Age Group: 50+ Writing Buddies

I'd like to be your buddy. This is my first NaNo too, so I don't know what help I can be of you other than to let you cry on my shoulder or scream about how you're stuck. I'm a good listener. My biggest fear is going off track with the novel and realizing that might not be a bad thing.
Oh, and I live in Virginia, United States of America.

Hello its my first nano too and I am confused at the size of this site and huge number of forums fora whats the right term? I live in Melton Mowbray in middle England am a retired nurse. i written professionally )nursing)stuff before but this is my first fiction - its an Aga Saga dont yawn! So its day 4 I'm 7000 words in. i doubt my novel has 50,000 words in it so will just plough foward and see how we go. Hope you are all having fun with this.

Hi, Everyone! I would love to have some writing buddies. I'm 56, love to dance (and knit). I live in the Seattle, WA area.

I'm 59, this is my first NaNo and am wondering whether any others are
looking for a writing buddy.

I'm more used to programming computers than writing novels, but
this is fun so far.

oh, I'm living in Marietta, GA.

I'm Candice, 51, live in Rockville, MD (suburb of DC). This is my 1st NaNo and I'm finding the forums a bit overwhelming in volume and complexity. I've found a local bunch of WriMos who meet at a local coffee shop and have their own listserv, nice bunch, but mostly a lot younger than I am. My novel I guess falls under Chick Lit, I would call it Mommy Lit as a sub-type. Some mystery, lots of motherhood stuff, and a twist of supernatural (but no zombies or vampires). I'm at over 14K total word count, chugging along to my goals each day, enjoying NaNo very much.

I would like to someone in this group willing to be my Writing Buddy for encouragement, trouble-shooting, etc. Please NaNoMail me if you're willing and able to be my Writing Buddy, as I don't often keep up with the Forums.

Thanks!
Candice (aka words4mom)

Anyone in the Winston-Salem or Lewisville, nC are that is writing? I'd love to get together with a few people a couple of times and write.

Hello, everyone,

Just catching up with the forums, now that the first week has flown by.

I'm Artesia and this is my fifth NaNo. I live in central IL and tend to be somewhat of a hermit during NaNo, just because I work full-time and I am no good writing around noise or other people. That means that I sequester myself after work in order to find time to write. But that does not mean companionship isn't welcome some of the time.

In the past, I have tried to ignore the forums during the first week in order to get a good start, and I'm doing OK with my goal. I'd be happy to find a buddy or two now that the middle of our quest--the most challenging part of NaNo--is upon us. Not looking for editing or advice as much as encouragement, and I'm willing to offer the same.

Glad to see that there is a fair representation of the 50+ group!

OH No another poet. If anything, I always get lost in poetry. YA..that could be fun.

Hi justBetsy! I'm Grannys7 (7 grandkids, newest one born last year right before we started) and my name is Faith. This is my second time at this and last year's novel (hit the 50,000) is still sitting waiting to be read and revised. Last year it was more of a what if kind of thing about a woman and choices. This year I'm trying my hand at youth/young adult. I have a story about a little blonde girl who turns out to be a princess (empress, something), I'm using my little granddaughter as the model and seeing where it takes me. Looking forward to talking with you and seeing how we go.

Hi, Arturo. I'm 56, live in Iowa, and am working on a mainstream novel for NaNoWriMo. I'd love to be your buddy!

My second Nano novel was a steaming pile of words that served nicely as background info for a character I used in last years novel.
Brought a few ideas I could use that I never would have gotten to if I hadn't plowed through.

I like your story, and I'll stick with it as well. While I was truly hoping that NaNo would jump-start my novel, you're quite right about no writing being a waste. Even if it does not lead to a published work, I'll still learn just by doing it. Thanks for the reminder.

"No writing is ever wasted, even if you bury it under your workbench out in the garage and never look at again."

I think this is true. Over many years I wrote an estimated 2 million words of journal, some longhand, some on various computers. There are thousands of pages that I haven't read since the day I wrote, and hundreds that I've revisited. And while I stopped journal writing over a year ago, I do feel -- actually, I know -- that I'm a very different person than I would have been without all that writing. (And different in a favorable way!)

I like your story too and I'm sticking with it also. Great advice.

I believe that as well, however I'm trying to purge stuff to make use of a living room, which has served as a storage room for almost 3 years. Every time I open a box, there's pages and pages of not only typewritten, but hand written novels, short stories, ideas, etc. Not to mention all the floppy disks which no longer can be read by these modern machines (I could imagine what's on them, without written proof, I haven't a clue). But occasionally you have to say enough is enough, sift through, chuck some of the old stuff, and keep the better ideas in your head.

My plan is to have four first drafts completed this year, then on to editing. I'm a pantser so I don't know how helpful I will be in the advice department, except to say that the trick to finishing is to just let it flow. The idea here is to get a story on paper. Later on you can go back and fix the problems. But first you have to have something to fix. The thing that really freed me to write was reading Stephen King's book "On Writing". In it he talked about plotting versus just starting with a scenario and letting it all go from there. That and sitting your butt down in a chair and writing every day. I thought to myself, well I can do that. So I started and lo and behold, finished first drafts. It showed me that this is very doable. The amazing thing was that even without a plan, not knowing what was going to happen or even who my characters were when they first showed up, in the end it all came together relatively coherently. So show up, write, and trust your subconscious to guide you. You can do it!

I'm a pretty good butt-kicker, or at least I can learn to be, if you'll kick me back! ;) Your profile pic looks familiar. Do you post at Allpoetry? If so, you know me as Lady Gloria.
Good luck with your novel!

I'll kick your butt San,
I'm below you in NV (pronounced envy)
I just finished a 3 day workshop in beautiful South Lake Tahoe with Thriller novelist Todd Borg of the Tahoe series from Thriller Press. It was great and I learned so much, But I don't have a plot for Nano 2011. I wasn't going to do Nano this year but one of the Workshop participants from Southern CA was all pumped up, and it was contagious. My 2009 Nano novel A Deadly July will be released right in the middle of NANO this year. My 2010 Nano, The Murder Channel was the manuscript I used in Todd's workshop for class assignments. After the workshop, he really encouraged me to keep working with it and get it published in the spring or summer of 2012, then I would have 3 books on the market and a good selling base. WOO HOO!, but I need a plot! ;-0