Welcome - an Introduction thread

I'm Syka, name to be divulged at the meetings. :) I'm a senior at the university, and this will likely be my last NaNo in Gainesville since I graduate in December. I loved the group last year, though, so I'm happy I got this. This is my third time doing NaNo, and I have absolutely no idea what I'm writing.

By the way, I'm not sure I'll be able to make it to the off campus meetings. I'm trying to rope a friend into doing this so she might be able to drive, but I can't make any promises. :(

Cheers~

I'm Mindi. Did this last year, but I only made it to the meet & greet... and then my car crapped out. I got up to about 15-20K words last year, which isn't a bad start. I'm hoping to make the full 50 this year, but I have no clue whatsoever what I'll be writing about. Hopefully, being around other writers will help inspire me. Aside from being an aspiring writer, I'm also a Red Sox fan, I love snakes, and I'm trying to start a metal band. I think I'll have better luck writing a novel than starting a band though.

Hi all!

I'm Bethany. I was a co-ML last year. Then I moved away for six months. Now I'm back. Sort of. Temporarily. Probably.

I'm not sure if I'm gonna be doing NaNo for real this year, or if I'll just use the peer pressure to force me to make some visible progress on the novel I've been working on forever.

Hello Hello

You all can call me lullaby42 for now. The screnename comes from a love of my cat and Douglas Adams. This is my first real attempt at NaNo WriMo and I really hope it's a success! I'm a sophomore at UF and I will try to make it to as many events as I can. I'm so excited!!!

Hello everyone! You can call me Paige. I currently attend Eastside High School and am a junior (I know, quite young to write a novel...). This is my first year at NaNoWriMo and cannot wait to get started and have fun with everyone!

Hi I'm william, i live in trenton florida, i raise dogs and disabled with bipolar. This is my first year doing nano, but been writing since the 90s. hmmm what else.

My story is called Aces and Eights.
Its a scifi/alien abduction and will have sex (not alien/human) The Aliens kidnap humans who are about to die, they make them young again, send them to another world where the must teach the inhabitents how to build a civilzations. The title of the series is called, "The travaling science project." This will be the second story in this universe, the other is called Dogman. The inhabitents of the world are 20000 years behind us and are Neathdthals and Cromags, with lots of wild animals thrown in.

Thats all on this bounce, msg me if you want

monbade

Hi everybody! I'm Kristen, and this is my third year doing Nano and my third year being in the Gainesville regional group. I'm looking forward to catching up with everybody from the past years and meeting everybody new.

This year I'll be writing a piece of superhero fiction. I don't have a plot yet, but I'm working on it. (No plot, no problem, right?) I've got characters, so hopefully they'll do something interesting and a plot will form around them.

Can't wait for our first group meet-up!

Hi! I'm Courtney and I'm (also) a junior at Eastside High School. This is my first year doing NaNoWriMo, and I have to thank Paige for telling me about it and encouraging me to try it. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and starting to write a novel. As of now I have no idea what my novel's going to be about, but I can't wait to see what I end up with!

Hello everyone!

My name is Scott, and I'm a senior at UF. I've been bouncing ideas for a novel around in my head for about three years now, but never had the time or commitment to put pen to paper. NaNoWriMo sounded like the perfect way to force it out. :-)

I'm really excited for this, and it's great to see everyone else is equally enthused. I can't wait to meet everyone else and get this party started!

I was in between my sophomore-junior year when I finished my first (and so far only) novel. It took me longer than 30 days, but I know it can be done. Hope to see you at the first meeting.

-MIndi

Hi everyone, you can call me Catiana for now. This is my third year of doing NaNoWrimo even though the first two years I didn't participate in the write-ins or post my word counts. Technically, I didn't meet the Nano goal of 50K either year, but I did achieve the goals I had set for myself. This year, I plan to make the 50K and participate in the write-ins. To that end, I have been working my outline and building my world. The book I plan to write is a Fantasy involving dragons. (Yes, another dragon story. :p ) I look forward to meeting you all on the 25th! :)

Hey everybody! My sign-in name's not really usable as a name, so you can call me Rebeca. I am a junior at UF. This is my first year doing NaNoWriMo, though I've heard of it before and had always been interested. I have no idea what I want to write about, but plan on doing a couple of the write-ins and dedicating the few moments of my spare time to writing. I'm not sure about the 50k mark, but here's hoping!

