United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

Introduce Yourself!

writerdude — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 12:04:23 -0700

Let us know who you are and what you're all about! NaNo'ing goes best when you get friends involved, or make some friends who already are involved.

I'm writerdude, your Municipal Liaison. I'm trying to get some stories started with autobiographical bents that turns severely strange (stranger than reality, even), with the hope of getting either one novel-length story going, or a set of related stories that kind of looks like a novel. I have three titles in mind, either as subsections or as different books: "Demons," "Scars," and "People with Issues." Yes, it could be a dark, dark month of spelunking in my subconscious . . .

Your turn!
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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett

United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

24-hour challenge (final week)!

writerdude — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:33:26 -0800

I couldn't find us another city to challenge, so it's an internal challenge among the 207 or so of us this year (Yay! Broke 200 members in the local group!)

Thanksgiving is over; now it's time to give thanks for 6 more days of writing left. Hey, that's about 20% of your time; write 5 times as fast as you should have been writing, and you're there!

Your challenge: Pick a 24-hour period and write like crazy. Post your results here. At least one winner gets a prize from yours truly (pickup or delivery to be arranged at a later date). Multiple entries encouraged--just so they're not overlapping, and once you've posted a time, you can't reuse some of those same hours. Entries must be posted within 3 hours of completion; e.g., write from 6 p.m. Monday to 6 p.m. Tuesday and post your result no later than 9 p.m. Tuesday for credit. Kind of like the all-time high scores on pinball machines ... and a pinball machine isn't a bad metaphor for this experience right around now, is it?

NOTE: 500-word bonus to anyone who hosts a write-in during their 24-hour challenge period. When you post your results, note that you've added your 500 words.

EVERYONE: Post your results, even if you're not a "new high score"--inspirational to all of us to see that others are trying, isn't it?

Write on! (a nod to Wayne's World, I think)

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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett

United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

FINISHERS--Congratulations!

writerdude — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:18:01 -0800

I'd love to see all the finishers post here. You deserve the recognition. Thanks, megankent, for hosting a Friday celebration. I don't think I'm going to be able to do one; I've felt miserable all week.

By the way, you won't see my name here. I did succeed in starting a couple of stories in my ongoing and long-neglected three writing projects, and that's enough success for me. I probably wouldn't have written a word without NaNoWriMo, so it's all good. Like my Samuel Beckett quotation says, I'll fail better next time.

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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett

United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

Friday Write-In Marathon/Celebration

megankent — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:14:17 -0800

I was thinking about doing a combination write-in/party on Friday night. I was thinking Muddy Waters, because they do coffee in the day time and music/party stuff after dark, but I'm open to other ideas. I think they do beer and wine, but not hard alcohol. I was thinking of starting around 4 pm, and going until everyone's hit 50,000 or the place closes, whichever comes first.

Any takers?
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United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

Write-ins and events

writerdude — Thu, 1 Nov 2007 09:32:56 -0700

If you want some company while you're writing, post it here (the earlier you post, the more people can plan--but you knew that). Directions or phone numbers to the locations appreciated, along with how fellow WriMos can recognize you. A surprising number of people in coffeeshops look like aspiring novelists!
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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett

United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

FINAL WEEK! Write-ins, etc.

writerdude — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 09:52:47 -0800

Rats, my "event" of a 24-hour challenge got deleted from the events list. I'll start up a forum for that too: It's an "internal challenge" to all 207 (!!!!) people registered for our region, to write as many words in 24 hours as you can. You pick the 24 hours (consecutive). Post them and your word count, when you're done, in the forum.

Enter early and often! Just make sure that your time periods don't overlap!

Prizes will be made available (just NaNo stuff, but it's moderately cool stuff, some from past years that's no longer available).

WRITE-INS!

Please post or re-post all write-ins here, especially the ongoing ones that might attract some newcomers in these final desperate days!

Emiko posted, in another forum, her write-in at Java Station, 5:30-8 or so.

