Europe :: England :: London

Anyone interested in a post NaNo writing group?

hiveoverlord — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:00:33 +0000

Is anyone interested in a post NaNo writing group?

Or does anyone know a good writing group already going which people who want to keep writing can go to?
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Europe :: England :: London

Anyway up for an all day Friday write in?

Poppet — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:31:18 +0000

Somewhere in central Londonish - am happy to get to most places (am east myself)

With Plug ins (rubbish computer battery). Coffee also good but don't want to spend loads (probably pack my own lunch.)

I don't have to work so am setting the whole of Friday aside but think perhaps company in the craziness would be good?

Jacky
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Europe :: England :: London

EVENT: TGIO Party (Weeknight), Thursday 3rd December, 7pm

darklily — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:59:31 +0000

Yes, it's almost December already - eek!
I hope you'll all be able to come and celebrate/commisserate after a well-earned few days' rest.
Weekend party details to follow shortly...

***

Event: The 'Thank God It's Over' Party (Weeknight Edition)
Date: Thursday, the 3rd of December
Start Time: 7pm

Venue: The Mad Hatter, Stamford Street, nr. Waterloo (see map)

We'll be in the raised area at the back, behind the bar (the same place as the weekend mid-month meet).

Things To Bring: You're more than welcome to bring an excerpt from your novel - and rest assured that you won't be forced to read it out loud!
(Boring note: Please try to avoid sections with really obviously offensive/triggering content. If in doubt, ask me.)

Things To Take Away: There are still stickers left - do please come and ask me for one if you don't see them being passed around.

This is also (almost) your last chance to purchase a spangly badge and/or coaster from Jane (with profits going to NaNoWriMo).
I've been using my coaster all month, and can testify to it being a thing of great beauty and inspiration; as well as being quite handy for keeping the tea stains off my desk.

R.S.V.P.'ing: ...would be tremendously helpful in trying to arrange prizes for high achievers (!), but is as ever neither binding nor obligatory.

***

Right, now back to the writing...!
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Lily
Municipal Liaison for London, England
'Nil Desperandum!'

Europe :: England :: London

WRITE-IN: Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, Monday (Nov. 30) 6pm - late

Jenepel — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:43:48 +0000

It's the last day of the month, so might as well have a write-in for that last ditch effort!

VENUE: Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall (Walk up the stairs to the left of the festival hall, go past the Nelson Mandela statue and into the glass doors on the right. Go straight through the building, past the cafe tables and couches and big open area. We will be in the blue area, in the back to the right of the stairs.)

DATE: Monday (Nov. 30)

TIME: We'll be there from 6pm until whenever necessary (or whenever they kick us out) but I'm sure people might also come along earlier than 6 - you guys know the drill.

DETAILS: We'll have table signs that say Nanowrimo (and many laptops) so hopefully we'll be easy to spot. Keep in mind that it's a public place and we aren't an official event, so there will probably be a bit of a scramble for tables. We'll try our best to save spots and we'll also bring along two power strips to help with plugging in. Also, there are lots of food and drink options at the Southbank Centre if you're in need.

SCHEDULE: We know that a lot of people write better if there are actual times set aside for writing when there isn't a lot of chatter, so we have a (somewhat flexible) schedule. It's a public place so if you're more of a chatty writer you can of course make your own table of like minded people. Basically we plan for 15 minute chat times, and then 45 minute write times, to fill out each hour. Which would go like this:

6:00-6:15PM Chat
6:15-7:00PM Write
7:00-7:15PM Chat
7:15-8:00PM Write
etc etc

We also have some Nano stickers, buttons, etc which we will give out at will at all of our write-ins over the month. (Big word counts, good progress, creative noveling ideas, etc!)

Facebook Event Page Here
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2009 - The Defective Detectives (WIP)
2008 - The Guardians of the Stone (winner!)
2007 - Gaijin Desu (winner!)

Europe :: England :: London

WRITE-IN: Writers' Crawl : Guerilla Noveling in London / Fundraiser, Sat Nov 28th, 12-4PM

Jenepel — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:27:34 +0000

Asphodele and I have been throwing this idea around for a while, and I know we've talked to some of you guys about it at write-ins, so hopefully there will be enough interest to have a decent sized group.

VENUE: Various sites around central London (list to come soon), the first meet-up point is the steps of St Paul's - we'll have some sort of big Nanowrimo sign so that you can find us.

DATE: Sat Nov 28th

TIME: 12-4PM (I'm sure people will want to come late or not stay the whole time, so we may have a changing group, which is fine. If you think you might be late, send me a nano-mail now and I'll give you my phone number so you can text on the day to find out where we are at any given time.)

