OK, what would your ideal kickoff party look like? I've run a bunch of them now, and I'm not a good judge of what's gone over well or badly in terms of locations, dates, activities--pretty much everything (other than my gregarious cat Elsa was a hit when I had an indoor kickoff here at the house, other than with those who have cat allergies--one reason I opted against a home-based party).
So let your preferences be known! We might do more than one, if geographic preferences are split. Nov. 1 is a Thursday, making the weekend awkward--kickoff party several days before the actual kickoff, or several days after? After might be good, so that the show-offs can show up and tell us that they're already past the 10,000 word mark or whatever.
SOMETHING will happen in a party vein, but the more input I get, the better it will be. Now, back to paying work, so that I can free up some of November for all this NaNo fun!
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"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett
0 / 50,000
Okt 23, 2007 - 22 56
I vote the weekend after, as I am out of town the weekend before.
Though that is as far as my vote goes. As long as I get to be a show-off somewhere, I'm good =)
50,047 / 50,000
Okt 25, 2007 - 18 21
And I'm out of town the weekend of Nov 2-4, so there's not going to be a right answer for everyone. I'd vote for a writing party on the morning of the 1st. We could pick one of the zillion area coffee shops, write and exchange Halloween candy. Alternately, if we wanted to maintain the party spirit, the bar at the corner of Paseo Nuevo (I always forget the name) is open first thing in the morning. We've gone in before for bloody marys and early-morning writing.
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Okt 26, 2007 - 02 28
Thanks for the input, guys and gals (who knows who is what with these screen names?). Weekends often are problematic, and I do like the idea of an event on the actual kickoff day. I can't endorse early-morning vomiting (whoops--I read "writing" in megankent's post as "vomiting"; possibly a Freudian slip or a psychic revelation, but not personal experience...), but that bar might be a fun idea. The under-21 crowd (which has been small in past years, but I see we have at least one who has posted an introduction!) would be excluded, but as stated in comments above, nothing works for everyone.
Do you feel like potentially being a hostess, megan? Or you, prolificmuse? (You didn't have as many concrete ideas.) I might not be able to make it (but I might be able to schedule my day to spend it downtown; I have a 2 p.m. can't-break appointment and don't like to do a lot of back-and-forth driving from unincorporated area to downtown), but I'd like to.
I'm REALLY pushing the idea of "veterans" hosting little gatherings, so that there are more of them than I can set up and/or attend. It's really easy to set something up: Find out seating arrangements in advance (see if you can get tables together and what the situation is with power outlets), post decent directions in the forums (I'll be setting up a calendar of events; send directions to me as well, or I can just read them in the forums), and when you arrive, notify someone in charge (bartender, barrista) where you're sitting so that people who show up and ask will get an answer. That's it! I have "swag" for giveaways at get-togethers; I can find a way to get some to anyone who hosts.
I don't think I'm going to try for anything the weekend before, but someone else may want to. Let me know if you do; I'll let everyone know if I change my mind. I'm just burned out this week and don't want to start thinking of NaNoWriMo as an obligation or burden. (Not at least until Nov. 10 or so . . .)
Give it some more thought, folks! Seven days and counting! (In true NaNoWriMo fashion, I'm posting at 2:20 a.m.--not a good sleep habit to get into.)
----------"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
--Samuel Beckett
50,047 / 50,000
Okt 26, 2007 - 21 34
Sure, I'd be happy to host a party. I checked, the name of the bar is Mel's. Hopefully, here's the yahoo map:
Map of
Mel's Place6 De La Guerra Pl, Santa Barbara CA