Welcome Write Anything Writers!!
You found us, YAY! This little slice of forum heaven is all ours -- do with it what you will.
Within reason, of course. :-)
Let's start with introductions:
My name is Karen; I'm the Write Anything admin. I'm a romance writer living in southwest Missouri. I love living in the Ozarks, except when we have those pesky ice storms. I'm a website designer who specializes in schools and informational websites by day, an aspiring blogger and writer at night. I also have a creative writing site called Fiction Fix. (I will likely be posting excerpts of my NaNoWriMo project on my Fiction Fix blog).
This is my fifth year participating in National Novel Writing Month and it WILL be my fifth year winning -- yes, I am THAT confident. :-D I adore NaNoWriMo. The program has granted me permission to just write. I don't have to think about it, I don't have to agonize over what I'm writing, I simply write.
It's such a FREEING experience!!!
I've been toying with a couple of ideas for this year's NaNo project. I'd like to write a series of short stories starring one character and then somehow weave those mini-stories together and make one big story. I'm not sure I'm clever enough to pull that off, though. (It's okay, we can honest. *grin*)
OR
I'm thinking of taking the same story idea from last year and rearranging the plot a bit. It's about a female NASCAR crew chief who has aspirations of becoming a full-time driver and of course, the men in the industry aren't too thrilled with that idea. This NASCAR idea has been plaguing me for about a year now and I sort of feel like I HAVE to write it.
My home situation is changing. I currently work out of my home, but it's very likely that I will end up getting a holiday job (with the hopes that they want to keep me on after the holidays), so this year's NaNoWriMo may very well be my most challenging yet, simply because I'll have extra work hours. But for the most part, I have to LEAVE my house in order to write. It's simply too tempting to "take a quick nap" to recharge the mental batteries. I will most likely be haunting our university library.
As far as times... if I don't get my writing done in the mornings, then it simply won't happen. That is when I have the most mental energy, so again, if I end up getting a job, then I will most likely have to get up even earlier in order to get my writing done.
I don't DO nights. :-D
My goal is to write at least 2,000 words per day. (For you NaNo newbies: you must write at least 1,667 words every day in November in order to make the 50,000 word goal).
Enough about me.
Tell me about you. Where are you from? How long have you been participating in NaNo? What do you plan on writing? Where do you plan on writing? Are you going to try and stick to a writing schedule?
Spill it. :-)
----------
Karen
Blog
Fiction Blog
Twitter
28,217 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2009 - 06 26
By the by, I didn't see an edit button (Grr), otherwise I would have added this to the above message, but I forgot to give our blog address for those new to Write Anything:
You can find our collaborative blog at http://writeanything.wordpress.com.
----------Karen
Blog
Fiction Blog
Twitter
2,360 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2009 - 08 39
Sunday writer Paul reporting for NaNo duty!
And going to try darn hard to actually finish this year....
----------My writing site
35,200 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2009 - 23 04
Thursday writer Andrea here going for a third consecutive win.....hopefully.
----------Sinister Tales
Twitter
Myspace
50,012 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2009 - 00 05
Reader and guest writer reporting.
I'm full of ideas already!
----------NaNoWriMo '09: Barbarism - "...society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism..."
Blog | Twitter
50,012 / 50,000
Oct 5, 2009 - 18 56
Hey! Anyone else in?
I've been all over the forums and posting like mad in my home region's section.
And I created a meme on my blog @ http://benjaminsolah.com/blog which would be cool for people to do. Jodi's already done it.
----------NaNoWriMo '09: Barbarism - "...society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism..."
Blog | Twitter
43,134 / 50,000
Oct 6, 2009 - 05 29
Monday writer present and accounted for! I would have given my eye teeth (well actually I did give my wisdom teeth two days before kick off ) last year to have said I was a weekly writer on WA.... This is my third NaNo .. having successfully got across the line both other times (o7 and 08)
Ben's already inspired me to have a look over past years to see what worked and what didn't work for NaNo.
Like you Karen this is going to be my most interesting NaNo yet. I signed up to write as an outside participant for Fourth Fiction back in August and it doesn't end until December 4th! So I have that writing to maintain (granted it is only one installment every ten days) and I have decided to use it as the centre piece for a collected works submission in February.
Paul and I are publishing our first Chinese Whisperings anthology in November as well and while we're pretty much on the mark at the moment - there is still lots of technical things to work out.
As for what I am writing - I have three different ideas. Finish off last years (which will also allow me to accomplish one of my big goals for the year to actually finish a manuscript!), expand a series of short stories I have been writing about a detective investigating the death of a prostitute about 50 years into the future and a teenage noir time travelling idea. The only thing worst than having no idea is having too many to choose from and the fear of choosing the wrong one (was in the same boat last year and it worked out fine!)
Glad to see so many old faces here :)
----------"The Goddesses used to perform miracles, now they write books and allow us to perform our own miracles" - Sarah Ban Breathnach
2007 (win) - Finding Aphrodite
2008 (win) - Blue Melissae
2009 - Blue Melissae II
31,023 / 50,000
Oct 6, 2009 - 07 26
Good morning!
My name is Jennifer and this will be my 2nd year participating (and winning) NaNoWriMo...last year's story centered around a young girl who was diagnosed with Cancer and her Mom told her stories to keep her entertained. This year I'm planning on writing two middle grade novels centered around a main character and her best friend (and neighbor)....she's 8 years old and extremely spunky - I can't wait to see where she takes me.
I went to school in Springfield, MO (BFA in Theatre Perf., class of 1999) - and remember the ice storms fondly, as they always canceled classes for them. :-)
I'm currently living in New York City with my husband where I'm an Administrative Assistant by day, aspiring Singer/Actress/Writer by night.
This year, I'm pleased to say that my Mom is joining me in NaNo goodness, but she hasn't signed up yet.....but she has a great idea and is looking forward to starting.
5,764 / 50,000
Oct 6, 2009 - 09 07
I'm Rob -- reader and provider of long-winded comments on WriteAnything. This is my fourth year doing NaNoWriMo (all wins). My wife is joining us for her fourth time (three wins) and my children, ages 11 and 7 are doing this for the third time each (three wins each on the YWP). As an added note, my daughter (11) is trying to get her Language Arts teacher to make it part of the class this year, though I suspect that this will not happen.
We live in Hamilton, New Jersey. By day, I write software. I work for a very large software company that you have all heard of, but you've likely never used any products I've written unless you are an accountant (and probably not even then). Incidentally, I kind of hate computers, which makes my chosen profession ironic and sad. Of course, I didn't hate computers until I started getting paid to make them do things they otherwise wouldn't want to do... so, maybe that's the real problem.
Anyway, I'll be writing in my basement office (The Dungeon), at my daughter's dance classes, at my son and daughter's swim classes, at my son's hockey practice and at the pizza place at which I drink coffee while waiting for my kids during their religious ed. classes. I'll be using Microsoft Word 2007 to write, except for when I write at swimming or hockey, where I'll be using a pen and paper (and typing it in later). I may take the laptop to a Starbucks or Panera to meet up with some people to write but usually we host a mini-write-in for friends and family right here at our house each weekend.
I do not plan ahead when I write, so there's no real schedule for me to stick to (since I have no idea what, exactly, will get written in any given session). I do *try* to keep my word count within visual range of the targets but that has only worked one of the prior years. When I get on a roll, I can write upwards of 2500 words per hour (it drives my wife nuts!).
As a moderator on the Tech forums here, I have that extra time allotment I need to make to handle the hundreds (thousands?) of posts that come in throughout the event, especially in the first and last few days. This *should* be easier to manage this year than it has been the past few years. Each of the last three years I've had a work deadline in November. Last November I also was involved with a local community theater group -- I was acting in a play (which I happened to also write for them).
I am drawing nearly a complete and total blank as for what to write this year. I have a couple of very vague, very thin ideas that I'm tossing around in my head but I don't think I'll be using them. I am pretty certain I will NOT be trying another sequel to the story I loved from NaNo 2007, because writing the sequel last year was painful. I will be writing in the Science Fiction or Fantasy genres unless my sadistic muse points me in a different, unexpected, direction and laughs at me while I sputter and wheeze about it. In the three prior years, the idea has come to me on or about October 31, though the first year it was November 5.
I write best in the mornings and pretty much stink at writing at night, so my goal will be to come down to The Dungeon early in the morning, before I start working for the day; considering that I'm already down here before 7 AM most days, that's going to be a tall order!
Good luck to everyone!
----------NaNo 2006(win): "Children of the Stars"
NaNo 2007(win): "Darkness Falls"
NaNo 2008(win): "Dark Storm Rising"
34,362 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 23 26
Hi, Dan here, irregular commenter on WA and avid retweeter of all Chinese Whisperings. This is my first NaNoWriMo so I am currently shifting between extremes of excitement and terror. I am originally from the UK but at present living in Germany, 'working' as a homedad to two beautiful boys while my wife goes out to earn a crust.
