’ve been waiting for. I promised to make up for doing away with the one bit of info I’d given about my novel, and I will. I have a new title, a logline, AND an excerpt (aren’t you glad you read, or skimmed, all the way down?). Click here to find out.

In actuality, the read-through of Book 1 took through Wednesday, and then I realized I needed to proofread again. I did that, plus work on Book 2, for the rest of the week. (By the way, proofreading via kindle text-to-speech appears to be very effective, though slow.) Here’s last week’s breakdown…

Monday: 3:10 hrs finished read-though/edit of Book 1
Wednesday: 5 hrs polished the last 50 pages again, and searched for some specific issues (official draft 10 done)
Thursday: 0:35 proofreading Book 1 + 3:20 hrs Book 2 = 3:55 hrs
Friday: 1:10 hr proofreading + 1:45 hrs book 2 = 2:55 hrs
Saturday: 3 hrs book 2 + 0:30 proofreading book 1 = 3:30 hrs
= 18:30 hrs

So, great time-input, but the word-counts…*sigh* I don’t want to say I’m “stuck” on the beginning of Book 2, largely because I believe in “trust the process.” In other words, just keep working it, and it will come together. But I keep going over and over the first 15-25K words (writing, cutting, rearranging…repeat). I’m looking for a feeling (tone?), looking for the essence of the book to crystalize, and I do feel like that’s happening. I did the same thing with the beginning of Book 1. The difference is, I did it after the first draft was complete. I think the reason I feel it has to be done now is that I’m working with two story-lines that come together, and this is a new experience for me. Hopefully doing all this structural work now means I won’t have to do it during the editing process!

Alright, I hope you enjoyed the elaboration of my writing process. Moving on, my goals for July 18-24 will be:

1. Minimum of 12 writing-hours (that trip to the city I keep mentioning is finally happening on Wednesday)
2. Make headway on proof of Book 1
3. Keep working Book 2. Adding some keep-able new words would be cause for celebration.

Have you ever written a story with more then one story-line? How did you organize the chapters?

Goal: Read through Book 1 again, for paragraphing and dialogue tags.
Actual: 202/255 pgs (79 %)

Goal: Write/edit for at least 15 hrs.
Actual: 20:05 hrs (133%)

Average: 87%

Which brings me to the “wisdom” that it’s not meeting the goal that matters, so much as action and progress in that direction. Also, there’s one goal I always have, that I don’t always list: “Take care of myself.” After all, if I exhaust myself this week, what’s going to happen next week? Novel-writing is, I’d say, like long-distance waking in that respect. [Some people equate it to a marathon and run the whole way. That's good too.]

July 11-17 writing goals:
Monday: Finish current read-through of Book 1
Tuesday-Friday: Work on Book 2. At least 1K new wds/day.
(Again, a trip to the city may require a change in plan.)

What’re y’all aiming for this week?

June 27 – July 1
Monday: 2 hrs /1132 wds
Wednesday: 2+ hrs /1063 wds
Thursday: 2:15 hrs /1045 wds
Friday: 851 wds, to read total of 20,001 wds. Yay!

(Okay, Friday was less than 1K, but that was all I needed.)

Ready for my July 6-12 goals? Here they are:

1. Add at least 5K words to Book 2. (Ideally, this will get me to 25K, but if I cut a bunch due to a plot change I just made, that may not happen.)
2. Read through Book 1 again, for paragraphing and dialogue tags.
3. Write/edit for at least 15 hrs.
Note: If I drive into Edmonton, goals can be changed to accommodate.