WHAT IS IT: In the style of a traditional pub crawl, we will move from site, just staying a while at each - only instead of drinking we'll be writing! (Possibly not as fun, but good for your Nano word count.) We'll do 15-20 minute flash writes in famous London places, from the Tate Modern to Covent Garden and then (of course) end it all in the pub. We'll bring badges, stickers and candy to be used as prizes for word wars and challenges throughout the day.

WHY ARE WE DOING IT: Of course there are the obvious things like bringing up your Nano wordcount and getting to write in some fabulous London locations, but we also wanted to give a little back. We're piggy-backing onto Audiofrog's Abnowrimo project, where she is raising money for the children's charity Barnardos. We would like everyone who comes to donate something to the project, or if you want to ask friends and family to sponser you, go for it! The giving page is here or of course you can bring cash on the day.

WHAT YOU NEED TO BRING: Yourself and something you can write with. Obviously we won't be hitting many (or maybe none at all) power points, so this is swayed towards people with laptops with a long power life and anyone writing long-hand. If you think your laptop won't make it, please consider bringing a notebook and coming anyway. Also, if you have Nano gear, wear it! Asphodele and I will see what we can do about making some sort of signage so that people can see what we are doing.

WEATHER: Obviously this is the worst time of year to plan an outside event! We are trying hard to come up with a list of places that includes both indoor and outdoor options. For instance, wouldn't you like to write in the Globe Theatre Foyer? (We'll see if they let us!) Also consider that we'll be walking from place to place, so umbrellas, waterproof bags and warm clothing is essential!

SCHEDULE: tba (feel free to suggest places in this thread if you want, esp if they are indoors!) I have a feeling it will also be flexible on the day as we figure out what works and what doesn't.

Facebook Event Page Here

We're really excited about this, so we hope people want to come! It's sure to be manic - we'll be dodging tourists and maybe doing some writing in very strange places or positions - but it should also be a ton of fun.
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2009 - The Defective Detectives (WIP)
2008 - The Guardians of the Stone (winner!)
2007 - Gaijin Desu (winner!)

Europe :: England :: London

Write-in, S London, this evening?

king_tut — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:32:10 +0000

Hi guys,

Anyone fancy a bit of a write-in this evening? I'm based in Sutton, so here, Wimbledon, Clapham (Junction), Balham, Victoria are all possibles for me. I've written 3k so far today, but want to get another 7k out before I go to bed tonight, and I'm already flagging a little.... My current plan is to give Starbucks a break, and head to a pub for the next 2-3 hours. After that, who knows.

Ian
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Europe :: England :: London

How November became the best month of 2009

Audiofrog — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:40:01 +0000

When I took on NaNoWriMo, I’ll admit that I was less than enthusiastic. It wasn’t my idea… it was more of a sustained wearing away of my resistance by Saaoirse and oreonimrodel. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy it… hell I really didn’t think there was much chance I’d finish something so ridiculously fast-paced since I normally do about 1,000 words a week...

I didn’t count on the London NaNoWriMo group… it was Saaoirse who convinced me to go to the original launch gathering… and then couldn’t make it. While there on my own a few people there convinced me that I should come to a write-in. Again I wasn’t sold on the idea. A group of people in the same room writing together in silence… weird right? Except in that first session I nailed almost 3,000 words and suddenly I was surrounded by people who not only felt my pain and understood my general weird creative spirit but who were also uber-supportive of each other’s attempts to win NaNo and see their project through.

I got hooked… like seriously hooked and I fell in love with EVERYONE. The write-ins became the highlight of my week and the idea of missing one almost sacrilegious. Who could fail with so many cheerleaders?

I finished my novel I Love Everything About You That Hurts (which you can read online by sponsoring me here) a week ahead of schedule… all 50,000 words of it but there is no way I would have gotten anywhere near the word count without my support group (I gave up trying to match real names to screennames)… so Jenn, Claire, Sarah, Ben, Frank, Melanie, Ian, Lindsey, Liz, Cleo, Jay (especially Jay who gets to listen to me talk total shit on the train on the way home 3 times a week) and everyone else who pops in and out… if by some bizarre miracle there suddenly ends up being a massive market for tragic. teenage semi-homoerotic young adult fiction and someone publishes my pile of slush (once I redraft it and it’s actually in English)… it’ll be dedicated to all of you. And for those of you who aren’t finished… DO NOT GIVE UP… or you won’t get one of these (and yes I had to type in my own name):

Now that I Love Everything About You That Hurts is in the “decompress and then edit” pile, I am using the rest of the time left in November to work on Lucy Gray, which is my other novel that’s been on a backburner for about a year. I am newly creatively revitalised and I feel like I’m back in the game.

Although I can’t quite avoid this feeling of impending doom in the face of the realisation that it will be over soon. I’m hoping to keep as many people as possible interested in keeping the group working together creatively… or at the very least harassing each other constantly on Twitter.

But before all of that, Saturday marks the first inaugural Nanorilla (so named by Frank himself) which is some kind of bizarre guerrilla writing/flash mob hybrid. We’ll be travelling around central London writing in iconic places and freaking out the tourists and best of all raising some more money for Barnardos. I can’t wait…
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Come over to the dark side... we have cookies

Europe :: England :: London

Yeay I got a halo!!

Poppet — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:31:16 +0000

To all those who haven't yet donated... it's worth it just for the yellow halo over your picture...

And way easy - can do paypal so don't even need to get your cards out.

And $10 is about 6 squiddies... so coffee and cake in starbucks??

I reckon we can all afford it for the service these guys offer.

Having managed websites in the past I know the work that must go on behind the scenes!!
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Europe :: England :: London

still in the game

yakera — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:22:56 +0000

Still in the game! We're all moving, steadily, towards the finish line. Who knew we could commit to 2+ weeks much less a whole month. One word at a time we continue to honor this commitment to ourselves. We deserve a pat on the back and a huge hug!
Just curious. How have you honored yourself today for being so awesome? I took a long, hot bath.
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Europe :: England :: London

I don't know whether to just give up or not?

Poppet — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:43:01 +0000

Yeah... so

I probably should have dropped out of the word war if I was gonna give up, but I thought staying in would motivate me.

Thing is, I managed to write 9,000 really quickly two weekends back, but have just sat on my arse since.

So I dunno, is it now just impossible and time to jack it in and stop feeling like i 'should' be writing...

Or is it still possible??

(Considering I'm meant to be starting up my own business too and have just discovered the first series of Heroes on DVD having completely missed it before.)

I AM such a time waster sometimes.

How do you people do it?
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Europe :: England :: London

Word War Info - Updated 21 Nov.

Loriba — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:22:52 +0000

Hi all,

This thread is primarily for me to post info about the Word War to all competitors, so it's being cross-posted to all the regions taking part. If you want to make any comments, however, feel free. :-)

ETA: Here's the link to the leader board: http://www.annelyle.com/projects/scoreboard.html

The regions currently signed up are:

Birmingham
Brighton
Cambridge
Darlington
Devon & Cornwall
Essex
Gloustershire
Lancaster & Cumbria
Leicester
London
Manchester
Newcastle
Norfolk
Oxfordshire
York & Leeds
Dublin
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Eng: Elsewhere
Scot: Elsewhere
Wales

Only one region has given a definite No, so we may get a lot more before the 10th. Here's hoping. :-)

All those regions that are signed up should have a Banter thread, so feel free to go over and give them hell (but in a nice way). :-)

There may be a slight delay in the War starting up, as we're reliant on the site API working and the site is notoriously slow during the first few days of Nano, plus we're running it in a slightly different way this year and I'm not sure what problems will crop up because of that. In addition, one of Anne's cats is very seriously ill at the moment, so she may not have time to work on it. I'll be in touch with her and will let all the relevant MLs know if we have to make other arrangements at all. I'll also be in touch when I know the URL of the leader board. :-)

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Lottie
I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Europe :: England :: Birmingham-West Midlands

Ooo a purple bar. Who knew!

yakera — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:42:00 +0000

I am humbled. Thanks everyone for all the threads and the posts that kept me going. Have a peace filled and blessed holiday season.
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Europe :: England :: London

Toronto Nano Radio Show - Special Guest MissEricaCourt

Elumir — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:00:41 +0000

Allo London!

As you may not know, I run a nightly Radio Show (I just started last Friday) about Toronto Nano, and tonight I am interviewing one of your very own, MissEricaCourt!

She's on your word war team, if you don't know who she is.

If you're interested in having a link to ignore, here is is:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/elumir/2009/11/25/toronto-nano-radio-show--...

It's at a time which is too late for you, I know. But it is available for download once the show is done.
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Europe :: England :: London

"Time-Zone Freak-Out" by Ian Sular-Eadgitte.

Ian.K.Ellard — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:38:46 +0000

Hi guys,

So, I scribbled till 4am this morning, and then had a mad dream about Oprah lending me her laptop so I could play with Google Wave, then becoming embroiled in a secret agent style chase through the streets that ended with me catching my reflection in the bad guy's mirrored sunglasses and I looked like, I think, Vince Cable.

Before I got off to sleep, though, I got to panicking. So, we're coming to the time when we have to submit these bloody books that are making us dream crazy, and I'm FRIGHTENED that I'm going to miss it because of the time zones.

Somebody please help me sleep by telling me the exact time I have to have sent it by, being as I am in Ingur-Land

Mennifanx,

Ian K. Ellard
Head Gatekeeper to The Otford Raptor and Principal Negligent
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Europe :: England :: London

MANIC MONDAY

opportunemoment — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:48:54 +0000

So, the last day of Nano approaches faster than I think any of us would like!

I have managed to take the day off work (yay for leftover days of holiday at the end of the year...) so my plan is to get up early, take Douglas the Laptop to a Central London coffee shop, and write LIKE A DEMON. Because frankly I'm going to have to if I'm going to win this year.

Students, holidayers, job-seekers, part-timers, nearby lunch-breakers and people who can get away with taking a sick day: let us unite and write like the whips of our masters are behind us! Who's with me?

At the moment I'm not totally sure which coffee shop. I understand that Starbucks have no problem with people camping out in them all day as long as they buy plenty of coffee, which, let's face it, we will be. Last night at the Bethnal Green write-in Miss Mouse mentioned that there's one in Central London with a nice big downstairs area but I've forgotten which it was...

There can be an organised break for proper food and not looking at a screen at some point if people want to do that, and also we might then decamp to a pub (perhaps the Camel, or perhaps someone could suggest a spacious, laptop-tolerant central london option) for an evening session until we a) hit 50k, b) DIE TRYING or c) have to catch the last tube home.
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Europe :: England :: London

Karl / Carl, where are you? [Missing person alert]

zooeyglass — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:43:05 +0000

Hello,

At the pre-nano event on October 31st, I was introduced to a gentleman by the name of C/Karl. I don't even know how to spell his name. But the enchanting story of his 2008 nano, and the humble manner in which he introduced himself, made me want to see how he was doing this year.

Does anyone have any leads? Seriously! Last year he wrote 80k but he still failed cos he was aiming for 125,000. How is he doing this year? At first, I thought it was funny, but now I am actually concerned. I want to know, I want to be able to send him a nano-message encouraging him. And I want to hear how the gay guy who's pretending to be straight and might come out in this year's novel, how he's got along.

Please can you help? Do you know of a London C/Karl that might be writing a novel in november? Do you know his screen name on here?

thank you

frankleby
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Europe :: England :: London

Growing Pains

yakera — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:16:26 +0000

As we approach week 3 I wonder how everyone is doing. I and am interested to hear about the various growing pains some of us may have experienced. I have a new found respect for novelists! Whew it's a lot of work. The most important shift I have noticed while showing up to the page every day, these past couple of weeks is, that I can trust my inner voice to guide me,These last two weeks taught me to show up to the page and place words on it, one after another, each word bringing me closer to actualizing my dream. Here's to another fun week of challenging that little voice that says " I can't or later, or as soon as I.....(fill in the blank) and honoring the one that says, "Yes I can and I will!" Yay to more frivolous sentences and paragraphs created in 'diabolical merriment.' ( I love those two words together)
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Europe :: England :: London

We love our ML!

fairyhedgehog — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:29:37 +0000

Without Lily none of the wonderful meetups would happen. She's always there for us with her ~~evil~~ cuddly meerkat.

Just wanting to say we appreciate you, Lily. Oh, and I love the new venue for weekend meets and I really loved the hat competition. Who won in the end?
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My Blog

Europe :: England :: London

WRITE-INS Victoria Park (Saturday) and Bethnal Green (Monday)

MissMouse — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:50:40 +0000

Hi folks

it would be great to resurrect the Camel pub write-ins again. For those of you who aren't familiar with the venue, it's about 5 mins walk from Bethnal Green tube and in the past they were kind enough to reserve the big table at the end for us, and we could easily fit in 8-12 people with some availability to plug laptops in (limited though). Most importantly, the pies are great! We would normally write for a couple of hours from about 6:30 - 8:30, with some continuing afterwards while others concentrated on drinking and pie consumption. I'm thinking Monday as Sun/Tues/Thurs already have central London write-ins pencilled.

For the weekends, (Saturdays?) I think the Britannia beside Victoria Park might work well and I can have a chat with the owners to see if we could get some of the tables in the restaurant reserved; or perhaps use the upstairs room. It gets busy but the restaurant is slightly set back so should be a little quieter. It's a short walk from the village where the 425 and 277 buses stop; or on the 388 from Hackney Wick.

There's another pub I'm going to investigate which is slightly closer to Mile End tube too.

If you're interested in coming along to either of the write-ins mentioned above, please let me know so I've got an idea of numbers before I go ahead :-)

Best
Gail

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Why do I do this to myself? Because this year I might just win...

Europe :: England :: London

Damn unexpected subplots , random characters and the most ridiculous words.

Elyzab — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:45:30 +0000

I have had a new character wander into my story unplanned, he just turned up in the forest when my heroine and her children were in danger. He now wants to tell her all about the stars and how to use them to navigate! He also demanded I use the word 'loquacious' to describe him talking about the stars. Honestly!

What strange plots/characters/words have wandered unbidden into your masterpiece?
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Europe :: England :: London

Shout out for sitting down to write today!

yakera — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:45:13 +0000

Maybe we could have a shout out for all of us who sat down and wrote today. Sometimes that's all we can do and sometimes the numbers don't reflect the amount of effort it took for an individual to get comfortable enough to let the words flow. So anyone with ten words or more deserves a shout out! Ten words, maybe a sentence, possibly a paragraph. Way to go all of us. Congratulations for showing up to the page. This does not discount those of you who have hit the major k's. You show us it's possible and inspire us to keep going. Congrats to you for forging the trail!
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Europe :: England :: London

Moooosic

Enzo — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:47:00 +0000

Every year I end up listening to one artist predominantly through the month. Year one (2006) was the lovely Julieta Venegas. Foreign lyrics are less distracting I find.

The following year, if I remember correctly, was the Amelie soundtrack & other Yann Tiersen stuff. Mostly they're instrumentals.

Last year was all about Tokyo Jihen.

This year: David Bowie. I've had the same 10 or 15 Bowie songs on loop for 3 weeks.

What about you? Do you prefer dead silence? Or, if not, what music does it for you during NaNo?
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Ben..
2009 - a place like this
2008 - Copernicus Undone (EPIC FAIL)
2007 - Monument (winner!)
2006 - Some Solitude for a Social Species (winner!)

Europe :: England :: London

WRITE-IN: Costa's at Piccadilly Waterstones, Sundays (Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22, 29) 2-5PM

Jenepel — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:20:16 +0000

As posted by Asphodele in a previous thread, here are the further details...

VENUE: Costa Coffee, Waterstones Piccadilly - 203-205 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9HD (It's on the bottom floor of the bookstore, just keep going downstairs and you'll come right to it.) Google Map Here

DATE: All Sundays in November (1, 8, 15, 22, 29)

TIME: 2-5 PM (they are actually open from 12-6 and we might be there before or after the "official" time, so feel free to expand if you want to)

DETAILS: We'll have table signs that say Nanowrimo (and many laptops) so hopefully we'll be easy to spot. Keep in mind that it's a public place and we aren't an official event, so there will probably be a bit of a scramble for tables. That said, Sunday is a slow day and it's a decent sized cafe, so we should be ok. We'll try our best to save spots and we'll also bring along two power strips to help with plugging in. Also, it probably goes without saying, but it's a normal Costa's, so coffee/tea/nibbles are available for any who desire them.

2:00-2:15PM Chat
2:15-3:00PM Write
3:00-3:15PM Chat
3:15-4:00PM Write
4:00-4:15PM Chat
4:15-5:00PM Write

We also have some Nano stickers, buttons, etc which we will give out at will at all of our write-ins over the month. (Big word counts, good progress, creative noveling ideas, etc!)

Hope to see many of you there!

Facebook Event Page Here (We're trying to put anything posted on the London Nano Forum on the FB group.)
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2009 - The Defective Detectives (WIP)
2008 - The Guardians of the Stone (winner!)
2007 - Gaijin Desu (winner!)

Europe :: England :: London

A (Very) Brief Word About Donations

darklily — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:51:26 +0000

I'm happy to announce that NaNo London has already raised a highly impressive $1,180 - well done, everyone!
Last year London raised a total of $1,470, and I hope we will be able to beat that total by the end of the year.

(By the way, you can see our current regional stats - donations, total words written, et cetera - by going to the 'Regional Info' tab on the regional lounge header thingy.)

I'm sure that the rest of you don't need to be told that NaNoWriMo would really appreciate any financial support that you can offer.
I would however like to draw your attention to the easily overlooked Donating When Broke page, which includes (among other things) information about the GoodSearch scheme.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!
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Lily
Municipal Liaison for London, England
'Nil Desperandum!'

Europe :: England :: London

Any twitter users?

Ewacat — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:16:16 +0000

I'm on twitter a lot and it's proving to be quite a good tool for keeping in contact with other nanowrimo participants - I'm using the #nanolondon tag for my Nano tweets. It might be useful for organising other write-ins or events, esp since it's quite a bit quicker than facebook!

E x
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