USA :: Iowa :: Iowa City

A challenge

FriendlyHobo — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:16:11 +0000

I have been behind. And even when I've been caught up I've done just enough to scrape by. No more!
Iowa City Area, I challenge us to raise our Region's wordcount ranking from 218 (where it was last time i checked) to, let's say, the top 150.
Do you think we can? Will you join me?
----------
Every stink that fights the ventilator thinks it's Don Quixote
-Stanislaw Jerszy Lec
http://friendlyhobo.livejournal.com

USA :: Iowa :: Iowa City

[ML] Word Wars, Write-ins, and Candy -- oh my!

deliapants — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:36:49 +0000

Hey, guys! Life's gotten in the way so I'm a little late in the game this year, but I am ready and rearing to go!

My name's Delia, and I'll be your ML this year. Unfortunately, I'll be leaving for New Zealand in the summer, so if anyone else wants to step up and take the neon shirt next year -- for those who remember the horror of the neon shirt -- go for it.

Our numbers are small, but I see lots of new faces (er... usernames). And hey, if we've only got 25 people this year, that means More Swag For Everyone. I always ask for the 50-pack so that means double the stuff, plus the extras from last year. Does anyone remember the temporary tattoos? Aaaw, so many memories, guys! I'm gonna miss you!

Newbie Vocab Quiz!

Last Sentence Game, The - n. At the end of Mini Word Wars, the group will read aloud their last sentences, or favorite sentence, if you are not comfortable saying inappropriate things in public.

ML or Municipal Liaison - n. A regional figurehead who plans meetings and dishes out official NaNoWriMo swag and candy.

Word Wars, Mini - n. Periods of ten minutes to an hour in which participants write as much as they can in the designated time. At the end of the war, you stop, even in the middle of a sentence.

Word Wars, Regional - n. Battles between two or more competing regions of similar size or skill,

Write-Ins - n. Scheduled or spontaneous events outside of participants' homes in which multiple writers get together to brainstorm, eat candy, and write.

Regional Word War!

Bambier, the ML of Cedar Rapids, pitched an idea to me the other day. We haven't had a regional word war, not since I've been around, and I think we should battle Cedar Rapids. They've got a few handfuls more Wrimos than we do, but we're in the City Of Literature, so I think we're prepared to do some serious butt-kicking.

Introducing Coralville

I remember seeing a few Coralvillians (Coralvillites? Coralvillains? !!! Is that a great baseball team name or what?) in previous years. Do we have any this time around? I spend a lot of time working up there, so I was thinking about having a weekly write-in at the Coralville library's coffeeshop. Would there be any interest in that? I'm shooting for Tuesday nights around 6ish or Thursday afternoons. Coralville: Y/N?

Iowa City Write-Ins

Tentative weekly write-ins: Fridays at 7 or Sundays at 5, at T-Spoons on Market or The Haunted Bookshop. Which works best for you guys?

Midnight Kick-Off

What are your thoughts on a Getting Started kick-off at midnight on the 1st? I know it's a Saturday which means it's a game night which means lots of drunk people around, but I'm hoping they aren't at the coffeeshops. And just think of all the novel fodder you can acquire on the trek through hoardes of alcoholics!

I know there were other exciting things but I have been working on this post for a good three hours (woooooork, boooooo) and there are abandoned children in the library so I've completely forgotten.

Delia!

[It took me an embarrassingly long time to find the Edit button, guys. Anyway, I saw a lot of talk about a pre-November meetup (I knew I forgot something). I think that's really cool, but I'm not sure I'll be around enough to be there myself. But don't let my lack of participation stop you! I can still supply candy and swag at other times (noticing a candy trend yet?).]
----------

USA :: Iowa :: Iowa City

On the Internet

forgettingwalk — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:16:14 +0000

How else are we all in touch? That is, if we want to be, of course. I'm a big fan of that sort of thing; back home, the crew I settled in with for NaNo CONTINUES to hold weekly write-ins year round, plus a lot of other assorted hanging out and I think it's helped to keep us all honest and productive about our work in a slightly greater portion than we might be out on our own. That and they're all great people. So, you know.

I use AIM (thisseverance), Google Talk (forgettingwalk), MSN (artemis001@hotmail.com), Twitter (crows) and LiveJournal (incommune). I have FaceBook but I try to avoid logging into it for any reason because whenever I do I am overcome with an inexplicable sense of loathing. Not really sure why.

PS: I'm having a hard time adding writing buddies on the site :\ I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just being cantankerous because of the load on the site right now. Is anyone else having this problem?
----------

USA :: Iowa :: Iowa City

[ml] Ch-ch-changes! And Facebook

deliapants — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:22:12 +0000

Since there was no turnout at Coralville, I'm going to stick to just Iowa City write-ins, and those are Fridays at 7 at Tspoons and Sundays at 5 at Capanna, back by popular vote.

We're also on Facebook now, so feel free to join the group to keep up with the event planning when NaNo's site is down (as it seems to be frequently). It's called NaNoWriMo Iowa City, but you can find it here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=172323463838&ref=mf

-Delia
----------

USA :: Iowa :: Iowa City

Head of the Pack

nanowrimoer3000 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:25:41 +0000

I currently, with 21500 words, have the most words of anyone in this region.
Who's going to/wants to beat me and have most word in the region themselves?
----------
NaNoWriMos, Etc.:
NaNo 07 = Monster's Land = Win
Screnzy 08 = The Children = Win
NaNo 08 = Randomness Rules! = Lose
NaNo 09 = The Internets/Epic = Win

USA :: Iowa :: Iowa City

Burllington write-in

Gesene Oak — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:35:23 +0000

A few Burlington area wrimos are writing at the Burlington Public Library, HWY 34 & Main (right by the Mississippi) Saturday at noon, meeting room A. Come join us if you can! You are also invited to attend the Society of Great River Poets meeting, same place, at 2.
----------

USA :: Iowa :: Iowa City

The Calendar

katie_kay — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:00:15 +0000

Huzzah! The calendar is working. I plan on rocking the Thursday evenings at CPL. I'll visit before my volunteer shift starts. But I think there's a typo. The Wednesday write-ins are listed as 12 AM at Cafe del Sol. I don't think they're open at midnight. Is it supposed to be at noon (12 PM)?
----------
I reject your reality and substitute my own!

USA :: Iowa :: Iowa City

Anyone from Muscatine?

Gesene Oak — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:37:41 +0000

I joined the IC group -- but if anyone else is from the Muscatine area, can we meet somewhere here? We can type for the two hours it'd take us to get to IC and back!
----------

USA :: Iowa :: Iowa City

[ML] Saturday's Kickoff!

deliapants — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:48:53 +0000

Augh, NaNo just ate my post!

Satuday Night's kick-off will be in Coralville. @forgettingwalk and I are thinking IHOP because they're 24 hours, but Village Inn (I think) has more outlets available for plugging in laptops. Does anyone have any other ideas to throw in? We're doing it in Coralville for sure because much as we love Iowa City and not-driving, it will be a home game and the open-late venues will consist of bars and Village Inn Iowa City which never has any seating on game days.

If anyone needs a ride or can provide a ride, let us know here! There's one car available right now, I can probably get one more car in the mix. Head count time!

Six days 'til NaNo!

Delia

FYI This is the midnight kickoff this coming Saturday (yep, Halloween). So we'll head over around 11:30 to settle in with foodstuffs before the big show!
----------

USA :: Iowa :: Iowa City

Pre-November Gathering

forgettingwalk — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:21:04 +0000

Ok, I'm just going to do it. Start a new topic! So we were talking in the other one about a pre-November get-together. Then, FriendlyHobo said:

"All right, I'll go for it and say a week from tomorrow, next Sunday afternoon/evening. It'd be like "one week left" count-down. Is that good for people? Would you all rather prefer a public coffee shop, or should we discuss forgettingwalk's lovely hospitality? Should I make a new topic?"

And I was starting to say:

"I'm in! How about we meet at a public place first? That'll give everyone a back-out option - if they stumble in the door and decide we all look really creepy they can just awkwardly back away and pretend they're not associated with this all this backward-minded 'novel writing' hoodoo ;) "

And then I decided to make a new topic so people would know what they were looking at. Or for.

I like FriendlyHobo's idea of a 'one week' advance thing. So, building on that proposal, I submit Capanna Coffee in downtown Iowa City as the place, and how about 2:30 as the time (on Sunday, the twenty fifth)? I think that ought to give folks attending church time to get out and make their way down there.

Personally, I'm wide open in regards to time and place, so I won't be offended in the slightest if anyone would like to suggest somewhere/somewhen else.
----------

USA :: Iowa :: Iowa City

Not new but...

FriendlyHobo — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:18 +0000

Hi everybody. I'm Stacy and this will be my fifth NaNoWriMo, but I don't know ANY of the Iowa City WrMos because the past four years I've been sequestered at boarding school (maybe you've heard of us... out there by West Branch...).

So I just wanted to introduce myself and say hey, who's getting their pregame on? I know I am!

----------
Every stink that fights the ventilator thinks it's Don Quixote
-Stanislaw Jerszy Lec
http://friendlyhobo.livejournal.com