Hi everyone, I'm TombCrank the Crafty, also known as Jane (#2, for those of you who were in Gainesville last year.) This is my fourth year doing Nano, my second in Gainesville, and hopefully my third win. I'm a sophomore at UF. There seems to be quite a few of us this year. ^.^ I'm originally from New York (Long Island, to be exact). I also enjoy chocolate chip cookies. (I'm not sure what that had to do with anything, but hey.) I have no idea what I'm going to write about, but then again, I never do. I traditionally rely on Seventh Sanctum's random generators to come up with basic characters and plots, and then have a blast trying to make a story out of all the random elements. I think I might do a bunch of short stories this year, just to switch things up a bit. We'll see.

Hey ya'll,
My name is Rebecca, and this is my first year taking NaNo seriously. I've already written a few novels, but now it's time to see how fast I can write one. I'm a freshman at UF, and a PoliSci/Criminology Major, thinking about minoring in Russian. According to my mood and day's classes, you may see me dressed up so nice I look like I'm going for an interview, never forgetting the pearls, or I may look like I just rolled out of bed, because I did.
My writing tends to be more psychological than flash-bang action, though I have been known to throw a homemade bomb in every once in a while.
I am actually in the process of getting a UF creative writing club up and running, so ask me for my facebook if you would like to join. We are looking for a few officer positions...actually, all of them except prez and VP.
Can't wait to see you all at the write-ins! Maybe I'll bake cookies. lol

I'm a freshmen, 14 years old. xD
So I'm a little younger than you are even.

-x-

I'm not sure about the 50,000 words, I've never tried to write anything so large before, but I hope I can get through it.
After all, I'm not too occupied outside of school with stuff, and if I really devote time to it, I might be able to.
This is my first year trying this, so I'm kind of unsure about this all, and my ability to do write a novel in one month.

Whatever though, challenges can be fun.

I hope to meet some of you guys some time!

Welcome back Skya, Mindi, Bethany, Kristen, Jane (#2). And a big welcome to lullaby42 [I recognize that two digit answer tacked on the end of your username ;-)], Paige, William, Courtney, Scott, Catiana, Rebecca, Rebecca, and Alli.

Looking through the introductions it seems we have a really good group again this year, and that we have, among us, many challenges to overcome in writing our novels this year (lots of classes, possible transportation issues, first year jitters).

I hope that between Alison and myself, and all the participants in the region (whether you attend events in person, or just join us on the forums) help each of you meet your personal goals for this year. And please, don't hesitate to let me know if there is anything I can do to help!

-Christy--

Hi! I'm Ann, although I also answer to Twirly.

I'm 22 (although I turn 23 in November!), a senior at UF (graduating in December!), and engaged (getting married in February!). I attempted this half-heartedly last year and did not get very far, but I hope to do better this year. I've already got a story concept, somewhat originating from a dream I had, and I've been tossing it around in my head for awhile now.

I'm a huge geek, I love music and musicals, and blogging. If you want to check out more about my, my LiveJournal username is also twirlandswirl.

Hey everyone!

My name's Marisa, though online I always go by Misa, and I graduated from Eastside High School last year (and I actually know the other EHS students here, how cool is that?!). I'm currently taking a gap year before starting college, and what better thing is there to do with my spare time than write a novel? Haha, I'm actually keeping rather busy right now as I've been doing a bit of traveling, I'm currently working at UF in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, I have theatre rehearsals every weekend, and November also marks the start of my return to my swim team.

This is my first time at NaNo WriMo, and my first attempt at any sort of a novel, though I am hardly unpracticed at writing. I have been roleplaying online for years via AIM with a friend from another state, and I do a lot of creative writing either for fun or for school. I took a glance at the events list and it makes me really excited for this upcoming month. I'm rather sorry that I might not be able to make the Meet & Greet though as I am taking the ACT that day, but I will try and pop in for the last half hour or so if I can. I look forward to having some fun writing with you all!

Later.
Misa.

Hi, I'm Fran and I live in the Keystone Heights area (yes, y'all are closer to me than Jacksonville, it would be more appropriate to say I live in the middle of nowhere). I'm looking forward to attending some of the events but I can't attend the one scheduled for this Saturday. The husband is on a cleaning spree and I've been roped into participating.

My effort this year is actually a joint effort. My partner is over in the bayou country in Louisiana. We're hoping we can get this thing done between the two of us; last year, we sort of fizzled out.

Hey all! I'm Kate, a junior at UF and a first timer to NaNo. I've been writing for years but I always get hung up with doubts halfway through novels, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to get me to just spit it out already :-) . Anyway, I look forward to meeting all of you. I won't be at the meet-and-greet (GO GATORS!) but I hope to attend as many write-ins as possible. Good luck to everyone!

Welcome to Ann, Misa, Fran and Kate!

It was great to meet those people who were able to make the meet and greet, and I look forward to meeting more of you at other events / keeping up with you online.

-Christy
(Can you believe we are 4 days away???)

Hey everybody. I'm Mark, a sophomore at UF. I'm pretty sure this is a bad idea, keeping-up-my-grades-wise and all, but what the heck. So is being a writer, really. So here goes.

Hello my name is Emilie and I am from your "sister" region in Peoria, IL. I look forward to encouraging each other this month through word wars and other challenges. I am participating alongside my lovely husband Timm. We have a newborn son named Asher.

This is my second year participating in NaNoWriMo and where I am pretty certain I will not get to the 50K goal, I look forward to working with my muses in creation and catharsis. Speaking of catharsis, that is what I am doing this year. I am working on a piece that reflects a period of trauma in my own life. It is a piece about domestic violence. I am hoping that by getting the words out on paper I will release them from my mind and free my muses from their incarceration. Then I am hoping to work on more creative novels.

Good luck to everyone, have fun and I look forward to working with you.

Emilie Gillick

Hello my name is Funlola I am a junior in Highschool in Gainesville. Been writing for a few years and I was referred to Nanowrimo by a friend. Didn't think I would do it. But I got an idea for a story and I am stressed and writing always makes me feel better so I decided to hit this place up. Look forward to writing

Hi, I'm storm_eyes8

I'm attending the University. I heard about nanowrimo last year... around December : ) So this is my first try. I hope I'm able to accomplish the goal! I'm very excited, this is such a cool idea.

storm_eyes8

Hi, I'm Hank and I work at UF.

Its 6:43 am and I'm about to head to bed, but I can't figure out how to get the word count validator to work (Its grey ... evidently this is not uncommon according to the forums) so i put in my word count according to MS Word. I don't have a title yet, but I guess that will come later.

Hank Young

Welcome Mark, Funlola, storm_eyes8, Hank, and our sister-region participant Emilie. Big welcome to you all.

Well, the madness has started, and I hope to meet those of you I haven't already, either here in the forums, or at the events.

Hank had a good question, and I wanted to go ahead and provide an answer here, in case anyone else was wondering. The validators don't get turned on until Nov 25th, or there-abouts. Until that time (when they check your manuscript to see that you legitimately have 50,000 words) it is on the honor system that you enter your word count. Go ahead and use the word count you get from your word processing document (or however else you get your word count). You continue to update this number manually until you are ready to submit for the win.

And I am excited to see, only at 9 am, that word count bar above 0 already for some of the Gainesville region. Good start to an awesome month, I'm sure.

-Christy

Hi, folks, I'm Sings. This is my second year doing Nano. I managed to win last year but this year...we'll see, LOL. Two months ago I had grandiose plans for a complete outline, character bios, etc and I even bought a cute notebook to keep them in. Well, ahem. I came up with an opening scene! And I did scramble up a few character names last night, so at least I'm not calling them H for hero and V for villain. I'm not real optimistic that I'll make it this year but I think of it this way: I can always quit tomorrow.

I did manage to make my word quota today. Yay.

I live in Lake City, so chances are I won't make any of the get-togethers. But I'll be cheering y'all on.

Hello everyone, I'm Debi. I am a writer by inclination, though as profession I work at UF. This is my first year on WriMo so I hope to at least put in a good showing. I've written nearly 3,000 words today so I'm encouraged. I've always written but have only gotten semi-serious about finishing something in the past year or so. I look forward to 'talking' with everyone and maybe getting to a meetup or two, time permitting. Maybe this insanity of rattling out this many words in such a short time will be the kick in the pants I need to finish the other novel (or three) I've got cooking.

My name is Ashley, and I'm a senior at UF. This is my third year doing NaNo and I'm so~ excited. This year I'm doing a fifth book of a series I started with my first NaNo, and I've finally got an overall series title: The Cult Division Scribblings. The current book is "Memories", and I'm finally sending my characters to Faerieland, so woot!

I've got a pretty good running knowledge of: vampires, werewolves, mother goose rhymes, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish.