Europe :: England :: Southampton

Apologies and Ending Drinks?

plv — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:47:47 -0800

Hi all,

Sorry I've not been online much recently, I came down with a horrid virus that kind of wiped me out and have spent most the last week in bed! So I'm very sorry I didn't organise a write-in for today.

NaNoWriMo's nearly over, I was wondering if anyone was interested in post-NaNoWriMo drinks to celebrate the end and our stellar word count.

My plan - Monday 1st Dec
Southampton, the same wetherspoons (as I'm still poor) as before - directions and details are in the earlier post about the launch party. The pub is the Standing Order and it's on Southampton High Street.

Do let me know if you can come.

Regards

plv
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

Anyone/Write-ins in Portsmouth?

literarydeadkittens — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:20:20 -0800

I was just wondering if there's anyone in the Portsmouth area planning on a write-in before the end, or at least, more southwards of Soton??
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

any write-ins on monday 24th november in southampton??

IzzyT — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:01:28 -0800

is anyone doing a write in on the 24th november as i am free, as long as it's in southampton. if there is do we have to bring our own laptop??? i don't have my own. ='(
please tell me if there is one.
if in the morning then im free from ten until 2
and
four onwards.

IzzyT

p.s. my dad would be coming if there is one as i am 13.
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

Monday, write-in in pub, Royal Oak Winchester

plv — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:31:01 -0800

Sorry it's last minute,

But is anyone up for a write-in tonight in the basement of hte Royal Oak in Winchester?

This time we will remember an extension cable.

From 7pm ish.

Ella
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

Help, I need some ficticious charities!

Anglomary — Fri, 7 Nov 2008 10:00:59 -0800

I'm stuck. My novel is about a young guy who gets left millions in a will but only gets it if he distributes (within a year) £1 million to six named charities through personal involvement. This is personally vexing to the guy because:
a) He doesn't do charity
b) He doesn't do compassion
c) He hates prisons, assylum seekers/immigrants, druggies, the elderly, the disabled and the homeless for various reasons I won't go into here.

At first I started looking up real charities but soon got tired of the gazillion number out there and it would be less research and more fun to make up my own but my mind is jelly at the moment.

Feel free to think up a name for a charity related to the above and which group they help. Any further expansion on how the guy could get involved would be cool.

Thanks in anticipation.

Mary
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

Mid-way Party and Write in now Sat. 15th November

plv — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:33:40 -0800

Hi all,

This Saturday coming, the 15th November, we will be organising a write-in at the Art House cafe in Soton. I've booked out a room from 1-5pm so please come along. We've got the room free although donations to help the Art House with it's running costs would be welcome.

After the tea and coffee fuelled write-in, we will head to a near-by pub for a drink and too celebrate being half-way through NaNoWriMo.

The cafe's website is here:
http://www.thearthousesouthampton.co.uk/

There's a map here. It's on Bedford Place, not too far from Southampton Central Station.
http://www.thearthousesouthampton.co.uk/Contact.htm

Also, the write-in in Winchester this evening is ON. Meet 7pm in the basement of the Kings Head Pub on Winchester High Street.

plv aka Ella
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

An English Woman's Character

The Grapixeye — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:56:39 -0700

Hi:

I'm an American, living in Portland, Oregon and taking part in the Novel Writing Month. I'm a former tech and humor writer (don't ask) for the Washington Post. Now a professional photographer and graphic designer.

One of the characters in my proposed novel is a "proper" English lady. I was wondering if any woman (or man with a lot of insight) would consider being a sounding board for some of my ideas during this process? I've been to Southampton a couple of times. I'll be traveling during the whole month of November visiting family in Finland and ending on holiday in Spain. Any help would be appreciated.

Email me if you are interested. Thanks again.
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

Introduction thread

NoelaniUki — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:08:41 -0700

Hello Southampton Wrimos!

So, the forums have been wiped from last year ready for this year's discussions, and I think it's time I introduced myself (a little late, as usual.)

In answer to someone's question on the other thread, yes, there are in fact two MLs for the Southamption region (you lucky people!) - myself (I'm Jenny), and Ella (username plv, I'm sure she'll be along to introduce herself soon). We've already met up and started going through a few ideas, so hopefully this year the Southampton Region will have a fairly eventful NaNoWriMo!

We're considering a few places for write-ins and some ideas for a kick-off event - speaking of which, have any of you heard of The Art House on Bedford Place? On November 1st, very appropriately, they are hosting a talk by a newly published local first-time author. If anyone would like to come along, please let us know - the Art House have also kindly agreed to let us use their space for write-ins, but I would be very grateful if I could have a show of hands (virtually speaking, of course) so I can let them have some idea of numbers.

And of course, if any of you have any ideas of your own that you'd like to suggest, please feel free! All ideas and suggestions are valued and will be very welcome, so don't hesitate to NaNoMail Ella or myself, or to post them right here on the forum.

So now, all that remains is for you to introduce yourselves!

Remember to keep an eye on the forum for more updates, and most importantly, Happy NaNo-ing.

Jenny x
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

This monday, write-in in Winchester

plv — Thu, 6 Nov 2008 05:47:40 -0800

Please let me know if you're interested in coming as a comment to this post or the one on the lj-community.

If there's not sufficient interest I'll not do it this Monday.

The lj community is here:
http://community.livejournal.com/sotonnanowrimos/

plv
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

Southampton Write-in and mid-way party Thursday 13th November

plv — Tue, 4 Nov 2008 05:25:51 -0800

Hiya,

Is anyone interested in a southampton based write in next week? I was thinking Thursday, but we could do it the Saturday afterwards.

And, is anyone interested in a mid-way party?

I'm planning events in advance, so please let me know if you could make them.

Regards

plv AKA Ella
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

When you're stuck...

plv — Thu, 6 Nov 2008 03:17:27 -0800

Raymond Chandler apparently said that whenever he got stuck, he would write:

'And then a man came through the door with a gun in his hand'

and go from there.

For my NaNo novel last year, I would write description when I was stuck or when I really needed a few hundred extra words to hit that day's target. Other tactics I've tried, when you're stuck, introduce a new character (or set of characters). Or write a different scene, it doesn't matter if your scenes tail off in the first draft, you can tidy them up later. For last years novel, if I got too stuck, I;d just have pirates attack. For this one, I have Vampire hunters attack the main character, there's nothing like a random event to help things along.

There's a forum of dares somewhere on this site, if you're stuck you can try one of those. Or try hitting random on wikipedia and getting something from the page that comes in into your novel. Remember the point is to get the creative juices flowing again.

Feel free to comment about how you deal with being stuck or anything related in this post.

plv
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

Winchester Write-ins: Manic Mondays

plv — Sat, 1 Nov 2008 05:48:06 -0700

Just to let you know, we'll be doing weekly write-ins in Winchester, in the Royal Oak Pub, on Monday's, 7pm:

http://www.theroyaloakwinchester.com/

The map's here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mo...

To get there from the station, walk out the front of the station, where hte taxi rank is, head down the hill, cross the road, keep going and take the second right, the one with a huge tanning parlour on the corner. Follow that road along and take the first left, head down that road and it's on the right hand side, you should see the beer garden/smoking area first. We'll be inside in the basement, just go past the bar and down the stairs.

Another route is to head to the high street and then take the Royal Oak Alley, sandwiched between a a posh pasta place ('Ask ',I think) and a milkshake bar (shakeaway) and that leads to the pub.

The place does food of the burger and chips variety and we have some tables reserved. I've asked if we can plug laptops in, but please could a couple of you bring gang-plugs.

Look forward to seeing you then, feel free to let me know if you'll be coming.

There should be more write-ins organised, some in southampton and possibly some in Portsmouth.

By the way, when the forums are slow and even when they're not, there's a livejournal community set up as well here:
http://community.livejournal.com/sotonnanowrimos/

I was thinking we could post word counts and chat up there as well.
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

Semi-urgent question - Southampton Meets?

papadoc — Tue, 4 Nov 2008 01:43:27 -0800

Hi, all.

I have a question that may or may not be me being dim...

I missed Sunday's meet at The Art House, but noticed on their calendar that there are fortnightly Writers Groups there, starting tonight, up till the end of November.

Is this us? I mean, is this a Nanowrimo thing? If it is, I'd like to come along - but can anyone clarify the situation?

Regards,
Nick Papa
www.nixsight.net
www.elephantwords.co.uk
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

THE PLAN - Saturday 1st November!

NoelaniUki — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:16:38 -0700

Morning all!

First of all, a HUGE thanks to the people who came along last night - it was great to meet you and hopefully there will be many more enjoyable meet-ups in the following month.

Secondly, as promised, here are details of the event on Saturday, as viewed on the Art House's Calendar (yes, they spelt calendar wrong, but we will forgive them because they are a lovely establishment.)

http://www.thearthousesouthampton.co.uk/calender.html

Basically, the book signing (with local author Ron Clooney) is from 1pm to 3pm, then there is a talk at 3pm followed by another 1/2 hour's book signing, and the cafe is open until 5, so depending on whether you want to come along for the talk as well, just turn up whenever is best for you! If you post your plans on this thread we can try and get a better idea of when people will be there so we can have as much overlap as possible - obviously I understand Southampton is a fair trek for some of you so don't want to set too tight a timeframe!

As for transport and parking, the Art House is very near to major bus routes and just up the hill from the train station. But rather than relying on my admittedly shaky direction-giving skills, you might prefer to just rely on Google Maps:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=the+art+house&sll=50....

Hope to see you there! Remember, herbacious_harley will be bringing along her alphasmarts which some of you had the chance to have a look at last night - details of these are available in other posts on the forum, they're good bits of kit and would be very convenient if any of you don't have laptops or don't fancy taking them out in public! But please, do remember to bring a memory stick if you're hoping to use one - she has also informed me that Staples have an offer on memory sticks at the moment, so you might want to pop down there first (West Quay Retail Park - it's well-signposted and boasts a free car park, for those of you who may not know Southampton that well).

Jen
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

Woo, yeah two minutes to go!

plv — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:00:50 -0700

And no I'm not starting tonight, but kudos to any of you if you're trying it!

Just to let you know, if the forums are slow, which they are now, I've started an livejournal community here:

http://community.livejournal.com/sotonnanowrimos/

Anyone should be able to chat without joing lj (if you want to join, it's free anyway), please leave your name/NaNo name on the posts/comments.

Ella aka plv
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

Meet-up

plv — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:39:59 -0700

Hi guys,

The first of November is a Saturday, so it's an excellent day for our first write in.

But I was wondering if any would be free for a pub trip social, so we can all meet other people who are crazy enough to attempt NaNoWriMo this year. I was thinking the Thursday before NaNo starts. Placewise, I was thinking the Wetherspoon's in Southampton as it's cheap, but we could meet anywhere. What do you think, is Thursday a good day?

Regards

Ella (also known as) plv
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

How do you Nano? Are you ready?

wartcap — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:17:55 -0700

With two days to go before we kick off NanoWriMo 2008, I thought it wise to stall talk of meet ups for a spell and comcentrate more on final preperation!

Do you have the following ready?

1) Plenty of coffee
2) Low calorie fizzy drinks/ fruit juice bulging out of your fridge
3) Power snacks. Nutella is good. Yogurts. Low Gi cereals. AVOID CHOCOLATE!
4) More coffee
5) A warm place to sit and write. Two jumpers and furry slippers, please. It is November. (Well, it will be...)
6) Can you switch off your interent? Disable your wirefree radio? You wont be writing 1667 daily if you're on IM, ebay, emailing or playng online Bingo. Switch it back on once you have made your wordcount.

Have I forgotten anything?

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Europe :: England :: Southampton

Write in 1st November

JudyS — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:15:32 -0700

Great choice of venue for the first write in - Art House Cafe Bedford Place. What time? (Sorry, can't join the meet up tomorrow.)
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Europe :: England :: Southampton

NaNoWriMo Write in the the Southampton area

herbacious_harley_37 — Sun, 5 Oct 2008 10:34:24 -0700

Hi Folks!

This is my first NaNoWriMo I came to learn about NaNoWriMo via the Flickr AlphaSmart user group of which I am a member I have an AlphaSmart AS 3000, two Neos and a Dana and I also us Dragon Naturally Speaking 8 Pro and an Olympus DS 4000 digital dictaphone.

I was wondering if a Southampton NaNoWriMo write in is being organised. I am an alumni of Southampton University and perhaps we could find out if we could use the Waterstones coffee shop.

Regards

Harley
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