The plan is to write a YA novel about a twelve year old boy who goes with his Mum to stay with his Grandad who is in the final stages of cancer. While there his Grandad gives him a battered boys activity book that is the catalyst for some strangeness.
It's planned out and I had started it, but a recent accidental deletion and corrupt back up file left me with a truncated manuscript. Faced with writing much of it again I decided to start from scratch for NaNoWriMo, hoping the focues on getting words on the page would help me ignore the whole deletion thing.
I tend to write in the mornings while my youngest is in nursery so hope to get my words done before lunchtime. The reality is I can see myself having to pick up slack in the evenings. For the most part I will try and stick to the schedule though. TBH I am lucky to have about 3.5 hours every morning to myself and will do my best to use them wisely.
Looking forward to November.
4,407 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2009 - 07 28
Hallo everybody!
This is ~willow~ ... she who has been away from the internets for what seems like forEVAH... I'm dragging my shriveled and dry muse into this year's NaNoWriMo - so far she's not kicking and screaming, so either she's dead, or she's giving tacit support for this year's endeavor: I guess we'll find out once November rolls around, eh? :D
I have no idea what I'll be writing this year: I ~do~ know I will not be tackling the same tale that I did in '07 and '08... I'll come back and do it justice once Ms Muse is inspired again. ... Of course, I ~could~ tackle "Book 2" ... or explore one of my other characters in more depth (Vincent!!) ... or do something totally different. We'll see...
I have missed being ~willow~, and it's great to put this persona back on.
p/s: Write or Die helped me reach the finish line with many days to spare - maybe it's help y'all too?
Ciao,
----------~willow~
http://noweepingallowed.blogspot.com/
19,257 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2009 - 07 56
Hello all,
This is Tina Hunter, a long time voyeur of the Write Anything Blog and a some time commenter.
I'm looking to compete in my very first NaNo this year. I really need to write some new words and I thought what better place to write them then surrounded by thousands of others trying to do the same thing.
I'll be working on a new novel - because hopefully the novel I've spent two years on will be done before the kick off - but it'll be another science fiction tale (as you can see from my signature). I'm looking forward to it.
@ranting.willow, I've used Write or Die for a tonne of projects (not just writing) and it never fails to help me put words on a page. Great tool.
Good luck all.
----------Website: http://www.TinaHunter.ca
NaNo 2009: Riot Girl
2,360 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2009 - 08 05
Welcome back ~willow~, it's been ages!
----------My writing site
43,134 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2009 - 14 14
Hello Willow ...
----------*hugs and kisses* much missed one! Welcome back ... so good to have some old faces here :)
"The Goddesses used to perform miracles, now they write books and allow us to perform our own miracles" - Sarah Ban Breathnach
2007 (win) - Finding Aphrodite
2008 (win) - Blue Melissae
2009 - Blue Melissae II
31,478 / 50,000
Oct 15, 2009 - 05 43
Hey, I have been following Karen for awhile on Twitter and her blog, but didn't realize (read: pay attention) to the fact that WA had its own little thread over here. :)
I'm Nicole, and I'm from the St. Louis area. Grew up nearby and while I left for awhile, I couldn't wait to get back home. I've been doing NaNo officially since 2004, but I lost the first two years. I have won since 2006. This year I am pushing myself a little, and while I am all about reaching the 50K first and foremost, I am aiming for 75K. I figure in December/January when I am working on editing, I can add more to get the words where they need to be.
As far as what I am writing, that is still to be determined. I have about a dozen plot bunnies running through my brain on a daily basis, I just need to pick one and go with it. I know the story will take place in Ireland with female MC being American, and male being Irish. That's about all I know at this point. It was supposed to be a romance, but it seemed to have taken a turn over the past few days and while I'm sure there will be an element of romance in the novel, it is leaning more towards mainstream fiction at this point. Still working out all the details, I know I'll get there.
I bought a Netbook this year, because I wanted a slightly more portable (and lightweight) way to write my novel this year. I actually love this thing and I'm finally getting better at typing on it (the keyboard is quite a bit smaller than the standard or even laptop keyboard). So basically my novel will be written anywhere I park my rear with my Netbook. I am sure there will be coffee house writing, writing in bed, the couch, the kitchen table, outside (if the sun ever re:appears), even my mom's on Thanskgiving. LOL
I do stick to somewhat of a writing schedule, in that in the morning I seem to be at my freshest. Pretty much everything written before 12pm is usually keep-worthy. I did discover last year that if I am REALLY tired and write a chapter or a few paragraphs sometimes that is my best work. Weird. I woke up one morning, read what I wrote the night before and honestly couldn't believe that I wrote it. LOL Yes, it was a good thing.
