Europe :: England :: Brighton

Buddy up!

tielserrath — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 16:08:31 -0700

Right you lot!

(Why am I starting to feel like the Sergeant-Major in It Ain't Half Hot, Mum?)

Those of you who've been here before know about the buddy thing. For the newbies: you can buddy up with one or several people, and said buddies, once formally linked, appear on your profile page.

(You have all found your profile pages and filled in the boxes, haven't you?)

Good.

Buddies support you, cry with you, laugh with you, and encourage you to stop surfing/eating/cleaning the house and get back to writing. They can help with plot disasters, wordless mornings and i've-just-deleted-the-entire-day's-writing moments.

Anyway, there are no formal rules for buddying - it's not compulsory, and the forum is always here for chat and support if you need it. But if you feel you'd like to have more direct nanomail contact with one or more people, now's the time to speak up.

Post here if you'd like to go for it, maybe with a note of the genre you write in and how often you're likely to be in touch (useful for your potential buddy to know if you have broadband or have to go to your mate's one evening a week in order to log on). If there's anyone here that's under 18, could you please let myself or Alabaster know, as well, for two reasons; sometimes we meet in pubs and we might need to ascertain their age policy beforehand (Kay's 'no under 23s' pub experience in Dublin sounds very alarming - not having kids, that sort of stuff doesn't cross my radar), and if you want to buddy with someone closer to your age (or not) we can point you in the right direction.

Once we've got a few people signed on, Alabaster and I can get on with hooking you up. Please also know if you've already buddied independently, so we don't tread on toes.

You have until Wednesday evening.

Ready...set...GO!
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The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair - Anon

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Word War Sign Up

Alabaster Crippens — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:12:43 -0700

So, I know most people have already said they want to do this, but this is now the official sign up page.

Please only reply ONCE to say that you want to take part.
Rules are already posted in a separate thread, so take a look there first and check you know what you're letting yourself in for.

Vive l'us.
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Mutability is our tragedy, but it is also our hope -Boethius

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Word War Rules

Alabaster Crippens — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:59:24 -0700

Rules
Eligibility

You must live within the UK or Ireland, and be relatively close to
the city or region you
wish to represent.

Sign-ups

Your ML will provide a "Word War Sign Up” thread on your local forum
to track word
count. Participants will post ONCE in the Word War Sign Up thread by
8pm on 10th
November stating that they wish to participate.

The Regional Word War

You must update your word count every two days, on the even numbered
days of the
month, by 8pm. If you are unable to update your count, contact your
ML.
During the last partial week (26th –– 29th Nov), you must update your
word count daily, by 8pm. If this isn't possible, contact your ML
immediately.
If you do not update your word count on four consecutive occasions it
will be assumed that you have given up and you will be removed from
the war (unless you already have more than 50k) If you know that
you’re going to be away and won’t be able to update, let your ML know
so that we can prevent this.
You must input your final (verified) word count by midnight on 30th
November. After
midnight, you will no longer be able to update your count.

Scoring

You may drop out of the Regional Word War at any time up to 8pm on
20th November without affecting your region's count. If you do not
drop out by messaging either myself or your ML, you will be in for
the remainder of the competition, NO MATTER WHAT!
During the Regional Word War there will be a regularly updated leader
board in the
Cambridge forum.
Only the official word count from the "Word War Sign Up" threads on
the NaNoWriMo web site will be considered when computing the final
score.
After midnight on 30th November, I will compute the final score for
the participating
regions and will ask the other MLs from those regions (or their
designated representatives) to verify the figures before declaring a
winner.

Results

There will be two prizes:
The city/region with the highest average word count.
The city/region with the highest proportion of winners from the
starting participants.

The MLs will compare results, and when all regions agree, the results
will be posted on the NaNo boards.

Banter

Participants are encouraged to engage in good natured banter with
participants from other regions in the various Word War Banter
threads. Banter should remain good natured and within the bounds of
good sportsmanship.

Our God-like powers

MLs decide what "good sportsmanship" means.
We reserve the right to remove folks from the competition for any
violation of the rules and guidelines listed above.
MLs are the final authority in any dispute or question about the
rules.

Trophies

To be determined...
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Mutability is our tragedy, but it is also our hope -Boethius

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Who's modding this year, guys?

Kaylesleigh — Tue, 1 Jul 2008 23:58:18 -0700

Back from my year's NaNo break, and just off to France, I wondered who's taking us through this year? Can't be Tielserrath - is Alabaster leading from the back again?

K
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Words that mean business
http://writingneuroses.blogspot.com

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Publicity

Ralph Godbear — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:38:43 -0800

Did any of you hear the feature about Nanowrimo on Radio 4's Today programme this morning (27 Nov.)? I managed to tape it if anyone especially wants to listen (but you can also get it on the web via 'Listen again', I believe.)

This reminded me: Has anybody told the Argus about our TGIO gathering? We might as well get ourselves into the limelight while we have the chance!
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Europe :: England :: Brighton

BFSG 2008

Spresler — Tue, 1 Jan 2008 09:07:55 -0800

Hi Everyone!

I'm soooo IN!! This is the kick in the pants I need to finally get going on my writing and attempt to reach new goals:

1.) To finish my 2007 NaNo novel that I so miserably neglected.
2.) To edit and polish above mentioned novel.
3.) To face mountains of rejection letters and get this novel published.
4.) To win NaNo 2008
5.) To learn Spanish as a second language.

Here's to facing our fears and stop procrasinating! Good luck to all and I look forward to hearing all our trials and tribulations.

Cheers,
SP

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Europe :: England :: Brighton

Staying in touch?

mith — Mon, 3 Dec 2007 04:21:43 -0800

I want to try to do a better job keeping touch with you lot during the nano off season this time around, so I thought I'd start a thread for contact details and what not.

I can be reached at: mafiascum AT gmail.com. I'm also on facebook, happy to send details for that through email/nanomail.
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Europe :: England :: Brighton

Everybody post once here...

tielserrath — Sat, 1 Dec 2007 04:14:08 -0800

So we can have a rundown on how everyone did.

Tell how your novel went, did you have any unexpected surprises, and did you learn anything?
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The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair - Anon

Europe :: England :: Brighton

TGIO, the final story

chromomancer — Sun, 2 Dec 2007 15:34:05 -0800

I enjoyed it even more than I expected to! I'm glad I made the effort to drag myself out on a wet and windy evening. :-)

I blame the people present: it's their fault I enjoyed it.

Our beloved ex-leader [1] Kay made it, which was excellent. Our two current leaders made it, which was good. And our two new leaders (for next year) made it! Which was, er, something. I won't reveal who they are, if you don't know, but be afraid! Be very afraid!! [2]

I tried to sign up the bar-lady/person/staff (Jackie) for next year's nano, but she wouldn't be persuaded (although, if she is still speaking to him, her ex-boyfriend might).

There is more to report: why was Al photographed in women's clothing[3], draped over three other nano-novelists? If you weren't there, you won't know, although Mith has promised to post pictures on his web-site.

Anyway, I'll sign off now.

Chromomancer
{This post brought to you courtesy of Shepherd & Neame's Porter, which according to Jackie, is 4.8% ABV, a bit stronger than I am used to.}

[1] I nearly wrote ex-beloved leader. Which isn't the same thing.

[2] Only joking. I don't want to wait 11 months! Wah!![4]

[3] I confess that jeans and tee-shirt does not immediately strike me as women's clothing, even if it is apparent to the expert eye. Should we not bring in a law that women must wear whalebone hoop skirts and bustles? Just so we know who they are? If women are allowed to wear anything they like, it could be the end of civilisation as we know it. (Although probably a good thing for whales, who probably prefer their bones on the inside.)

[4] "Wah" is the cry of a small baby. Also a lonesome seagull. Take your pick.

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Europe :: England :: Brighton

Word War Banter

Alabaster Crippens — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:37:39 -0700

So come on writing warriors, here's your official banter forum, dedicated to pointing out that we are clearly much better than all those other places round this sceptr'd isle. (I'll sceptre your isle in a minute if you're not careful.)

