Peterborough and the Kawarthas

I'm a half time P'Bo resident - aka homesick Trent student transplanted from Hamilton. :)

I was a homesick Trent student once too (displaced from Ottawa/Nepean), but somehow I ended up sticking around. It's hard to believe it's been twelve years since I graduated!

I am for the first time :)

Hi silversomber! I see we're both Neil Gaiman fans. ;-)

So that makes three of us so far. You guys want to do the buddy thing? I find it always helps to know there's other crazy writers in the same town.

I'm back again. This year will be a bit more of a challenge - especially in finding time, but I'm trying anyways.

Welcome back, jerm! Keeping pace with you last year was one of the things that kept me on my toes. ;-)

This year will be harder for me, too. I don't forsee my non-writing activities being any more demanding than last year (it was pretty crazy then, too), but I now have several other big writing projects on the go. So it will be especially challenging to not give in to the temptation to work on those, and just focus on new novel for a whole month.

Well, I shall do my best this year, but perhaps the odds are stacked against us equally. :)

South West of Peterpatch checking in.

Sorta halfway between Toronto and Peterborough, but I know more Peterborough people so joined this region.

Am i making any sense?

So, hi all. I like the mutual region buddie idea - any motivation by watching others word count climb is welcomed by me and I will add you all as buddies unless that is not welcomed.

I don't know what I'm in for (first year doing this) but going to make the best of it.

Hey nyarlwriter, welcome aboard.

There's a newbie forum that might help ease you into things:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/forum/177

Otherwise, just feel free to shout if you have any questions. I'll warn you that the forums can be addictive and very distracting, so you might want to make a rule for yourself once November starts that you can only check the boards *after* you've written something. That's what I'm going to do, anyhow.

Well, I'll be hanging in the forums throughout the entire torture session - because I'll be foruming from work.

I would have thought more PeterPatch people would be here?

Maybe too early yet.

Looking forward to Nov 1st and the insanity that will bring.

Chiming in from 'East City' end of Peterborough.

After experiencing last year's manuscript madness, I am fully committed to another season of insanity in 2007......Uh.....maybe I should be committed---we're talking insanity here.

Last year, Nano didn't have a region for us, so things are definitely looking up!

Hi wordsprite! I've added you as a buddy - the more Peterborough-ians the better (or is it Peterborough-ites? our city doesn't lend itself well to suffixes).

wordsprite - I added you as well.

Heh I'm here for my first year, and I'm probably one of the younger ones in this city doing this.

Duplicate post deleted.

Fishcat, Nyarlwriter, good to see you here. I guess we'll have something to discuss at the next reading night...

I believe the term "Peterpudlians" has a certain ring to it...

It's great to see so many Peterpudlians willing to sacrifice sanity in the pusuit of inanity. I think I'll buddy you all, unless someone screams some form of emphatic denial.

Hey Silvaris, welcome aboard!

Sasquatch: "Peterpudlians"? Is that a reference to our penchant for once-in-a-hundred-years flooding every couple of years? (puddles, and all...)

It's looking like we've got a bigger Peterpatch (and area) crowd this year than last - we should get together for a writing session sometime. I know, I'm getting ahead of myself - it's not even November yet! But it'll be here before we know it. Hope everyone has at least some inkling of what their novel is going to be about! If not, well - winging it is that much more exciting, right?

The more Peterpatchians the better. Added you FlamingS and Silvaris as well.

And a writing hook-up at some point in Novemeber would be good. Also, Carol Anne has joined but with author search down I can't find her yet.

So add one more when we find her.

And plot? Who needs that?

Also, anybody test how fast they write? I did yesterday and cranked out around 300 words in 5 minutes - so - as long as my fingers keep typing I should be able to do this thingy in one month.

Good luck.

I haven't actually tested my typing speed in ages, but it used to be around 30wpm, give or take. That means ~1 hour to actually crank out 1600 words. Add in time for distractions (forums, stretching, ass scratching, etc.) and I estimate I'll be working on this thing for about 2 to 3 hours every day...

I've never officially clocked my wpm, but I do know that I can type faster than I can *write*. Unless I'm doing real stream-of-consciouness stuff, in which case I might actually close my eyes and try to keep pace with my thoughts (makes for more typos, but those can be edited). Usually, though, I spend some of the writing time just thinking, so I probably average anywhere between 1k and 1500 words an hour, depending on how in the zone I am. I have managed up to 2k in one hour, when I was really inspired - but I find that kind of pace is hard to maintain if I want the prose to actually make sense and be somewhere near gramatically correct.

Moved to Lindsay this year...never done anything like this before.

Me neither, juner. There's a first time for everything.

All aboard! No idea where we're going, but we're gonna go as FAST AS WE CAN!

fishcat: I've heard your S.O. state that hearing you typing in the next room is rather like listening to someone energetically shaking a box of chicklets. That places you in a typing league way beyond my mortal realm.

Wonder how fast is going to be fast enough? 30 days. Hmm...lets see...thats about 1667 words per day...wonder if I'll have to quit my day job!

I think most of us expect to spend an average of 2 hours a day doing this - perhaps double that on weekends. If you can type somewhere around 30wpm then 2 hours should be enough time to write 1600 words, factoring in distractions and pauses for thought.

Of course, if you want to quit your day job, don't let me stop you.

Hi Juner!

Yeah, 2 hours on average sounds about right. It's probably best to try to do it all at once, but if your free time is tight you can split it up into multiple sessions. I find the key thing is to minimize the number of distractions. I try to do all my NaNo writing on my laptop since it's an ancient hunk o' junk that doesn't have an internet connection or.. well, anything else at all on it except Word. It's a really bad idea to think, "I'll write for a bit, then browse the forums, then write for a bit"... it's much better to shut (preferably lock) the door, unplug the phone, disconnect your modem, and tell everyone to bugger off (nicely of course). Ideally, if you're technically clever, you could connect some kind of nasty device to deliver an electric shock through the mouse or keyboard if you even attempt to open up any gaming or otherwise frivolous software.

I'm told that for those who follow some kind of regular routine, scheduling it into your day like an appointment can work. My schedule is pretty chaotic, so I usually default to writing late at night after everyone else is asleep. By the end of the month, my blood is about 90% caffeine and skittles. I don't really recommend that route for anyone trying to stay sane though. ;-)

Well being already driven to insanity and in normal times having my blood 70% Caffiene I think I'd be safe to take your route Fish :P

I've got a timeline for my story, and I've realised that I am not a nice author to characters, I kill off over half of them, and they do not revive like some DragonballZ crap >>;;

Now to write bios, draw out the Continent of Nayru
Sketch landmarks,
draw characters...all in 6 days o.o

[quote}Sasquatch: "Peterpudlians"? Is that a reference to our penchant for once-in-a-hundred-years flooding every couple of years? (puddles, and all...)

Indeed! Gettin' in a muddle in the muddy Peter-puddle... Peterpudlians - semi-aquatic by necessity.

I bought a house down on the flood plain. What was I thinking?

I'm not very nice to my characters either. I tend to throw them into all sorts of horrible situations, and sometimes even the main protagonist doesn't come out of it alive. Then again, sometimes the characters wander into the haunted house all by themselves, so it's their own darn fault. (Okay, so I've never actually written a haunted house story - maybe I should. It is that time of year, after all.)

You're mad, I tell you, mad... We were obviously prescient, since ours is at the top of a very tall hill (I knew there was a reason; that and keeping our legs in shape).