change of venue

last time i posted, i was at home, at my kitchen (or not) table.

now i'm in a house high in the hollywood hills, where every wall on the view side is glass, so that i'm constantly inspired by the twinkling lights (at night) or the hills and houses (right now).

okay, my hostess is telling me that we're actually in sherman oaks, but WHATEVER. its still freaking cool. it is far enough away from actual la that sheri and i have decided not to go to the american music awards tonight, just because we'd have to deal with the traffic.

i don't know how angelenos deal with the traffic. the 405 was backed up yesterday at 3 in the freaking afternoon.

(you can tell i am in word count mode because i almost wrote that as- the four oh five was backed up yesterday at three in the freaking afternoon)

my friend just pointed out that the mountains have disappeared, and she is correct. damn smog.

anyhow. i can't help but write lots of la scenes for the nano now, not that it needs it. we wrote a lot of la scenes last year, when all i was going on was internet research. now i'm writing lots of musings on traffic and lights and how everyone is freaking skinny.

in between sitting at my kitchen table and sitting here in the hills, i sat in a hotel room in anaheim. (or poolside- much better option, even with lots of kids around) hotel rooms are the best places to write, no matter where they are. there are no distractions, except maybe bad tv.

this is a terribly scattered post, probably because i'm feeling pretty scattered. i've been up for a while, but haven't written anything. i did some laundry, checked work email, checked home email, talked to my friends... i should write. i only did about 1000 words last night, then my brain shut off.

i'm feeling like the book sucks and makes no sense right now, which is just par for the course, i know. i think i'm pressured by the my current view. i was so excited to get here and be part of this great writing circle, since everyone currently in the house is nano-ing, but now that i'm here i feel like i should be writing great works, not just random scenes to move the plot along.

this is why i blog, to figure out why i'm not writing. i don't know that when i sit down to blog, but it always seems to happen.

that said, we're about to go out and grocery shop and find a curves. yes, i'm doing curves in la. i'm surprised there are curves out here, as they are marketed towards your average woman, and there are no average women here. they're all ridiculously skinny. maybe the curves exist just for the tourists.

comments?

people are actually reading this thing? there is something to be said that when people read, i feel more compelled to post. ;->

in response to my comments:

on the tarot card- basically the ace of swords means a big change and victory, but at the loss of old ways of thinking and being. which fits pretty damn well with my story, as its about a movie star who leaves hollywood to go to college in philadelphia. the card is taped in the back of my writing notebook now.

on the last post about how LAME i am with nano this year- i remain lame. i have been on vacation for two days now and only managed about 2 k. okay, 2500, i just checked. cat, i am horrible at the process of writing every day this year. life has really kicked me in the ass this month. but, i'm on vacation for two whole weeks now- minus this weekend where i did NOTHING- and i hope that will help. part of my vacation is running around la with friends, but that's sorta research. the rest of my vacation is coveted alone time, like today, where i am sitting here at my kitchen table (i call it that, but it is not in the kitchen or even near the kitchen, and it is rarely used to eat on, but because its near the door, it just collects crap. anyhow.) (dude, i need to take this parethecial stuff to the the novel, that would so help my dismal word count)

anyhow. i've lost my train of thought. i am sitting here at the table (no modifier), waiting for the exterminator (we live in the city, and i'd rather pay for someone to check our house for pests once a month than deal with something moving in- and i saw a mouse a couple of weeks ago. useless cats.) and then delivery of a new washer. (thank god, i will be able to wash sheets again!) so, i could either be watching bad daytime tv, or i could write. obviously, i have chosen to write a blog post instead of the novel, but... whatever. its something! am i allowed to count this towards my word count? no? damn.

to both tricia and cat (cat, meet tricia, tricia, meet cat) (you are friends from very different parts of my life- tricia i've known since high school and cat is the only friend i still have from my blur obsessed days): keep writing and the good stuff will happen. cat, if you don't know where to take your story, your characters do. i know that sounds all new agey and zen, but i swear it is true and it is one of the coolest things in the world.

and i know this is my problem with nano this year, because i know where the story has to go, and my characters are like 'yeah, okay, i'll do that. you don't want to hear my opinion on the matter, so why should i bother?' damn characters.

i should probably write something now!

monday

at least i've started nano now. sheri's editing what we did last year, which is great, and i'm attempting to write new stuff, but not coming up with much. it all feels trite.

