United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

<0> Unofficial write-ins: where can I go to write? (updated Oct. 11th)

tkphotog — Mon, 6 Oct 2008 13:37:22 -0700

We have folks in the following locations looking to meet up in their neighborhoods for unofficial events:

• October 13th event - Davis Square Bohemians
• Colleges of the Fenway
• MIT
• Tufts
• Northeastern (and Wentworth)
• Colleges of the Fenway
• Winthrop area
• Merrimack Valley (Lowell)
• Boston University

It's exciting to see folks planning unofficial write-ins on your own, and your MLs especially appreciate your scheduling around the official events. If anything gets set far enough in advance, please be sure to contact us (the link is on the top of the Boston forums page) so we can add it to our Google Calendar.

Folks interested in hosting an event in a specific area (a college, neighborhood, etc.,), please start a new thread for your neighborhood (like the ones above), then contact your MLs to let us know so we can link them to this thread. Posting replies to this thread gives the MLs nothing to link to. Thanks!

Cheers!

Travis (tkphotog)
co-ML with Anna (QueenOfTheUniverse)
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Municipal Liaison, Official Photographer, and Control Freak
United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

Please read: Using our Google Calendar (sticky topic)

tkphotog — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 17:01:50 -0700

Hello all--

Instead of the clunky calendar interface of past years, National Novel Writing Month is now using Google Calendars to track regional events. On the regional forums page, below the tabs, is a link called "Check your official Boston calendar of events"Check your official Boston calendar of events." Clicking this will take you to the Google Calendars website, where you'll see events listed in a calendar format. Clicking on the links will bring up an information bubble with all the information for an event.

In addition, we will continue to make forum posts for upcoming events with the same data (location, map link, MBTA transit options, etc.) in our regional forums as well, and we will try our best to cross-link this information so that everything is as accurate as possible.

If you decide to host an unofficial write-in (I think the Tufts folks are looking at just that option), please e-mail us so we can add your data to the Google Calendar. We want to do all we can to encourage folks to keep writing, and also want to do our best to make your efforts worthwhile.

While some events have been put into place on the Google Calendar, all information is tentative until a post is made to the local forums. We'll do our best to have everything confirmed before November starts, though. Anna (QueenOfTheUniverse) and I are doing our best duck imitations (Calm on the surface, but paddling like the dickens underneath) to make this year the best ever.

Cheers,
Travis (tkphotog)
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Municipal Liaison, Official Photographer, and Control Freak
United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

Emersonians FTW

thewriteidea — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:50:51 -0700

Hey, just wanted to see if there were any fellow Emersonians participating this year!
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Screnzy 08 Cecilia - WIN!
NaNo 08 - ?
Screnzy 09- ?

United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

How do you gear up for NaNoWriMo?

tkphotog — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:03:47 -0700

As the Meet and Greet approaches (details will be out soon), I wondered how different wrimos prepare for noveling.

Skipping the ML part of the prep work, I always start off with my characters and a sketchy story arc. My writing is heavily character-driven, so learning my characters, their motivations, etc., often determines where my story goes. I've never been able to get into using the index card method to organize my thoughts -- for that matter, I can't write a decent outline to save my life, either. So my entire manuscript consists of hitting events I've thought up (and occasionally written-down) and connecting the dots. The other bit of structure I add is a calendar. I decide when my story is taking place, and when those disparate events I want to include happen, so that I can do my best to keep things internally consistent.

Technologically, I format a thumbdrive specifically for NaNoWriMo-related items. These include:

* My novel, of course. I work on it on my work computer during slow periods of the day, and having the file on a thumbdrive makes that much easier. (It also makes it easier to print it out at the end of the event -- a satisfying activity.)
* Novel notes (such as they are)
* A word count chart in MS Excel. It tracks my daily word count, gives me revised daily word count goals to make it to 50k, etc. I've kept the data from the past four events on it, which comes in handy on those zero-word count days when I feel bad, and go back to discover that I had four or five of them in one year once and still finished the farposhketeh novel.

I also set up a routine to back up my files to an external hard disk drive, and keep the main copies on the hard drives on my computer.

So what do you do?
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Municipal Liaison, Official Photographer, and Control Freak
United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

Tufts Students Unite!

AnalyticalTurtle — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 11:15:41 -0700

Hey! Any Jumbos around? I'd like to start a NaNo group here on campus -- message me if you're interested! We could take over the Tower in Tisch and rock out in a literary way :)
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United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

Meet and Greet information - the official, really for-sure this time, go ahead and RSVP thread

tkphotog — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:33:07 -0700

Hello all,

This year, we're kicking off the official program of NaNoBoston events with our Meet and Greet. This is your opportunity to meet other wrimos before the event and chat, discuss, etc., in an unpressured environment before the ~~madness~~ ... er, the writing, begins.

This year, we return to the Subway restaurant near Fenway Park in Boston. It's officially official now. We were waiting to completely confirm that there was no possibility of a game at Fenway before we committed to it. (NB: National League hosts the World Series game that night, and the Sox are American League. I double-checked this to be extra sure.)

The Meet and Greet is where the magic begins. Here's your chance to meet up with other Boston Wrimos and get to know one another without worrying about making word count. There will be light refreshments and a door prize or two. The group photo will be taken at 4:30 pm sharp!

Please RSVP (acceptances only, please) to Travis at letterslight@gmail.com before October 23. Include your username in the e-mail, please, and if you're responding for others, add their names and usernames as well. Goody bags will be handed out at the end of the event only to those people who RSVP in time. Do not RSVP in the forum comments, please; e-mail only. (Do feel free to comment on other stuff in the comments, however. :->)

Details follow:

Who: You, our esteemed Wrimos.

What: The Meet and Greet

When: Saturday, October 25th, 2 - 4 pm. (See Boston's calendar of events)

Where: Subway Restaurant, Subway Restaurant, 1315 Boylston St., Boston MA 02215 (Google maps link)

Why: Because. (That's right. Just because. You folks are that cool and definitely worth it.)

MBTA: The Subway is located near the Kenmore stop on the Green Line (B,C,D lines). It is also very near the Route 55 bus (Boylston St. at Jersey St.) and a couple of blocks from the 8, 19, 60, and 65 buses (Boylston St. at Park Drive).

Driving: See the Google Maps link above for driving directions. On-street parking is metered, but can be scarce. Local parking lots (Landmark Center, Trilogy building) are pricey but convenient.

So there is it. I hope to see you all there!

Travis (tkphotog)
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Municipal Liaison, Official Photographer, and Control Freak
United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

Davis Square Bohemians...

GhostLight — Tue, 7 Oct 2008 07:27:41 -0700

So this is the thread for those of you kids who either live in Davis Square, love Davis Square, or just enjoy the concept of drinking and writing (not to be confused with drinking and driving...this is of course not to be condoned by even the most frivolous and careless or Wrimos). ::wags finger in a warning manner::

I don't have work on Monday October 13th due to the Columbus Day holiday and I don't really plan on traveling so I was thinking about making that a good day to plot and plan world domi...I mean my novel. I'm thinking of meeting up in front of The Joshua Tree in Davis Square around 5:30p, grabbing a table with whoever meets up with me then and taking over the place until I'm either too stuffed to move or too pooped to poop from all the productivity.

I'm going to definitely be there so any and all are welcome to join. I'll be the one with a notebook, pens galore, and a fun hat if you want to come by later that evening.

Back to the daily grind...looking forward to this year's crazy verbosity!
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United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

Brew'd Awakening in Lowell, MA for Merrimack Valley Wrimos?

Mrs. Cianci — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:46:38 -0700

Hi everyone,

I live in downtown Lowell, Ma, and am considering making a regular writing date on Sundays in Lowell at Brew'd Awakening Coffeehaus on Market Street.

Would anyone be interested in coming to a little unofficial write-in on Sundays? If so, let me know!. Based on interest I will probably ask the owner, Andy, if he is cool will having the word-zombies invade. They are laptop-friendly with lots of plugs and free wifi. Also, they make a fabulous array of coffee and smoothies, panini sandwiches and such.

So let me know! I will be there regardless, but if I have interest I can tack down a regular time.

Belynda
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Per ardua ad astra
Nano 2007 :: Crossing Clouds :: 50,146/50,000 (Yay!)
Nano 2008 :: The Somerset Prints :: 0/50,000 (Chomping at the bit)

United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

Colleges of the Fenway Students

meepalicious — Sat, 4 Oct 2008 20:25:13 -0700

Last year I asked if anyone was at Simmons, but are there other Colleges of the Fenway students here?
(There must be, right?)

If so, do we want to arrange write-ins at one/all of the schools sometime during the month?
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「ヤマなし、オチなし、いみなし」♥

United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

Welcome to NaNoWriMo 2008!

tkphotog — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:14:05 -0700

Greetings Boston Wrimos!

Anna (QueenOfTheUniverse) and I would like to welcome you to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) here in the Hub of the Universe, also known as the United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston region. We’re very excited to be your municipal liaisons for the third year in a row, and we’re looking very forward to making this year the best ever.

We always kick off the festivities with a Meet and Greet (M&G), held the weekend before NaNoWriMo begins. We will be providing some light refreshments, but we encourage you to come by, get whatever you like, and join us for a couple of hours of camaraderie with your fellow novelists before the madness of the month begins. The location will be announced within the next few days.

More information on upcoming events can be found on our Google Calendars page (which will be linked from this website soon). Anna and I will keep this updated with details for upcoming events. As I write this, it’s rather early in the month, so we’re still working on scheduling events for the month. However, we’ve got our basic plans in place: Two write-ins a week, one on Saturday afternoon and the other on Tuesday evening after normal working hours. We hope that by spreading the days out, we can get more people in for events, and that by keeping the days consistent we can give you more time to plan your attendance. (By the way, we love crowded events. Really. The more the merrier!)

More details will be announced as the dates draw nearer, so keep an eye on the forums and your e-mail boxes for details. And of course, feel free to e-mail Anna or me if you have questions. We always answer questions within 24 hours, and usually sooner.

Cheers,
Travis (tkphotog)
Half of your ML team, control freak, and official photographer
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Municipal Liaison, Official Photographer, and Control Freak
United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

Winthrop nano's unite!

Bloodcider — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:56:30 -0700

I know I'm not the only one who lives in this town that joined this thing. But the real question is, are there more than TWO people?
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Bloodcider's Blag

United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

Hey MIT NaNoers!

bookaholic — Sat, 4 Oct 2008 22:07:04 -0700

I'm an MIT sophomore about to start my fourth novel. Any other MIT WriMos out there? It would be great if we had enough people to hold write-ins, but even if we don't we can all commiserate here about the joys of simultaneously writing a 50,000-word novel and braving the firehose.
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2005--Deathspell: winner, and a disgrace to novelkind
2006--Out of Luck: winner, and still my favorite
2007--Ladies of the Court: winner at over 52k, with my most cohesive plot so far
2008--Teatro: we'll see!

United States :: Massachusetts :: Boston

Northeastern Students?

The Wanlorn — Sun, 5 Oct 2008 18:58:25 -0700

Anyone going to NU? Or the little college next to NU whose name I can't remember right now but I know it starts with a W?

I have gaps during my day, and it'd be fun to have somewhere to go for them that isn't the WVH computer lab. Anyone up for anything once November hits?
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