For we are the noble Brighton and Hove, come to despoil you all with our glorious word counts, which shall be huge, wordy and exciting (and without a hint of irony too).

Remember to keep it civilised children, and once we know who else is taking part, we can start hanging around their lounges and messing up their stuff (in a very polite 'bantery' fashion of course).
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Mutability is our tragedy, but it is also our hope -Boethius

Europe :: England :: Brighton

TGIO Party #2

tielserrath — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 10:06:06 -0800

Alabaster is looking at venues and whittling them down. Hopefully he'll have something in the next 24h.

Will post here when we have a decision.
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The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair - Anon

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Congratulations one and all!

tielserrath — Sat, 1 Dec 2007 04:08:26 -0800

To everybody who was part of nano 2007 Brighton (and surrounds)

WELL DONE EVERYONE!

However many words you wrote, you'll have more than you started with on the first of November. You may even have a coherent plot (but a plot is a bonus, not a necessity), and some characters that you have come to know well.

However it goes from here, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Tielserrath.
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The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair - Anon

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Sprinting for 26 miles. - Alabaster's and Wise Ones desperate dash.

Alabaster Crippens — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:15:57 -0800

So, it's just gone midnight.
I have 33492 words, Wise one has 24530.
We're sprinting till midnight.
The next midnight. Obviously.

Anyone with us?
The room is not capacious. But according to Justin 'this is point at which it all starts to go downhill.'

So that's a good sign.
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Mutability is our tragedy, but it is also our hope -Boethius

Europe :: England :: Brighton

DONE

New Horizon — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:41:52 -0800

Be happy :)
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Europe :: England :: Brighton

Purple

chromomancer — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 07:00:47 -0800

Seeing those purple Winner bars, I remembered to get mine this year - (leaving the verification until December last year was a mistake).

But the point is: it gave me another 500 words without me writing a word today (yet)! The official Nano Word Counter is a bit more generous than the word count in my word-processor.

So some of you struggling on with bleeding fingers as you approach the line might be closer than you think, if you've just been entering your word counts directly.

That might be encouraging!

(And it doesn't hurt those you are using the web-site for word-counting, 'cos at least you don't have to worry that the official count will be less.)

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Europe :: England :: Brighton

There goes any chance of writing anything else tonight...

tielserrath — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:47:23 -0800

...an acquaintance of mine just told me his son attended the Oxford debate and found Irving 'very fascinating'.

And that had we made peace with Hitler in 1940 things would have been very different, as it was the final push by the Russians in 1945 that made the Nazis kill so many Jews.

I may have calmed down by tomorrow night.

Then again I may not.

Prepare yourself for Tielserrath rant mode.
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The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair - Anon

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Better Luck Next Year

Spresler — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:39:59 -0800

Well, I gave it my all and went thru many trials and tribulations to get to the 50K mark, but fell short. I missed days of writing due to procrastination and sheer laziness, lost thousands of words into the ethernet, some days just not bothering. But I had a lot of fun and I'm ready to do it all again, but alas, I have to wait another whole year. And even though I didn't come out a winner this year, I did get a hell of a jump on my novel so I will keep plodding away at it, although it won't be as much of a challenge with no deadlines to meet. This will keep me going until next year's challenge. Congrats to all of you who did make the 50K.

Peace,
SP
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Europe :: England :: Brighton

Challenge #5 - the BIG one

tielserrath — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:46:53 -0800

This is the one with the special prize. It's sitting here on my desk, waiting to go to a lucky winner at the TGIO party.

...ever heard of a Tasmanian devil?

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to get a Tasmanian devil into your story.

Now I agree, on the face of it, it looks tough for some of you. But one of the purposes of the challenges is to encourage lateral thinking.

Because you just have to have those two words consecutively in your story. How they are (ahem) ...punctuated...well, that's up to you. Whether you have a tall dark Tasmanian gentleman, or a rather aggressive marsupial is also up to you.

It's the final challenge, so it would be great to see lots of excerpts for this one. Please put them up on Friday 30th or Sat1st, and (as above) the prize will be given at the TGIO party.
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The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair - Anon

Europe :: England :: Brighton

TGIO Party

tielserrath — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:58:42 -0800

Just to give you time to clear your diaries, the TGIO party will be on Monday 3rd December.

And before everyone starts up with 'why can't it be the weekend?', it's because it's a lot harder (and more expensive) to book weekend venues.

I did enjoy our TGIO meet at the Atlas a couple of years back because they did good food and also catered for non-drinkers, plus parking on the seafront and walking up is an option.

Suggestions for venues here please (with transport links such as bus numbers if they're not close to the station).
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The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair - Anon

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Challenge the Fourth - the stones are talking

tielserrath — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 14:10:18 -0800

OK, here we go:

The penultimate official challenge involves an animated rock.

Now this rock can be in any form - a lump of granite, or a perfectly sculpted statue. it can happen in the 'real' bit of your novel or in a dream sequence.

There is only one rule - its coming to life (and what it says, if it speaks) must form a solid part of the plot.

Easy, no?
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The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair - Anon

Europe :: England :: Brighton

On failure - Alabaster's attempt at a pep talk

Alabaster Crippens — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:53:08 -0800

So.
I'm failing. Miles behind the crowd, needing to average something like 4k a day until the end of the month if I'm going to win.

I've got a million and one excuses, some of which are actual genuine reasons. It's not been easy.

There's also lots of us in the same boat. I can almost smell the hints of negativity on the forum. I for one can feel failure looming over me. That and an awareness that if I wasn't in the word war we'd be winning. I'm losing hope, and I'm letting us all down.

But you want to know something.

I am no failure. No matter what your word count, you've already done something amazing. Something that thousands (or maybe millions) of people talk about doing, and about a tenth of that number attempt.

I mean, seriously, I'm writing my second novel.

And it's better than the first.

We're here because we tried. We here because we dared to take on something excessive, stupid and extreme. Some of us aren't making it, but we've tried. We've tried to achieve something amazing, absolutely incredible, and we've already done something great.

You remember that paragraph, two to ten thousand words ago, the one that you really liked. That was really amazing. You genuinely did that, all by yourself, and it was absolutely brilliant.

That's an achievement.

Remember that day you somehow stumbled out of bed with a hangover and somehow managed to write three thousand words, even though you couldn't get it together enough to make toast.

That's an achievement.

And it's all because you tried.

Now, here's the key.

I for one, am going to keep on trying. I'm going to try and get 4k a day. I'm going to put in a final day marathon effort, and I'm going to write my socks off (though I don't really wear socks, so that might be easier for me than it would be for others).

And then, even if I don't get there, I know I'll have achieved something even more amazing.

Okay, so this is getting more than a little cheesy. But does anyone else know where I'm coming from?

None of us are failures, but all of us can keep on trying, and that's what'll make us great.

Thanks for listening to me rant.

Now lets get writing.
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Mutability is our tragedy, but it is also our hope -Boethius

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Day 27 (nearly 28)

wibble73 — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:18:16 -0800

Anyone else feel like they just might run out of hours...

I know I'm nearly there, I know I'm on the homeward stretch (admittedly the dragon still has no name!), but when I look at the work deadlines for this week I'm wondering if I might fall at the last fence...

And having used pen and paper for 99.9% of the last 20,000 words that would be gutting...

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

(Thank you I feel better having let that out!)
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**Legends are legends, but when history repeats itself, they go out the window...**

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Checklist of Unanticipated Novel Elements

Wise One — Sat, 3 Nov 2007 11:22:17 -0700

Add to as you see fit.

- 1 hungry snow leopard
- 1 Anglo-Chinese television executive
- The Prospect of Whitby
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[Currently struggling with]: historic aircraft, the geography of Glastonbury, UFO sightings, a total lack of words.
[Word of the day]: Reverie

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Thur 29th meeting

tielserrath — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 04:28:33 -0800

...at the Caxton, 7pm?
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The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair - Anon

Europe :: England :: Brighton

Any other first time nano-ers out there?

rainjam — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:21:18 -0800

I feel sure there are, but a lot of people in Brighton seem to have done this before... how's it going so far? I'm finding it exhilarating, wince-inducing, hilarious and dreadful, one after another in a random order.
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