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.