Blue Mountains & Lithgow

I'll keep my eyes peeled for your next post. (as painful as that sounds)

It's good to see other writers are nearby.

Jeff

I guess I'll count myself in with you guys, even though I'm in the Central West. Meh, no one else does it out here anyway. I'll stay posted.

Josiah

I'm out Orange way... kinda closeish, haven't heard about anyone else out here doing it yet.

Paige

I'm from Bathurst, it's not exactly the right area but it's fairly close :)

Welcome central westies ;-)

I was going to make this a thread for BM, Lithgow & Central West (because we had someone from Orange last time), but I thought it was a bit presumptuous of me to include an area I wasn't in (and CW is pretty big).

We're pretty spread out, but some write-ins could be organised somewhere reasonably central, in Lithgow, Orange or Bathurst.

For first time NaNo's, I'm giving a talk about NaNoWriMo at the Lithgow FAW (Federation of Australian Writer's) meeting:
Sun, 21st October.
2:30 - 4:30pm
Wattle Room
Lithgow Worker's Club
3 Tank Street Lithgow

cost: $3.00 for non FAW members; $2.00 for members.

I'll just be chatting about planning for and surviving NaNo, and ways we can support each other in the form of write-ins, the NaNo forums, email, and instant messaging.

Please come along, and we could consider it our kick-off party!

Cheers,
Tys.

He he, I was probably the one you are talking about Tyswan. Sierra Larone sound familiar? Lol.

I did do a Central West Write In last year, but it saw no one, so I just assumed that there was no one out here. I guess each year is different though. I probably won't be able to go to any Lithgow stuff, just because it is a couple of hours away. Anyone out here planning anything?

Josiah

Hiya Josiah,

LOL. Yup, you were who I was referring to. Nice to see you again. What's with changing your name? That's just confusing S-|.

Yeah, Lithgow is a bit far when you can't drive. What about a bus to Bathurst? I could go to a write in there - it's only an hour away. Maybe one of the Bathurst dudes can organise a venue. What do you think?

And how are you going anyway? Do anything with your last novel? I'm still editing mine :S

And did you do Script Frenzy? Anything exciting happen in the last year?

I got my first story published in a literary anthology that will be out in November. That's kinda exciting. Not much else to say. I planted some fruit trees, and had a varandah built. Not much to say for myself...

Tys.

Long story. We are one and the same person though, lol.

Yeah, going through the long and boring editing process. I did look into doing something with Varuna, but being underage, they said they couldn't be much help to me. I also looked into that NSW Writers group or whatever, but heard nothing from them, so I'm flying solo. I want it published, but I think I'll let it lie til next year.

Script Frenzy... that was, well, intersting. I pretty much just downloaded Celtx (some free scriptwriting software) taughyt myself the basics and started writing. It took heaps longer than I thought, and I had to change my plot quite a bit so I could make the 20K, but I did. It wasn't as fun as NaNo though. I think it has to do with that writing can flow more freely, wheras the script has to be set out the right way and all that, which requires a lot of thinking.

Anyhow, its good to be back, and I'll see how I fare this year.

Wishing everyone on this forum 'Good Luck' and that you shall all reach at least 50K this year.

Josiah

Hey guys, sorry I missed the talk yesterday, at Lithgow. It would have been good to go to.

I am very interested in going along to any write-in's you have planned and if you are stuck for a venue in Bathurst, I could probably organise one, depending on the day of the week.

Good luck to all of you.

Jeff

Hey, Tyswan, Margaret here from Lithgow Regional FAW. Thanks for yesterday. It was great. We're thinking about having a bit of a get together at my place before the deadline 1st to share some of the information and tips of the trade you shared with us. We're thinking about together each week at the Library at 11am on Monday mornings, that's the Lithgow Library and Learning Centre in Main Street, Lithgow. Have to confirm it with them, and will post back when we've got it.
Robin, Misha and I will be doing a bit of a whiparound to see if there's any other insane delightful and writing intensive people in the area who may want to be involved. If we get something in the Mercury, I'll let you know.
Have tried to put Lithgow as my Home Region, but having a bit of trouble with it. I'm not the most Internet Literate, and it's probably as easy as anything, but things are coming up so slowly I'm not having much luck with it. Can you let me know the easiest way of doing that, or is it just a matter of posting a reply in the region that gets you through. That's my overly complicated mind assuming it's difficult, all help would be appreciated. Thanks again for Yesterday, we'll see how we go getting a bit of a ding dong doozie going pre-flight.
Just a thought as well, We decided to make the weekly get together at 11am to give people a bit of time, I was wondering if, as the drive from other areas may be a bit long, if it may be possible to record wordage on a voice activated tape recorder rather than not being able to write in transit. As far as I can figure talking to someone on a mobile is rather dicey when driving, but talking to yourself might be a possibility... so long as you don't mind too much what other drivers are likely to think of someone doing that on the road...
Just a thought.
Back when I get a chance. Gosh I rave don't I.
Peace and Love
Lyre Blue/Magaret

