Europe :: England :: Essex

[STICKY] REGIONAL EMAILS (copies of all emails sent out to Essex participants)

tekiegirl — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:24:58 +0000

This thread is solely for copies of the regional emails sent out to Essex participants.
I will place copies of any emails I send here, in case anyone misses them. There is also sometimes a delay in sending and receiving them as the site has to send out so many.
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON

Europe :: England :: Essex

[STICKY] UK Regional Word War: SIGN UP

tekiegirl — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:48:55 +0000

EDIT: Here's the scoreboard!
As of 10am on day 12, we are 4th! Soon we will rule the world! ;)

------------------------
Every year there is a regional word war for all the regions in the UK.
I've been asked if we want to take part. The aim is to get the highest AVERAGE word count, so it doesn't matter how many actual participants we have in the region.

It sound like lots of fun and is an added incentive to reach our 50k targets.

Who would like us to take part?

Tekiegirl
aka Jacqui
:D
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON

Europe :: England :: Essex

Are we all enjoying ourselves? Make sure it happens again next year!

tekiegirl — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:49:33 +0000

Some of you may have noticed the little halo that appears above my name. It's not because I'm an ML or because I'm special in any way, (although I am of course) :D. It means I have donated $10 or more to the Office of Letters and Light to fund NaNoWriMo, the Young Writers Program and any other pies that they have their sticky little fingers in.

Donate here!

We all know about the credit crunch and recession. I completely understand people thinking that donating anything at this time may just not be possible. Some of us may be scrimping and scraping just to put food on the table. I'm not telling you to go hungry and donate.

If you haven't got $10 (approx £5.97!) or more then maybe you can raise a little cash from those people who said you couldn't do it. You think I can't hit 50k? Do you want to stake £6 on that?. Ask for more. Ask several people:Will you give me 50p for every 10k? £1 for every 10k? That will give you at least a fiver :D

And how much will you spend at the pub this weekend? A couple of pints is more than £5 (unless you know a particularly good bar - please tell me where it is ;D). Can you go without a couple of pints and and donate $10?

Donate here!

Maybe you can stretch yourself to $25, $50, $2500? Maybe that's asking a lot, but maybe one of you just inherited a load of cash, or won the lottery, and you're so grateful to the Office of Letters and Light and NaNoWriMo that you're heading to the donation page right now.
Maybe you have been published and owe everything to NaNoWriMo. Can you spare a little of your royalties? :D

But seriously, if NaNoWriMo does something for you, and I know it gives me some sort of purpose during November (and a load of new friends!), then please consider giving something.
Maybe you can't afford anything this month, but maybe on pay day? Or next year?
You can find out about Donating when broke as well.

Let's show them our support folks. Come on Essex, reach into your pocket! :D

Donate here!
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON

Europe :: England :: Essex

Writers' Resources

Zack1 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:07:59 +0000

I thought we should have a link to signpost any cool resources we use.
This for instance, is "Writer Beware", a blog from the Sci Fi Association of America which warns about the pitfalls of Vanity Publishing and such the like:

http://accrispin.blogspot.com
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Europe :: England :: Essex

Word War Info - Updated 21 Nov.

Loriba — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:22:52 +0000

Hi all,

This thread is primarily for me to post info about the Word War to all competitors, so it's being cross-posted to all the regions taking part. If you want to make any comments, however, feel free. :-)

ETA: Here's the link to the leader board: http://www.annelyle.com/projects/scoreboard.html

The regions currently signed up are:

Birmingham
Brighton
Cambridge
Darlington
Devon & Cornwall
Essex
Gloustershire
Lancaster & Cumbria
Leicester
London
Manchester
Newcastle
Norfolk
Oxfordshire
York & Leeds
Dublin
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Eng: Elsewhere
Scot: Elsewhere
Wales

Only one region has given a definite No, so we may get a lot more before the 10th. Here's hoping. :-)

All those regions that are signed up should have a Banter thread, so feel free to go over and give them hell (but in a nice way). :-)

