We’re glad you're joining us in the noble (and slightly cracked) quest to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Ambitious endeavors like these are much more fun when shared. I’m lazym, and I’ll be your tour director and confidant as we all march purposefully toward the finish line. This is my seventh year NaNo-ing, and my fifth as your local Municipal Liaison (ML).
There’s no better bunch to write with than the Austin Penguins. We’re large – 400 signed up last year – but many of our events are small and intimate. We’re especially fortunate to have seasoned Wrimos who return year after year to keep our odd-ball traditions alive.
If you’re new, please don’t be intimidated by these folks. They want to help you succeed. They are standing ready to show you the Way of the Penguin, the mysteries of the QWAQ, and to provide you with unlimited advice and strategies for shameless word count padding. These fine people are the reason that Austin produces an unusually high percentage of winners – about 42% last year compared with a NaNo-wide success rate of about 15%.
We’re here for you online, and if you can make it, at numerous gatherings around the Austin area. It’s early days, and our schedule is in flux, but here are a few things we do know (which I updated on Oct. 8th):
- There will be an informal kick-off – a chance to meet each other and discuss our novels. It will be Sunday evening, October 26 from 7pm to 9pm+ at the House of Tutors.
- We'll have a mid-night write 11 pm - 2 am on Halloween at the fabulous Dragon's Lair. We will wear (optional) costumes, count down to the first second past midnight, and begin writing the first words of our novels.
- This year, we’ll be teaming up with the Writer’s League of Texas to present several special events, including a 12-hour lockdown (7 pm on Friday, Nov 7 until 7 am Saturday) and a Last Chance Write-in on Sunday, November 30th from 9pm to midnight.
- There will be numerous write-ins – opportunities to get together with fellow writers to work and moan about our novels.
We’ve already lined up Monday nights with the Austin Java Writing Company, several Tuesday nights at Genuine Joe’s, and Thursdays with the Writer’s League. Write-ins are planned up north at the Georgetown and Pflugerville Public Libraries, and all the way down in San Marcos. Helenathemuse will host another of her fabulous outdoor write-ins – and we’re not done yet.
So keep your eye on the calendar (at the top of our regional forum main page) for additions, changes, and more special events. And check this forum regularly for details. - Finally, we’ll party like it’s Groundhog Day at the Fifth Annual Fabulous Fantastical Whoop-de-doop Thank God It's Over and We're Still Standing, Bloody But Unbowed, Austin NaNoWriMo Party and Laugh-A-Thon! Once again, the Austin Visual Arts Association is kindly making their gallery available to us, and we’re planning a potluck party there on Saturday, December 6th.
It’s traditional for the NaNoWriMo website to go wonky in October, so stick with it, and if it gets too tough – or if we go down entirely – join us over at our AuNoWriMo Yahoo group. If you are part of the group already, please scoot on over there NOW and make sure that your email address is current.
Please check the Frequently Asked Questions for more information on NaNo in Austin and don’t hesitate to use NaNoMail to contact me, lazym, with additional questions or concerns. We’re happy you’re here! It’s going to be a spectacular November!
----------
ML Captain of Capital Ideas
Austin, TX Municipal Liaison 2004-2008
NaNoWriMo Winner 2002-2008
80,233 / 50,000
oct. 2, 2008 - 19 46
I am so so so so so so so so so excited for NaNo this year! The site looks amazing and....OMG it's not even October, yet the site is already up and running. AWESOME. :D
UPDATE: By the way, I should add that I'm also your shiny new co-ML. Don't ask me how this happened. I would be the last to know. ;D
----------Austin, TX Co-ML
You can call me Becs, Brex, Chewbecca, or just, yanno, Rebecca. :)
Cats, Writing, & Mayhem | YT Channel
50,908 / 50,000
sept. 27, 2008 - 09 26
Hi, Lazym! It's good to be back. Ah, the joys of a brand new site.
I'm proud to say that I'll be dragging a friend along through the month of November. She joined last year shortly after Nano ended, but she'll be participating this year, and you'll see the both of us at the TGIO party in December.
Now just to wait out the month of October.
43,710 / 50,000
sept. 27, 2008 - 14 23
Greetings! This is my first NaNoWriMo :) Patrick's the name, Christian Historical Fiction (and a little non-fiction) is my game.