I'm from Bathurst and wouldn't mind the drive to Lithgow - only I couldn't make it every week though.

Jeff

Welcome Margaret,

Glad you made it!

We're thinking about having a bit of a get together at my place before the deadline 1st to share some of the information and tips of the trade you shared with us.
Okay, let me know when. I have 3 submissions due for the 31st of October, so I might be pressed for time to meet up, but I'd love to. It could be our kick off party.

We're thinking about together each week at the Library at 11am on Monday mornings
11am Mondays is fine with me. Maybe some of the central Westers could car pool?

For those of you who are wondering, we have access to the computer room so if you don't have a laptop, you can type away in there and rush out to get support when you need it. The venue has been kindly given to us, along with Tea and Coffee. Milk & biccies will need to be provided, so please bring along a $2 donation to cover costs. Saving your novel off the Libraries computers probably incurs a charge: either to use email to email it to yourself, or to buy a virus free disk form the Library to save your ms onto so you can take it home. Alternatively you can also hand write your novel, and estimate your wordcount if you want (or type it up when you get home - if you can be bothered).

I think I'll try to tee up a Bathurst meeting as well, for those who don't drive, or live further west.

Jeff, can you line up a venue? See what others think, but my suggestion would be Saturday (since we're meeting Mondays in Lithgow).

Have tried to put Lithgow as my Home Region
Go to the My NaNoWriMo page, select the My Regions menu item, and click on the Regions Tab if you haven't already. All the regions are listed there, and you affiliate yourself with a region by clicking on the, you guessed it, affiliate link.

Once you've done that, click on the Home Regions Tab This gives you a list of the regions you are affiliated with, and you can select one of these to choose as your "Home Region".

Posting a reply to this thread is probably the most useful as you should now get all the emails from this discussion, and be able to quickly get an idea of what's going on (even if the NaNo site is temporarily down).

As to the voice recorder, LOL, I think we'll leave that up to individuals to decide. But if they're car pooling, then discussing the novelling process, ideas for plot twists and the like, are probably just as useful as actually writing.

And remember that Lithgow is only 40 minutes from Bathurst. It's not so far, and I always think of great ideas whilst I'm driving by myself (although I should probably concentrate on the road ;) )

Um that's enough from me (Margaret your raving is catching!)

And I'll post the points from yesterday on my website so you can refer people to it.

Cheers,
Tys.

Saturdays are no good for the original location I was thinking of but I will check out some others in the morning and get back to you. I'll find somewhere....

Jeff

(I obviously havn't caught the raving bug.) ( ;o}

Hello Tyswan and others in Oz NSW Central West,
I am testing the system just to see how my messages will get through.

It's going to be a rip-roaring month: I'd better start getting into training now. I do look forward to getting feedback from the face-to-face meetings in Lithgow, but also hope to tap into the broader, global writers' network as well.

I'm in the Bathurst region too. I'll be going home halfway through though back to Broken Hill so I'm afraid I'll only be with you all in spirit :)

Josiah,
The way I figure it, if ArtsOutwest and Regional Arts NSW reckon Lithgow is Central West, then you're as much a part of us, as we are of you. At least e-mail don't give a hoot about distances, so I we're only as far away as a keystroke.
Have a great November!
Peace and Love
lyreblue/Margaret

Hi, Margaret/lyreblue here from Lithgow FAW.
Robin & I got together for our first Monday NanoWrimo thingy at Lithgow Library, but got a bit lonely given that we were the only ones there.
We managed to get a pretty solid idea of an outline though, so it was well worth the time.
Hope some of you can manage coming in when the Heat starts.
I'm going to have to be a bit quiet apart from the get together's on the Monday, 11am starting, as I don't actually have the chance to primary focus on NanoWrimo given that FAW has a Film & Script Writing workshop on November 18th, and I'm pulling together the Greater Lithgow Region Events Diary which deadlines on the 1st of each month, and has to get produced by the 14th of each month. So I'm going to have to write big time first thing on the computer in the mornings, and get the wordies up that way.
I'm also a bit of a computer duddle, so I'm finding the website a bit hard to figure out, and won't have a cat's chance in hell of having the time to do much more than Write And Send, Write And Send, Write And Send. Needless to say, I'm planning on being totally blotto, wiped out, insane, and probably bald with tearing hear out, by the finish of it all. Must be the masochist in me, that I'm really looking foward to it.
Just wanted to let you know that we'll be there on the Monday at Lithgow Library every week, but me personally may not be able to do too much communicating apart from that.
That's all.

Peace and Love
Margaret/lyreblue/Lithgow Regional FAW
etc.

Good luck everyone.
One hour and thirty six minutes to kick off.... weeeee!

(I'm going slightly mad)

Jeff

OMG.

I need some sleep. See you all tomorrow...

Wonderful Blue Mountain People, inspiring and inspired. Always.

Yes, but thats what makes us writers. Its just talking with a pen or keyboard sometimes? Well, in the planning stages anyway? Is there anyone out there who is well over the hill like myself? If so, I'd love to converse at least once before beginning, and probably a couple of times on the way through the month.

It's my first time on Nano, and I wish to write a seriously intellectual masterpiece, however, it may not turn out that way. Today was to have been THE DAY, but work got in the way, and now I am having to wait until 8pm before I begin the days writing. I will not allow myself to be disheartened. I will try and do my quota tonight, and if necessary, I shall rise at 4am tomorrow, and get it going properly.

Hiya, how is everyone going?

I didn't think I'd write anything today - had a job application to send off, and wanted to finish re-writes on an ms I am sending off in a few days. Still, in true spirit of NaNo, I forced myself to sit down and write anyway, and cranked out 1179 words. Which is not today's target, but better than nix.

It's all rubbish (haven't gotten into the groove of NaNo, or my plot yet), but hey, that's par for the course.

Time for sleep. Hope you all had a good first day.

Cheers,
Tys.

Hey, relax. Over the hill? Crumbs, I'm only 51, and I'm feeling a bit that way myself. I sympathise with you entirely, here we are, second day, and I've only just managed to crank out 2099 words. At the moment I'm putting together the Greater Lithgow Region Events Diary, Day 1 I was on the road looking for sponsors (for the Diary), so got near enough to zero done.
I've come up with a couple of ideas, which seem to be working...
okay, I'm keeping my book beside my bed, if I wake up with words in my brain, I'll put them straight down (if I don't fall asleep first). I have no light in my bedroom at the moment, so it's a case of working completely in the dark (fortunately the exercise book has white paper so I can sort of make out if I've written over the top, I hope, as I'm only starting this tonight).
I'm doing the novel between the pages of the Events Diary... you know, we do one column with x events and x sponsors, then we stop and do Nano. That's been working okay.
Honest to goodness, what I'd suggest is come to our "Tear Your Hair Out Day" on Monday at 11am at the Lithgow Library in Main Street, and we'll be having a good old rave to listen to the hassles people have been having, the brainwaves that have been making it easier, and so on and so on and so on.
I wouldn't worry too much about the masterpiece side. You can turn it into a masterpiece in December. Speaking personally, I've never written a novel in me life before, but there's always a first time.
Haven't been able to figure out how to log my wordage, or put the details in my Nano, or anything else pretty much, so I'm just going to keep right on going.
Oh yes, and I wrote a bit in a car riding to the Blackheath Folk Club on Thursday night. That was fun!
Take care. And if you get a chance, come to Lithgow on Monday. We'd love to have you.
PS I'm not previewing because I wannagotabed. Apologies for any glaring errors.

Hey Tys. You're doing way more than I am at the moment. I know what you mean about not into the groove yet. I'm playing my way through and trying things as they come to mind. Seems to be vaguely working, and I'm getting a little bit into the swing of things. Those tips you shared with us have been really useful.
Hoping to see a few people on Monday morning at the Lithgow Library. You mentioned you'd be travelling, was that in th first couple of weeks. Are you driving as well? I have this vision of Tyswan peering over the top of her manuscript, one hand on the script & the steering wheel, the other on the pen and the steering wheel and her eyes peering over the top as she drives on regardless. It's a great image. I wonder if you could write a novel about something like that.
Take care, and drive safely.
If you are travelling, hope it's going well. If not, hope we'll see you on Monday.

Okay, I think I might just give up on using the site. Writing the novel is easy, but so far tonight, I've attempted to get in touch about four times... I just don't have the time to waste in trying to figure it out.
How are you guys going. I'm a bit down on my word count, I'm up to 5272, and I've been trying to upload that, but not a hope in hell. Does anyone know if it's okay to just put up the wordage as you go. Because that's the total so far, but if they add it to the one I put up on the first, It'll be wrong. Are you supposed to whack up the totals each time, or do you have to add up every single day separately.
Oh boy, if you have to do taht I'm in real trouble. At the moment, it's looking good, but a bit like a dog's breakfast. Iv'e got three chapter that actually run in sequence, and then about seven sections headed chapters, with no numbers, but I've just thrown them in because they fell into my head.
Anyway, I gotta get to bed. If anyone has any idea how the hell you actually make a connection with the website for basic stuff like wordage and so on, I'd really appreciate it. I know I'm not exactly a techno wiz, but I've never found a site this hard to figure out... well, no, Paypal was even worse. There's obviously something I'm missing.
Any assist would be appreciated. I'll just keep on writing and hope for the best.
I'm adding you all to my buddy list, but I'll do that when I've finished. Last time I tried to I couldn't get back to the message I was writing at all, and I think I'll take this as third time lucky.
Hope we might see some of you on Monday at Lithgow Library.
Don't worry, I'm rave a lot more when I'm writing. But at least it gives me practice at editing. You try cutting 2100 words down to 1200. It's a lot of fun.
Take care everyone, and sleep well tonight.

I travelled over to the Lithgow Library today for the meeting but no one showed...

... so I drove back home.

Jeff

We thought it might have been you Jeff. The lady at the library told us that you came looking for us, but we don't meet until 11am, and you were apparently much earlier than that.

We kept hoping you'd just gone for a coffee, and would come back.

So sorry that you drove all that way.

There was just the three of us: Margaret, Robin and me.

We discussed where we were at, some issues we had, ways of going forward, and then did some writing.

If you can't come again, we understand. I'll be at the next meeting, but away for the next two, so I hope you come so I get a chance to meet you, and hear about your project.

Sorry again for the mixup. PM me and I'll send you my mobile # so this doesn't happen again.

Cheers,
Tys.

Jeff,
We were wondering what had happend. When I got in to the Library, the lady at the desk said a young man had come in looking for us, and she'd told you where we were, but she didn't know where you'd gone.
What time did you get in? We don't start till 11am, as Tyswan mentioned in her reply. If you need to come in early, I'm quite happy to come in a bit ahead of time. We were worried about what had happened to you, and were hoping you'd just gone to grab a cuppa before coming back. My mobile if you need it is 0423 892 863. The lady at the Library should have known we didn't get together until 11.
Anyway, let's hope you having my mobile number will ensure there's no problem. I hope you can come in again. I'd love to meet up with you.
As an aside, I actually checked around the library to see if there were any "young men". And I asked one guy if he was from Bathurst, and he said he worked there two days a week. Needless to say he probably thought I was a bit weird, but that's okay, most people do. It was worth a try.
Hope things are going well, and sincerely hope we manage to meet up next time.

Nothing about Novels. But you wouldn't be a real honest to goodness, Original Series, TNG, DS9, Voy...cough...choke...urrgghh (sorry, can't bring myself to call that real Trekkie stuff), Enterprise etc stuff by any chance would you?

Hi
I'm Al and from Bathurst. I've been with the Canberra group up until this year, being an ex-Canberran. But, as it's now a Saturday too far away, i'd like to tag on to the mountaineers, if you'll have me.

Jeff Doherty is one of my Bathgurst Writers' Group colleagues - at least I know someone.
Al