Hello, and welcome to 2012. It’s going to be a great year! Do you have your writing (or other) goals/intentions articulated, yet? Here are mine.

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, March 28, 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. There is an alternate vamp-free plot hiding in there, it just isn't exactly what I tried before. The best part is that since the changes come out of the Molten universe, they are fairly straightforward. For the bulk of the book, the words can stay the same, especially since I'm sticking with past tense. I did some more editing and now have the first 100 pages of this version available as well.]

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!