Cena Apicius is a working title for a historical fiction novel about the life of Marcus Gavius Apicius, a wealthy Roman noble who lived in the early first century. Very little is known about him save for snippets of information left behind in works by Seneca, Tacitus, Pliny the Elder and others. He was famous for the lavish feasts he threw for his fellow Romans, and even for Emperor Tiberius. I became interested in the story when reading food memoirs and books about food history. As a big foodie myself, I found myself drawn to the strange story of Apicius, who could be considered the world’s first known gourmand.
My goal for this book is to have the complete, edited draft finished by my birthday, June 5, 2008.
Basic info: 80-100k words, approximately 60-70 scenes of about 1430 words, give or take a few.
Incremental Goals
Background and setup:
- Character backgrounds finished → June 30, 2007 DONE
- Majority of background research finished → July 15, 2007 DONE
- Plotting/outlining draft finished → July 31, 2007 DONE
Writing:
- July 18 - October → Grub Street Novel in Progress course, with 5 page week minimum–going to aim for 8. Approx 2800 words a week. Total for this time frame: 28,000 DONE
- November (NANOWRIMO…and yes, I’m going to cheat and use this novel instead of starting a new one) → 12,500 words a week → Minimum goal: 50,000 words. If I can exceed the above goals, then I should be able to finish the book this month.
- December & January→ (I need to be realistic at this time of year so this could be ambitious) 2,500 words a week. → Finish book by end of January.
Editing:
- February → Perfect time for NANOEDMO.
- March → Finish editing.
- April - May → Final edits based on feedback from selected personal editors.
- June → Start hunting for an agent.
I do so much better at deadlines. And no, I don’t plan on living up to Douglas Adam’s ideal when he said, “I love deadlines–I love the sound of them whooshing by.” Because frankly, I really hate that sound.
