How did you find out about NaNo

I assume you are joking.

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"I wouldn't go in there well-armed, tired of living, and directly behind Frank Buck."

Uppity little whipper-snapper. I oughta whack ya with my cane. If I could get outa this here rockin' chair...

I was opening Word documents before you waz born, Cake. And programming 'em before that. Why... back in my day... We didn't have all these fancy-shmancy megabytes and gigabytes. No sir! We had bytes and kilobytes. If you couldn't write decent code in less than 64K you weren't worth nothing as a programmer. And we was sending astronauts to the moon and back with nothing more than that. Why I tells ya... come in here, acting like ya knowz things...

Now... um... hmmm... I can't remember where I heard about it. Dang! Quit laughing, Cake. It'll happen to you some day too. And it was just last Friday. I think it was an MSN article. But I knew about it before that. Just never did anything about it before that. And then I read the article on Friday and figured out it was just the kick in the pants I was looking for, and so here I am.

10/20/2009 - Just remembered, it was a Yahoo How-To article, not an MSN article.

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An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered. - G. K. Chesterton

Those sort of comments usually come from the teenagers; though they do tend to be even more direct. Like, "Wow, I didn't know people your age were still alive."

Edit - Hmmm, just re-read your post. Are you 34 years (old) & missed a word or 34 years to(o) young (better watch out for the grammar police), in which case you are a teenager so well done for asking a relatively sensible question for your age :-)

Or it could just be me who's confused but I have a good excuse :-)

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Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon!

HA! I was a mainframe computer operator, programmer and systems analyst before you were a twinkle in your fathers' eye.

BTW you're never too young for this forum, you are welcome as long as long as you don't assume we're ignorant about computers and if you can put up with our arthritis, sciatica and failing memories. Because I'm not quite sure how I heard about NaNo. Google, I think. I more or less forgot about it again when some time later a blogging friend wrote a blogpost that he was going to do NaNo. Then I decided to sign up.

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2008: Lapis Lazuli (historical fiction) - WON! (57K)
2009: Vicit Vim Virtus (historical fiction)

Cake, dear, you are welcome to ask any questions of us you want. LOL! I was a word processing operator in my young days and was playing computer RPG games before you were born. I, too, know people my age who have never used a computer. It's very frustrating that I can't send email to my best friend. Aaargh!

I learned about Nano through one of my teenage daughters. She needed a driver to get her to the Oct. 31 kickoff party and the write-ins. I figured, I'm going anyway, I might as well do it, too. This will be my third year, and, yes, she can do her own driving now. :)

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2007 Southland (pfft)
2008 Inheritance (still working on it)

Cake,

My mother-in-law is 92 & she has a snazzy laptop & emails, downloads photos, etc etc etc. It's always dangerous to stereotype folks--HINT: Seniors & mid-lifers don't like it anymore than the younger generation does. ^_^ You're welcome to hang around in here, we are a very inclusive bunch & not all that thin-skinned (aheemmmmm!) So ask away!

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~Mer
ML-Modesto Region, CA
Co-moderator: NaNo Rebels thread

"Put 'em up! Put 'em uuuup!!"

Cake wrote:

You need to get to know more 50+ year old people, age groups, like any pigeonhole-ing tactic, are as diverse as you allow them to be.

Look around, here for instance.

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Chance is only Fate using a pen name ~ ej runyon

'01 Your Little Red Book...'02 Treasure Island Vin Rose (win)...'03 A House of Light and Stone (win)..'05 Good People (win)..'06 Subway Tunes (win)...'07 900 miles (win)
'08 Bridge to Story

Well you young whippersnapper, I'll have you know that when I wrote my master's thesis in 1982 it was typed on a COMPUTER! Yep, while my husband paid some typist vast quantities of money to type up his, I was on the leading edge of computer technology using giant computer with incredibly primitive word processing software to type up my 100+ pages but by golly, it worked and here I am today, still using one (albeit much smaller)! ;-)

As to how I heard about NaNo, another ancient 50-something yr old friend told me about it this past summer while I was visiting Dallas. It sounded like fun so signed up and convinced my daughter to give it a shot as well. I think it will be a blast!

Hmmm. I built my first PC in my cellar in 1975, using plans that a friend and I developed. It had 8K RAM and an audio tape interface (couldn't afford the 350 dollars for a 100k floppy drive) using a converted TV as a display. It worked great and kept me programming and playing around until my Apple II+ arrived in 1980. I still work with PCs in a scientific environment, and I've got about 10000 hours of flight simulation.

However --- I too know a lot of over-60s who are intimidated by the darn things. When they ask me to help, all I do is intentionally screw it up, just to show them that, except for a few key commands, there's very little that will seriously harm the machine in any permanent way.

I also know 2 90-year olds who took up computers just 5 years ago and who now do photo retouching, email, web surfing, YouTube and Twitter. Go figure.

Anyhow, I found out about NaNo from Chris's book "No Plot, No Problem" which I found in a local book store. Fortunately I found the book in October and was super-psyched come Nov 1st.

And welcome CakeIsForReal. Don't let us grumpy old guys scare ya off. By all means stop in and say Hello and let us know how your 2009 effort is going. Best of luck! I'll be looking forward to hearing about your 50,001st word.

I know you're kidding, right? I've worked with various softwares since the 1970s, including some of the first typesetting abd spreadsheet softwares created (remember Lotus 1 2 3... yuk!). I also remember when the Internet was just getting started (I worked for a college networking department at that time). Just because we're older doesn't mean we don't know or understand technology.

Perhaps you might think about expanding your acquaintances. LOL

I was introduced to NaNoWriMo by a friend in an online writer's group back in 2004, and I try to participate every year.

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2004: Daniel In The Lion's Den (mystery/suspense)
2005: Two Women And A Girl: EGG, MAT, and MSG (mystery/suspense)
2007: Finding Emma Jane (fictionalized memoir)
2009: Foreplay (mystery/suspense)

I think you need to find a different set of 50+ people. I was programming computers before you were born. And I have some 70+ relatives who own and use computers.

As for how I found out about Nano, I think it must have been some writers forum or other. I realized that the Nanowrimo they were talking about was based on a book I'd bought a month before but hadn't read yet. I dug the book out and started reading it, and decided to do Nano.

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2005 In Back of the North Wind WINNER!
2006 Leopard's Paw WINNER!
2007 The Old Straight Track (finished) WINNER!
2008 The Other Side of the Wall (finished) WINNER!
2009 Dark Inheritance

There’s nothing the baby-boomer-plus generation can’t do! Frankly, we are the reason why technology is constantly changing.

In response to your question: While searching for local writing groups, I came across the NaNo site and thought the connection with other writers might inspire me to finish writing…one of the “eleven” half-written novels stored on the hard drive of my laptop and pc. As a technical writing, I do a lot of writing for other folks but very little for myself. I am looking to change that this year by completing and publishing a mainstream novel.

It would also be nice to find a few writing buddies/friends (ages 45 to 80) near the Upper Marlboro area to hangout with and talk to.

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jeteakp
Freelance Technical Writer

How terribly funny! I've been playing on the 'net longer than this adorable puppy has been breathing, and piddling with computers for a decade longer than *that*.

We *invented* computers, grasshopper. Shoot, my next-door neighbor built one in his basement in 1963.

I heard about NaNo online; where exactly, I don't recall. It's been eight years, after all...and you know how old folks' memories are. ;->

Cake, you need to meet more 50+ year olds, as you probably know by now!

Unfortunately, I also know people my age and older - and younger - who for whatever reason refuse to get connected with technology. I think most of them would have more fun and be more in touch if they lost their attitude/fear/condescension/whatever and joined the party.

I'm by no means a trained techie but I created my first home page during an all-night session using plain old HTML - approximately the year you were born.

In my long working life I've used word processing technology from manual typewriters to electrics to Selectrics, through magnetic-card and cassette-tape standalone WP machines, then mainframe IBM systems with workstations, and finally into the current age.

My desktop at home is a gorgeous 24" iMac, I own/use a Toshiba smallish notebook for work, and I take my Eee PC 1000HE along on my world travels. Along with my iPod, two digital cameras, Amazon Kindle, noise-cancelling headphones and digital voice recorder. I figure that as long as my carry-on bags are full of more electronic toys than medications, I'm still good to go.

To answer your question: I learned about NaNo online somewhere a few years ago, too late to do it that year. I can't remember if ione or two years went by before I finally got myself signed up - last year.

I was the oldest person at our NaNo writing meetups here in the Denver area, but everyone was kind about it and I enjoyed meeting everyone.

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2008 NaNo winner

There was a column in our local newspaper.

Just to join in the "let's make a piñata out of The CakeIsForReal" sub-thread, just who do you think *invented* the PC/Mac?

I started with computers (time-share, phone cradle modems, paper tape storage in those days) in the early 1970s. By 1975, I had learned Fortran (the appropriately-named "WatFor") and was running punch card batch jobs regularly. I even made some college money as a keypunch operator (great future in keypunch-dom, they told us: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keypunch). I also did paste-up for money in college, another defunct profession.

I was not allowed to use the lab's computer for my 1982 Master's thesis, but for the 1985 PhD, my boss let me use the word processing terminal at night when his secretary went home. I wrote between 5 pm and 8 am each night, shuttling back and forth between the darkroom (oops, there's another defunct skill) and a Xerox word processor with 8.5" floppy disks.

In my department, I'm still the Alpha Geek, but I am pretty much a fool when it comes to networking issues and I get frustrated because I used to know what every file on my computer was doing, and now I don't even understand what's up with huge blocks of programs. We have lost what in computers was ours, a sordid boon!

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In fairness to Cake, I'll admit that my grandmother, who's 103, does think that computers are beyond her. She finds it fascinating, though, to see what they can do, not scary. But my dad, who's coming up on 80, manages just fine. Of course, he started using one on the job in 1967...

I will answer Cake's question: I first learned about Nano from a student of mine. He was 16 and mentioned that he was writing a novel for nano. It was a couple of years later that I looked into it for myself.

As far as 50+ not being computer literate, I find both extremes in the retirement community I currently reside. Some in our writer's group are lucky to be able to open a word document and email, while others are programmers and such. Remember people our age did invent the p-c. My significant other got his first Apple from Steve Wozniak's garage.

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All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary -- it's just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.
- Somerset Maugham
2008~Weeping Women Springs **won**
2009~The Waning Muses

I first learned about Nano from a writing Yahoo Group, back when it was still wet behind the ears. Back then there wasn't a forum, just a Yahoo Group for the smattering of Nano participants. I chickened out about signing up. The next year, they had their first real forum, and after hemming and hawing until 10/26, I signed up.

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Cheryl
The Piker Press
Many of us spend half of our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half our time wishing. --Alexander Woollcott

Hi Cake,

Wow, I couldn't Not respond to this thread. You are definitely hanging with the wrong crowd of 50+-ers. =)

Yes, true there are those who are completely technology challenged, but there are also plenty who have had technology as an integral part of life (well ... ok, for me, that would be since I was in my 20s. I'm 50, so the dinosaurs roamed the earth when I was a kid -- or it feels like it sometimes). I'm not alone amongst my crowd in being a "go to gal" on all things technology-related (even to my 20-something niece and nephews). And, I've got at least two friends who are doing excellent blogs on user technology. :-P

So, I'll stop bragging now and get to your question: I found out about NaNo through an online writers' group (through MediaBistro) about 6 or 7 years ago.

Good luck with NaNo!!

Disc-is-full, you're in Denver? I'm in Aurora! Small world.

My first computer was the Adam, which I think was the very first PC. That was in the mid-80s. After that I went with a Smith-Corona portable. Neither of these had hard drives, btw, and the Adam was kind of glorified printer. Since then, I've had a Packard Bell and 3 or 4 Compaq Presarios, including my laptop. I tried an HP, but returned it within a week, it was so buggy. I also ordered a Dell, but they screwed me around so much that I canceled my order and went back to Compaq Presarios.

I studied Fortran and Pascal in college, plus scientific information retrieval, a course on how to search via computer using Boolean, way long before the Internet was a twinkle in Mr. Gore's eye. ;-) All of this is the mid-80s. I also used a scientific calculator for my courses. I don't know how to use a slide rule, however.

I really wish I'd majored in IT.

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2005 In Back of the North Wind WINNER!
2006 Leopard's Paw WINNER!
2007 The Old Straight Track (finished) WINNER!
2008 The Other Side of the Wall (finished) WINNER!
2009 Dark Inheritance

I was told about NaNo on a Tolkien message board five years ago. I didn't get very far that year - some 8 thousand words - but the guy who told about it, had a couple of wins already. He's close to fifty as well, either below or above ...

And I bought my first laptop in 1987. Toshiba T1000. 1 MB RAM, two floppy drives and no harddisk.

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Excuse me? I am SURE you did not mean to insult anyone. There are, in fact, many people over 50...yes, even over 50..who know how to use a computer. I actually work with one all day long...arrgghhh.

Anyway, to your question....

Two years ago my daughter (16 at the time) wanted to go to a gathering at some coffee shop. From this I found out that in a few days she was going to begin writing a novel. Well, I couldn't be outdone by a 16 year old, and it sounded like fun, so I gave it a shot. Ended up getting to about 30,000 words, decided I really didn't have much of a story, and quit. She won..guess she outdid me after all. Last year we both won, and this year my 15 year old, my sister, her 16 year old, maybe my wife, and perhaps my 12 year old son are joining me. Of course, most of them are young and thus very good at computers :-)

Well, I do know quite a number of over 50's who avoid computers as much as possible. I resisted them for many years until my kids had them. Now I love 'em but still get all kerfluffled by them sometimes.

Back in mid-September, as I meandered in my state of unemployment, I recalled that I had once signed up to a blogger site but had never started my blog. Well, I went ahead and started my blog, http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/ , and as I started networking with some of the other blogs on the topic of writing, I started hearing about this NaNo thing. Writing a novel has been one of my dreams for 40 years, but I've never done anything but write a bunch of notes, outlines, and snippets. Now I've found the motivation to just get it done. My regular blogging schedule has been wonderful practice of getting me in the writing habit.

By the way, I have no idea what I'm going to write about, which I've done on purpose, because I want the challenge of totally starting from scratch.

Back in '02, my daughter, then a high school freshman, found out about NaNo. I'm not sure how, although a good guess would be by just following links on the 'net. She talked it up and managed to get one of her friends and me to agree to participate along with her. I signed up on Oct 31, planning to work from a 10 minute writing practice I'd done that looked promising. Up until then I'd only written short stories and had no idea what I was in for! I did manage to get about 12K, I think. My daughter and her friend both reached 50K, and even got an article written about them in their high school newspaper.

Reading all the comments on our collective experience with computers has brought back so many memories! Mag card typewriters ... Fortran ... punch card stacks dropped on the floor ... floppy discs that actually flopped.

Like so many, I bristle at any comments about how 'older folks' don't understand computers. My general response is to ask the speaker to take a good look at Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and 'remind' them that our generation brought computers from room-size to something that could sit on your desk. And follow that with a comment that any age group has people who are comfortable with computers and those who aren't. It's about how your brain functions, not your age.

Maybe there's hope for my NaNo this year - I'm certainly getting a lot of words in here!

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“It only has to be written. It doesn’t have to be perfect.” - Elizabeth Bear

I heard about NaNo through fellow writers. It was my daughter, who is also a writer, that convinced me to join her in a NaNo writing dash several years ago.

I've had many home computers since the first Apple IIc came out in the early 1980's and used them daily in my business until I retired. I'm 70 and within the past year have bought another new computer and a laptop. As someone else has said, I think you might perhaps have a limited view of the capabilities of those who are more mature and more experienced than your generation.

I found out about it from my sister, who is two years younger than me. She discovered it through a writing group.

I thought everyone used computers now. Admittedly, my husband is barely competent to read his email without help, but my parents both have computers (they are in their 70s). I've been using computers since the late 70s, when I took some programming courses in college. Sometimes it still amazes me what modern machines can do.

Now if only I'd had the foresight to take keyboarding skills 101 ... then maybe I could type a little faster.

How did I find out about NaNo? Online! lol

That's the short version. The TMI version is:
I got inspired to write something other than poetry by a 62 year old catalyst-telepath writer whom I met on a mutual interest bulletin board. I consider this gem a Muse. I have up till now sat on my writing since teenhood. About 250 years ago.

Then I got moving and discovered worlds upon worlds of writers, local to international to cyber.

I'd heard of NaNo and didn't focus on it for quite some time. No time, not something I could possibly do, I thought.

Well, then along comes October and ....I break. The bird fights its way out of the egg. So here I am.

(And by the way I am not an IT qualified person but know my way around a computer, Internet, various word processors, Blogspot, Facebook, LiveJournal... But I draw the line at Twitter!!! Won't go there till I have a platform.)

And my 84 yr old mom is learning how to email and web surf. My stepdad spends beaucoup time on EBay and other shopping sites.

(And my word processing experience goes from manual Smith Corona to Selectrics to System 6s to IBM Mag Cards to 286s with MS-DOS to Windows. Go, Word Perfect!!! Oops, I left out phototypesetters. Maybe I should write a novel whose period is the 1970s just so you youngerish types can have a clue about what we grew up with. ROFL.)

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You have cut yourself a shape on the air -- Christopher Fry

I found out in 2003 from a Live Journal friend who dragged me kicking and screaming into my first attempt. (which I did finish that year BTW)

And yes - she's my age too.

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Jean.

"Crazy people speak to the voices in their head - writers tell others what the voices say." - unknown

[In reverse order:]

Oh, sweetie, I was using computers before your parents were even able to read. I used my first computer in 1977 -- admittedly that computer was bigger than most desks, and was connected to a server that filled an entire room. My first experience with a desktop computer was in 1985, and I've been using Word in all its various forms since long before there was a Windows Operating System.

I first found out about NaNoWriMo through an interview on NPR, on October 27th, 2003. I signed up that day and haven't looked back since.

Everyone's welcome here in the over 50 forum -- ask us anything you want: how else are you going to learn that even though we're as old (or older) than your grandparents, we are still as vital and connected to the world as many of your peers.

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_________________________
Samantha
Spokane, WA - Municipal Liaison (2003-2009)
Age Group: 50-Plus - Moderator

As others have implied, you seriously have the wrong age group if you think 50 plus is too old for computers. Now if you said 80 plus you might have a point, but still "most" would be inaccurate. I get annoyed with my 85 year old mother because she won't use them, but not only is that a whole other generation, but most people her age are on the internet regularly.

We had word processing--an old IBM tape system--when I started practicing law in 1969. I bought my first word processor in about 1977, a Zerox one-line display, and have worked wkith them ever since. Most people in my age range--which is rapidly approaching 65--no longer use dictation. We all have computers at our desks and do our own "typing." Secretaries are a dying breed.