Uh, Hello?

Hi Ben. Welcome to Tacoma/Puyallup/Washington!

I'm guessing/hoping everyone else is just lost in the slowness of the site right now (or has claimed the active Seattle group as their home). I've done NaNoWriMo before, but not since I lived in Tacoma. I'm definitely interested in helping coordinate write-ins and kick-off/TGIO parties for the community. I e-mailed the ML headmistress to see if we already have one in Tacoma.

I know Eric of Exit133.com has already adopted one night:

http://www.exit133.com/2194/tacoma-writes-a-novel

Every Tuesday 10/30 – 11/27
6:00 PM
Suite133
703 Pacific Ave
Tacoma, WA 98402

If we give it a few days, hopefully some other folks will crop up. C'mon everyone...!

- ducky

" "I may not be good at math," she said, "but other kids don't know neuroblastoma like I do."
...
Your brain will fail you, but your heart never will.
Think less. Feel more."
Thank you Jerry.
R.I.P. Gloria

It looks like you are the first...and I"m the 2nd. It's my sort of 2nd/3rd year of NaNo. I did one on my own in '05 and did one in November last year. I can't wait for Nov 1 to get here! :)

Enjoying the rain?

I'm out in Bonney Lake

~NovelistByNight
"The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible." ~Vladimir Nabakov

Hi Ben,

I just discovered this site/ project via a local blog. I am here in Tacoma. Coincidently I grew up in Connecticut however. This will be my first time. I discovered this via www.exit133.com and I know they are planning events every Tuesday night. ( which does not work for me).

Welcome to Washington!

Welcome to the evergreens (well, western ones, anyway!). I'm also out in Puyallup, not Tacoma proper, but NaNo's never had a region for us East County folk. I don't blame them; they deal with a world-wide cadre of writers, and who outside of West Washington has ever heard of Puyallup, or Sumner, or Eatonville, or... You get the idea. Seattle & Tacoma at least show up on most maps large enough to show Washington as a state, so that's what we deal with.

This will be my fourth NaNo (I missed last year), and I'm already gearing up & getting ready. 2k a day? Sure! Sleep and family? Never heard of 'em! Caffeine? Gotta go easy at my age, but yeah!

So welcome aboard, and if there are indeed any kickoff or other events, I'd love to attend a few (when I'm not writing, that is...)

-CMS

Hi! It's yet another participant. This will be my 1st year. I live in Tacoma proper and I would be interested in finding out about gatherings. I only just signed up to my region today so hi again.

Kendra

Hi!

This is my first year that I am going to try this. I'm from the spanaway area.

hey this is my first year also...and i'm new to the area...I'm a student at PLU. Pretty pumped!!!

Hi! Stephanie/OTLW here. I grew up and currently live in Federal Way, halfway between Tacoma and Seattle, so I straddle the two groups usually. (Still, I love Tacoma more. My dad grew up there and I have friends who went to SOTA.

This is going to be my fourth NaNoWriMo, although last year I was in Utah, so it'll be my third in Washington. My fifth Novel Writing Month, though. I've also done one JulNoWriMo.

I'm planning on writing some at the SeaTac Mall (or as it has been dubbed by its new and rather lame owners, "The Commons at Federal Way") before or after work, since I work there. I don't have specifics yet, though anyone would be welcome to join me in the public place for some writing. I'll post specifics when I do have them.

~Stephanie
---
NaNo 2007: Mirror-Side
NaNo 2006: Patchwork Earth, or Post-Apocalyptic Super Hero Insanity (62K)
NaNo 2005: Black Castle (50K)
NaNo 2004: Spellcasters (50K)

Glad to see so many people are up for it this year from the greater Tacoma region. Like a few others, I'm from Puyallup. This'll be year three for me. Should be a lot of fun.

-walter

Nice to meet all of you! Thanks for all the replies. Anyone know if we have a regional coordinator? (can't remember the acronym for them).