The cool part is, that I have two kids that are joining me this year for NaNo. My 12 year old step-daughter is going on her 3rd year participating with me, but my 11 ear old daughter has decided to try. (granted her word count goal is pretty low!) LOL
So that's it. Me in a nutshell (or at least a handful of brief paragraphs).
----------My Writing Blog
Follow Me
35,486 / 50,000
Oct 19, 2009 - 15 30
Hi, Chris here. Daily reader, infrequent commenter and sometimes [fiction] Friday participant. This will be my first year with NaNoWriMo, though I have wanted to do it for a couple years. I finally figured out the time will never be perfect, so I'm jumping in. As to what I am writing, I think I have it narrowed down to fantasy of some sort. Wizards, warriors but no elves. Since I live in a very rural part of Maine (nearest library and/or coffee shop is 1 hour away) I'll be doing the majority of my writing at home after the kids are in bed.
I'm both scared and excited for November to begin and glad to know you all will be doing it as well.
----------~chris
###
Twiter: ChrisChartrand
Web: www.thedarkeagle.com
[insert witty quote here]
43,134 / 50,000
Oct 19, 2009 - 21 21
Welcome Chris - it will be fun. We're all in it together.
----------"The Goddesses used to perform miracles, now they write books and allow us to perform our own miracles" - Sarah Ban Breathnach
2007 (win) - Finding Aphrodite
2008 (win) - Blue Melissae
2009 - Blue Melissae II
37,260 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 06 58
Hello!
My name in Mark, I live in Central Missouri and I have no idea what compelled me to commit to such insanity, but here I am. I have played on Fiction Friday a few times, but haven't in a while. I am hoping that NaNoWriMo helps with that commitment to writing fiction, or sustained fiction at any rate.
I write poetry and have had the pleasure of a few being published. I keep a LiveJournal full of bloggy goodness and all manner of goofy and stupid can be found there.
Anyhow, this should be fun.
----------Visit Radio Nowhere
http://radio-nowhere.org/nb/
28,217 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 14 26
I made it to 2,500 words. I'm writing a collection of short stories and I must say, I had a ball with this first one. It's a bit ... risque, but that's the direction it took me, so ...
I'm thinking the short story format may be my favorite yet.
How did you do?!
And WELCOME to all the new faces! :-)
----------Karen
Blog
Fiction Blog
Twitter
28,217 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 14 28
Oops, forgot to provide the link to the story, if you're interested:
http://fictionfix.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/gabbys-secret/
----------Karen
Blog
Fiction Blog
Twitter
43,134 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 15 19
I have just hit the word count for Day Two (given the time differences)
Yesterday was the day from hell. Having decided to pick up where I left off last year, I discovered I had just put down a thought and then just walked away from the manuscript. So yesterday it took six hours to get 2300 odd words down. I had to go back and work out the political structure of the world I built and get everything truly sorted in my head with that - easier said than done. Had to pull out the index cards.
But once I had the structure sorted - they were able to rip with their political argument. This was so not the direction I was intending to take. This is meant to be a bit of a weird love story - weird is definitely the word for it. My main character almost got killed off, a major political player got booted out and my other MC has a terrible head ache.
All in the day of Nano!
It has been far smoother sailing today. Up at 5am, started writing just after 6am (once the morning pages had been written) Wrote my first 1000 words in between cooking and eating breakfast. Cracked the 2000 mark just before 9am, in between getting other people breakfast, putting on washing etc. I'm hoping to get to 5000 words by the end of today. But for now I have articles to write and laundry to hang on the line.
----------"The Goddesses used to perform miracles, now they write books and allow us to perform our own miracles" - Sarah Ban Breathnach
2007 (win) - Finding Aphrodite
2008 (win) - Blue Melissae
2009 - Blue Melissae II
28,217 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 17 09
Good grief, girl. You intimidate me! What progress! I wish I had half your discipline.
Okay, not even half, I'd settle for 1/8th!
Keep up the good work!
----------Karen
Blog
Fiction Blog
Twitter
35,200 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 21 13
You people are scaring me already. I feel like I'm WAY behind. But you know what? I don't care. I did tons better than I thought I would do today. So, I'm satisfied.
----------Sinister Tales
Twitter
Myspace
43,134 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 01 59
I was hoping to get to 5000. As I wrote almost 2000 words on other projects it don't feel so bad.
Hope you guys have a cracking day. I'll be back up at 5am.
Has anyone else already had really weird plot twists happen to them? Or does that not happen to people who plot? Not that I plot. I just thought I knew where this story would continue on from last year - but no ...
----------"The Goddesses used to perform miracles, now they write books and allow us to perform our own miracles" - Sarah Ban Breathnach
2007 (win) - Finding Aphrodite
2008 (win) - Blue Melissae
2009 - Blue Melissae II
28,217 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 04 20
Andrea, what are you talking about?! You're OVER the day's quota so you're already off to a great start.
Don't be intimidated - NO ONE be intimidated by another writer's word count. This is a personal challenge, we'll all just here to offer support, not competition. (Unless it's friendly competition - *smile*).
I'm writing like a mad woman because I know, I KNOW, that by the end of the second week, this will be soooo freaking old, and I will end up not even writing at all the third week, so I'm writing ahead to provide that cushion. Then, I'll get that spurt of energy (okay, I'll panic) and I'll write like my life depends on it the fourth week.
That's just the way I work. I know this from past challenges.
Everyone works at different paces. Remember the story of the turtle and the hare? You just keep on working girl, you're doing fine. *smile*
----------Karen
Blog
Fiction Blog
Twitter
2,360 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 05 19
2360 and the first story is finished, with an ending that surprised me!
It's so strange seeing Jodi talk about how Day 2 is over, when Day 2 hasn't even started for me yet!
Good luck to everyone.
Oh, is anyone else having problems subscribing to forums so they get updates when new items are posted, or is it just me?
----------My writing site
28,217 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 06 00
Not just you, Paul. I've been reading NaNo has been having problems. It's the first days of NaNo chaos - it should right itself in a few days.
----------Karen
Blog
Fiction Blog
Twitter
5,764 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 18 53
Yes, there are a few things at play. There's a bug (or two) with the subscription emails in that some folks simply aren't getting any. The team has been working to fix those but I don't know how far it has gotten.
Secondly, with the record volume we had over the past couple of days (if you're a statistics geek like I am, see: http://blog.nanowrimo.org/node/317), the site's email server and database server are still backlogged -- I'm still just getting notifications of posts from 48 hours ago or longer! There are several servers involved and they each have a different backlog! I've also seen that the email server is processing something like 3 messages per second but the site volume is generating 7 messages per second.
So, it's a mess. But the site is up, wordcounts are saving and most posts are coming through, even if there's a delay or two. So I count that as a win!
Now my wordcount, on the other hand.... that is a giant FAIL... and it is getting worse really quickly.
----------NaNo 2006(win): "Children of the Stars"
NaNo 2007(win): "Darkness Falls"
NaNo 2008(win): "Dark Storm Rising"
43,134 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 04 01
It's done and dusted from this corner of the world.
I went to a "Writing Race" tonight through the Australian Writers Marketplace and the Queensland Writers Centre. Wrote 2490 words in 90 minutes and that wasn't really even trying very hard. I"ve been having problems getting into the groove of my story.
So I clocked up a few words shy of 4500 words today - which I am rather happy with.
As I said - it is still slow going - I'm waiting for the fuse and the run away story. My two main characters are now not far away from being put together - so it will (hopefully) get really exciting then :)
How's everyone else going?
----------"The Goddesses used to perform miracles, now they write books and allow us to perform our own miracles" - Sarah Ban Breathnach
2007 (win) - Finding Aphrodite
2008 (win) - Blue Melissae
2009 - Blue Melissae II
43,134 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 04 05
13 is your lucky number Rob - so it has to all be up from here! Surely??
----------"The Goddesses used to perform miracles, now they write books and allow us to perform our own miracles" - Sarah Ban Breathnach
2007 (win) - Finding Aphrodite
2008 (win) - Blue Melissae
2009 - Blue Melissae II
4,407 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 07 06
I've been going slowly due to a really bad cold that's got me totally sluggish. Oh, and "V" was playing all day on SyFy channel from Sun till today - how could I NOT sit and watch?! :D Besides, like I said earlier, I don' t have a clear idea of what I'm writing about... yet... but I'm not stressed... I feel the percolation of ideas in my head, and I know I'll be more than surpassing the daily quota soon. Right now I'm just happy I managed to get SOME words down for Days One & Two!
Ciao,
----------~willow~
http://noweepingallowed.blogspot.com/