999,999 / 50,000
sept. 27, 2008 - 16 32
Senior NaNo Operative Caeraerie, Wielder of the Vorpal Blade of Much Wordliness, He Before Mere 50K Challenges Tremble and Fall,
SuAh, skipping ahead a bit. Never did like all those titles.
I am returning for year 5 of this literary excess, though not in my usual guise as Crab. Having evolved (err, somewhat) from the crustacean level, I have also moved myself, my family and my trio of plot kitties to Austin. Which means y'all have someone in the Austin ranks that topped out the half-million word mark from last year.
I do not plan a repeat.
What I do plan is some grand noveling fun, some laughs, some tears and maybe a Word War or three. When it comes to padding out word count, I admit to no master, so if you have questions, please ask.
And welcome to NanoX, all of you!
----------10,035 / 50,000
sept. 27, 2008 - 18 31
Good grief. Your poor fingers must have cramped up for all of December, Caeraerie! Half a million words? On top of work?
Hey, guys, I'm Chase. First time as an *Official* Nanoer, and what better time to start than the tenth anniversary, eh?
See ya'll around town!
----------Coco the Wonder Bat: Ya know what, Daddy? You're bad, evil, and wrong... I like you!
Peyton: Coco-baby, my ear is not a chew toy. -sigh-
Lillia: Is she always this...erm...drooly?
Chase
NaNo-X Novel: The Underground
If I stare at you, it's not because you look good. It's because you just helped me figure out how to off my villain. ^_~
5,024 / 50,000
oct. 2, 2008 - 15 33
Greetings, party people in the place to be!
Burgerlicious here, back for a second round. I've been counting down to this year's NaNo since... last year's NaNo. This year, I hope to make it to many more events, because before I left my old job, I had the good-fortune to pick up one of their cast-off laptops for a mere $75. Last year, I borrowed my bf's laptop for the Midnight Write, only to find that it had a battery life of about 25 minutes. The new (to me) lappy is MUCH better.
The bad news is, my new company has the Firewall Of Doom, which means that this year, unlike last year, I cannot spend the month of November slacking off at my job and trolling the NaNo forums. I have to actually do that off of company time. Yahoo groups, on the other hand, are not currently blocked, so I may turn up on AuNoWriMo if I get time.
Anyway, welcome new folks, welcome back everyone else... Can't wait to see everybody at the kickoff party!
----------Burgerlicious
NaNo 2007: An Autumn Sacrifice (Winner! Yay!)
NaNo 2008: Towers of Silence
3,284 / 50,000
oct. 2, 2008 - 18 00
Hey all!
Oh my, so much to do! Will NaNoBruMo be making a comeback? No matter.
I can't wait to see everyone at kickoff!
50,191 / 50,000
oct. 2, 2008 - 20 15
Hello Austin ~ Fellow fair city of the great state of Texas! Good to see so many new and returning faces! Best luck to you all in meeting your word count goals this NaNo season! I'm so exited about this year. It's going to be a GREAT November!
----------take care
love & e-hugs ~ M
53,243 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 06 40
Hey all! I'm back for thirds and eager to get writing. I have a concept that I shelved a couple years back for being incomplete. After properly aging, I had the necessary plot point breakthroughs such that it is finally ready to be written. Good timing, too.
----------*****
-Rybaer
50,424 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 07 54
Wahoo!! I'm writing for the first time in 2 years! I'm so excited to be joining ya'll again this year.
LazyM, I was thinking today what a blessing it is to have you be our moderator for your 4th year in a row (right? I think I'm right.) You've done an excellent job of keeping us connected in the months between and I look forward to what's in store for the group this year.
Good luck everyone!!
Hearts,
Jenny K
p.s. I'm willing and available to "adopt" this year if there are any newbies looking for encouragement and support! (I don't know if we still do that, but I remember it worked well in years past)
----------I just want to mention that I DID donate - I donated in October - and never got my halo. I'm not a schmoe!
52,358 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 08 04
Ditto on that!!!
Thank you LazyM!!! We appreciate you!!
60,000 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 11 29
This will be my 4th NaNo, and hopefully my first win. But this is my first time NaNo-ing in Austin (I came here from Cleveland, Ohio). I hope I'm able to attend a few write-ins and meet some new Austinites!
----------2005-2007: If at first you don't succeed . . .
2008: Winter White Lights
50,026 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 11 56
Hooray hooray for this fun contest-kinda-thingie and hooray for the great ATX!
I'm not sure I can call myself a novelist. I mean, I've written well over 200k words, but unfortuately they're spread out all over the place! Some on blogs, some on RP forums, some in shorts and screenplays, I think I've even got a few dozen scrawled on bathroom stalls in bars on 6th street! Best birthday ever!
What I'm hoping to gain from this 30-day exercise is writing discipline. I mean, I've got plenty of ideas on the back burner, but none of them have every made it past the first stage of story germination. I get really excited for a few days, then the joy fades and the project slides into obscurity. I'm still not sure what I'm going to write, but chances are I'll be pulling from my "yellow folder" for this project. I'll explain THAT concept at a later date!
Sadly I'm already booked for Holloween night and day, otherwise I'd love to join the kick-off. I'll definately try to make it to some of the other gatherings and meeting other like-minded loonies from this crazy town!
Peace,
- K -
58,095 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 12 30
Hi! It's great to see so many familiar names, and enthusiastic hatchlings! There have been a few questions in the thread - I thought I'd answser them all at once.
- NaNoBruMo (our traditiional day after Thanksgiving brunch) - no word yet on whether this will be happening the year
- Rebecca (Breca_Halley) may be unsure why she is ML-ing , but I'm not. Rebecca is an amazing supporter of NaNo in Austin, and she totally rocks!
- Jenny - this is my 5th year ML-ing for Austin (and my 7th NaNoing). It's a pleasure to herd such a wonderful bunch of cats! (er, penguins!)
- We will have an informal matching of hatchlings and penguin mentors. Kendra (kswope) will be our Hatchling Herder this year. She made a wonderful post about this a couple of days ago that was eaten alive by the server crash. Keep an eye out for a re-post (unfortunately she doesn't have a copy so is going to start over from scratch).
- We now have locations for all of our larger special events: House of Tutors for the kickoff on Sunday night, Oct 26th, Dragon's Lair for the midnight write on Halloween, Writers League of Texas for the 12-hour lockdown (a Friday night - the specific one not set) and the Last Chance Write-in (Nov 30 - 9 pm to midnight). And the AVAA Gallery again for the TGIO party on Dec. 6th.- probably starting at 7 pm.
- I'm still working on the calendar, but hope to have our known events, including write-ins, posted here soon.
----------ML Captain of Capital Ideas
Austin, TX Municipal Liaison 2004-2008
NaNoWriMo Winner 2002-2008
5,024 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 14 21
Yay, I had my fingers crossed for a return to the D-Lair for the Midnight Write again this year! All of my NaNoing dreams have been fulfilled... except for actually writing the darn thing. ;)
----------Burgerlicious
NaNo 2007: An Autumn Sacrifice (Winner! Yay!)
NaNo 2008: Towers of Silence
50,022 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 17 32
Ooh, lookit all the newbies!
So happy to be back in NaNo world. After my dismal failure last year, I'm looking for a tremendous comeback. (Lesson learned: don't NaNo while you have a newborn. Turns out you need to pay attention to them after all.) It just figures that I'll miss the TGIO again though. Of all the days my brother could get married ...
Looking forward to seeing everyone again or for the first time!
----------This is my fancy sig line.
3,284 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 19 37
Rebecca's MLing this year? I didn't know that. I've no doubt that she'll do famously.
50,014 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 20 46
So after taking last year off from the fast and furious world of NaNo, I've decided to participate once again in the amazing noveling adventure. Looking forward to meeting everyone at some of the upcoming events!
----------"And no cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer." - The Cat, The Last Unicorn
51,406 / 50,000
oct. 6, 2008 - 17 09
Hooray! NaNo Number 2 for me, we'll see if I can go 2-0!
0 / 50,000
oct. 7, 2008 - 09 50
Ah, the yearly first start into the forums of nanowrimo. It's hard to believe that I wait 11-months every year to do this. This will be year number 7 for me and already the literary hell is forming in my mind.
52,358 / 50,000
oct. 7, 2008 - 09 59
Seven years is a long time! Did you get your 50,000 words every year?
I wonder who has been doing this the longest?
How did we get to be called Penguins?
58,095 / 50,000
oct. 7, 2008 - 10 58
I wonder who has been doing this the longest?
How did we get to be called Penguins?
There are folks who have been doing NaNo since 1999, but as far as I can tell, Austin's earliest writers hail from 2002. It's not possible to know for sure, but if a person has put "Austin" in the location section in their profile, or if they have selected Austin as their home region, you can use the "Authors" tab to search for these folks. According to these searches, we have five writers whose first NaNo was in 2002.
I'll let someone else field the Penguin question!
-----------------------
----------ML Captain of Capital Ideas
Austin, TX Municipal Liaison 2004-2008
NaNoWriMo Winner 2002-2007
ML Captain of Capital Ideas
Austin, TX Municipal Liaison 2004-2008
NaNoWriMo Winner 2002-2008
50,020 / 50,000
oct. 7, 2008 - 11 06
I'll let someone else field the Penguin question!
Ahh.... the annual "Penguin Question" How I love thee!
****************************************************************************
Battling the soul-stealing weasels of despair!
Tweetywill
----------Tweetywill
The Piker Press
Tired of messing with my siggy!
14,221 / 50,000
oct. 8, 2008 - 06 19
3 things:
1. Breca_Halley IS without a doubt, awesome.
----------2. lazym is also thoroughly wonderful.
3. I have finally completed the crainial-rectal shunt reversal process, and WILL complete a novel this year. Honest! I've been storing ideas since December of last year and I can't wait.
"If the shoe fits, eat it."
53,399 / 50,000
oct. 8, 2008 - 09 40
*waves to the crowd*
And by the way, if anyone from the Rockin Plot Penguins writing group knows what's up with our meetings and stuff, send me a message, please. I'm a little lost right now.
I've been doing this since 2002, but I didn't do the forums/in person meeting thing until I think '04.
----------Snowbaby (* = winner)
2002: Finding Home*
2003: The Plexiglass Slipper
2004: Tainted Love* (working title)
2005: Expectations*
2006: Sheep*
2007: Mothers and Other Strangers*
2008: Dailey Bread
54,478 / 50,000
oct. 9, 2008 - 04 25
Woo Hoo! 10 years of NaNo!
Well, okay, it's year 3 for me, but I'm here :)
50,024 / 50,000
oct. 9, 2008 - 06 36
The forums ate my first response to this thread. Sigh.
But I'm here, as always, ready to do my fourth NaNo and write my fourth completed novel.
We Austin Java Writing Company types meet year round for write ins, so we're in full swing if you want to stop by now or in November. We're at the original Austin Java on Lamar at Parkfield (near 12th St.) from 7:30 to close every Monday night (which is, more importantly, $3 wine night). You can find Aud, Enrique, Breca, and various other Nanos there. We're already outlining (but mostly procrastinating.)
See everyone at the midnight write!
Deanna
__________________
----------2008 NaNoWriMo: Girl Crush
http://deannaroy.livejournal.com
Deanna
www.deannaroy.com
50,837 / 50,000
oct. 9, 2008 - 11 36
Again!
6,411 / 50,000
oct. 9, 2008 - 22 43
I'm back and ready to write!
It's been an extremely rough year for me, but I've been looking forward to November for quite a while now and it's finally looming! No longer a Hatchling, I will still be hosting a write-in here in good old San Mars every Saturday. More details to come, in a more appropriate forum, to be sure.
Just wanted to say hello to all the Penguins and extend a slightly crazed welcome to all the new Hatchlings. I was right where you are now last year, and these fine NaNoErs helped drag me through. I couldn't have done it without my fellow Penguins, and I'll be more than willing to grab a wrist and do some dragging of my own if any need it.
I'll see everyone at the kickoff party, possibly with the (new) boyfriend in tow. :D
Now, off to fix my icon....
----------~~Alien Penguin~~
50,053 / 50,000
oct. 10, 2008 - 18 49
I'm here for my fourth year! And running straight into November without a plot! AHHH!
----------And: Huzzah, lazym! Congrats, Breca! Good luck to you all!
/exclamation point abuse
EDIT: I found a plot and can't wait! It's been simmering all day while I've been at work...
NaNo '05: Pyk, 5696
NaNo '06: Guiding Twilight, 50K
NaNo '07: Screamer, 56K
NaNo '08: The Absent Butterfly ?K