Let's see some more! I'll try to get one or a few of my own going; I'm coming off of a massively busy weekend of editing (rather than writing, rats).

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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett

United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

Thanksgiving challenge

writerdude — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:47:42 -0800

It's time for the city-to-city challenge, in which a team from our region challenges a team from another region to a "word war"--most words written by team members, on average, over a specified period of time.

Unfortunately, our usual nemesis, Oshkosh, WI, has dropped out as a region this year!

Anyone up for a new nemesis? I'm open to suggestion; just make sure that there's a contact person on the home page of nanowrimo, so that I have someone to contact with the challenge. Better make it quick; I was thinking about doing it sometime over the Thanksgiving day weekend.

In lieu of, or in addition to: Several people have suggested write-ins for the day after Thanksgiving, or some other time during the weekend. How about we have our own personal challenges, in-town?

Here's the proposal:

You pick your OWN BEST 24-HOUR PERIOD starting Wednesday, 11/21, 5 p.m. and ending Monday, 11/26, 7 a.m. Post your word count for THAT TIME PERIOD ONLY (thus, you have to keep track of starting and ending word counts). Winner gets bragging rights, a great big boost up on your word count, and probably some prizes from yours truly.

If we find a competitor city, that's what I'll propose to the competitor, except we average out the word counts for team members.

Can you cheat? Who'd want to? It's on the honor system, like all of NaNoWriMo. It's all based on self-reporting.

Can you enter more than once? Sure! If you post one day's accomplishment but then do better on another day, post it again! If we compete with another city, I'll suggest that we can have entrants post as many as 4 non-overlapping 24-hour periods.

Sound good? Suggestions welcome, and let me know right away if you have a city you'd like to challenge, AND WHY. If you want to compose a challenge letter, and even send it if you want, knock yourself out! The contacts are on the nanowrimo home page. Let us all know who "we" have challenged, as a region.

Good luck! Start posting those planned days of writing, then post your results. Write-ins encouraged (whether they last the whole 24 hours or not).

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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett

United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

Write Ins at Muddy Waters

SerendipitySB — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:59:10 -0800

Hi all. I'm meeting every weekday morning at Muddy Waters on Haley St. from 8:30 until around 10:00.
Melody, Jennifer and Christine usually join me. The more the merrier.
Marcy
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United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

Thursday PM kickoff party: Java Station

writerdude — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:23:15 -0700

OK, for those of you with strange obligations like jobs that keep you out of Mel's Place in the a.m., here's another kickoff party!

Nov. 1
7ish-8:30ish p.m. (they close at 9)
Java Station
4447 Hollister, unincorporated area. On Hollister, 1 block west (toward I.V.) of Modoc
They can give you better directions at 681-0202.

This is indeed an all-ages event. The first batch of NaNoWriMo swag (i.e., the interesting gizmos NaNo Central gives me to entice people to attend events and to advertise NaNoWriMo and to remind you that you're taking part etc.) will be available!

Ask at the counter where we are, or if you're early nail down a good spot. I'll be highly noticeable in my bright yellow/green (dare I say chartreuse?) official Municipal Liaison T-shirt, size extra huge (watch for the tent with a head).

Writing is planned but not required. Halloween candy may be available. Wanna trade?

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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett

United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

UCSB Students!

A. C. Moore — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 22:52:39 -0700

I thought I would give this a go >> But anyways, all the older people get to go to a bar on Thursday morning, but of course, a few of us are either too far away from downtown SB or too young to go to a bar (ahaha), so what about doing something at school? I don't want to make it terribly official or anything like that, but it would just be chill to go and meet up with each other before running off to class or whatever. I would suggest we eat lunch or something together, but because I live in Tropicana Gardends, our meal plan doesn't extend to the campus (and I don't want to pay $10 to eat at like... DLG or something like that).

Classes for me go from 12 to anytime between 2 and 3 on Thursday (depending on how long our Writing professor wants to keep us in class after the one hour mark). So maybe... we can meet up at the UCen before then? Or after? or during that time and just prolong it until I can get there, whatever.