i know, i'm supposed to just write and not edit, but i'm having problems with that this year. then again, i just started writing yesterday, so i should probably stop beating myself up. i'm at just about 4k, which is off the mark of 1667 a day, but according to the handy dandy spreadsheet i created last year (of course, this year, the nano site has a similar progress chart and a million other things), i can still finish if i write 2k a day for the rest of the month. which is doable. i don't have a problem doing 2k if i can get my butt in the chair. it's getting my butt in the chair that's the problem.

i'm feeling very scattered this morning. i think i'm still in nano mode, and not work mode. i need the switch to click over that makes me efficent at all things, which has happened in past nanos. then again, after this week, i'm on vacation for two weeks, so maybe if i just drag myself through this week and concentrate on work, i can crank out a couple of 6k days while i'm off.

the efficent switch probably comes when i'm happy with what i'm nano-ing, now that i consider it. since i'm not happy with it, its dragging me down in all things.

;-P

Chris Baty rules

so, my nano word count is zero. zippo. nada. okay, i considered using the opening scene i'd written last year as my first 1500 words, but that makes me feel dirty.

i think part of my problem was that i just started reading 'no plot no problem' this morning. i've read it every year i've done nano (this is my third) and its such a freaking awesome book, by page 50 (where i am- i read all of that in the exam room at my doctor's, waiting for him to see me for a ten minute (maybe) consulation. good thing he's cute), i was all fired up.

actually, in 50 pages, i went from 'love my novel' to 'chris says i have to do something new, and he's got good reasons why' to contemplating other plot ideas, coming up empty and back to 'love my current novel, its got plenty of room for revision, i can do 50k NEW words'.

sheri and i (sheri's my co-writer, and that's against the nano 'rules', too, so i'm breaking rules all over the place) were talking last night and i was remembering all the stuff i LOVE about this novel. i love ani, and i adore her relationship with her brother, which a big part of the book. i love her love interest who develops later (that was a plot development that slapped us across the face around week three last year- poor rob. he'd been waiting since nano novel #1 to be appreciated). i love the dad subplot- or maybe its the main plot (bad that i'm not sure about that, huh?). i love the mom angst.

over the last 24 hours, i'm thinking that maybe i'll love the new stuff, too. ani gets three roommates, and i don't know any of them yet. we don't even know their names! there's a boyfriend that needs to be kicked up several notches from last year, and while i never call myself a romance writer, i SO AM. there's another guy who's telling me his name is mark, so i need to figure him out.

there's stuff to do here, right? i'm not shooting myself in the foot with this rewrite thing.

we'll see if we have a word count tomorrow. because friday i'm out of town, and that's not condusive to the novelling. while i'm off for two weeks this month, i can't just say 'oh, i'll write later'. gotta start now.

November 1st

its november 1st, and i don't even remember the last time i posted. let me put it this way- i never take the subway to work. i'm trying to be good and walk most days.

anyway, i feel the need to write because it's November 1st, and November means National Novel Writing Month, and i'm just not feeling it. the last two years, i could not wait to get started. this year, i'm like 'and what's my plot again?'

my plot is to rewrite last year's as a young adult novel, and that is an admirable goal. doing that requires killing off two major characters from last year's draft, and therefore adding a few new ones. so it'll take at least 50k words.

i think i'm not feeling it because i know the main characters already. i love them, and want to play with them again, but in the past two years, everything was new, and i had no idea what was going to happen. i'm pretty sure what's going to happen this year. last year, i had the final scene in my head as i started the month, then sheri came in with a plot change that ruined my planned last scene, but made the book much better. so there was that element of uncertainity that i like when i write. i love just letting my characters lead me.

i feel like i'm going to be leading them this year.

huh. the things i come up with as i write.

SEE? i like finding out things as i write. which means i should just start writing and let my characters talk to me again. maybe they'll suprise me. i have these three and a half characters that might have something new to say, after all.

my other problem is that i can't get my head out of my other fictional world. i felt a great need to finish a chapter of that world before november, and after spending months wanting those characters to talk to me, i finally got them to in october. now they won't shut up. walking into work today, i was considering a new character for my nano novel and my thoughts ended up writing a scene between characters in my other opus. they need to shut up now- but i'm afraid they won't talk again if i shut them up.

sigh. and mercury's in retrograde. that can't be helping. was mercury in retrograde last november? mercury is supposed to mean change and creativity, as well as all the screwed up things that happen.

speaking of weird things, i found a tarot card on the street on monday. ace of swords, randomly blown into a planter, on a street i don't normally walk down. ace of swords means major change and victory. a double-edged sword because victory means sacrifice.

that actually really fits with the theme of my nano novel, so even tho i have considered trying to come up with something completely new, the tarot card is encouraging me to keep it.

because if you pick up a random tarot card off the street, that has to mean something, right?