Summer meetings

Hey, glad to have you on the team! (You know, the winning team, since we always win, your words will be appreciated)

We've got a large contingent of writers in the u-district (specifically at UW, so a lot of them may or may not even be in town during the summer?), and I know there are also writers in the caphill area, I think folks will sometimes do write-ins at bauhaus &c.

The forum here has been pretty dead since last fall (I only saw your message because apparently I am emailed about new posts for some reason? And then, of course, I procrastinated replying for like a week because I'm busy and sick and busy and puppies.) If you use livejournal we have a community there at Hydrophobic Duck, so named after our region mascot. It's pretty dead as well, but if you want to arrange a get-together people are probably more likely to see it there (maybe even our MLs, who are both members there)

As far as I go, where pre-november write-ins/get-togethers are concerned, it's not terribly likely. Between work and the two puppies I (unwisely?) decided to adopt last month, I don't have a heck of a lot of free time. It'd be really nice to get some sort of pre-november planning session going on though, so if something materializes I'll try.

I am in the Kent area...anyone interested...

One can condsider this a 4 month warm up.....

Thanks for the welcome!

Hey all,
I'm also brand new to Seattle, and in desperate need of some building steam toward NaNoWriMo this year. I fully support anything that will help me get inspired and involved with the writing community here. I'm in Greenwood, but work in the SLU area. Thanks for throwing the idea of a summer meeting up here!

Let me know when works for you, I'd be more than happy to meet up!

Man, with all these past-winners moving to seattle, I'm liking our chances again this year.

I think I'll probably try and shoot off an email to Renda and Mandrina, our MLs last year (if I can find their emails) to see if there are any plans for a pre-nano meet-and-greet/planning session or what ever.

It might be fun to have a get together in October where all we do is come up with ideas and put them in a common pool. Prompts, character names, plot twists, etc. That way there's already all this stuff we've come up with that somebody can grab from during the big month. We can also exchange plots and give advice, maybe help each other with research.

Who's down with meeting in October? I'm thinking one of the more Northern neighborhoods and near a busline.

Yeah, I have a lot of great plot-helping devices. This will be A1 super, how northerly are we talking?

I'd like to suggest meeting at Wayward Coffee House, on Greenwood Avenue (by 85th). It's near four or five major bus routes, very friendly, reasonably-priced, and their espresso drinks are my fav. :)
Plus, they're large and have free wi-fi. What do you think?

I had a good time at script frenzy write-ins there last year, good place for a write-in. I probably won't be able to make it to anything pre-nano though (at least not in august or september, with friends coming to town for PAX next week, and then jury duty in september pushing my work to more odd hours)

If something coalesces though I'll give it a shot.

This sounds good. Maybe monthly meetings until November? Evenings or weekends?

I'm down with evenings or weekends, though Friday nights are out for me (got bellydancing).
Are we aiming for one meeting in Sept, and one in Oct, and then kicking off NaNoWriMo?

One in September and another in October sound good. Tuesdays and Thursdays won't be a good day for me to get accustomed to meeting, so maybe a weekend or a Monday or Wednesday? I'll be outta town from 9th-11th September. Shall we have a vote?

I'm Cap Hill but I can get around to anywhere in Seattle, really. I'd be interested in going to one of these.

Sounds good! I vote Wednesday or Sunday (though I can do Mondays as well). Sounds like we should start after Sept 11th, so more people can be included. Anyone else want to weigh in on this?

I had a hard time tracking down this thread, the system is not re-ordering the threads properly. I know that HQ is going through technical growing pains, so I can only assume that will be fixed before October and the re-set.

As for September and October, I think it's awesome that there are local wrimos wanting to meet and greet early on. I would certainly recommend that you post any meeting you definitely schedule to the hydrophobic duck community so that folks who don't think to check the forums this early can find out about it.

I know I'll do my best to make it to any meetup that gets scheduled. I need all of the help I can get this year as far as plot and characters- all of my old ideas are bad NaNos by now, I've run out of reserve and I'm going to have to be creative this year.

Y'all are awesome! Welcome and welcome back!

-Manda

I would prefer one meeting in October. Once November is on I only want to meet to WRITE. September is when we're all thinking about it, but to much development in September will make me lose excitement/energy for November. The more to do something the less it's in your head burning to get out.

That being said, what is everyone thinking of this year? Perhaps we can see how much help we'll need. >.<

I'm thinking of either doing another steampunk story (basically alternative history / scifi) or take my own stab at vampires. I'm having fun designing worlds and clothiing (see) but I haven't got a plot idea yet. If I met up I'd want to talk to people about their genres and help brainstorm tropes/plots to play with or go against.

Personally, I'm a bit torn. I only got halfway through my steampunk novel last year (even though I hit the mark), so part of me wants to finish that. But on the other hand, I'm not certain I'll have much steam for a novel, and having set it aside for a year, my voice may significantly change. And I have a ton of other ideas, as usual. Plus, a glorious history of deciding what to write around 8am on November 1st. :)

ArtemisHi: I hit 62k on my steampunk novel last year. I think my main reason for having difficulty finishing was that finishing is the hardest part of writing. Also, I didn't want to do a cop out ending because I was having so much fun writing it. Maybe if we both went at it again we could support each other! I wouldn't finish up my old story though, because I would just be re-entering the hardest bit.

How many people do we think will show up for this? One advantage to a pre-November meetup is not needing a lot of table space for laptops.

Ah, I know what you mean. Ok, then, good idea- I'll give it a go. Although my steampunk wandered more western and less steampunk last year, so I need to fix that. Bah! It'll do. Thanks!

If we do a meet somewhere on the East Side or just North or south of the city proper, I think we could get 15-20+ people. We had a July meeting 2 NaNo's ago to try and plan for the season (it was 100 days until November 1st). Anyplace with free parking seems to draw folks more than a downtown location that would require $12+ just to put your car someplace. BUT we need to find a spot that is also hospitable to folks who would be coming via public transportation.

How does the UW bookstore sound? They have a parking lot and are on a bus line, and I know that the UW group is really wanting to integrate with the rest of us a little more this year rather than keeping to jus their campus.

Maybe we can do some plot doctoring and/or outlining that day as well. I don't even have a concept- except the vague idea of writing some backstory for a character I'm playing in a web series...? Hmmm

Manda

How does 30 September in the evening, around 6 or 7ish at the UW bookstore sound for everyone? That way it gets people started thinking about NaNo, and then it's only one month until the next meeting, the Kick-Off party?

I'm not sure if the U-Bookstore has the kind of space we need in the cafe area. The problem with anything that isn't a "coffee shop" will be that it's a restaurant with a different way of obtaining food. Is there any place where you grab food and pay from a counter that could hold 20 people? I'm drawing a blank.

If we're set for a work night then 6-7 on the 30th is ok. We'll all come with vague plot notions and leave with somewhat less vague plots. :)

Maybe two different meetings (Sept and Oct) at two different locations? I'm still hoping for Wayward, as it's convenient for me, and on bus lines, with lots of space. I haven't been in the U Bookstore...but there is Allegra Cafe in the U-District, and it's got two levels (plenty of space on the top floor, always, if nothing else), good food, good coffee, and very nice people.
As far as dates and times, Sept 30th works for me.
Sounds like a good brainstorm/talk about your ideas possibility, as well as getting people thinking about hosting write-ins and whatnot.

Ilanabar and I are chatting (IRL) and we think a good pre-November meeting place would be the University Branch of the Seattle Public Library. The room is free, full of chairs and in a book-happy place. We'd need to be done by 8 and we couldn't have food, but since this is a pre-November meeting for talking about plots I think that's great. I can head up reservations since I will be visiting in a day or two. Thoughts? We should move on this quick.

Oh! All the branches have these rooms. Here's the link for ours.

http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=branch_open_mtgrm_geninfo&branchID...

I vote for the U-District!

And, of course, my eternal question: what's the parking situation?

As long as that checks out, I'm in :)

-Manda

Weird work computer posted it twice! Sorry.

There's a small parking lot behind. I'm not sure if it could hold 20 cars and regular patrons, but I'm sure most of us will be busing or walking. Since I've always walked there I don't know if there are peak parking times, but the once or twice I've had someone drive me there there's been room.

Does anybody have a branch that has a big parking lot they'd like better? Ballard? Fremont? *is clueless*