Europe :: England :: Newcastle

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

A Night of Writing Slightly Unsafely

FaeNixx — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:11:27 +0000

This is just a repost of the regional email I sent out a couple of days ago for discussion and as a reminder!

First (and most importantly) how’s your novel going? Is your word count soaring before your eyes? Are you having fun? We really hope you are.

But if you’re a bit off track, we may have something to help you out: A Night of Writing Slightly Unsafely! Now we don’t know about you, but we certainly can’t afford a ticket and flights to the write-a-thon in California, but why can’t we have our own party, right here in the north east?

So from 8 PM on Saturday 21st November, we’ll be hosting an all night writing extravaganza, complete with chocolate prizes and mini trophies. (We’re still trying to decide on categories, so please, if you’ve got any suggestions, drop us an email!)

We want to see as many people there as possible because we’re sure it will be great fun. Getting to know other wrimos always is, but add in the opportunity to make your word counts grow and we have a recipe for a stunning success.

To keep costs down, this is going to be at the same place we held the Kick-Off Party, our home in Trimdon Station, County Durham. Transport is always an issue with this type of thing, so if you want to come but not sure how you’ll get there, get in touch with us and we’ll try to work it out. We can provide lifts from local bus/train stations as long as we can coordinate times, give you our post code for SatNavs and help you with getting off the bus at the right stop.

Food will be provided by a local take away and shouldn’t be too expensive if everybody contributes – a decision on where will be made on the night, depending on everyone’s preferences.

Having alcohol at the kickoff party seemed to go down well, so we’ll be allowing it again under the same principles as before: bring your own and don’t get too sloppy drunk to write. ;)

Now in the spirit of the official write-a-thon, we’d like to be able to donate some money to the Office of Letters and Light, so we propose that any money left over from the takeout fund (don’t worry, you’ll only be asked to contribute £5) is put in the Pumpkin Donation Bucket that made its debut at the Kick-Off party. Either my Co-ML will post in the forums soon after how much was raised, and after November that and any other donations will be sent off to HQ, credited to our region.

If you’ve never been to something like this before, or you’re just a bit nervous, feel free to bring a non-NaNo-ing friend or parent. You don’t have to stay the whole night, but everybody is welcome to do so, so you might wish to bring a duvet just in case you can’t go on typing anymore.

If you’re under 18, we’re happy for your parents to call us to discuss arrangements, and if you’re under 16 we’d strongly encourage you to give them our phone numbers which can be found at the bottom of this email.

One last note: we have a dog and a cat, so if you’re allergic please take precautions.

If you are planning to attend, please do email us back just so we know how many to expect.

Contact details:

Zof (ShadowSaine) – 07845 316556
Nixx (FaeNixx) – 07874 097262

Any questions?
Get in touch with us!

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Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at.

Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Word Goals

xemmawhyx — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:18:41 +0000

My goal for nano is either 60k or 75k, wbu?
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Going to the Coffee Shop Write-In tomorrow?

drunkymonkey — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:19:28 +0000

I only just noticed that sweet Google Calendar thing at the top of our region page, and it says that, gasp, there's a write-in tomorrow! Is this true?! Who is going?! And do I get to brag about high wordcount?!
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

anyone from shields?

StormVixen — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:26:18 +0000

Hi there everyone! Ive snuck into Newcastle's group as my home, as you're closest to me!!!

I can see a lot of folks from newcastle, durham and teeside way... anyone closer to South Shields?
just interested to see how we spread out!

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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Hartlepool Coffee Shop Write In?

faerie_kitten — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:54:13 +0000

ok, looking at the calandar thing I see that there are write in's up at Newcastle every week, but unfortauntely I cant actually make it to any of them due to money restraints this month.

So I was wondering if anyone fanficed a midweek meet up in Hartlepool? I was thinking maybe next Wednesday and either starting in cafe rapor and ending the evening in a pub (no idea which one) or there are a couple of other options.

So, yeah, let me know.

Chelle
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

One Week Down

faerie_kitten — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:07:17 +0000

Well, week one is now over. And it seems as though I have been writing for years. Of coruse, with the amount I have written thats probs to be expected.

So, anyone else glad that week one is over? Looking forward to week two? Looking forward to this madness being over?

I know I am looking forward to a well earned writing break for the whole of December (which is reality will be the end of the first week and I will be back to writing)

So, hows it going for everyone else?

Chelle
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Online write-in!

ShadowSaine — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:12:29 +0000

Hi all,

We have our own regional chatroom now! Clicking this link should lead you directly to it:--

http://www.chatmaker.net/chatap/rooms/NewcastleWrimos/

It's nothing fancy, but it's fit for purpose, and we're going to put it to good use this coming Thursday -- November 5th -- with an online write-in. We'll be starting from 6:30pm and going on until... well, until we get tired. =D If you can't make it for 6:30, don't worry -- drop in any time; chances are someone will be there!

We'll be hosting short sprints and word challenges, and there'll be plenty of chat and banter throughout the night. This is a great way to meet your fellow wrimos in real-time, especially if you can't make it to many write-ins (or even if you can. As ever, all welcome!)

We're hoping to make online write-ins a regular thing, so it would be great if we saw you there.

Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas? Let us know in this thread.

Hope to see you on Thursday!
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2007: Equilibrioception (won & finished at 54,000)
2008: The Other Half (won at 51,000, plot ongoing)
2009: Life Story (results pending!)

Europe :: England :: Newcastle

The: this is what I've been writing thread

faerie_kitten — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:25:25 +0000

because I am a nosy cow and want to see what everyone else has been up to this last week, and for the rest of the month in fact, I thought I would start this thread and invite everyone to post a little of what they have written. Course you don't have to, but if you want to then feel free.

I think this is one of the bits that I am most proud of at the moment. Thoush there are several bits and I doubt anyone wants to read the whole silly amount that I've written so far:

Anyway, this is from chapter 19, my characters are in hiding after being found in the colony that my Werecats live in...

It was a rare occasion that we tuned into the news. The government had gone into talks to discuss what was to happen, but that was all that was being said on the matter. Though Paula’s revelation had changed the minds of many people, the vampires were still be hunted and killed. The world leaders may have been back in their stuffy conference room, chattering away as their translators frantically translated, but they were not letting up on their killing spree.

In light of the backlash against them, they had announced that they were looking at an alternative method of ‘dealing with the threat,’ but they had not stopped. They were still killing the vampires as often as they found them.

We were still playing the waiting game. Waiting for our influence to take effect. Waiting for the world leaders to decide what to do. Waiting to see what was happening.

But at least it looked as though we were starting to win.

There were still those humans who thought that it was a good idea to slaughter us all. They were the ones that were keeping the governments in the business of murder. It was an overwhelming number of humans that were delighted with each dead vampire that graced their skies with another cloud of smoke and ash.

At least their numbers were dropping. We just had to wait and see what the outcome was for the government’s rethink of how to deal with things.

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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Anyone Else In Hartlepool?

faerie_kitten — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:14:29 +0000

So, after the Durham meet up, it turned out that two of us were in Hartlepool, and we were wondering: Is there anyone else.

So, if you are in Hartlepool, and you want to get together or anything, or just say Hi! then, yeah... here we are :D

Chelle
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Durham Meet up 12th Nov

Joculator — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:57:31 +0000

As we've been using Thursdays as our main day to have meetings I will be down at the Shakespeare Tavern on the 12th just to have a break in my writing. Nothing fancy, just a drink and a bit chat if aynyone cares to pop in and take a short break from writing for a couple of hours. I think, the best time, going on the turn out from the last meeting, may be between 5 - 7 pm.
That seemed to be the best time to give all you desk jockeys a chance to attend. ;)

Hoping to see all of you local WriMo's there so we can catch up on everyday stuff.

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I want to die peacefully in my sleep, just like grandpa. Not screaming and panicking like his passengers.

Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Daily Tips (from "No Plot? No Problem!" novel-writing kit)

jenwrar — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:39:05 +0000

You can pick this kit up in the official store, and I'd highly recommend it if only for the little gold stars and 'Novelist!' badge it comes with! For those who didn't buy it, I thought I'd share the handy little daily tips it contains. They have helped me, and hopefully they will help you too.

***

Day 1: The first day. A blank page. And a slight panic about starting the book of on the right foot. But you know what? There are no wrong feet. Take a tip from freewheeling graphic design guru Bruce Mau on the subject of beginnings: "Not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. Begin anywhere."

***

Day 2: Writing a novel is like working with clay. You first create a rough shape, then massage that shape into something beautiful, such as an ashtray or a fearsome army of worms. Unlike potters, though, who can simply buy clay at the art supply store, novelists have to pull off the supernatural feat of creating their clay with their minds. It's an amazing accomplishment, really, and it's also why postponing judgment of your work until the end of your first draft is so important. What you started producing yesterday is novelling clay - valuable, essential, and variably lumpy. It's beauty will grow as you work it.

***

Day 3: One o my avorite books is called Rules of Thumb 2. Te volume oers thousands of guidelines for any number of essential day-to-day activities, such as properly estimating a submerged crocodiles length and surviving a pistol duel. The dueling int was submitted by historian Jim Barber, wo writes: "When dueling with firearms, always aim lower tan your opponent's vital area- to pierce the heart, aim at the knees." This is something you'll do well to keep in mind in these early days of Week One.

Abandon the stultifying notion of brilliance and aim instead for the low mark of completion. It'll take the pressure off of you, which will allow your writing to become looser and more ambitious, paradoxically raising the quality of your book. It's Barber's law: Aiming low is the best way to suceed.
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Durham Meet Up, Take 2

faerie_kitten — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:30:31 +0000

Date: Thursday 29th October (Not April)
Time: Errr, I don't think we discussed that.
Place: The Shakespear.

Ok, so i just got home from the Durham meet up. It was great. We sat in the back room of the pub and talked about books and writing and various other bits and bobs. It was great to see real people, and not just computer screen names :D

Anyway, we decided that we might just be able to squeeze another meeting in before all hell breaks loose and we all lose the will to live (and thats just November 1st) So we came up with the above date, and probs about the same time 2pm ish.

So if you would like to pop along and say Hi and see what everyone else is doing then please do. The more the merrier.

Chelle
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Greetings from America

skylarjordan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:39:57 +0000

I'm an American undergraduate looking to do an MA in creative writing at Newcastle Uni next fall. I joined your region to connect with local writers. This is my first NaNoWriMo, but I'm excited to be participating. Hoping to meet some interesting people through this experience. Hopefully by the next NaNoWriMo I'll be declaring Newcastle as my home region!
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

got a plot?

jenwrar — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:11:18 +0000

Anyone know what they're going to be writing about this year, or will you be using the tried and tested method of winging it and praying that the muses aren't feeling fickle this november?
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Word Wars - Sign Up Here!

FaeNixx — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:24:31 +0000

Regional Word War is a competition designed to get as many people to 50k as possible, it gives you another reason to keep writing and not drop out, as you'd be letting down the whole team, not just yourself! The winner is the region with the highest average word count! For more info about what's involved, read the rules.

To join in, just post ONCE in this thread before 8 PM November 10th. You'll then be signed up. You can drop out any time until November 24th.

And then write write write write write...you get the idea.
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Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at.

Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Word Wars - Banter!

FaeNixx — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:25:46 +0000

For all the jibes about other regions you want to make! Just keep it friendly, folks!
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Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at.

Europe :: England :: Newcastle

End of day one, how's it going?

faerie_kitten — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:05:16 +0000

Thought I would see how everyone else is going.

It is going well for me, now that I have had some much needed sleep, and have gotten over that dreaded first chapter (I hate the first chapter)

Now that I am into the action it is picking up pace a little though. Hopefully things will keep going at this rate and Iw il get everything done this month.

Chelle
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Regional contacts, harvested at the pre-NaNo meet up 24/10/09

ShadowSaine — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:45:11 +0000

Hi folks,

I passed a sheet around at the meet-up yesterday, with a note to say 'this is the place to share your contact details, as many or as few as you're comfortable with'. Some did a full list with AIM, MSN, the works; some just shared an email address. I did make it clear that I'd be posting this list on the forums, so here it is -- if there was anybody there yesterday that you wanted to keep in touch with directly and didn't get hold of their address, it should hopefully be in this list!

As far as I'm aware, I can continue to edit this post, so if your details are here and you don't want them to be, or if I've typo'd anything, please let me know and I'll sort it out ASAP for you.

I've put spaces in email addresses since I'm not certain whether or not these can be harvested by search engines to put us all on spam lists. Remember to take the spaces out when you're emailing or adding people to IMs!

On with the listing... It's like the yellow pages for local NaNoers, this. =P

* * *

Zof (co-ML)
MSN: falcons_honour @ live . co . uk
AIM: FalconsHonour
Email: falcons.honour @ gmail . com (works for Gtalk too)
Blog: Falcons_Honour on LJ
Twitter: @Falcons_Honour

Nikita (co-ML)
MSN: fae.nixx @ hotmail . co . uk
Email: fae.nixx @ gmail . com (works for Gtalk too)
Twitter: FaeNixx

Louise
MSN: darkwolfhowling @ hotmail . co . uk

Molly
MSN: molly @ mollying . co . uk
Blog: Mollying on LJ

Jen
Email: jennifer . wilson @ amec . com

Ellen
MSN: queen _ of _ the _ mods @ hotmail . com
Blog: Allarine on LJ

Andrew
MSN: apt _ maverick @ hotmail . co . uk

Judith
MSN: judithkelsey @ yahoo . co . uk

Steph
MSN: browneyes1990 @ hotmail . co . uk

Amanda (AJAiken)
Y!IM: aj.aiken @ yahoo . co . uk (also works for Skype)

Rachel
MSN: rachelch2009 @ hotmail . co . uk
Twitter: @raachyyy

Jenny
Email: jen . wofl @ gmail . com
Blog: RadarTybalt on LJ
Twitter: @tehwofl

Nicola
Email: nccharge @ yahoo . co . uk

Michelle
Email: faerie _ kitten @ hotmail . co . uk
Twitter: @faerie_kitten

Georgia
MSN/email: georgie _ babe _ 41 @ hotmail . com

Tats
MSN: tattyscott @ hotmail . co . uk

Laura
Email: mthsnlaura @ aol . com
Twitter: @seaside650

Jack
Email: webguy @ thepickards . co . uk
Twitter @thepickards

Helen
Email: missbells @ blackberry . orange . co . uk

Danny (Kaej)
Email: hundreds . of . pirates @ gmail . com

Mariley (La Mouche)
Email: marilamouch @ yahoo . com

* * *

If there's anything you'd like adding to this list, let me know and I'll do it -- as I said, I think I can keep editing it as time goes on. Equally, as I said above, anything you want rid of or changing, shoot me a message or reply here and I'll sort it out for you.

I hardly need to say it, but be responsible with these! We're a trustworthy bunch, I'm sure -- don't make me regret this ;]

Take care, writers, and good luck for November!!

Best wishes
Zof
----------
2007: Equilibrioception (won & finished at 54,000)
2008: The Other Half (won at 51,000, plot ongoing)
2009: Life Story (results pending!)

Europe :: England :: Newcastle

To anyone who was at the overnight kick-off party on Saturday?

FaeNixx — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:55:52 +0000

Did you leave your sleeping bag and pillow in the family room? Email me on fae (dot) nixx (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanks,
FaeNixx
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Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at.

Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Less than 20 minutes.

writingmatty — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:43:07 +0000

So, I've chosen a very laid back way to start my very first NaNo in just 25 minutes and counting time. I shall be starting the official writing off of the whole of November in my bed with a very beautiful little Cat called Misty, shame i couldn't come to your kick-off party(anyway from their using the forums tonight) but i'm only 13 and my dad only sort of clocked on at 8pm tonight and as we live up in Newcastle he couldn't be arsed to come down to the kick off party.
Anyway i'll give you a bit of background i'm headig into NaNo having read about 2 pages of NaNo for the insane then getting bored and going back to playing tetris and absolutely no plot whatsover, basically i'm just going to write whatever comes into my head onto a word document. I'm also very worried that my urge to delete will be so great i'll have tocater for it. Anyway, if you have internet in Deaf Hill/Trimdon Station hows the kick off party going or have you not thought to use NaNo yet. Their is now 18 minutes left until official kick off can't wait. Heck I type slow.
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Northumbria University Meetup

C. Melvin — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:53:59 +0000

Hey guys,
I'm a final year English Literature undergraduate at Northumbria Uni and was wondering if anyone would be interested in meeting up somewhere in the uni for writing sessions between lectures/seminars/tutorials/what-have-you. I'm usually in on a Tuesday and a Wednesday but since I need to spend quite a bit of time at the library I can arrange to be in other days too. Would anyone like to do that? We could maybe meet in the library basement or one of the building cafes - even Habita I suppose, although that might be a bit noisy.

Hah, this 50K thing will be easy - look how long it took me to ask if anyone wants to write with me!
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2005: The Stone of Alkair Taì (Fantasy)
2006: The Quotation Tree (Children's)
2007: City of the Dead (Historical Fantasy)
2008: Such Things As Dreams Are Made On (Knitting/Fantasy)
2009: Such Things As Dreams Are Made On: Volume II (Knitting/Fantasy)

Europe :: England :: Newcastle

mini write-a-thon suggestion

faerie_kitten — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:51:27 +0000

Ok, I am still procrastinating, and I stumbled across the write-a-thon page, and thought, 'that is a really good idea, I wish I could go.' I can't go, cos even if I could get the sponsorship together there is no way in hell I could afford the plane tickets to get over there.

So, I popped on over to the suggestion board and posted a note asking if they fancied extending it and having one in other places as well. Such as in the UK. Then I got to thinking. Why can't we have one of our own? It doesn't have to be big, we maybe don't need to get sponsored or anything, but why not have a competetive write-a-thon of our own at somepoint during November?

I am sure between all of us we could find someone who would be willing to pitch in with a couple of daft little bits as prizes for most words written, least words written, ect. And they dont have to be expensive (tho i sure wouldn't mind the prizes the big write-a-thon is doing) It also doesn't have to be the full 6 hour thing that the other one is doing (my fingers would drop off if I typed none stop for 6 hours) but maybe if we had one evening and did maybe a three or four hour session with little incentives, it might be fun. It would also help with the word counts and the word wars.

Chelle
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Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Ghosts of Novels Past, Present and Future -- Kickoff Party Must-Read Info

ShadowSaine — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:01:05 +0000

So how's it going guys?

Me, you ask? Not so great. I'm finally sitting down to work out my plot tonight, so fingers crossed it'll be done by Saturday night.

Saturday night is the real subject of this email, so shall I get to the point?

Saturday Evening

You are all invited to a Hallowe'en Party/Write in on Saturday, October 31st at your co-MLs' home. The party starts around eight, but we're willing to be a bit flexible on this time, and goes on till 12:00:01, when the writing can begin! We then go as long as possible with all the usual fun, distress and word wars that go along with the novelling territory. Everyone is welcome to stay over, not least because of the village location. There are some spare beds available, and plenty of sofas, but you are advised to bring a sleeping bag and pillow for when you crash, if you're planning to stay over!

We had something like this last year, and although only a few people attended we all had a lot of fun! Hopefully this year more of you will come along and get themselves off to a great start with there novel.

Seeing as this is on Hallowe'en, fancy dress is encouraged (but not compulsory) and there was a great suggestion that you could come dressed as one of your NaNo characters - definitely a good talking point, hmm?

We'd also love to take your suggestions on things to do before midnight, literary-related or not - we do have, spread across the two living rooms, a Wii, a PS3 and an XBOX 360 for our collective amusement. Feel free to bring any games you think would be good to play.

Now, the pertinent details:

If you're planning on attending, drop us an email and we'll work with you on travel arrangements. We both have cars and will do runs from Durham and Peterlee Bus Stations and the like, but we can't go all over the North East, as much as we'd like to! We can also help you with bus routes to the stop across the road and a post code for Sat Navs and multimap!

Alcohol is going to be permitted, though we do ask you to bring your own and be sensible, there's nothing fun or cool about Wrimos vomiting over their laptops. Of course you don't have to drink - I'm sure not everyone will be! As for 'catering arangements', we were thinking that the easiest option is for everyone to bring enough money to chip in for a take away of some description - where we go depending on what everyone wants!

If you don't feel confident coming to this by yourself, or have never been to one of these before, bring a friend! Even if they aren't novelling we're happy to have them. This especially applies to younger Wrimos whose parents or older siblings may want to tag along - they're more than welcome.

Please note that we do have a chihuahua and a cat, so if you have allergies, do be careful!

Sunday Afternoon

Now if you can't come to the evening do (and even if you can!) we hope you'll be able to come along on Sunday 1st November to Café Nero near the Gates in Newcastle at 2 PM for some socialising and writing! If you have any problems finding us, get in touch on the numbers below.

Any questions? Get in touch:

Nixx - fae.nixx@gmail.com (07874 097262)
Zof - falcons.honour@gmail.com (07845 316556)
nano.northeast@gmail.com

We will also post this in the regional forums so anyone who signs up after this goes out doesn't miss out, and also as a place to post your questions, comments and suggestions.

Happy novelling!

Zof & Nixx
----------
2007: Equilibrioception (won & finished at 54,000)
2008: The Other Half (won at 51,000, plot ongoing)
2009: Life Story (results pending!)

Europe :: England :: Newcastle

Word Wars -- The Rules

FaeNixx — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:18:34 +0000

2009 Rules:

Eligibility
You must live within the UK or Ireland, and be relatively close to the region you wish to represent.
Sign-ups
Your ML will provide a "Word War Sign Up” thread on your local forum to track word count. Participants will post ONCE in the Word War Sign Up thread by 8pm on 10th November stating that they wish to participate. There is a minimum team size of five participants. If less than five people sign-up to take part, your ML has the option of joining forces with another region in order to increase the team size. If your ML is unwilling or unable to do so and you still wish to take part, you may go direct to another region and ask to join their team, but please give your ML time to arrange for the entire team to join another one before you do this.

The Regional Word War
You must update your word count every two days, on the even numbered days of the month, by 8pm. If you are unable to update your count, contact your ML. During the last partial week (26th –– 29th Nov), you must update your word count daily, by 8pm. If this isn't possible, contact your ML immediately.
If you do not update your word count on four consecutive occasions (8 days) it will be assumed that you have given up and you will be removed from the war (unless you already have more than 50k). If you know that you’re going to be away and won’t be able to update, let your ML know so that we can prevent this automatic removal. (The final date that non-updaters will be removed is the 24th Nov, after this date, all surviving participants will remain in the competition.)
You must input your final (verified) word count by midnight on 30th November. After midnight, you will no longer be able to update your count.

Scoring
You may drop out of the Regional Word War at any time up to 8pm on 20th November without affecting your region's count. If you do not drop out by messaging either myself or your ML, you will be in for the remainder of the competition, NO MATTER WHAT!
If, as a result of automatic elimination or voluntary removal, your team falls below five members, your ML will be given 48 hours to arrange to join another team (this may be extended slightly on negotiation with myself, this is the first time we've had this rule and I'm not sure how it's going to work yet) after which the team will be disqualified. Up to 8pm on the 24th of November, any remaining team members who wish to continue to take part can join one of the other teams (with that team's permission). After this deadline all teams will be fixed.

During the Regional Word War there will be a regularly updated leader board on an external web site. I'll post a link to this board to each competing region as soon as I've confirmed it.
Only the official word count from the "Word War Sign Up" threads on the NaNoWriMo web site will be considered when computing the final score.

After midnight on 30th November, I will ask the other MLs from competing regions (or their designated representatives) to verify the figures before declaring a winner.

Results
There will be two prizes:
The city/region with the highest average word count.
The city/region with the highest proportion of winners from the starting participants.
The MLs will compare results, and when all regions agree, the results will be posted on the NaNo boards.

Banter
Participants are encouraged to engage in good-natured banter with participants from other regions in the various Word War Banter threads. Banter should remain good-natured and within the bounds of good-sportsmanship. The use of 'smileys' in messages is actively encouraged.

Our God-like powers
MLs decide what "good-sportsmanship" means.
We reserve the right to remove folks from the competition for any violation of the rules and guidelines listed above.
MLs are the final authority in any dispute or question about the rules.

Trophies
Each team member receives a personalised winner's certificate, plus goodies to be determined...
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Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at.