Sounds like the Exit133 people are doing a Tuesday evening event, which is cool. Anyone else a morning person? I like to do my writing early in the morning to have it accomplished before I get caught up in work. There's a Forza Coffee Shop in downtown Puyallup that opens at 5am on Weekdays. They have a big old table with nearby powerstrip that would sit 8 writers with laptops. Traffic at that hour is mostly carryout from the train commuters, but I know the owner pretty well and I'm sure he'd let us reserve the table if we wanted to. If anyone else is interested in an early weekday write-in, let me know, anything before 8am would work for me.

What? Voluntarily get up at the crack of dawn? Yup. Welcome to NaNoWriMo, here's an espresso.

-Ben.

---------------------
Caution: This Author is a jujitsu-slinging, robot-slaying, ninja-warrior powered by the light of the cloudless sun.

I hear ya about being a morning person. I'm down at the Y in Puyallup a few mornings a week by 445a. It's nice to have things accomplished early in the day sometimes. I 'might' be able to arrange things to meet early in the morning if people are interested...and if not, I can wave in your general direction from afar cheering you on! I won't know until November gets a little closer.:)

Were you thinking once a week or something?

~NovelistByNight
"The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible." ~Vladimir Nabakov

Yay!! I'm glad so see so many new people :D

I'm Niki, and this is my 2nd year of NaNo. I went to write-ins last year when we had them at the Mandolin Cafe, and I seriously had a blast. It was so much fun writing people everyone, and I really hope we get to do the same this year as well!

Right now my internet access is limited, but I'm hoping to change that soon. I've been looking forward to NaNo07 since last December XD

Uhm so yeah for everyone who can't make the Tuesday night write-ins [I'm not sure if I will be able to, I don't even know where it's at -.-; ] I'm suggesting we try the Mandolin Cafe for another night or two? They were very friendly towards us last year, and it's a cozy place to write. :]

okay I'm done. For now. Sorry, NaNo always makes me excited. >_<

niki~

Ahhh. I swear I didn't see this thread when I posted the other one. This forum is slow and screwy. So yeah, second year myself. I live in the north end and I hope to go to some Mandolin meetings.

I am also a PLU student and it is my first year

I think there are a couple of great places for people to gather in the south tacoma/parkland/Spanaway area.

One is the new PLU bookstore that is in that new garfield commons. It looks really nice.

Another is the Forza in that new strip mall on what is steele but turns in to spanaway loop rd or whatever. Its pretty nice too.

Not sure what I would get out of going to these writing sessions, since I do not have a lap top :(

HA!!! You can't avoid me! I'm family, but I'm also doing NaNoWriMo! Heeheehee!

Hello everyone! I was bogged down in the slowness for a couple of days, but I'm here now! I'm in Fircrest, and as you can see I love EXCLAMATION POINTS!!! Okay, not really but there it is. Welcome to all the new folks, to NaNo and to Washington state. Once you get past the rain, we live in an inspiringly beautiful state; I hope you're all able to glean something good from having moved here.

Stephanie, I agree about the mall name weirdness. I still call it the Seatac mall, and funny thing… no one ever corrects me and everyone still knows what I’m talking about! 

Ben, we have an ML (Municipal Liason) whose name is Susan. She's listed as the moderator on these boards I believe. And I’m a morning person too. Hey, I’m from Washington, right? Sleep is a poor substitue for caffeine (the slogan of the Washingtonian; 2nd runner up was “20,000,000 Slugs Can’t Be Wrong”)
I’m super excited for this year, and I’m really looking forward to meeting some of you in person (the ones I don’t already know that is!)
Deleva

My husband is one of the managers at the PLU bookstore. If you want to meet there I'll see what I can do. The coffee shop that is attached is not open yet. They were supposed to be open in September but I don't see any equipment installed yet. PLU loves groups but they close kinda early on certain days.

Hey, wow, I think I can actually make it out to Mandolin this time!

Hi there. 2nd year NaNo (don't ask about last year, it sucked big time for me, and I'm hoping this year will go better). Last year I was down in the boonies of southern WA, and Tacoma was the closest group (but it was still an almost two hour drive).

I've got all three coffee-makers AND the espresso machine unpacked and ready to go. Bring on November!

