Yes! How come we don't have our own region?
Guess we'll just have to join Manchester - it's like Facebook all over again...
----------
"An education is a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It makes you unsuitable for a lot of jobs, and then you get the urge to pass it on."
Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
Probably because no-one from Liverpool has A) asked for it and B) offered to be ML for the region. If no-one's going to lead and take care of the region, how do the NaNo Powers That Be know how many of you there are, how many are active, and more importantly, how many are on the forums? They could possibly find location, but they aren't familiar with geographical break downs around the world. What might be a city - say Plymouth - to them might qualify. But in reality, there might be 3 people, only one of whom wants to meet people.
Would you create a forum for each county, large city/town in the UK? And every other country in the world?
Regions aren't created by default right - you are a city and therefore get a region. Someone must be willing to lead the group and moderate the region. Email Erin Allday, who is the ML Headmistress, if you're interested. You have to be over 18, and have done NaNo before (so you know what you're doing, before trying to lead others). Erin's contact email will be somewhere on here (I'm rushing, or I'd look it up).
Hi there, I assume this is the closest to a local group I can find - I live just the other side of the water ... Wouldn't mind starting a group, really, but haven't done this before, so I guess it'll have to wait.
Don't know whether to be scared or exited about the prospect of having to write constantly, mindlessly, without editing or fiddling, but I think it could be just the thing to stop me from stopping myself from writing. If you know what I mean. I'm always too critical.
Anyway, be nice if some of you in the area would keep in touch online or live as we go, don't expect non-Wrimo's to understand why we even do this! And they may have a point ...
Hi there! Four years of NaNo - well done! I have no idea what to do or not to do, but I'm excited and nervous and have bought lots of peanuts and raisins to keep me going ... Any good tips? I have about eight different (very different) projects lying about with varying degrees of outlines and notes, don't know which one I'll go for yet. I'll just start on the one I think I can do a lot of work on, and take it from there. I've ticked the mainstream fiction box, anyway. That should cover just about anything ; )
We should have an ML for Liverpool or Merseyside! Can't believe there's only four of us yet, but I suppose when people sign up, they just go for the nearest option.
Anyway, best of luck!
Hi,
Have given this a go quite a few times since 2002, and have reached 50K three times (I think) but last year was the first time that I had a finished story by the end of the month. Hoping to build on that (this year it will hopefully be a better written story!) this year.
Anyone here at Liverpool University?
Hope your muses are kind to you all over the coming weeks!!!
From my own experience, working from an idea you've developed or have been thinking about for a long time for NaNoWriMo hasn't been a good thing. A couple of years ago I decided to write something that I'd been thinking about for a long time, an idea I really loved, but after two weeks I felt like I was doing it a dis-service by just hammering words out every day.
Last year the central idea/character of my novel came to me three days before the start of NaNoWriMo (I woke up from a dream and they were just there in my head) and I really enjoyed it because I didn't have this great attachment to the ideas/the story from before the start of the month (at least, that's what I think the reason is).
The only other tip for reaching 50K that I can offer is get ahead in the first week and weekend! Getting 2000 words a day in the first week and then as much as possible written in the first weekend can really help to set you up creatively and to get you in a routine (building momentum) for the rest of the month.
Good luck!
Another one from Southport here. I gave NaNo a try a couple of years ago, but gave up pretty quickly. I hope to do a lot better this time around! It would be good to have a closer regional group than Manchester, does anyone feel up to the task of being an ML?
I usually go for Science Fiction, but I think I'm going to try something different this time. I'll be working on my plot and such over the next few days, so hopefully it will all come together.
I'm in liverpool too =]
I'm 17 so it'll be pretty hard for me to keep up with it plus by AS levels and all + I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing either. I have characters but no real sturdy plot. I'm must hoping that my characters will pull me through it =D
On the other side of the water. Second year of doing this, I failed miserably last year by 10,000 words, and I'm in my first year of uni to boot...as well as having to work too...and look after a house...and look after my menagerie of animals. Let the fun commence WOOHOO!
This is my first attempt at Nanowrimo - and I'm feeling a little unprepared!
I'm based in Liverpool, and need to juggle writing with studying and family - and I'm right at the start of a warhammer (fantasy table top battles) campaign which is ongoing until middle of December.
Anyone know any good tricks for missing 30 days of sleep? ;-D
Scary, this ... just realised I've ONLY got a month; last week I was thinking I had a WHOLE month!
Didn't do fabulously on the first day, so I've decided on a few nuts and bolts things to write if the muse should run out on me, like interiors, backgrounds and looks, just something to keep the word count rising, really.
And then my other, sometimes better, half unexpectedly mispronounced a word last night which gave me a new title and a new angle on the whole thing! Still mainstream, I guess, but with a few laughs in it - one character's a scouser, so humour is guaranteed!
Enjoying it, though. Enjoying taking my writing seriously enough to take time out for it. How's everybody else?
Had a good first evening. Chapter 1 done, chapter 2 lining up in my head.
As with last year I'm finding it's a good idea to know where you're going, but not how you're getting there. I know that the end of chapter five is a violent confrontation on the bridge, and I know that chapter two starts with my protagonist reading the paper in his apartment, and at some point he talks to a woman in a bar - but I don't know where the bar is, what she looks like or even her name yet. And I have no idea at all what happens after that, up until the bridge.
My advice, for whatever it's worth:
Don't worry about quality, just try to get the words out.
Don't worry about what other people might think, you're not finished yet.
Find ten minutes the morning after to think about what you're written the previous day, what this means and what it could mean - reflecting on what you have written is really good for coming up with more stuff.
I'm writing a horror/thriller. Enjoying it, the characters and plots are expanding in my mind the more i write and think about the story, which is cool.
I generally only write short storys, i've never gone over ten thousand words before so this will be a challenge for me.
Hello, all! I've affiliated with the Manchester region but thought I'd drop by and say hi since I actually do live in Liverpool. And am Scouse by birth. I did NaNo last year but didn't finish - combination of Inner Editor's verbal diarrhea and burn-out - so this year I am determined! (Damn, look at the wordcount, better cut this short, I want to make 6k today.)
Good luck to everyone. I'll be the brown-haired girl tearing her hair out in the corner of the FACT cafe.
----------
---------
ANNA
+ SF 08: Paragon for TV, WIN!
+ NANO 07: The Block, WIN!
+ SF 07: untitled, no win
+ NANO 06: Paragon, no win
One week in, how are we all doing? Still feeling pumped up? Still feeling like this was a good idea?
Had to take the night off last night, but got some notes down for my next few chapters. Aiming to break 25k by the end of tomorrow, and will see how far I get on Sunday after that. Am away from Thursday to Sunday next week with no computer access, so want to try and build up as much of a buffer as possible...
Hello, Liverpudlians! How are we all doing? Still hanging in there? Still enthusiastic?
I personally have found the last few days pretty hard going but I'm ploughing through, determined to give myself a decent cushion before the weekend is up. And I still have a fair bit of actual planned story to be getting on with so that's a bonus. Ignoring all the pitiful prose and dialogue drudgery is still difficult - my Inner Editor seems to have had some luck getting through on the phone from Spain, despite my unplugging the thing - but it's happening. Slowly.
Hi there! Hope you have all experienced weird and wonderful things in writing so far!
Actually, I'm a bit of a no-time-quite-like-the-last-minute kind of person when it comes to deadlines, so I was seriously lagging behind last week, but this weekend it has started really happening for me. I had two bouts of white writing (full on, can't hear people offering ice cream, totally lost in the story) yesterday, and today I just have to get a few things out of the way before I continue.
I sort of had a storyline in my head when I started, but lots of it has changed and come together in a much more interesting and even logical way than I could have planned. And it still feels as if I am struggling with the beginning - so today I've decided to jump straight in on the juicy bits and not care about timelines and stuff. That's the Inner Editor's job in December, isn't it?
Next year, can we have an ML too? Think we need the odd write-in and definitely and a Thank God It's Over-party after.
I can only repeat thespyglasses encouraging mantra: Go, go, go, fellow scousers! Cestrians! Cheshirites! Wirralians! It's only words - get them down! Go go go! There is still lots of time! (Slip of the key there - wrote tome. Freudian or what?)
(Waves hands maniacally in the air, realises the futility of waving maniacally in empty room, toddles downstairs and puts kettle on for writing session)
Well, I'm more or less on track. Had to go away for a conference at the weekend, which meant that that nice comfort zone of a buffer I had built up was completely destroyed. Piece of advice for future Wrimos: Virgin and Northern trains are NOT good places to try and write your NaNoWriMo novel!
I'm still feeling confident though! This evening I have to mark homeworks (PhD student at Liverpool, one of the lovely little things that we have to do sometimes...) for about forty students, so I'm not sure if I'll be writing tonight. But I have told my brain to tell my hands to mark quickly, because if I write anything new or not I will definitely write up what I wrote longhand on the train up to Edinburgh AND I will plot out the second half of the novel, chapter by chapter.
At times it can seem a bit of a grind, but God I love NaNoWriMo...
How are we all feeling going into the final weekend? One week left, do you think you're on track?
I'm slightly behind on my word count, but I think with a big push over the weekend I could not only get on track, but be quite close to 50k. I had a structure in mind for my novel when I started, so I know that I have seven chapters left to write. I more or less know what happens or has to happen in the next two chapters, then have some ideas for the chapter after that. There is a big blank for the three chapters after that, except for what must happen by the end of the penultimate chapter - and I know how it all ends now, which is good.
I've read a lot of noir this year, so I set out to do something hardboiled and noirish... I'm not quite sure that I've succeeded in that respect. I've written a detective story, and there are noir-ish things in there (first person narrative, attempts at snappy dialogue) but at the same time it hasn't quite made it as full-on noir like I was hoping.
Still, for a novel that will have been written in under 30 days, I'm happy.
And plus, Nathan R, you can always edit in some cool noir-ish things in December ;)
Really well done. Go go go this weekend!
I'm not doing too badly either. I'm ahead but I've had a couple of of dodgy days where I was really struggling. I wrote myself into a bit of a corner and then had to take a few days to plan myself out of it. But now I'm back! And I think I maybe sort of have kind of an idea about the direction in which this thing probably might need to head vaguely towards. Or something.
Write, Liverpool! Write write write!
~ Anna
----------
---------
ANNA
+ SF 08: Paragon for TV, WIN!
+ NANO 07: The Block, WIN!
+ SF 07: untitled, no win
+ NANO 06: Paragon, no win
50,444 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2007 - 16 17
Yes! How come we don't have our own region?
----------Guess we'll just have to join Manchester - it's like Facebook all over again...
"An education is a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It makes you unsuitable for a lot of jobs, and then you get the urge to pass it on."
Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
50,246 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2007 - 16 32
Probably because no-one from Liverpool has A) asked for it and B) offered to be ML for the region. If no-one's going to lead and take care of the region, how do the NaNo Powers That Be know how many of you there are, how many are active, and more importantly, how many are on the forums? They could possibly find location, but they aren't familiar with geographical break downs around the world. What might be a city - say Plymouth - to them might qualify. But in reality, there might be 3 people, only one of whom wants to meet people.
Would you create a forum for each county, large city/town in the UK? And every other country in the world?
Regions aren't created by default right - you are a city and therefore get a region. Someone must be willing to lead the group and moderate the region. Email Erin Allday, who is the ML Headmistress, if you're interested. You have to be over 18, and have done NaNo before (so you know what you're doing, before trying to lead others). Erin's contact email will be somewhere on here (I'm rushing, or I'd look it up).
----------BFS goals - http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/1075131
50,130 / 50,000
Oct 5, 2007 - 04 07
Hi there, I assume this is the closest to a local group I can find - I live just the other side of the water ... Wouldn't mind starting a group, really, but haven't done this before, so I guess it'll have to wait.
Don't know whether to be scared or exited about the prospect of having to write constantly, mindlessly, without editing or fiddling, but I think it could be just the thing to stop me from stopping myself from writing. If you know what I mean. I'm always too critical.
Anyway, be nice if some of you in the area would keep in touch online or live as we go, don't expect non-Wrimo's to understand why we even do this! And they may have a point ...
Best of luck to all of you!
63,182 / 50,000
Oct 9, 2007 - 01 38
I'm in Liverpool, my 4th NaNo year. Only ever met fellow Merseyside nanos once (incidently, it was the year i failed miserably with my word count).
How are people preparing? Are most of you pre-planning or are you just gonna 'go with the flow' once November 1st comes around?
Hope to talk to you all later, especially now that the forums are running faster.
----------50,130 / 50,000
Oct 9, 2007 - 01 49
Hi there! Four years of NaNo - well done! I have no idea what to do or not to do, but I'm excited and nervous and have bought lots of peanuts and raisins to keep me going ... Any good tips? I have about eight different (very different) projects lying about with varying degrees of outlines and notes, don't know which one I'll go for yet. I'll just start on the one I think I can do a lot of work on, and take it from there. I've ticked the mainstream fiction box, anyway. That should cover just about anything ; )
We should have an ML for Liverpool or Merseyside! Can't believe there's only four of us yet, but I suppose when people sign up, they just go for the nearest option.
Anyway, best of luck!
2,155 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2007 - 04 40
Studing at Liverpool Hope Uni
joined coz girl friend told me i should.
how is every one?
52,200 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2007 - 04 41
Hi,
Have given this a go quite a few times since 2002, and have reached 50K three times (I think) but last year was the first time that I had a finished story by the end of the month. Hoping to build on that (this year it will hopefully be a better written story!) this year.
Anyone here at Liverpool University?
Hope your muses are kind to you all over the coming weeks!!!
2,155 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2007 - 04 45
Im from Liverpool Hope University. i hope my muse is great to me too... and yours i hope helps achieve your goal.
52,200 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2007 - 04 47
From my own experience, working from an idea you've developed or have been thinking about for a long time for NaNoWriMo hasn't been a good thing. A couple of years ago I decided to write something that I'd been thinking about for a long time, an idea I really loved, but after two weeks I felt like I was doing it a dis-service by just hammering words out every day.
Last year the central idea/character of my novel came to me three days before the start of NaNoWriMo (I woke up from a dream and they were just there in my head) and I really enjoyed it because I didn't have this great attachment to the ideas/the story from before the start of the month (at least, that's what I think the reason is).
The only other tip for reaching 50K that I can offer is get ahead in the first week and weekend! Getting 2000 words a day in the first week and then as much as possible written in the first weekend can really help to set you up creatively and to get you in a routine (building momentum) for the rest of the month.
Good luck!
2,155 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2007 - 04 52
Thanx... ill remember that. is it possible to copy and paste things from word?
5,008 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2007 - 14 55
hi,
i'm in southport, not got a clue what i'm gonna write. can't wait for that blank screen.
2,971 / 50,000
Oct 25, 2007 - 15 27
Another one from Southport here. I gave NaNo a try a couple of years ago, but gave up pretty quickly. I hope to do a lot better this time around! It would be good to have a closer regional group than Manchester, does anyone feel up to the task of being an ML?
5,008 / 50,000
Oct 28, 2007 - 07 57
yay southport, i'm not the only freak then! What genre is your stuff? You got your plot etc sorted?
2,971 / 50,000
Oct 28, 2007 - 08 12
I usually go for Science Fiction, but I think I'm going to try something different this time. I'll be working on my plot and such over the next few days, so hopefully it will all come together.
0 / 50,000
Oct 30, 2007 - 03 59
I'm at the University of Liverpool - I have popped mine into Mainstream Fiction until I work out exactly what genre it is later in the month ....
2,187 / 50,000
Oct 31, 2007 - 10 41
I'm in liverpool too =]
I'm 17 so it'll be pretty hard for me to keep up with it plus by AS levels and all + I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing either. I have characters but no real sturdy plot. I'm must hoping that my characters will pull me through it =D
11,113 / 50,000
Oct 31, 2007 - 12 26
Hey Everyone,
On the other side of the water. Second year of doing this, I failed miserably last year by 10,000 words, and I'm in my first year of uni to boot...as well as having to work too...and look after a house...and look after my menagerie of animals. Let the fun commence WOOHOO!
0 / 50,000
Oct 31, 2007 - 15 18
Hi Everyone,
This is my first attempt at Nanowrimo - and I'm feeling a little unprepared!
I'm based in Liverpool, and need to juggle writing with studying and family - and I'm right at the start of a warhammer (fantasy table top battles) campaign which is ongoing until middle of December.
Anyone know any good tricks for missing 30 days of sleep? ;-D
Best of luck to everyone
Ame.
4,831 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 02 18
How's it going for everyone then and what are you gys all writing about!
----------[img]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m318/Laurenske/302_0512.jpg[/img]
50,130 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 02 38
Scary, this ... just realised I've ONLY got a month; last week I was thinking I had a WHOLE month!
Didn't do fabulously on the first day, so I've decided on a few nuts and bolts things to write if the muse should run out on me, like interiors, backgrounds and looks, just something to keep the word count rising, really.
And then my other, sometimes better, half unexpectedly mispronounced a word last night which gave me a new title and a new angle on the whole thing! Still mainstream, I guess, but with a few laughs in it - one character's a scouser, so humour is guaranteed!
Enjoying it, though. Enjoying taking my writing seriously enough to take time out for it. How's everybody else?
52,200 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2007 - 03 16
Had a good first evening. Chapter 1 done, chapter 2 lining up in my head.
As with last year I'm finding it's a good idea to know where you're going, but not how you're getting there. I know that the end of chapter five is a violent confrontation on the bridge, and I know that chapter two starts with my protagonist reading the paper in his apartment, and at some point he talks to a woman in a bar - but I don't know where the bar is, what she looks like or even her name yet. And I have no idea at all what happens after that, up until the bridge.
My advice, for whatever it's worth:
Don't worry about quality, just try to get the words out.
Don't worry about what other people might think, you're not finished yet.
Find ten minutes the morning after to think about what you're written the previous day, what this means and what it could mean - reflecting on what you have written is really good for coming up with more stuff.
Good luck guys, have a great weekend!
5,008 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2007 - 06 29
Going ok at the mo thanks for asking!
I'm writing a horror/thriller. Enjoying it, the characters and plots are expanding in my mind the more i write and think about the story, which is cool.
I generally only write short storys, i've never gone over ten thousand words before so this will be a challenge for me.
How about you?
50,163 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2007 - 06 56
Hello, all! I've affiliated with the Manchester region but thought I'd drop by and say hi since I actually do live in Liverpool. And am Scouse by birth. I did NaNo last year but didn't finish - combination of Inner Editor's verbal diarrhea and burn-out - so this year I am determined! (Damn, look at the wordcount, better cut this short, I want to make 6k today.)
Good luck to everyone. I'll be the brown-haired girl tearing her hair out in the corner of the FACT cafe.
-------------------
ANNA
+ SF 08: Paragon for TV, WIN!
+ NANO 07: The Block, WIN!
+ SF 07: untitled, no win
+ NANO 06: Paragon, no win
52,200 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2007 - 02 04
One week in, how are we all doing? Still feeling pumped up? Still feeling like this was a good idea?
Had to take the night off last night, but got some notes down for my next few chapters. Aiming to break 25k by the end of tomorrow, and will see how far I get on Sunday after that. Am away from Thursday to Sunday next week with no computer access, so want to try and build up as much of a buffer as possible...
Have great weekends Liverpool group!
50,163 / 50,000
Nov 18, 2007 - 11 41
Hello, Liverpudlians! How are we all doing? Still hanging in there? Still enthusiastic?
I personally have found the last few days pretty hard going but I'm ploughing through, determined to give myself a decent cushion before the weekend is up. And I still have a fair bit of actual planned story to be getting on with so that's a bonus. Ignoring all the pitiful prose and dialogue drudgery is still difficult - my Inner Editor seems to have had some luck getting through on the phone from Spain, despite my unplugging the thing - but it's happening. Slowly.
*shakes self awake*
We can do it! Go go go, fellow Scousers!
*hobble back to the Manchester boards*
---------
----------wordcount widgets
---------
ANNA
+ SF 08: Paragon for TV, WIN!
+ NANO 07: The Block, WIN!
+ SF 07: untitled, no win
+ NANO 06: Paragon, no win
50,130 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2007 - 04 24
Hi there! Hope you have all experienced weird and wonderful things in writing so far!
Actually, I'm a bit of a no-time-quite-like-the-last-minute kind of person when it comes to deadlines, so I was seriously lagging behind last week, but this weekend it has started really happening for me. I had two bouts of white writing (full on, can't hear people offering ice cream, totally lost in the story) yesterday, and today I just have to get a few things out of the way before I continue.
I sort of had a storyline in my head when I started, but lots of it has changed and come together in a much more interesting and even logical way than I could have planned. And it still feels as if I am struggling with the beginning - so today I've decided to jump straight in on the juicy bits and not care about timelines and stuff. That's the Inner Editor's job in December, isn't it?
Next year, can we have an ML too? Think we need the odd write-in and definitely and a Thank God It's Over-party after.
I can only repeat thespyglasses encouraging mantra: Go, go, go, fellow scousers! Cestrians! Cheshirites! Wirralians! It's only words - get them down! Go go go! There is still lots of time! (Slip of the key there - wrote tome. Freudian or what?)
(Waves hands maniacally in the air, realises the futility of waving maniacally in empty room, toddles downstairs and puts kettle on for writing session)
typo
52,200 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2007 - 09 06
Well, I'm more or less on track. Had to go away for a conference at the weekend, which meant that that nice comfort zone of a buffer I had built up was completely destroyed. Piece of advice for future Wrimos: Virgin and Northern trains are NOT good places to try and write your NaNoWriMo novel!
I'm still feeling confident though! This evening I have to mark homeworks (PhD student at Liverpool, one of the lovely little things that we have to do sometimes...) for about forty students, so I'm not sure if I'll be writing tonight. But I have told my brain to tell my hands to mark quickly, because if I write anything new or not I will definitely write up what I wrote longhand on the train up to Edinburgh AND I will plot out the second half of the novel, chapter by chapter.
At times it can seem a bit of a grind, but God I love NaNoWriMo...
52,200 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2007 - 08 26
Liverpool!
How are we all feeling going into the final weekend? One week left, do you think you're on track?
I'm slightly behind on my word count, but I think with a big push over the weekend I could not only get on track, but be quite close to 50k. I had a structure in mind for my novel when I started, so I know that I have seven chapters left to write. I more or less know what happens or has to happen in the next two chapters, then have some ideas for the chapter after that. There is a big blank for the three chapters after that, except for what must happen by the end of the penultimate chapter - and I know how it all ends now, which is good.
I've read a lot of noir this year, so I set out to do something hardboiled and noirish... I'm not quite sure that I've succeeded in that respect. I've written a detective story, and there are noir-ish things in there (first person narrative, attempts at snappy dialogue) but at the same time it hasn't quite made it as full-on noir like I was hoping.
Still, for a novel that will have been written in under 30 days, I'm happy.
Are you?
50,163 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2007 - 08 46
And plus, Nathan R, you can always edit in some cool noir-ish things in December ;)
Really well done. Go go go this weekend!
I'm not doing too badly either. I'm ahead but I've had a couple of of dodgy days where I was really struggling. I wrote myself into a bit of a corner and then had to take a few days to plan myself out of it. But now I'm back! And I think I maybe sort of have kind of an idea about the direction in which this thing probably might need to head vaguely towards. Or something.
Write, Liverpool! Write write write!
~ Anna
-------------------
ANNA
+ SF 08: Paragon for TV, WIN!
+ NANO 07: The Block, WIN!
+ SF 07: untitled, no win
+ NANO 06: Paragon, no win