USA :: California :: South Bay

Bay Area YWP TGIO Reading and Celebration, January 24

idunno — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:54:00 +0000

From Tavia Stewart at HQ:

I'm writing to let you know of an exciting NaNoWriMo event coming up on the horizon. We'd like to invite you and your region to come hear some of the youngest and most talented authors read from their newly written NaNo-novels at National Novel Writing Month's Young Writers Program Thank Goodness It's Over Celebration and Reading. The reading will be held on Sunday, January 24 from 4 PM to 6 PM at The Booksmith bookstore in the Haight.

We'll be featuring young authors from five Bay Area classrooms, including ten 1st graders from the North Oakland Community Charter School. These kids are not to be missed. This is your chance to hear Kamala Schainker read from Dot's Adventure Around the Whole Wide World!

DETAILS

When: Sunday, January 24 from 4 PM to 6 PM
Where: The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street
What: The NaNoWriMo YWP's Thank Goodness It's Over Reading and Celebration
Why: Because you want to experience the impact NaNoWriMo's YWP has on kids and teens!

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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay
2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

USA :: California :: South Bay

CRITIQUE GROUP ANYONE? (The next 335...)

Ducki829 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:20:51 +0000

So, by Monday we'll all (hopefully) have written 50,000 words. The next challenge is making those words actually readable. Who wants to start a critique group?

If you're interested in meeting regularly (monthly-ish?) to read and provide feedback for one another's work, let me know. We don't have to start right away, nor do we have to submit our current projects to the firing squad (yet, anyway).
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USA :: California :: South Bay

Reading on the radio?

idunno — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:14:15 +0000

Anyone else reading on Ann Arbor's radio program? If so, when are you scheduled to read?

I'm scheduled to go tomorrow (Wed., 12/9).
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay
2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

USA :: California :: South Bay

Idunno's Novel, wow

rtrjuanab — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:01:01 +0000

I just read the excerpt of Ian's Stephen Hawking Detective Novel and am quite excited. I hope it gets published and hope you'll somehow update here if you find a publisher. (I must add that I am a great fan of the Elliott Roosevelt novels with his mother, Eleanor as the secret sleuth. Fascinating to think of these famous people in the role of detective. )
Kudos, Ian. I hope you write a whole series like Mr. E.R. did!
Sincerely,
Jean in S.J.
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USA :: California :: South Bay

What is your 50,000th word? (Or your 25,000th?)

mootmom — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:12:25 +0000

It's getting to the time when green bars are beginning to appear alongside the names of some SoBaNaNos, so it's become time to once again ask the question, "What is your 50,000th word?"

To start things off, mine was "rotund", in the passage:

"Hmm, age seems right. Same shoes. Same haircut, same rotund middle... I think you're right. You're a genius!"

(My 25,000th word was "velvet" -- since Simon decided not to use it, I figured it was too good to let go.)

Write on, everyone!

--moot/Diane.
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USA :: California :: South Bay

TGIO Party carpooling

idunno — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:15:18 +0000

The Thank God It's Over Party is coming up in one week, on Friday, December 4th, in San Francisco. Attendees interested in carpooling should post their need for a ride / willingness to drive here.
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay
2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

USA :: California :: South Bay

Permanent Write-In Interest?

Firedrake83 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:11:06 +0000

I NaNo'd for five years in a region where write-ins didn't exist, which was very sad. Coming here, I've discovered the awesomeness that is write-ins. Both because I get to meet fellow writers and because I find it a whole lot easier to write at a cafe, surrounding by crazies like me, than on my own at home.

So I'm wondering if some SoBaNaNo folks would be interested in setting up a more permanent schedule of write-ins, maybe a couple a week. Not necessarily for finishing NaNo novels, but just to get some writing, any writing done on a regular basis. (I think I remember seeing that B&N and Barefoot write-ins happen year-round, but I work until 5 on weekdays so I can't make either of those.)

Would there be any interest in continuing to meet a few days a week? I'm a fan of OVC on Sundays and Red Rock on Tuesdays, and I really liked the Sunnyvale Art Gallery this morning, but really, anything at all would be awesome!
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Drunkard's Walk
A multi-genre collection of stories concerning Christopher Meriwether Livingstone Battersby: a historian and sometimes-inventor with the unfortunate tendency of randomly jumping to alternate worlds.

USA :: California :: South Bay

Final status for 2009

idunno — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:59:57 +0000

We came in 27th place.
Total words written: 11,373,475
Average words per person: 30,168
Regional donations: $5185.00

Well done everyone!
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay
2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

USA :: California :: South Bay

FOUND: Dell power supply

Firedrake83 — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:56:23 +0000

Did anyone leave a laptop charger at Coffee Society tonight? We found it at the table next to me, where I believe Saraswati and Kandybar were sitting. It's in a black drawstring bag, and is for a Dell.

Let me know if you're missing this and we can work out a time/place to return it to you.
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Drunkard's Walk
A multi-genre collection of stories concerning Christopher Meriwether Livingstone Battersby: a historian and sometimes-inventor with the unfortunate tendency of randomly jumping to alternate worlds.

USA :: California :: South Bay

Why we kill Cliff Brooks, and how did you do it this year?

mootmom — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:07:14 +0000

If this is your first year, or if you weren't totally forum-obsessed in previous years, you may be wondering about this requirement you've heard about, which says that we must all "kill Cliff Brooks" in some way in our novels. The first post in this thread (this one) should help you understand the history of this edict. The rest of the thread is meant as a place where you can post a description of how you off Cliff in this year's novel. We're hoping to have a read-a-thon at the TGIO party this year consisting solely of passages in which Cliff is killed off, with the man himself in attendance for maximal enjoyment, so keep this in mind as you're writing those gruesome scenes.

Cliff Brooks is a real live guy, a really great guy who writes horror stories; he lived in the South Bay seven years ago and came to a number of write-ins. At one weekly write-in, my younger son Philip, 13 at the time and writing his own mini-novel, peered over Cliff's shoulder, read the scene he'd just written, and burst out laughing. Cliff scowled at him. "That's horror, that's not supposed to be funny!" But Philip insisted it was, in fact, hilarious. In a mock huff, Cliff wrote a character named Philip into the scene and killed him off quite grotesquely. The next week, Philip was eager to get to the write-in to show Cliff the scene he'd written, in which President of the United States Clifford Brooks morphed into a monster with multiple appendages and two heads, and then exploded. As a horror writer, Cliff loved it. Several of us decided that we, too, would kill a character named Cliff Brooks in our own novels, and from there the things just grew legs, as they say.

If you'd like to hear Cliff himself explaining this phenomenon, he called in to an interview with Chris Baty on NPR's Talk of the Nation with Neal Conan on Nov. 23, 2004.
You can find the intro article here: The Simple Art of Writing Novels
The interview itself is here: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist...
Cliff calls in at the 8:53 mark, and speaks with Neal until the 12:05 mark. (One error: Cliff says Philip was 16 at the time, he was not, he was only 13.)

Now. How did YOU kill Cliff Brooks this year, hmmm? I'll reveal my method once I've actually written the scene.

Go forth and murder! : )

--moot/Diane.
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USA :: California :: South Bay

Pan-Bay TGIO (Thank God It’s Over) Party on December 4!

Tavia Stewart — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:38:08 +0000

One might ask, "Isn't it TGIF, not TGIO?" Excellent question. In fact, it's both! The Thank God It's Over party is on Friday, December 4, from 7 PM to 11 PM at Root Division in San Francisco. All you Bay Area Wrimos (and your entourage of family and friends) are invited.

Come celebrate your return to a world that is not wholly occupied by fictitious characters with beverages, gold crowns, a "Farewell to 2009" address by Chris Baty. There’ll even be a reading (for those who wish to share their novels with the rest of us). So as not to scare away the more timid novelists, the reading will be conducted in a smaller, private area, away from those who are milling about. It's going to be a fabulous Bay Area celebration; no cross bay rivalries allowed! (Okay, maybe just a little bit).

DETAILS:

WHO: All Bay Area Wrimos, family, friends, and anyone else you think
belongs at a party with you.

WHERE: Root Division is located in the Mission District at 3175 17th Street, between South Van Ness and Shotwell. A superlative map and directions, along with information about parking, are available on their website (follow this link: http://www.rootdivision.org/contact.html).

WHEN: Friday, December 4 from 7 PM - 11 PM.

WHAT TO BRING: Everyone who attends is encouraged to bring a two-page excerpt from their novel to hang on the wall! Also, you may want to bring cash in order to purchase aforementioned beverages as well as some awesome merch like our 2009 Winners T-shirt.

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USA :: California :: South Bay

Pan-Bay TGIO (Thank God It’s Over) Party on November 4!

Tavia Stewart — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:38:08 +0000

DETAILS:

WHO: All Bay Area Wrimos, family, friends, and anyone else you think
belongs at a party with you.

WHEN: Friday, December 4 from 7 PM - 11 PM.

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USA :: California :: South Bay

PLOT NINJAS - Week 3+4

marcopolo — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:14:16 +0000

I'm running low on plot ninjas that we can set loose on our novels, so please send more! Contribute ideas for crazy characters, silly settings, preposterous plot twists, dangerous diversions, extreme episodes, and wacky words that can be thrown into a NaNo novel when authors run short on ideas.

Lisa
South Bay co-ML

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USA :: California :: South Bay

how to validate and WIN!

marcopolo — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:18:00 +0000

Some of you have already crossed that magical 50,000-word finish line, and many more of you are almost there. Once you get to 50k, after you're finished doing your dance of victory, it's time to validate your win so that you can receive the beautiful purple winner bar and download your winner certificate.

Here's how to validate:
1. Go to "Verify & Win" under the "My NaNoWriMo" menu or from your profile.
2. In your word processor, select the full text of your novel and copy. (Be sure you've saved and backed up first in case a finger fumble replaces your entire manuscript!)
3. Paste the full text of your novel into the Word Count Validator.
4. At the bottom of the page, hit Submit.

The word-counting monkeys will do their thing, and if they count at least 50,000 words, you'll be taken to the winner page. If you fall a bit short on word count -- different programs count slightly differently -- then write a little more and try again.

After winning, you can continue to update your word count manually until the end of the month, so there's no reason to wait to validate.

At 11:59:59 PM local time on November 30th, your 2009 word count will be frozen, as will your novel excerpt, synopsis, etc. Make sure that your time zone is set correctly under Account Settings so that you and the site are in agreement as to when November ends.

Looking forward to seeing those purple bars!

Lisa
South Bay co-ML

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USA :: California :: South Bay

What's Your First Sentence?

allsun — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:09:46 +0000

Nano 2009! What's your first sentence?

My Novel's Title is Skating On This Ice

A young girl, perhaps seven or eight years old, stared at me in the reflection of the mirror - wide, terror-filled eyes and crouched down next to the toilet in the handicapped stall in the rest room of my new office space in the Administration building of the former mental hospital.
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USA :: California :: South Bay

archive of regional emails

marcopolo — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:27:44 +0000

Messages to the South Bay region that get emailed out will be archived here. If you're affiliated with this region and aren't receiving the messages, make sure your settings are correct under My NaNoWriMo > Manage Notifications ("Emails from your local Municipal Liaison"), then check your spam filter.
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USA :: California :: South Bay

Can we get to 10,000,000 words in the South Bay??

mootmom — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:00:28 +0000

With not quite four days left to write, the mighty, mighty South Bay has written an astounding 9.178 million words thus far! What do you think, everyone: can we all enter our massive wordcounts and zoom right through the 10 million word barrier??

Anyone who hasn't affiliated with the South Bay as their home region should do so NOW -- just think how even MORE totally awesome we would be if we got to TEN MILLION WORDS WRITTEN this month! (Remember: we are all VERY VERY awesome anyway! This would just be icing on the awesome cake.)

Happy writing, everyone! I'm not supposed to drive just now, but I hope to see you ALL at the TGIO party!

--moot/Diane.
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USA :: California :: South Bay

Word count aside, how's your novel going?

idunno — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:28:38 +0000

We're coming up on the end of Week 3, so now's a good time to check in with how your novel is doing. Is it going well? Are you hopelessly lost? Love it or hate it? Somewhere in-between?

My novel is a mystery, and round about 32k, I was ready to reveal the solution. Oops. 18k to go after that. Hmm. Problematic. Anyone else finding their book is almost done well before 50k?

(My solution - the mystery is theater thrown by alien pod people who plan to assume the MCs' identities and take over the world - I can stretch that out 18k easy.)
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay
2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

USA :: California :: South Bay

After NanoWriMo is over?

cdonnelltx — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:04:14 +0000

This might fit in one of the general forums too. I don't know. I sent this out to CWC South Bay Writers club Yahoo group and will post it on our blog as well (southbaywriters.com)

Did you NaNoWriMo this month? What do you do now? One suggestion. Martha Alderson's International Plot writing month at

http://plotwhisperer.blogspot.com/

No writing required :-]

From the blog:

"Let your words rest for the entire month of December.Step back and consider the overall structure and plot of your... story.Have an idea for a novel? A draft of your screenplay? Think you've finished the final draft of your memoir? Wondering, now what?Everyday, a manageable new assignment tailor-made for the busiest month of the year. Day-by-day, scene-by-scene, step-by-step tips and tricks and inspiration beginning Dec. 1st.No writing required.It's a time to analyze what you have and brainstorm for an effortless 1st, 2nd, or final draft in January '10.".

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USA :: California :: South Bay

how (and why) to update your word count

marcopolo — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:22:03 +0000

On your profile, and next to any forum post you make, is a nifty blue bar that shows your progress and the number of words you've written. How does it know? Well, you have to tell it -- the feature that goes into your computer and checks your novel document hasn't been implemented yet (and maybe that's just as well).

The easiest way to update your word count is to enter the total number of words you've written (as calculated by your word processor or team of pigeons) into the little box at the top right of every page of the site when you're logged in. Hit the yellow "Update" button, and you're done!

You can also update your word count on the Novel Info page: Go to the "My NaNoWriMo" menu and choose "Edit Novel Info", OR go to your profile and look in the left sidebar for "Novel Info" (under "Edit Info"). In the field that says "Word Count", type in your word count, then scroll to the bottom of the page and hit "Submit". (On the Novel Info page, you can also put in a synopsis of your novel, an excerpt, and even book cover art, and change them as often as you like. Doing this is entirely optional, but fun.)

Alternatively, you can copy the full text of your manuscript and paste in into the Word Count Validator, and the nanowrimo.org counting monkeys will count the number of words for you.

Why You Should Keep Your Word Count Updated

Try to update your word count on a daily basis so that:

- Your friends will know you're really making progress on your novel, and not send you messages of concern.

- The cool chart under the "NaNo Stats" tab in your profile will accurately reflect your day-by-day word count. If you're obsessive about that sort of thing, be sure to update before midnight every day (and make sure your time zone is correct in "User Settings").

- But most importantly, keep updating your word count so that the South Bay can demonstrate our power as the GREATEST REGION IN THE WORLD on the word count scoreboard. Okay, maybe some of those other regions have a size advantage over us, but we still want to make as good a showing as we possibly can. If your home region is set to the South Bay -- and it is, right? -- then your words go toward our total. (Note that the scoreboard only updates about once a day).

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USA :: California :: South Bay

New parent/kiddie friendly write-in?

idunno — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:14:37 +0000

Maybe it's just the sleep deprivation, but it seems like there are more than a couple of brand new parents in the mix this year (including myself). It occurs to me that there might be interest in a write-in that caters to new parents (and maybe even not-so-new parents); that is, baby and young child friendly as well as writer friendly. Is there interest? If so, does anyone have any ideas of a kid-friendly place to meet that also has plenty of electrical outlets and access to coffee? I'm such a new dad myself, I haven't discovered such a place yet. The best I've managed so far is the mall food court, which is so loud no one cares if your babies are crying.

If this sounds like a good idea to you, chime in here!

Thanks,
Ian
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay
2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

USA :: California :: South Bay

Wanna read part of your book on the radio?

idunno — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:31:31 +0000

Still haven't reached 50k yet and need another incentive to get in gear and get there? How about an opportunity to read an excerpt of your novel on the radio?

In what has become an annual tradition here in the South Bay (this is the 7th year), KFJC DJ Ann Arbor is inviting Nano winners from the South Bay to read a twenty minute excerpt of their novel on her program.

Her radio program runs every Wednesday from 6-10am. The readings take place during the Unbedtime Stories segment of her show, which starts at 7:20am. You have to be there by 7am to get ready. I know that's dirt early in the morning, but the experience is worth it. Ann does everything she can to make it a very relaxed and fun experience. I've done it several times now, and I've even had listeners email me about my readings. Talk about gratifying!

How does it work?

First, you have to reach 50k by November 30th. If you don't win nano, you aren't eligible.

Once you win, fire off an email to Ann (aarborkfjc [at] aol . com) letting her know you've won and you want to read on her show. She'll get back to you with a schedule of available slots, along with directions to the station. If you're curious about the radio station, check out their website (http://www.kfjc.org/) and the description for Ann's show (http://bit.ly/8sqZYF).

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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay
2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

USA :: California :: South Bay

Donate to NaNoWriMo + help the South Bay win!

scribblegrl — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:47:26 +0000

Hey guys!

We're second place for donations to nanowrimo again! which is good, but not awesome--Let's try to kick it up a bit! If everyone donates just 10 bucks (and you get the spiffy halo next to your name), we can top Seattle!

*** Please click here and donate: https://store.lettersandlight.org/donations ***

Here's some info on how OLL spends your money and inspires lots of kids and adults into writing--just think about the great impact they have on your own lives!! http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/wheredonationsgo

And if you really can't spare a couple of bucks, you can still help OLL and nanowrimo by using goodsearch or ebay: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/donatingwhenbroke

We can totally beat Seattle! Let's do it!
Shuai aka scribblgrl :)
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USA :: California :: South Bay

Back Up Your Novel - Early And Often!

idunno — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:54:39 +0000

Just an early reminder:

Back up your novel. Back it up early. Back it up often. In fact, stop reading, back it up RIGHT NOW, then return to this posting (unless it's October, in which case you haven't started your novel yet). This isn't like voting - the more times you back up, the better. You want to stack that ballot box with a resounding win for your COMPLETE novel, not just a partial recovery you managed to dig up after spending several hundred dollars at a data recovery center.

But how, you ask, can I back up my novel without purchasing expensive automated back up software and dozens of redundant external hard drives to write those backups to?

I'm glad you asked. You don't need to spend top dollar to protect your creative efforts. There are plenty of cheap, if not free, ways to do it!

Email your novel to yourself. Save a copy to a floppy disk (by the way, if you still have a floppy disk drive, you SO need to upgrade your computer!!), a USB memory stick, a burnable CD/DVD. Hell, plug your digital camera into your computer and save a copy there, if necessary. Just save an extra copy somewhere OTHER than the computer/PDA/AlphaSmart/whatever you're writing it on. Anywhere. And do it every time you sit down to write.

Here's what I do. Every day, I make a copy of my novel-in-progress, with the date as part of the name. I then work on the new document. This means if my computer crashes or somehow corrupts the file I'm currently working on, I still have the previous copy safely tucked away. And every day, when I'm done writing, I email myself the latest copy of that novel.

Those of you using a typewriter (old school!) or writing by hand (even older school!) may think you don't need to make backups, but consider this: paper can burn, get eaten by a pet, be used as toilet paper in a moment of desperation, get caught up in a gust of wind, or fall into the wrong hands. So you might want to use that copy machine at work to make a backup of your novel. Or have a friend with a photographic memory read your dailies. I'm just saying.
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay
2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

USA :: California :: South Bay

Thanks to skneal!

idunno — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:37:13 +0000

A hearty thank you goes out to skneal for hosting the halfway / two thirds party yesterday. Awesome party, awesome venue!
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay
2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency