NaNoWriMo Write in the the Southampton area

BTW: I would be willing to loan out my 2nd Neo and my AS 3000 to other NaNo'ers during the write in to use as long as they bring a pen drive with them. Then at the end of the session I will dowmload their work on to their pen drive via my laptop.

Hmmmm, it seems all previous posts in here disapeared with the server issues.

I'm just the other side of Portsmouth and this looks like the nearest NaNo group. I've previously attended meet ups with groups (elsewhere) and found it helpful to keep up momentum with the writing.

Waterstones are great usually, the ones in London allow knitting groups and all sorts, other places used as venues I've been to (elsewhere) are Starbucks, and then there's always the quieter variety of pubs (not so good for younger writers though).

I'd be happy to help set up etc any meetings etc, do we have an ML for this area?

Dear Elfycat,

Like you I am actually the other side of Portsmouth I am in Waterlooville perhaps we could organise a meet up / write in for this neck of the woods in SE Hampshire / West Sussex? You can mail me at hdotwinsladeatntlworlddotcom

Regards

Harley

I'm in Chichester. (Hello to you all, BTW, I'm a silent member normally). Can I wriggle into your meet up?

I'm in Emsworth so there does seem to be a few of us in this corner of Hampshire/Sussex. Let's see what the Southampton group get's up to for meetings, but perhaps we could organise a couple of meet-ups as a satellite group if the travel to Southampton is tricky (obviously open to allcomers).

Heya
This is my first NanoWriMo and kinda got talked into it by an internet friend after I helped them read through there stuff last year. I'm down in Southsea if anyone wants to meet up.

Good Luck All
Chris

HI guys

I'm currently at So'ton University, so right here in Southampton, if we can sort a meet-up. This is my first NaNo and I was dragged in by friends on livejournal.

Cara

Hi Cara,

What are you studying? I was at Southampton in the 90s I read archaeology.

Perhaps if no Southampton meeting is organised one can be arranged for this corner of Hampshire and you could attend.

Regards

Harley

Hi Cara,

What are you studying? I was at Southampton in the 90s I read archaeology.

Perhaps if no Southampton meeting is organised one can be arranged for this corner of Hampshire and you could attend.

Regards

Harley

Hi Cara,

What are you studying? I was at Southampton in the 90s I read archaeology.

Perhaps if no Southampton meeting is organised one can be arranged for this corner of Hampshire and you could attend.

Regards

Harley

Hi Cara,

What are you studying? I was at Southampton in the 90s I read archaeology.

Perhaps if no Southampton meeting is organised one can be arranged for this corner of Hampshire and you could attend.

Regards

Harley

Hi Cara,

What are you studying? I was at Southampton in the 90s I read archaeology.

Perhaps if no Southampton meeting is organised one can be arranged for this corner of Hampshire and you could attend.

Regards

Harley

Hi Cara,

What are you studying? I was at Southampton in the 90s I read archaeology.

Perhaps if no Southampton meeting is organised one can be arranged for this corner of Hampshire and you could attend.

Regards

Harley

I'm 2nd yr maths at the moment. If there ends up being a meeting somewhere near a bus stop/train station, I'm probably ok to make it. See how it goes ^_^

Hello,

Used to live in Hedge End (30mins from So'ton) but moved to Gosprt (which has no group).

I joined last year but was unsure about going to a meet up. Would anyone recomend it? Does it help?

Apologies:

Firstly for confusing carla and Phenixboy

Secondly for the multiple posting - its my wireless playing up

Regards

Harley

I move about a bit, so last year couldn't make meet ups as I lived in the middle of everywhere else. The year before I attended all the meet ups and write ins possible while living in London. I found that meeting like-minded writers was great as who else will automatically understand the angst of such things as characters created to die but who take over and become significant characters, and then you need to make up a history and family/friends for them. Or can sympathise about plot bunnies, either that there are too many or too few. Who else can you sit and chat about all things NaNo and guarantee that they will listen and talk about the subject for hours too? (My Hubby starts playing spider solitaire on the computer if I start on about it).

Write ins are great especially if the idea of the word count is daunting,. We used to meet up in a Starbucks, chat for a few mins and then stop and type/write for 45 mins, another break for chatting and then another typing/writing spree until they shut. They can be a good way of socially pumping out a batch of words, getting over a block and also showing the masses (at least the evening crowd in Starbucks) that there's more to life than coffee.

I've done 4 NaNos, 2 attending meetings and 2 without. I've completed the word count each year, but I had way more fun the years when I got to the meet ups.

Hi Everyone!

I'm Jenny, I'm one of the MLs for Southampton - thought it was about time I made an appearance on the forums (my home situation and therefore internet access has been a bit shaky.) Hopefully though, I will be moving in to my new place next weekend so I will have a solid base for NaNoWriMo organisation, and can actually get things done!

Basically, I just wanted to let you know that yes, we are trying to organise Southampton write-ins and they will be near to transport routes like bus and train stations (very near the train station, actually). As Ella, my lovely co-ML, lives in Winchester, we are hoping to organise things there as well, because obviously not everybody lives conveniently in Central Southampton like me (lucky them). We are probably going to have some write-ins held at The Art House, which is a brilliant little space on Bedford Place, just up the hill from the train station, so we'll keep you updated on that.

Also, you'll notice I've set up an Introduction Thread in the forum, so please feel free to head over there and introduce yourself!

Looking forward to (hopefully) meeting you all!

Jenny

Heya,

Where exactly is the art house? i've never heard of it...perhaps google has the answers.

smb : )

Hi! I live near Winchester so something organised there would be great!

Abi

Hi, I live up north, well Basingstoke so somewhere like Winchester would be easier for meet ups.

Mark

Since the odds on more than one meet-up happening are (I hope) relatively high, perhaps we could alternate between locations, say winchester and southampton?

Hmmm winchester would be alot easier for me... I'm up near Aldershot in Hampshire... But I will travel to Southampton if necessary :-D

I'm in Southampton, but I'm sure I can spare a fiver for the train to Winchester. :)

Hi guys. I'm another from the north east. :D

Hello everyone.

The first write-in on the first will be in Soton after that we'll have some in Winchester and some in Soton.

Can people let me know which days they can make? I was thinking of Mondays, Thursdays and the weekend, but which days are good for you?

Ella A.K.A. plv

Dear Ella,

The only day that isnt good for me is Wednesdays as I do CAB volunteering on that day. I thought for the write ins I would bring my spare Alphasmarts and my laptop so some of the other wrimos can try the Alphasmarts then afterwards if I download their work afterwards onto a blank page in Word on my laptop and then save the file to the participants flash/pen drive and delete the text from word but wrimos wanting to try an Alphasmart will have to ensure that they bring a pen drive.

Regards

Harley

Is alphasmart some sort of speech-to-text technology?

Wednesday's aren't good for me either, so we'll not do that day.

Dear Ella,

Alphasmarts are digital notetaker keyboards. Take a look at the Alphasmart thread in the NaNoWriMo technology forum.

You can also find details at www.alphasmart.co.uk and www.flickr.com/alphasmart/

I have 3 models:

The AS 3000 this came out in 2000 and i the predecessor to the Neo I have 2 of these one for personal stuff and one for my charity work. They have a full size Qwerty keyboard and a small screen all you do is turn them on and start typing ! They have 8 files where the F keys are on a PC when you turn them on you then select a file when you have finished typing you just turn the AlphaSmart off you dont have to save your work as the AlphaSmart saves every keystroke as you type. When you want to download you can either use the IR facility on the AS 3000 and Neo or most people use the USB connection by plugging a USB cable into the Alphasmarts back and then into a laptop and then you open an application on the pc/laptop such as Word and then hit the send key on the Alphasmart and the text that you have typed on the Alphasmart comes up on the application on your pc/laptop.

My third model is an Alphasmart Dana this is a PDA running Palm OS its no longer available to buy new in Europe due to EC regs but 2nd user ones can be found on Ebay.co.uk. The Dana has 2 card slots and can take SD or MMC cards upto 1GB in each slot. Many "AlphaSmarties " who have both a Dana and or AS 3000 or Neo write on thier Neo or AS 3000 and then do an IR transfer to the Dana by placing the Dana and AS 3000 or Neo back to back and transfering to the Dana then once the data is on the Dana they save it to one of the cards in the Dana.

I am going to bring all my AlphaSmarts along to the first write in and loan out for the duration of that days write in my second Neo and AS 3000 to 2 other participants but only if they have brought USB flash drives to store their work on. Then when the write in is finished I will download their work onto a blank page in Word on my laptop and then plug the participant's flash drive in and save their work to their flash drive and then delete their work from the page in Word on my laptop.

I thought that by bringing along my Alphasmarts that others can try them and see if an Alphasmart is the portable writing machine for them.

Regards

Harley.

I can do some Saturdays, some Fridays and all Sundays but not Mondays. It's a bit far for me to come to Southampton as I don't drive and public transport from Alton is really quite pathetic. But any days I can make I definitely will!