Welcome! Introduce Yourself Here

Heylo! My name is Edeyn Hannah Blackeney. Edeyn is pronounced much like the Garden of note in many major religions. I'm 32 and a mutt. That is, I claim nearly every major ethnic group extant.

I believe I'm another ML for Kansas City, I'm just over the Missouri border, on the eastern side of State Line Road. I've been doing NaNo since 2004, but last year was the first year I successfully completed it. 2004 involved an accident with a thumb drive and an overweight roommate 6 days before the end (lesson learned there was save multiple copies), and 2005 involved a miscount. I uploaded and left the computer on to rush to work 3rd shift on the night of the 30th, thinking I had around 52,000 words. I returned home at 8am December 1st to see my final count proudly displayed on my screen: 49,997 words. D'oh. Last year, well... I think I overcompensated, with around 73,000 words. I was also an ML last year for the first time, in "Missouri: Elsewhere" but this year I'm in KC proper.

I say we scrap the Kansas - Missouri hostility I heard so much about, and have fun together this year. I currently make my living (or what passes for one) writing. Not a lot, and not what I'd like to write, but it's writing and it pays the bills (if barely). I'm back in college after a 10-year hiatus. Um. Let's see. Oh! I've already decided I'm doing a project this year that's a lot less stressful. Last year, I wrote a mystery novel (that I'm actually talking to editors about! Yippee!). This year, I'm doing a project for a friend that needs content for her fanfic website. And no, I don't plan to count the words in the disclaimer about the characters belonging to DC Comics as part of my wordcount.

Anything other than that, I guess feel free to ask me!

Hey, Edeyn. To have another ML will be wonderful!

Welcome to the KC area. We have quite a WriMo community going here and are glad to have to it grow, grow, grow.

Yeah, on that hostility thing, our count of WriMos tends to get split because the Kansans affiliate with only Kansas. I post over there to, to direct them over here.
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Are you usually such an early riser? (No, I know yours wasn't posted in 1969; I saw that it was posted two hours ago. It's 6:30ish now.) I kept waking up every two hours to come and check.

btw, to everyone else, don't feel compelled to give your real name if you don't want to. I fully understand the desire for on-line anonymity.

We MLs, however, are required to give at least a real first name.

Just call me

Hey everyone, it's good to be back. My name is Kendra and I am twenty years old. I am from Olathe, KS, but I live in Emporia for college. So I started to have writeins for college students here since I started to gather people last year to join. Now they are trying to decide if they want to do it again this year. Hopefully they will keep coming and get more people involved this year. I am in my sophmore year at college and in fact minoring in Creative Writing emphisis in Fiction Writing. So I am taking two writing classes this year. Not a smart idea for this semister.

This will be my third year of Nanowrimo, I found Nanowrimo two weeks in from a link on a rpg site that I was on. So it was kind of nice. I have won every year and keep putting the bar higher for myself. Last year I did two novels that hit the 50K mark while the other made it to 30K. This year I am hopefully going for 2 novels to 100K. But I am not too sure how I will do that this year.

The big scary thing I did was working as a para in summer school. I learned how to deal with disablities that I will see when I become a teacher.

So that's me in a nut shell. Oh and the whole Kansas thing I go back and forth because you meet more people that way. So the whole problem between the two really shouldn't be there. lol. Happy Writing.

Hi, everyone. I'm Jasini. (Pronounced ja-SEE-nee, not Jazzy-knee, in the unlikely event that I actually get to meet any of you). I live in Kansas City North, have a handsome husband, and two beautiful children. Last year was my first year of participating, and I think I reached about 20,000, more or less. We'll see how I do this year. We'll also see if the fact that my husband quite probably will be out of the country for the first couple of weeks in November makes me more or less productive.

Warhound from Kansas City, KS. This is my third year doing NaNo, and while I've successfully reached the word count the previous two years, I've not neatly wrapped up the stories and brought them to a close, so my goal for this year is to actually have a story finished besides reaching the word count.

The warhound nick comes from my involvement in the SCA, a medieval recreation group that I use to fight in, and from the book the Warhound and the World's Pain by Michael Moorcock that was one of my favorite books for a long time.

This year it is looking like sheer insanity to participate. My wife just had major knee surgery last week and will not be back to normal use of her leg for a few months so I have lots of work around the house and in taking care of her to keep me busy. Add to that a new job, and the fact that I've just started taking violin lessons, so I expect to be a gibbering idiot by the end of November (I mean more so than normal for me), but what the heck.

Despite my best intentions I've only written sporadically throughout the year, but haven't given up on the idea and am looking forward to seeing some of the local writers again and getting the creativity flowing.

Darksong Shadowhart, AKA Morgan, representing the northern outliers. You know. Those weird places like Saint Joseph. Participated four years so far, haven't won one yet, but that's not going to stop me. I'll be on the lookout for y'all's write-ins, and will try to stop by, full time retail job notwithstanding. I'm planning on taking some "attitude adjustment" days out of my personal/ sick time in November, so if you guys can give me about 3 weeks warning on one of them that isn't a Saturday, I'll definitely take the day off and drive down.

Hello everyone! I'm Lynn.

I am an Overland Park resident, nineteen-years-old. I go to school in Kansas City, Missouri, though, so I have myself in both the Kansas and Missouri regions. I started this last year, had to drop out two weeks in because of family stuff, so I'm back again and hope to make this work.

Hey everybody!
Welcome to October!

I couldn't wait any longer to say hello, but I'll have to come back later to actually introduce myself. For now: Hey, warhound! Hi, DW! Love ya, Teri. Hello everyone!
Mike? Where are you?
(And yes, I am mildly disgusted by the number of exclamation points in that sequence)

Welcome back to the madness.

*Waves* Alana here. I live just east of Kansas City, in Blue Springs, MO. This is my first year participating, and I'm currently trying to convince myself that NaNo+college≠suicide. XD;; (I'm not being very successful.)

I'm doing NaNo because I love to write, but also fail rather horribly at sticking to a story-- I can't count the number of first chapters I've written without second chapters to follow. Because of that, I've stuck pretty firmly to short stories (and by "short", I mean 200 to 2k words), and mostly fanfiction at that-- which is NOT conductive to getting my original stories down on paper, nor to getting them published. So NaNo is the perfect way to get the gears moving, get my keyboard clacking, get blue ink on my fingers as I scribble out snippets in class about the wonderful adventures of Marak and Zariak through Eson and their neighboring country, Orter. (Which, hopefully, will help me figure out Mark and Zach's wonderful adventures trying to tear apart Eos, with the help of the Order. Yay, fantasy AU of an unwritten SF novel?)

*Ahem* Anyway. I'm a bundle of nerves already. D: But I'm also looking forward to sharing my writing, sharing my characters, sharing my carpal tunnel... XD;;

Welcome back Inkwet...

Is it November yet...I have my plot and my characters and now I have what my characters should look like. And it's only October 2nd are kidding me. By the 1st of Nov. I'll have five novels to be written. lol

Um, Hi? I'm halcali and I'm from KC Mo. This is technically my one and a half nanowrimo because I only heard about it halfway through the month last year and gave it a go. I got pretty far, (over 20,000 words) but I epically failed! XD I didn't sign up last year either, so first year SIGNED UP, but second nanowrimo. Yeah...

I've been writing since... I think my summer before sixth grade. (I'm a freshman this year (in highschool)) I spend all of my freetime writing and am a SLAVE to my computer to get it all down in words. I am working on other stories right now (that I should STILL be working on) but will devote at least an hour or ten to NaNoWriMo! :D I've got a plot bouncing in my head, but I gotta at least put some order to it before Nov. 1. Looking forward to actually beating the deadline this year and many years to come!!

PS My name is Lauren!!! *waves*

Jasini! You're back! Glad to see you here again.

It's like old home days. It's certainly not NaNoWriMo for me without warhound swinging weapons around the board.

Well, it's about time, inkwet. Didn't you care whether the forums were back up? ;-P

Darksong, I recognize you from last year's forums. I hope you do get to the kick-off meeting and/or some write-ins, so we can put a face on you.

Welcome,
Alanahikarichan
Wilde.Lynn
halcali
Good to meet more young wrimos! We do have some teens show up for write-ins. If anyone's parents need reassuring on that point, have them read the parent-reassuring letter on the website (um, I can't find it at the moment), or contact me. I'm a mom-type, 40-something. We're pretty protective of our young wrimos around here.

Hey, everybody! You can call me Scorpio if my original name is too long for you. I've done NaNo for two years now, but never made it to 50K yet. This year I'm hoping to get to at least 20K, trying to work my way up to 50K. I'm getting November buzz already, which usually means that I'll wake up early and feel like I'm periodically sticking my finger in a low-voltage light socket.

Still not sure I've figured out my plot yet...

Sure hope that I get to go to the write-ins, though it all depends on when it is. High school sucks with all its scheduling and preplanning. My parents won't mind. Actually, they want me to do this so I can become a writer... *sighs blissfully* that would be awesome!! *faints*

Hello everyone!

My name is Melissa Rice (Mel), and I'm from Lee's Summit. This is my 2nd year. I didn't finish last year, came in around 30K, but I'm always hopeful, and I have a LOT less distractions this year, so we'll see what happens.

No plot, no outline, no characters - nothing ready so far. Hoping to make some time this month to do some prep work, but I started last year blind, so not sure if planning will be good or bad for me.

I've been writing off and on since about 4th grade (creating my own Nancy Drew stories), but I have really slacked off this last year. It's been a huge year of change - maybe there will be some ideas in all of it for my novel.

Hope everyone has a great night! Can't wait to get started!

Mel

Well... Absence of laptop, work, dreadful internet, and ridiculously-busy day may be able to keep me from introducing myself early...
But nothing is going to stop me from finishing 50k. ;)

So, to introduce myself...
Actually, I've got nothing.
? So much for a grand intro.

My name is inkwet_image, and I'm here to write a novel. Actually, I'm going to write the novel when I'm not online--I'm here to encourage anyone who needs, to pitch ideas at anyone who wants, to cheer for anybody who lacks, and to pick on certain people who know who they are.

This will be my third NaNo. This year I have a plot idea; I'll probably tell you about that later, if you want; and I should spend Oct researching mildly.

Those of you who were here last year, I'm genuinely excited to see you back; those of you who *weren't* here last year...
This is going to be fun.

Hello, I'm wit. Sometimes I also go by Audrey. And I live just south of midtown KC.

This is my second go at the novel writing thing. Last year I participated in Western Massachusetts and spent many hours holed-up in my bedroom typing away into the early morning hours. Sadly, schoolwork and a Thanksgiving spent traveling without my laptop meant I only managed to make it a little over halfway to 50k. Now, as an unemployed college graduate, I'm hoping to actually finish my novel this year. I envision large amounts of caffeine being ingested and days spent in the corner of various local coffee shops and libraries working.

I also hope to actually get out of the house and meet other writers. Last year I only had my friend who was participating in Seattle to keep me going and I really could have used the support other people furiously writing away to keep me going. I've got "No Plot? Not Problem!" checked out from the library currently to get myself into the NaNoWriMo mood. I haven't decided yet if I need much of a plot before November, as I think a lot of my trouble last year came when I wasn't quite sure where everything was going. We'll just have to see as to how organized I actually am later on in the month.

And is anyone else thinking of pulling out their typewriter/pen and paper? I have the hardest time concentrating and thinking straight while sitting at my computer with the word processor open. (Plus, there's an infinite number of distractions.)

- wit

oh_the_wit, welcome to Kansas City!

I don't worry so much about plot. Here's my method of fiction generation: Take some interesting characters, throw them into an odd situation, and see what happens. Of course, I've not been published. And I start wavering when I get to the last third of a piece. Fear of picking a final solution, when there are so many possibilities.

We have a number of paper-&-pen composers in our local group. That's especially helpful when we have write-ins at bookstores that didn't learn to share (electricity). Myself, though, I compose better at a keyboard--I do this meditation thing over it. And, um, the wi-fi on the laptop is switched to off.

Mel! You're here! (Did you have plans to move, or was that somebody else?) Glad to see you back!

Ah, Scorpio, (whose full name is--what? Scorpionicus Clariano?)--didn't your parents teach you not to put your fingers into sockets of any variety? :-> Good to have you on the board here.

Halcali, I'm envious of your parental support. Back in college, when I told my parents I was changing my major from biology to English, my mother asked, didn't I want to try engineering? Umm, no.

(Speaking of engineering, there's a KC wrimo who hasn't shown up yet. Maybe, just maybe studying for exams?)

Oh, and newbies, if you want a break from writing, just ask inkwet (or one of us veterans) about how she won her NaNo last year.

Where is mike anyway?

Probably waiting until the madness dies down. Also, he may not be as addicted to the socializing chaos as we are.

Hey everyone,

I'm back for Nano this year. I've had a rough year, but I'm ready to write a novel again this time around. I'm not going to be sick and school is a lot, but better than last year.

For those who don't know me (or don't remember), I'm Rachel (pronounced Ray-shel or Ruh-shel; I'm not too picky). You can call me that or you can call me Handsoap. I'll answer to either one. I'm a junior in college and I'm a writing major.

I'm not sure what I'm going to write this year, but I'm going to spend October planning it out. I hope to make it to the kick-off and at least one or two of the write-ins.

I'm off to do homework or procrastinate, but I'll be back.

Teri,

That was me who had plans to move. And I'm still around. Quit my job, and all of a sudden, getting out of KC didn't seem all that important. Guess the job was blinding me, along with a relationship that needed to end, so that's over also. Now it's just me trying to find a job. Took the summer off and did a lot of traveling; now I'm temping and looking for something more permanent.

A move still isn't out of the question - I'm a gypsy at heart and have been feeling the pull to try somewhere different for a while, but the urge isn't as strong now as it was a year to 6 months ago.

mel

Who did I help last year to make it to a word count. I remember last year if they reached a certain number I was going to kill off one of my favorite characters in my novel.

Newbies,
I am up for a challenge this year, if any of you start to fall behind just holler and I'll make you a deal like I did last year. Say you are really behind tell me what number you want to reach by a certain date and if you do it. I'll do something in my novel that you rather. This year though my novels are kind of depressing. All three of them I am not sure yet if I want to kill the main person or not. I live that open though.

I remember you Handsoap, how could I forget someone with a nick like yours. I didn't see you at all last year though. Great to hear you are back and in the game.

Hello everyone.
Mike here.
This is number 7 for me. Six at bats, six wins.
poetT beat me to 50K and to 100K last year, but claims not to be running this year. Anyone up for a race?
She even edged me out in the photo in the paper last year relegating me to the kids' table. sheesh.
Bitter, nah. She is an extrovert after all.

Like inkwet, I am available for encouragement or ideas or just to listen about where your plot dead-ends.

I may not say much, but I have much to say.

I have no idea what I'm writing about this year, but it's going to be better than ever before.

First time. Still not sure what plot I'll use; have three. Think all may be good in theory, worried about my execution.
New to Kansas from Colorado after 30 years there. Got married (yikes!) and that's why the move. I'll have to finish by Nov. 22 as we're leaving for Mexico and I won't have a computer. So the pressure's on.

My boyfriend (now husband) found an article in the K.C. Star about a year ago which featured this website.

Any advice is welcome and wonder about writing groups in the Johnson County area, although we are closer to the Woodside area..(I'm not sure this is a suburb; it's where I plan to play tennis.)

Oh, what does ML mean? I've seen it a few times.

First dumb comment by me (won't be the last.) I must have skimmed over Teri's definition of ML. Sorry, Teri, and thanks for being K.C.'s liason.

Welcome back Mike

Hey if your up for a challenge I am always a go just name the word count. Of course since I never go to the writins because I am down here in Emporia without a car...but I love doing challenges.

Ah, two more old-timers!

handsoapisgood, I have to admit, I have great admiration for any college student who comes to the NaNo table. I hope you're successful with your run this year.

And mike oleary, our KC veteran of veterans! Sorry about not 100k-ing this time. I might try 75k , though... Maybe.

Everyone else, take Mike seriously on his offer to help. He is brainstormer extraordinaire on plot twists, and major behind-the-scenes encourager in our WriMo community, quietly making you believe you can do impossible things. Like 100K. Which I only beat him to by 1 (one!) hour last Thanksgiving. (And I still think he was holding back--just enough to keep me going, though fully intending to swamp me at the end .)
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And a newbie!

camillehughes, welcome to the flatlands. (Or were you from eastern Colorado?) The Rockies. Rushing mountain streams. Oh, man, don't get me started. I never got to the mountains this year or last, and I'm in serious withdrawal.

I was just wondering aloud to Delayra whether that KC Star article had generated any new WriMos, it coming at the end of November when it would be too late to start. But now we know!

We don't have separate writing groups, but we're going to have one central location for bi-weekly write-ins, either in the Plaza or Brookside this year. Of course, it's always possible to get another one going closer to your home if you want, though. I'll be starting a thread on that in the next day or two.

re: ML--Well, you figured it out. Delayra doesn't have the box by her name yet, but she is being added as a co-ML for our area, fresh from the wilds of Missouri::Elsewhere MLdom. If you have any questions or concerns, post or e-mail us. We're the go-to gals.

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Say, if anyone has any questions about editing your profile or anything else on this new forum setup, be sure to ask here or go check the tech help forum. I'm still trying to get the hang of some of the formatting myself. And despite unclicking every subscription box in sight (actually, they were already all empty), I'm still getting e-mail notices on thread additions. That one may be a glitch that's a to-be-fixed. Anyway, we'll get used to it. At least I can now see the links to all my writing buddies! (Not to mention regaining my ML status...)

Oooh, I could race... could be fun!

I'm the "other" ML. I'm doing a nice, low-stress piece this year. I'm writing something that will be web-published in December on a fanfic site for a friend that needs content.

Let's see... I've not really told much about myself yet. I've had 17 pieces published so far, but nothing groundbreaking, and most of them were short stories overseas so the profit from them was essentially eaten up by the postage to send the stories there. Durn editors don't like e-submissions. I'm still trying to get a bite on my mystery novel from last year.

Hrm. If anyone has any questions, about me or about Nano, feel free to ask!