Hiya peeps

Well, this is freaky to admit, lol, but this is my first year doing this. In fact I didn't even know it existed until a friend of mine suggested I enter and have a party. Soooo, here I be! Moved here to WA just barely a year ago, and love it. :D I'm in Puyallup as well, and love everything about it but the traffic, lol. Any hints, thoughts, advices, anything at all from all you Nano vets out there, I'd love ya forever if anyone wanted to drop a few my way! :)

"Black holes are just where God divided by zero."

Well, I'm actually rather excited to see I'm the second Bonney Lake resident to post! I was wondering if I was the only one...This is second year of signing up for me, last year I didn't do much due to a very busy work schedule in Florida. But now I'm back on the west coast and ready to go.
Happy writing all!

You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it. -Robin Williams

Love me forever? That's a pretty sweet deal.

Um, okay. I have a few. First, don't spend any time on the NaNo forums, because you should be writing, not forum posting! Also, avoid contractions so you can boost your word count. Give your characters first, middle, and last names, and then always call them by their full names. Work *ahead* of the 1667 schedule, so that if something comes up (and something *always* does), you'll be able to recover. Don't edit anything you write. And most importantly, have fun! Hope you enjoyed my somewhat helpful random tips.

This is year three for me and I haven't won yet but I do write thousands more each year. I am in Tacoma proper and I've never met with any of the groups but I have a laptop now so maybe that will change things. Looking forward to possibly meeting some of you and I'm excited about getting started (although I so still need time to plan).
Cheers!
Fig

i dont have a laptop either, but the write-ins are super fun anyway. I bring old fashion pencil and paper, and just write rough drafts that I can later add into my novel when I get home. They're a great way to meet new people, and also an awesome source of inspiration. :D

I second the work ahead tip! Last year I ignored the 1667 thing all together, and simply wrote as I went. Luckily some days I got into writing and just went crazy with it, so when it came to about week 3 and I found days going by when I couldn't write a thing, I didn't freak out because I was ahead of schedule. :D

Yay for another Bonney Laker!!! I thought I would be the only one too! :) Heehee!

~NovelistByNight
"The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible." ~Vladimir Nabakov

Giving it another shot this year. I'm hoping for the block in my brain to happen much later this time around since that was the killer the last time.

Another Puyallup resident here, and though I'm a senior in high school and have no time for something like this, I'm doing it anyway! This will be my third year, although I am ashamed to admit that I didn't pass 10,000 words either time.

Another tip for you first-timers, do some pre-writing. The thing that killed me the first year was starting fresh, and having to take the first week to even get a basic plot down. Outlining or jotting down some notes is allowed, and I would say encouraged. DO IT!

Oh, and I hate my username. It's from 3 years ago, and though I'm still a diehard LOTR fan, the movies killed Legolas. Call me Zach, please.

Hi everyone!

I'm back, I think, for the third year. Techincally I have a Tacoma address, but it's more in Summit/South Hill area probably closer to Puyallup than Tacoma proper.

I'm not sure if I'll have time for Nano-ing right this year, but I plan to start and see how it goes. Life is getting in the way, mostly good stuff, but still it gets in the way. I have two brand new little havanese pups that require a very large amount of attention. Good for my activity and so good for my heart, but takes up time I used to have for writing. Plus I've *got* to step up the sculpting and especially the selling of my art as we swing into the holiday season -- need the $$. But I'm hoping to write some, and at the very least hang out on the boards and cheerlead. We'll see how it goes.

Good to see everyone and some new folks!

This is year three for me. The first year I barely did anything. Last year, a friend of mine and I kept each other encouraged. This year, the same friend is ready to write, plus a couple of other friends have signed up and we'll be keeping each other motiviated. My goal is to hit 50k this year. I, too, have been looking forward to this year's NaNoWriMo since last December. However, I am still undecided about what exactly I will write about.

I do agree with the tip to not use contractions. It does help word count a lot. :)

I live in South Hill. Depending on time and day of the week, I am interested in getting together somewhere to write. I have my own laptop this year, so I have no excuse not to write. If others in the South Hill area are interested in getting together, I am willing to try and locate a place for us to meet. I am sure we can find a business or two that would welcome a group of writers. :)

Hi! Trilli here and currently living in Spanaway, Washington. I can't wait to start writing. Maybe we can all get together for a plotting session or coffee?

Trilli

Trilli