USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Techno-Challenges

HannahRenika — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:35:49 +0000

What kind of Techno-challenges are you all facing? The NaNo-ing is reminding me that I need to give my laptop a little attention.

OK, so here's the good news: The current laptop is newer than the one I originally did NaNo on when I first started this November madness back whenever. With the first laptop, I was always kind of in fear that the computer would crash and so would my NaNo. Nothing like a little pressure?!

So this one is new, light-weight, etc. etc. However, the battery has totally given up the ghost and did it quite quickly, making me hesitant to take the laptop anywhere except using it like a desktop here at home. If I'm working on something and one of the wee dogs so much as nudges the power cord, bye-bye writing (Yes, I "ctrl+S" often). It doesn't take much to plunge the laptop into darkness (and me plunging into a funk).

So I decided that I'd order a new battery -- no, make that TWO new batteries, so I can NaNo anywhere my little heart desires. Went to the Dell site, discovered ONE battery is $155. Oy. Nevermind what two would cost. Definitely makes me want to pull out the pads of paper and a nice sharpened bunch of #2 Ticonderogas.

I also happened to read the "reviews" of the particular Dell batteries, and was not totally amazed to discovered that these supposed long-lasting batteries aren't, and only got more than a 1 star rating because someone gave the batteries a 5 star rating (probably they just bought theirs). Anyway, there was the statement that one person had gotten different batteries that were much cheaper and lasted way longer.

So I googled and found them much cheaper (as in, TWO of the cheaper ones are less than ONE of the Dell ones) and should have them within a week or so. They are also covered by warrantee AND have a 30-day return policy.

Nice. Then my laptop and I can travel and NaNo in various places again!
:-)
Hannah / Apple Valley
----------

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

CK cafe write in

Eldi — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:49:47 +0000

so, uh, where is everybody? I hadn't been coming because I've been busy but the first week there were people here and today it is only me and gentily lace. Where are you people?
----------

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Apple Valley Kick-off and Write-In

victorville-tess — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:37:56 +0000

Hey you High Desert Folks!

One of Life's Perks on Hwy 18 in Apple Valley has invited us back this year.

They have reserved the loft for us for Sunday Nov 1 Brunch Kick-off and Write-in 9 Am - Noon (they are only open for four hours on Sundays)

We also have the loft 7Pm until closing on Thursdays.

See you there!

Tess,
ML San Bernardino
----------
Neither writer's cramp, nor power outages, nor writer's block, nor empty coffee pot will keep us from our appointed word count.

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

The Joy of Christmas...

DoctorJest — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:17:53 +0000

A few years ago, I discovered (from my wife's suggestion) that Christmas does, indeed, work considerably better if, when it arrives, you're not zipping around like a blue-arsed fly(*), trying to get Christmas shopping done, when you could be relaxing, enjoying your time and not worrying about all of it.

The next year, I discovered NaNo. And hey presto, November became a full-on nightmare...

It's becoming difficult at the moment, because I'm aware of deadlines; deadlines to buy, to pack and ship, in order to get everything out. Plus, of course, deadlines for NaNo. Yesterday was the first day I actually fell behind my daily goal counter for my word-count; I spent the whole day trying to sort out things for Christmas. Today I'm writing, but I'm still worrying about getting Christmas sorted out at the same time...

Is it just me, or does everyone have difficulty balancing this? Or do y'all just leave it to the last minute to buy everything...?

(*) I've always assumed blue-arsed flies were bluebottles. They always seemed to be slightly more deranged than the other flies when I was a kid.
----------
"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

WriMo Anagrams

victorville-tess — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:50:40 +0000

Auntie Thorne reminded me about the annual WriMo World challenge of using a anagram of NANOWRIMO as the name of one of your charaters.

So lets see how many we can think off. Give us the anagram and how it was use: Major Charater, Minor Charater, Someone just passing through or a the name of a location in your story.

I will start us off with -

Orwin Mano - Major charater, he is the villain in my novel.

Now it's your turn, so me how wonderfully creative you can be!
----------
Neither writer's cramp, nor power outages, nor writer's block, nor empty coffee pot will keep us from our appointed word count.

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Beating the Week Two Blues

victorville-tess — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:27:36 +0000

I found this over on the YWP page - thought it might help a few of you out:

Surviving Week Two

Posted by: Tavia Stewart on 11/10/2009

The NaNo News

Keep the Week-Two Blues at Bay!
Five word-count boosting tips from NaNo HQ.

If you’re behind on your word count, know that you’re in good company. Just about every one of us here at NaNo-HQ is thousands of words behind. Thousands! But we’re not going to let this stop us from writing like a bunch of crazed monkeys this week to catch up.

Here are some of the things we’re planning on doing to get our word counts up to snuff in Week Two:

1. Writing lists. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the “Lists, Lists, and Lists of Lists” worksheet in our Novelist Workbooks, click here. As you will find, adding lists to your novel is a great way to pad that word count. Imagine how many more words you’ll have after you list every item in your protagonist’s kitchen cupboard.

2. Writing letters. Write letters to your characters. Have them write letters back. Have your characters write letters to each other. These letters can be hand-written, emailed, or sent via text message. Whatever the letter, just make sure you include it in your novel. Every word counts!

3. Writing flashbacks. Or flash-forwards! Explore your characters' childhoods and/or their futures.

4. Treating ourselves to a night off. In all seriousness, taking a night off to space out in front of the TV or curl up with a good book is essential to making it through this month. Take some time to recharge your energy!

5. Writing more lists. And then, after you’ve done items 2 through 4, return to item 1. Writing that list of all the items under your antagonist’s bed might spark that plot breakthrough you’ve been waiting for.

Taking the night off to go to yoga,
Tavia Stewart-Streit

----------
Neither writer's cramp, nor power outages, nor writer's block, nor empty coffee pot will keep us from our appointed word count.

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Online Challenge: Word of the Day

victorville-tess — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:18:41 +0000

Okay folks at Sunday morning's Write-In were were challenged to use the word DILAPIDATED in our novel. It was fun trying to work it in so I think we should have a daily word challenge and see what happens.

So the word for today (11/04) is: FRUMPY

Let's see what you can do with that. Also feel free to suggest other words to challenge us!

Tess,
ML, San Bernardino

----------
Neither writer's cramp, nor power outages, nor writer's block, nor empty coffee pot will keep us from our appointed word count.

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Thank You ML!

Topaz_witch — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:14:35 +0000

victorville-tess thank you for all the hard work you have done during nanowrimo!
----------
Characters killed: 6
Characters maimed: 1
Notebooks lost: 1
Notebooks found: 1
Things over-turned looking for notebook: 15
Current sanity level: 90%

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

when do you write?

rockmybobbysocks — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:42:19 +0000

So okay.. I've found myself not able to write during the day much. I get all distracted and unfocused. I end up writing at night, mostly late. Its really weird how I function. I'm a night .. writer.

HAH get it?

Nightwriter? HAH

all i need is a talking pen. :p named kit.

oh nevermind.
----------

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Intros and All That

rdhill316 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:37:06 +0000

Hello.

Just curious to see who's here this year, so how about a thread for introductions? Who's who, from where, that sort of thing.

My name is Robert, and I'm over in Rialto. This is my fifth year attempting NaNoWriMo, and hopefully I'll actually write enough to have a chance to finish :-)
----------

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Pomona Valley Write-In, November 1st

Writerfangirl — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:53:01 +0000

Hey there!

Continuing from last year, writers in Pomona Valley will be meeting at CK Cafe, in Claremont, on Saturday and Sunday, starting with Sunday, November 1st. The time will be based on what time people will want to meet. If you want to come, please post the time that is best available for you. I'm thinking 1 or 2PM, but we could do earlier or later. Writing tends to go all day.

CK Cafe is the best cafe I have ever been to. They have free wifi, comfy seats, and SOOO many drinks to choose from. Their assortment of tea is unprecedented. All of their tea is found in glass jars on the front counter. On Saturdays and Sundays, the indoor portion of the cafe is a quiet place and perfect for working.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/ck-cafe-claremont

CK Cafe is a bit of a hole in the wall. You can access the cafe through the patio by the parking lot or you can cut through the hallway where the bathroom is at The Danson/Espiaus.

If you are in Claremont, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Montclair, Chino, Upland, or any other surrounding city, we would love for you to join us at the Pomona Valley Write-Ins!

You can join the Pomona Valley Yahoo Group here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pomonavalleywrites/

See you at the Write-In!
----------
icon by lyn_thorne @ livejournal.com

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Novel titles?

vampyre_smiles — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:53:12 +0000

Does anyone else here have a really hard time thinking of a title for your work? I've been thinking about this particular story for a while, I've written some things and threw them out again, so I'm starting over. Maybe not from scratch, but I won't be using any of my previous writing.

But I can't think of a title, let alone a good one.
----------
Click Me!

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Scheduling Write-Ins

victorville-tess — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:58:35 +0000

Many of you have said that you would like a Write-In closer to where you live.

I could find locations and schedule them, but I don't know what would fit your schedule. So I strongly encourage you, that if you want a Write-In near you and at a time best for you, to go ahead and make arrangements with that location and let me know. I will then put it on our calendar so other know about it.

If they (where you want to have the Write-In) need a statement of NANOWRIMOs non-profit status or a letter requesting donation of a space, I can get that for you. But I need to know the when and where so I can get that paperwork done.

Here to help,
Tess
ML San Bernardino

----------
Neither writer's cramp, nor power outages, nor writer's block, nor empty coffee pot will keep us from our appointed word count.

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

How long do you write each day?

calla1199 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:57:53 +0000

Just wondering... for those of you that have goals for a set word count each day, about how long do you set aside to accomplish that? And what, if anything, do you set aside in the month of November to give you the extra time to write?

Jenn
----------

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Write in the First

AuntieThorne — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:40:03 +0000

Super nice to see Tess again and meet BB! I hope to see you both next week and maybe meet some more locals. Thank you both fo0r making my little Momma welcome. Write on!
----------

wordcount widgets
**********************************************************************************

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Making it to the mark...

DoctorJest — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:28:41 +0000

This is a curiosity as much as anything else. When I first did NaNo in 2007, even though I'd had a forest fire dislodge me and ruin my planning, I hit the 50k mark easily and thought it would be cruising the next year; but then, in 2008, I got hit by a kind of perfect storm where I lost interest in my story (which was, by that point, only being written stubbornly to keep pushing the word-count up) and then I had an explosion of stress and work-load in other parts of my life. I had, right before that, been considering dropping the 30k story and simply pushing a new novel into the line, and aiming to push the other 20k out onto that instead; but with the stress, I let it slide, and never got much past that 30k.

This year, I'm not expecting the same thing to happen; the story I'm writing now is already going well, it's held my interest for about a month so far, and there's far more to go than I could cover with writing now plus 50,000 more words during NaNo. But what are people's strategies (if they have them) for making it all the way to 50k this year?

And, just curious; what do you do when you get hit with a great idea for a short story while you're pushing out the NaNo novel? Do you just scribble it down in a notebook, like I did with mine in '07, or do you make a point of writing it while the idea's still hot and firing your imagination? Answers on a postcard...
----------
"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Write-in from Riverside ML

Cooper3 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:20:38 +0000

Landon here, Riversides Co-ML. If you don't know me, that's fine. Anyway, I just started setting up a write-in at Stell's for the first three Wednesdays at 9:00-12:30 in the morning and 5:00-8:30 at night. I know I have three people I know are coming so i'm also letting you guys know as well. here is the address:

Stell Coffee & Tea Co
1580 Barton Rd
Redlands CA

Hope to see you there. Find me with a sign I made myself. Trust me, you'll know.
----------

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Google Calendar is up and running

victorville-tess — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:51:03 +0000

Please notify me if you have an event scheduled - one-time events and/or weekly events so I can post them on the calendar and keep everyone informed. Looking forward to meeting you at our events NOV1!
----------
Neither writer's cramp, nor power outages, nor writer's block, nor empty coffee pot will keep us from our appointed word count.

USA :: California :: San Bernardino

Hot Dog! Made the Day 1 Word Quota!!

Barbry Allen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:15:24 +0000

Well, Day 1 is done, and I made just over 1,667 words. Of course, it's not that good...it needs a LOT of rewriting, but it's on paper.

How was Day 1 for the rest of the San Berdoo group?
----------