There may be a slight delay in the War starting up, as we're reliant on the site API working and the site is notoriously slow during the first few days of Nano, plus we're running it in a slightly different way this year and I'm not sure what problems will crop up because of that. In addition, one of Anne's cats is very seriously ill at the moment, so she may not have time to work on it. I'll be in touch with her and will let all the relevant MLs know if we have to make other arrangements at all. I'll also be in touch when I know the URL of the leader board. :-)

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Lottie
I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Europe :: England :: Birmingham-West Midlands

WORD WAR Banter (all welcome) - Go Essex!

tekiegirl — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:56:41 +0000

Hi all,
Here's our banter thread where we can offer each other encouragement and others can try, and fail, to demotivate us :D

Go Essex!
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON

Europe :: England :: Essex

Since Nanowrimo is like climbing a mountain...

Zack1 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:03:04 +0000

.... what we need is advice from a Master Mountaineer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2ftCitvyQ
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Europe :: England :: Essex

arranging a mini-meet-up

jiyuuna_tori — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:28:56 +0000

hey guys!
anyone living in/near southend or rayleigh and interested in meeting fellow Wrimos?

me and a bunch of friends are trying to get together to throw some ideas around, offer constructive criticisms and help each other overcome the dreaded "word count defecit disorder".
at the moment we have a small group planning to meet at rayleigh library - personally i think we might end up moving but we'll think on that.

If you think you might be able to tear yourself away from your computers and you'd like to come, drop a message by my nanomail inbox yeah? also any suggestions for alternative venues should the group grow as we're hoping it might.

Look forward to seeing some of you guys around!

<3 Tori
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Europe :: England :: Essex

Anyone happy with their title yet?

tekiegirl — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:06:35 +0000

I still haven't a clue about my title, so I found this link on one of the forums: http://thesurrealist.co.uk/slogan.cgi
You simply type in a word that is important to your novel and it will generate a slogan for you.

My word was DRAGON. Here are my favourites so far:

3-in-1 Protection for your Dragon. (always a good thing to have)
Stimulation for Body and Dragon. (ooh er...)
Plink, Plink, Dragon... (I'll let your imagination tackle this one...)
The Cookie That Thinks It's a Dragon. (sounds like a great children's story)
The Loudest Noise Comes From The Electric Dragon. (obviously!)
Beanz Meanz Dragon. (...)
and: A Dragon's Too Wet Without One. (???)

And ones like these make my imagination run wild! A great way to generate ideas for a story too!
Once Driven, Forever Dragon.
What Can Dragon Do For You?
Dragon Saves Your Soul.
Loves the Dragon You Hate.
Cuts Dragon Time in Half.
Any Time, Any Place, Dragon.
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON

Europe :: England :: Essex

So, how you coming on that novel you're working on there?

Bethyy — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:37:33 +0000

So we're half way, is here, for some this month isn't going nearly quickly enough, for others the days are flying by.

I want to hear about your experiences so far, let us all know :) How are you finding this years NaNoWriMo. If this is your first year then tell us, is it easier or harder than your thought?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWsGvWwUctk

A nice link to keep you going :)
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Europe :: England :: Essex

Your novel sumarised in six words! (Ooh, I like this idea!) STOLEN! :D

tekiegirl — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:41:09 +0000

I can only surmise it so far, and this doesn't take into account books 2 and 3, as I'm not totally sure where the story will end up.

Girl meets dragon, girl let down.

This may change...
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON

Europe :: England :: Essex

Critique thread

tekiegirl — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:22:24 +0000

If you have anything you would like critiqued by others, then post it, or a link to it, here! :D
This can be prose, poetry, photography, websites, etc.

Only constructive criticism here please! :D
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON

Europe :: England :: Essex

Essex Writers

doolols — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:52:39 +0000

After some discussion at the meet last weekend, we've decided to start an Essex Writers Support group, so that post-NaNoWriMo, we can still keep in touch regarding our writing projects.

In addition to general friendly support and advice, there will be writing challenges, and information on getting published, both online and in print.

Another thing I've done before is to target a writing competition (usually short, or very short, stories), and whoever is interested can work with others on improving their piece before submission. Doing it this way, 2 out of 6 or 7 of us were placed in the competition, and our work featured in a publication.

So come along, register on the forum, and once we've got this month's madness out of the way, maybe we can work together on other writing projects.

This is the URL at the moment, although it may change to a dedicated site if we have enough interest:

http://sunshinecoastwebsites.co.uk/essexwriters/

Oh, and of course, it's free :)

Gerald
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Essex Writers Support group

Europe :: England :: Essex

Contact detail swap: Facebook/Myspace and email.

tekiegirl — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:25:00 +0000

I've started this thread at the suggestion of several people at today's excellent meet-up in Chelmsford.
If you would like to contact other NaNos outside of this website then post your details here.

PLEASE NOTE ANYTHING YOU POST HERE CAN BE VIEWED BY ANYONE SIGNED UP TO NANOWRIMO.ORG SO YOU SHOULD NOT POST ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT COULD IDENTIFY YOU IN THE REAL WORLD (ADDRESS, DOB, ETC).

IF YOU ARE IN CONTACT WITH SOMEONE REMEMBER NOT TO GIVE THEM ANY INFORMATION LIKE ADDRESS, DOB, FINANCIAL INFORMATION, ETC.

I would suggest only sharing your Facebook/Myspace details and/or email address. If you want to include your real name I suggest only giving your first name. I shall give my details as an example.

Tekiegirl, aka Jacqui
tekiegirl@hotmail.com (also Facebook)

I wouldn't share any more than this.
Remember that you can share your information with only select people by sending it to them via PM.
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON

Europe :: England :: Essex

The Word Inclusion Challenge!

tekiegirl — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:33:53 +0000

This thread is for people to suggest words for other people to try to work into their story.
You can also allocate points to your word and people can add up the points for each word they include.

I'll start off with a couple:

-koala (20 points) - sluggish tailless Australian arboreal marsupial with grey furry ears and coat.
-consternation (25 points) - filled with anxiety, dread, dismay, or confusion
-chlamydia (50 points) - STI (!!!)

And here's one for those who attended the meet-up (you all know what I mean!) :D
-The sudden wind had died away as swiftly as it had arrived. (100 points!)

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with :D

Make sure you post the sentence that you get the word into to claim your points! :)
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON

Europe :: England :: Essex

30 minute word war

tekiegirl — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:42:32 +0000

You don't need to do this at any particular time. Just write for 30 minutes and then count how many words you wrote in that half hour.
Post your scores here if you want.

This can be a little competition between us all, but it's really a competition with yourself.
The goal: beat your last 30 minute word-count. Can yo do it?
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON

Europe :: England :: Essex

Mid-month Meet-up (say that 10 times quickly...)

tekiegirl — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:03:48 +0000

Hi all,

As I've said in a previous post I want to organise at least one real-life (as opposed to online) meet-up for everyone.

I'm thinking of Chelmsford as a general location as it is reasonably central in Essex and reasonably easy to get to (allowing the definition of 'reasonably' to be quite flexible). Does anyone have any other suggestions for a general location?

Also, does anyone have any suggestions for a venue in Chelmsford (or another location you can suggest)?
The library was OK last year; power points for laptops, but no refreshments. Does anyone know of somewhere where there is:
* A reasonable amount of space/tables/chairs
* Power points for laptops
* Refreshments, e.g. coffee, snacks, either available to purchase or permission for us to bring our own.
A function room in a pub would probably be good (need to allow under 18s - I can be the 'responsible' adult), but preferably free to use.

When we have decided on a venue I will update the calendar (now available at the top of this forum!) will all the details, and I will post directions and public transport links.
I can offer 4 (at a squish) seats in my car, to those who cannot drive or are having transport issues. I'll be coming from Surrey, so through South-West Essex, but we can organise that later, and maybe others can offer transport too.

We also need to decide when to have it: Sat 14th or Sun 15th? Saturday will be better for public transport and opening times, but I'm open to suggestions.

So, to summarise this rather lengthy post:
* Where should we have the meet-up? Chelmsford?
* Do you know a good, and preferably free, venue?
* Sat 14th or Sun 15th?

Keep writing,
Tekiegirl
(aka Jacqui)

P.S. More details on the online kick-off party (9pm Sat 31st Oct onwards) to come!
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON

Europe :: England :: Essex

Happy ML Appreciation Day

cynon — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:51:25 +0000

Thank you for being inspiring, motivating, cheering us on and generally being there. I shall raise a glass to you later, tekiegirl.

Ruth xx
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Europe :: England :: Essex

Words for said!

Bethyy — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:30:06 +0000

Lets be serious, too many saids can totally kill a story for a reader, and so here I have a big list of words that mean said. Enjoy!

Acknowledged
Added
Admitted
Advised
Agreed
Announced
Answered
Approved
Argued
Assumed
Assured
Asked
Babbled
Bargained
Began
Boasted
Bragged
Called
Claimed
Commanded
Commented
Complained
Cried
Decided
Demanded
Denied
Described
Dictated
Emphasized
Estimated
Exclaimed
Explained
Expressed
Feared
Giggled
Grinned
Grunted
Indicated
Insisted
Instructed
Laughed
Lectured
Lied
Mentioned
Moaned
Mumbled
Murmured
Nagged
Noted
Notified
Objected
Observed
Ordered
Pleaded
Pointed out
Prayed
Predicted
Questioned
Reassured
Related
Repeated
Replied
Responded
Requested
Restated
Revealed
Roared
Ruled
Scolded
Screamed
Shouted
Shrieked
Snapped
Sneered
Sobbed
Spoke
Sputtered
Stammered
Stated
Stormed
Suggested
Taunted
Thought
Told
Urged
Uttered
Vowed
Wailed
Warned
Whispered

Feel free to add more :)
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Europe :: England :: Essex

Shall we introduce ourselves?

Ellay — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:06:50 +0000

We're all being terribly quiet? Are well all Essex ringers perhaps? [In fact I am, but that's another story ;)] This is my second NaNoWriMo - previously a winner in 2007. I was almost sunk beneath a wave of inspiration for this coming month back in the summer, but I'm now scratching around with last second prep, though very fired up, in behaviour that is customary.

I'm stranded out on the Dengie and so may find it difficult to make get togethers but if anyone else is in the area or looking for a writing buddy then let me know. I worked in total isolation on my 2007 novel(la) and I'm hoping for some support or at least sympathy and understanding this time round.

Last time out I tried my hand at gothic horror (re-reading what I produced, some time afterwards, certainly scared me) and this year I'm turning my hand to sci-fi.

Good luck everyone!

Ellay
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Europe :: England :: Essex

Top editing tips! (HOW DEPRESSING)

AccioJellyBean — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:08:32 +0000

I was really proud of my NaNo at the beginning but I just read it through and have realised it's the crappiest piece of writing I have done in a LONG time. If any of you are feeling the same, I recommend that you watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCTO91aBFXk because it explains that we are all allowed to Suck.

Hope everyone's is going better than mine :P x
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Europe :: England :: Essex

Progress, or lack thereof

doolols — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:14:01 +0000

So, we're 8 hours into this thing in the UK, and how are we doing? Who managed to stay up beyond midnight to get a start?

I was in the chatroom with a few others who were impatient to get going. Don't forget - you need to average 1667 words a day (each and every day of the month) in order to succeed with this thing.

I was going to leave it until today, but late last night I thought I'd power up the word processor, and save some files. The ... whoops-a-daisy, it was midnight, so I thought I'd write a first sentence. Well, two. Maybe a paragraph. And the words came. Not good words, and most of the first two pages will get ditched in the edit, so I can start in media res. But they'll do for NaNoWriMo.

I know there were a couple of others with me in chat, getting a head start. Anyone else? What are you planning to write today?

Remember - prevarication is the enemy of NaNo.

Gerald
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Essex Writers Support group

Europe :: England :: Essex

Freaky stuff!

Eveline_uk — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:54:40 +0000

I'm writing a story in which my main character is having a log cabin built. Tonight I was flicking through the channels a bit, and ended up at one of the many property shows, only to discover that they had an item on a man who was having a log cabin built. The only difference is that 'my' cabin is made from logs that are being shipped from Canada and the man on tv had his logs come in from Wales. But still... freaky stuff!

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Europe :: England :: Essex

Very helpful websites to push you towards our goal of 50k!

Bethyy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:03:18 +0000

Hi guys, so we're on the third day and already people are beginning to worry that their plot isn't coming along, and some are getting stuck for things to write, perhaps your character is a boring sod, well have no fear for Bethyy is here! And she has bought some great websites to share.

Okay, so this first one is a Random Plot Point Generator. Come to a mental block? Don't know what to write next? Can't end a scene which is lasting WAY too long? Well just press the generate button an a random plot line will come up, they have quite a few so there should always be something there and some of them are really good!

http://futureisfiction.com/plotpoint/index.cgi

The next website is called One Sentence, this is a brilliant site to look through, however, be careful because it's also good at wasting time you could be using to write! I offer this site to you because on it real people tell storie's that may or may not have happened to them, only using one sentence, it's great for inspiration when you have come to a halt in your own story.

http://www.onesentence.org/

The next I give you is a list of character flaws, this is to help you develop you Plain Jane into something much more real and interesting. All people have flaws, everyone I have met have had a flaw or two, myself included, so here is a big tasty list of character flaws with a little description of what the flaw is exactly.

http://www.darkworldrpg.com/lore/flaws.html

Now I offer you a Name Generator. Lets be serious, all of us have those Jane's, John's and Jack's in our stories, and who blames us! We have 30 days to write a 50,000 word novel! We don't have time to think of names! Let this website do it for you.

http://thenamegenerator.com/

This one is a big list of writing exercises. Got a day when you really need to take a break from your story, we will all have them over the next month. Before going off and starting a new story that you'll 'go back to after NaNoWriMo' try one of these on for size. I find that some of these could even be used in your story when you come to a blank! Give it a try.

http://www.thatgrrl.ca/exercises.htm

This next one is a VERY long list of writing prompts, another website to help with your inevitable writers block to come. This website has a prompt for every day. Need to get past a tricky scene? Use a promp, it will take you places you hadn't even began to think of. These will become especially useful towards the end of the month when you're further behind than you'd like to be!

http://www.toasted-cheese.com/pieh/2007daily.htm

The last I have to offer is a character survey. A lot of us will begin to lose touch with out characters, the dreaded 'Out Of Character' scenes will become more and more frequent until you're not really sure who you character anymore, it happens to the best of us, we get carried away and suddenly the character you started with and the character you're ending with are almost two entirely differen't people. Try taking this Character Questionnaire, and keep it with you when you sit down to write, keep reminding yourself who it is you're working with. This is also especially useful for creating new characters.

http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/106

I hope these websites help all of you as much as they are helping me. Enjoy you're NaNoWriMo '09, whether this is your first time or 10th. We have 27 days to go and a target of 50,000 words! Hop to it people!
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Europe :: England :: Essex

MOTIVATIONAL STUFF

tekiegirl — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:42:45 +0000

If you find anything that motivates you then post a link here (video, poetry, prose, whatever).
Then when we're all feeling down at a later date, we can peruse this thread a blast back on the road to Noveland!

Here's a good video posted on another thread already:
Writing crap is OK
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NaNoWriMo 2009 Untitled:
NaNoWriMo 2008 Chosen: 66354 WON