If you can't make it on Thursday (heaven knows, I like to leave Trop at 11:30 after eating lunch and just walking to French lol), feel free to add me on facebook (Anna Cylkowski, yo) and/or comment here and we can always try to organize something else on campus! Hope to hear from some of you soon!
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Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

Thursday AM Kickoff Party - Mel's Bar

megankent — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 21:36:12 -0700

Start NaNoWriMo off with a bang! We'll meet at Mel's Bar in Santa Barbara bright and early on November 1. This is a bar, so if you're under 18, it's not going to work for you.

When: Thursday, November 1, 8:00 to 10:00 AM (The bar, opens at 7, so you're welcome to come earlier or stay later.)
Where: 6 De La Guerra Place (right at the corner of Paseo Nuevo)

This will be a wriiting party. I'll bring some prompts, writing games and (a few) prizes. Get a jump on your word count!

Please drop a reply here if you're planning to attend so I know how many people to expect.

See you there!

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United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

Kickoff party

writerdude — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:37:15 -0700

OK, what would your ideal kickoff party look like? I've run a bunch of them now, and I'm not a good judge of what's gone over well or badly in terms of locations, dates, activities--pretty much everything (other than my gregarious cat Elsa was a hit when I had an indoor kickoff here at the house, other than with those who have cat allergies--one reason I opted against a home-based party).

So let your preferences be known! We might do more than one, if geographic preferences are split. Nov. 1 is a Thursday, making the weekend awkward--kickoff party several days before the actual kickoff, or several days after? After might be good, so that the show-offs can show up and tell us that they're already past the 10,000 word mark or whatever.

SOMETHING will happen in a party vein, but the more input I get, the better it will be. Now, back to paying work, so that I can free up some of November for all this NaNo fun!

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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett

United States :: California :: Santa Barbara

Welcome from Your Municipal Liaison!

writerdude — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:59:58 -0700

Hi, this is writerdude, your Municipal Liaison for the Santa Barbara/Central Coast (partial) region. Big whoop. It's a self-appointed post. What it means is that I'm here to answer your questions to the best of my ability and to make your NaNoWriMo experience the best it can be, however you define that. I'm here to help . . . (NOT the infamous "one of the world's biggest lies"--"I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.")

Wow! 173 people affiliated as of October 15! I'm impressed! I don't think we topped 100 last year.

So here we are, another year, another NaNoWriMo--at least for some of us. I'm a veteran; been through every excuse and tried almost every means of attack; drunk way too much coffee and endured far too much frustration. So am I "writing it off"--heck no, I'm fired up to try it again!

I expected far more procrastination, and I've been doing a lot of it myself. Rest assured, there will be a kickoff party (one of the few mandatory duties of Muncipal Liaisons (Liaisoni?), and I hope to get some events that people want--write-ins (where we gather to share trials, tribulations, and shared experiences--but mostly to write in the company of others who are similarly insanely engaged), encouragement of various sorts, message boards, likely the now-legendary weekend contest with the group from Oshkosh, WI, and others . . . you get the drift. All kinds of things to keep us all motivated, in whatever way works best. (I draw the line at making you breakfast in bed, even if that would free an hour of your time to write. . . but maybe you can find a writing partner who will volunteer! You never know; we're a strange and accommodating lot.)

Keep those posts coming, early and often. Don't be shy about expressing how you'd like to see NaNoWriMo proceed, or with your questions, or with your whining and self-pity. Been there, done that; it's all good.

If I could write as easily and expansively on my novel as I do on the boards, I'd probably get much much closer to that so-far-elusive 50,000-word goal. I have a new plan of attack this year, so I'm raring to go. You'll see a lot of me here, on the boards, and I hope in person, at the "live" events. I'm always available by NaNoMail or personal e-mail.

So let me know you're out there; say hi, let me know what you'd like to see.

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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett