Am I the only one without any writing buddies?

I'll be your friend!
I'm excellent at befriending married women I barely know. It's one of those amazing skills, like being able to coordinate my wardrobe and sewing, that causes me to throw a false positive on the gay-dar.
Now you just need to post a novel excerpt of your novel novel so I know what I'm being warm and nurture-ey about!
-Jake

I have added you. I didn't have any buddies either and I was wondering too were all the warmt and nurturing is.:) I can't work out how to update my word count eiter or post an excerpt...

Pip

And the 'h' on my laptop has gone all stiff...and my book is called Harbinger of Horrendous Hatred, it's set in Hemel Hempstead and the 'eroine is Helena Huffington-Holmes...

Ooh, pick me! I, too, am lacking in writerly buddies! Let us unite as companions!

No, you're not the only one without any writing buddies... actually I went and befriended another person solely by force (she'll be surprised when she logs in tomorrow). If you'd like to team up and support each other during this ordeal (I'm sure I'll need all the help I can get) I'm certainly not adverse to the idea; the more people yelling at me to stop slacking off the better, I feel.

"Well like anything worth writing, it came inexplicably and without method."

Thank goodness i found you all!

It's not that I spend a LOT of time in the discussion board area.... it's just that i'd like to know that somebody missed me if i stopped showing up . I live in the woods in northern NH....this is my second Nano (but the site at my last year's identity.) I want to have fun, finish my 50k again and maybe write something i'd be interested in editing later on. Have never tried to write humor or satire but find so much of what goes on around us silly/ironic/idiotic/amusing that i thought i'd give it a try. so far i have three characters....(a high-end real estate broker who is homeless, an ex-con turned preacher and a very mean, spoiled aging divorcee who's "into healing"....) i need to let them meet soon and see what they decide to do.

i need to get back to my word count as i have to go to work soon..... will add you as my buddies when i get back it that's OK.... pleeeeze can i play with you???? :-)

"Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way."

What do you call a writer who writes only to other people?

Possibly desperate for attention... but be kind.

Although it's very late to begin this project, and I am way behind (if you are any indication of the enthusiasm level of the rest of the participants) I just decided on a whim to try to pound out a story that I actually complete. My circumstances are a little similar to yours. I have a husband who usually gets out of the house more than I do, my kids are 19 and 17, and the oldest is off in his second year of college, so he doesn't come home as much as he did last year.

I always had that pipe dream of being a writer, but I didn't have the discipline to handle the isolation, even though I'm far from a social butterfly. I ended up working in business for a while, but when I inadvertently had my two children and they had so much difficulty - one has autism, and the other has a lot of social/organizational problems - I knew I would never be one of those executive-types ordering out and paying a cleaning lady (sigh) because I really had too much to attempt to get done at home. Anyway, I changed careers and became a special education teacher. That's going to be the substance of my novel, since I've had some amazing laughs, cries and insights over the course of my job to date.

However, all my writing up until now has been to an administrator who sometimes answers at length - I think I catch his imagination at times, and give him an audience, too - so I've had this old-fashioned writing relationship with him that has gone on for three years. It would be great if it helped me with the job, but it really didn't - we are probably both caught in a system that doesn't support creativity, even though it should. Anyway, this is the basis of my novel - a ficitionalized version of all the emails, back and forth, between him and me, between the parents and me, and amongst my students.

My goal for today is to catch up at least 1/2 way, and to also remove the vacuum and coats from my office chairs and desk. I am writing on my lap right now, using the time before breakfast. Write back if you have time - email = usnadog@optonline.net.

If I am writing this, it's probably 3 a.m.

Being the good codependent that I am I went and added all of you! Why? I need the company of others who are loony enough to attempt this. Good luck to all!

Michael Warner

I don't have any writing buddies. ::cry::cry:: SOMEBODY LOVE ME! I need emotional support as I write about these transvestite bumpkins from Hangman's Ditch. HAHAHAHA... And another coffee would also be helpful ::eyeballs the coffee maker::

I'll be your friend... and if I was anywhere near GA, I'd bring you a coffee. :p Unfortunately, I think you may need to get it yourself this time. *pats your head*

OK, Thanksgiving killed me. I didn't write at all. I won't win NaNoWriMo, but I'm still going to finish this book!

I'll be your friend and no you aren't the only one lacking in that department. I blame myself as I haven't seen fit to spend enough time on the boards.

Well I blame that and my lazy buddies from livejournal. I'm not mentioning any names, however. *shiftyeyes*

xXx Matthew

Title: Before Tomorrow Can Begin
Genre: Humor/Erotica/Fantasy .... Take that Genre Fiends!

I don't have any writing buddies either, so...let's be friends!!

do the d.a.n.c.e.

Oh! How lovely! other mad writers who need a friend! I'm writing a romance/adventure/humour story. I've never attempted nano before, though know people who have. I've dipped in and out of writing for years, I live in Scotland in the UK, and now that my babies have grown and left home (well, scattered themselves between the States and Australia for God's sake) I promised myself I would really, really enter into the spirit of nano and actually try and finish something.

I usually stick to short stories in the hope that I will get so good at them that magazines would fight over my stories, thereby ensuring I earn enough money to buy the flight tickets to visit my darling babies and make them feel guilty for leaving me and their dad behind.

I hold down two part-time jobs (I was made redundant last year and finding full-time employment where I live is a nightmare), so actually having to find not only the time, but the strength, to write as often as I can, is going to be difficult.... but I'm going to try!

Once I find out how to add you all as a friend, I will do so!

Keep the faith! xxx

There's a story in me scribbling around to get out....

wordcount widgets

I'd be more than happy to be friends with anyone willing. I just started this today, so hmmm... I think I'll be lucky to get very far at all as this is really my first attempt at the long-haul, but hey, it seems like it'll be a lot of fun, especially with buddies!

I'm attempting a spy spoof, by the way, we'll see how it goes!

hey satire and humor writer buddies -

how's it going? i finally got an extra session in today and got myself back on track -- at least as far as my wordcount goes. i have never done anything like this before (start with a couple of characters, a general premise and see what happens.... last year i tried to use an outline). it is so much FUN!

speaking of which, nanowrimo makes me all linear (word counts, charts and graphs etc) Has everyone been able to find/download a report card format. I really like watching the charts fill up. (i'm a geek, ok????)

hope all is well with all of you. I am off to watch monday night football. ttyl.

"Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way."

Awww, I’d love to be your equally needy and desperate friend, too!

Hi Bunny Boiler,

I added you as a buddy, because I couldn't resist your name, and the Isle of Skye sounds perfect; I think I've enjoyed a few wee drams from there. I've not added a buddy before, so if I did it wrong, I apologize.

Keep writing and boiling those bunnies.

Thank God I read a lot so I can twist the ideas of brilliant and funny people into a double helix of life-designing goo for my own purposes. That is what creativity and deadlines are all about!

I'll add you! It's so lovely meeting fellow writers.

Yes sir, my sense of humor is quite warped. Thanks for noticing. . .

Oh, oh, *emphatically waves hand in the air* me too! I need WriMo friends! This is my second year doing NaNoWriMo. The one writing buddy I had last year isn't participating this year so I am completely alone :'( and would love to make new wrimo friends! My novel is about a rather pathetic but loveable man named Robert Archibald Van Walden III who is in an oppressive marriage with a woman who scorns middle names and imagination. Bob secretly pretends to himself that she's an alien ambassador come to hire him, a bounty hunter, to take out the leader of a rebel organization threatening to plunge her planet into anarchy; but then he meets a woman at his office job who begins to take on the role of this rebel leader in Bob's mind...hilarity ensues....etc. etc. If anyone wishes to add me please feel free :)

I'm just beginning to add buddies today, the sixth day into all this. Problem is I know nobody here in real life, and know nobody in real life who's doing nanwrimo, so it's kind of lonely. *adds buddies randomly*

Yu-Han (Eugenia) Chao
"Passport Baby" and "We Grow Old" forthcoming with Rockway Press and the Backwaters Press.
http://www.yuhanchao.com

I find NaNo as more of my own personal mission, without any outside influence, so I'm not really grasping for buddies or anything. But if anyone out there is actually NOT offended by my story, I'd be happy to be buddies.

Seeing as I tend to neglect forums almost entirely, most of the time, I'm pretty much in the same boat as you guys. Speaking of neglected-I need to actually stop procrastinating and maybe write something.

Okay I'm in. The only problem is I don't have the patience to actually read the instructions on how to "add" a buddy. So unless someone tells me how (talk about codependent!) I'll just post here. I'm another middle aged woman on the west coast - kid out of the house, husband working in his office, me at the computer. I'm new at nanowrimo and actually pretty new at writing fiction. I have written two poems in my life, and a 35 page memoir of my mother's life, and reams of memos, proposals, and articles - all business.

I decided to start with no preconcieved ideas of what I was going to write about. I drove down the street from the library where I'd seen the November is Novel Writing Month advertisement, and was looking at the clouds and thinking how swell it would be to be a person floating in the clouds. Then I remembered a cult here in town in the 70's who believed that aliens had come to earth and were hiding in the clouds. Voila, my story was born. It's called "Natural Selection Night at the Family of Man World Temple." I'm having lots of fun watching the plot unfold. I discover more scams and opportunities for deviousness, as well as watching the characters come alive. Who knew that Felicity and Michael would hit it off so well?

I can't imagine turning this into a full length book. It seems about played out now. Much of my writing is drudgery - filling in the blanks for the sake of words. But I'm pluggin away and will simply trust the process and see what happens.

The whole "buddies" thing is confusing to me. I mean, mutual support is great, and I crave it as pathetically as the next guy. But here we are, trying to rack up the words and, in a lot of cases, not get fired from our jobs or yelled at by our families. This is the first time I've had a chance to read a forum, or to post on one, and ... Geeze, that's seventy words right there, and none of them counts toward my total. You see what I'm saying?

"Oh, somebody... PICK ME, PICK ME!"

I feel so A-LONE 2nite - 5,100 words in.

----------------------------------------------------------
"Rat-a-tat-tat...my keyboard's where I'm at."

Hey guys, looks to me like you have tons of writing buddies.............right here! If you want to add someone to your list, just click on their name. You'll be taken to their "author" page where you can learn more about them or just add to your buddy list. There is a list of things (in red, I think) to the left of their info (and under a picture if they've posted one).........adding a buddy option is there. Just click it and then confirm that you want to add the person.

Now, as to the use of buddies, especially those you won't see anywhere but here or in private messages, is that they encourage you. I write to some of the buddies I had in my first year and check in to see if they're back on board this year and how they are doing. Especially when I'm dragging through my word count. It helps to have someone write back and say "atta girl!"

I have one buddy I've known for years (outside NaNo) and we trade barbs and encouragement, and I always love to read his stuff. (He's my kind of funny!) And, some I added last year who live fairly close to me. I went to one of their "write ins" last year and will probably go again this year, just to be doing something crazy with other crazy people.

About the forums? Well, I LIVED on games, diversions, and procrastinations in my first year--I needed the companionship to make it! And, some of those things just twist your mind in different ways that seem to clear it for getting back to work. I met lots of fun people there and got a Christmas card from Taiwan in my first year! I think you can use the forums for anything, but mostly they add the human element to this project. And, they lighten you up a bit. It's a challenge and it's supposed to be fun as well as constructive.

Lastly, sometimes it's just as much fun to meet in a thread like this and keep your conversation here or in private emails. Maybe you don't need thousands of other people from around the world, maybe you just need the kind of people who would respond to a thread you post.................at least they're all here with the same feelings, you know?

Wish you all loads of luck. My novel is whimpering at me because I had an unscheduled three days away from it. And, by the way, you notice the forums came first. Now I'm warmed up and ready to write!

I can and I will. So there.

Hey Kimmer,

Since I first wrote that post almost a week ago, I hae been inundated with a plethora of writing buddies. Or potential writing buddies. Your post pretty much says it all. One needs them to prime the pump. Get warmed up. All of that. So, today I have an uninterupted piece of time to write and I am gearing up for it. Just have to get a few things out of the way first like get dressed, eat and find new cat toys to amuse the kittens so I can at least get the doors closed fast enough to my study before they notice and run in.

the Writer's Almanac is done (you know, Garrison Keillor's daily 5 minutes) and so I must be on my way.

Okay then.

Hosanna

Glad things are going well.............ah, kittens! Don't you just love them...............and want to shut them in the closet so you can sleep, eat, write, think, have some peace and quiet, etc.!

Fortunately my brood is grown; unfortunately, they still think the cool place to be is on the keyboard while I'm trying to write!

I can and I will. So there.

I'll be your friend too! Well, honestly, I'll be anyone's friend at this moment, because, well, I'm empty-handed right now. But anyway, as forementioned, I'll be your friend too!!!!!!!