Huh?

*wave* um, hello. just joined today but i knew by beginning of october that i was going to join. this is my first time doing this and luckily two of my friends plus my boyfriend are doing this with me. and yeah, this place is very...dead. matter of fact, i think i just saw a tumbleweed run past my internet browser...

For some reason the Iowa City thread just limps along despite all the writer types you'd think would be crawling all over this site.

I did Nanowrimo for the first time last year and won. Yay me!

Hope to see you around.

I've yet to meet any writerly types since moving here in March....well with the exception of a songwriter in a heavy metal band, but those are notes, not lyrics.

Seems IC is more medical than arts to me, but I may be looking in the wrong places.

i've lived here my entire life, and i do meet a lot of artists and writers, but yeah, there's a whole bunch of medical people due to the u of i. unfortunately, to find the novel writers you have to dig deep. i was fortunate that one of my buddies in high school was a writer, my boyfriend was a writer, and now i found out there's a writer's group at my church, so i found three more novelists and one poet. did you move here for college gryf?

Nope. I have family here that offered me one of their rentals when I talked about leaving Arizona. I got called a local the other day, it was kind of funny.

Yeah... I agree it is odd that there is so little activity on here.

I've lived in IC since I was five (I am in high school now) and it has always seemed like this city is just overflowing with writers. Maybe it's just because I'm odd, but I know so many people who write... nearly all my friends do, and a lot of adults I know write on the side or have careers as writers. You'd think more of them would do nano!

Greetings and Salutations everybody!
Wow. Yeah, this place does seem a tad... what's the word? Lifeless? Vacant? Devoid of activity? The ballons and streamers are hung but the party ain't happening? Does that seem an accurate description? Anyway, I just joined Nano and I'm really excited about it. I hope more locals get into this. This city is sort of an axis in the writing community at large, in some ways, so you would expect more participants. Let's hope things pick up before November hits.

zelc_treizar is the boyfriend i mentioned earlier. we found each other by working at wal-mart supercenter (the ONLY good thing that came from that job.) see, the u of i has the writer's workshop, but i believe you have to be a grad student of the u to be able to get in, even then it's elite. like i said, some people have to really dig, others find them in odd places (like wal-mart...)

Yeah, I read about that elitist "workshop" and I completely disagree with the notion. A degree is not required to be a successful writer. I can't even say that it helps, because it doesn't.

I've learned more in 14 years of writing from my peers and myself than I have from my teachers, and I studied for three years under a successful novelist. He set me on the right path, and left the rest up to me. Best teacher ever.

On another but related topic, I'd be interested in either starting or joining a local workshop.

i completely agree with you gryf. people automatically think you need to study to write, yet out there in the world are the best writers without formal training. your lucky that you got to study under a sucessful author, not everyone can say that. honestly, i've seen some 9th graders write better than some of the professionals out there. (don't get me started on harlequin romance novels though...) some of the best ideas written down are the ones that never get published, which is sad.

I made a thread about getting together back in September, but it got deleted when the forums got cleaned up. Since then, midterms have consumed my life.

:wave: Hellos to all of you, fellow writers, novelists and poet-thingies.

It is true, the U of I is terribly elitist and crazed, but I do happen to know someone in the non fiction writer's workshop, and that I do believe requires some degree of a, well, a degree. In something. I guess. Maybe. Hm.

Anyhoot - I am also a writer, discovered latent abilities in third grade, stopped writing in order to doodle for many years, and picked up a pen again in junior high 'cos I couldn't doodle one more wigged out eyeball. Needless to say, I still doodle. Alas.

I am extremely interested in this NaNoWriMo thing... I've never done it, but I have written one novel, which Zelc_Trainer has been kind enough to read for me. I look forward to attempting this novel writing thing again. Should be grand fun. From a former U of I'er (gradiated with mie edukation, I did, in Dec '08) to all others, former, present, and not so former, let's have some fun and do this thing! :-D

I'm not exactly in the IC, but this is about as close as I think I'm going to get at NaNo. I'm in Keokuk. My husband works in Mt. Pleasant and may be getting a job in Fairfield, so we'll be moving up that direction before too long. I would love to be a part of a writing group and would probably be able to once we move north a bit.
Lissa

Man, I've been in Iowa City for three years and have met all sorts of writer-types. Granted I'm an English major. I think there are indeed a number of "elitist " writers running around this town, but there are plenty more down-to-earth ones (hopefully I'm in the latter!). I'm looking forward to meeting some of you (hopefully all).

This city is crawling with writers of all stripes; it's disappointing that more of them aren't taking part in Nanowrimo. Good luck to everyone!!

Haha, I love the depth of this thread title. I'm an IC writer and proud to say it...I'm only at 8,000 and I'm not so proud to say it. I need to pick up the pace...I didn't even join this site until a few days after it started, heheh *kicks can*

I live in the U of I writing community as well...I don't think it's so "elitist" and "crazed" as people make it out to me. Granted, for being world-renowned it doesn't quite match up to my expectations, but I'm paying to go here so I'm not going to talk too much trash about it.

Y'know, I've lived here all of my life and have had the honor to meet writers from all over the world (such as Kenya, Mexico, Malaysia, Egypt and more) thanks to the U of I's writing workshop. I went to the alternative high school for three years and would highly recommend trying to find out if they are still offering that class, as it wouldn't be a bad idea to volunteer to help out in it - but you'd really be volunteering to listen to these wonderful people, but nobody has to know. ;D

I don't see why we NaNoWriMo participants couldn't start up our own writing workshop. I'm sure the library would love to offer us one of their meeting rooms to hold a monthly group. I'd gladly participate if anyone else is interested in starting it up with me.

I don't see how any of you really see IC as elitist in some aspects, but then again, though I've lived here for 18+ years, I may not have met the same groups of people you've met - but then again, that leaves room for me to have met groups of people that you haven't met. xD

I'm not really sure how often I'll check back here, as my word count just jumped to 3609 today - I scrapped my first one point something thousand word story earlier today, and started writing a new one. I wonder how many novelists actually hate the stories they write, because I sure do. It's fun, but I don't like it. :/

There is actually a workshop that's going to start in January at the Coral Ridge Barnes and Noble. We'd be more than happy to have you!

Its the second and fourth Thursday of every month, from January on, at 7pm.

There's another thread in this forum about it a bit more.

On another note, I will have to retract my elitist comments. I've meet some great people so far this NaNo, its just unfortunate that the people I met first were the snobby, writerly than thou types.