Australia & New Zealand :: Adelaide

[STICKY] Welcome to NaNoWriMo! Introduce Yourself!

queen.christina — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:36:56 -0700

Hey guys!

It's that time of year again. You know the one I'm talking about - the air is buzzing, your fingers are twitching, the keyboard is groaning already just knowing what's to come. You're pretty sure your computer is already internally weeping, waiting for the first headbash against the monitor, the first tears of frustration rusting away the wires... food splatters, drink spills, long nights without a moment's rest. And of course, the first ear-splitting scream when you finally race across the finish line!

Yes, that's right. NaNoWriMo has arrived!

WELCOME TO THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY!

Are you ready for 30 days of mayhem? 50,000 words which will give you the chance to finally brag, "I WROTE A NOVEL"?

If just the thought has your ears popping with excitement (come on, I'm not the only one), then we love you already. Come in, introduce yourselves, meet your fellow Wrimos (trust me, they'll be your new best friends for the next two months!) Put your feet up as October rushes by - you'll be needing all the energy you can get once the 1st of November comes along!

Along with Mel/Calliopes.Sin, I, Christina, will be one of your Municipal Liaisons for the next few months! The two of us will be here if you ever have an enquiry, are confused, need a shove along in the right direction or just need a friend. Basically, we're here for any and all of your needs and to make sure you have a good time.

So basically?

WELCOME!
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Christina
ML of Adelaide
Moderator of Chick Lit
"Take your clothes off, we've got some writing to do!"

Australia & New Zealand :: Adelaide

[STICKY] IRC - Word Wars - Word Sprints - Online Write-ins

Calliopes.Sin — Sun, 5 Oct 2008 00:21:32 -0700

Hi everyone!
(Hi Mel!)

During the off-season, Christina and I have been trying to think up ways in which we can have some online write-ins and beat the traffic/weather/distance thing that seems to limit people coming to write-ins. Hopefully, this also helps to get rid of the whole "OMG I can't meet those strange people!" thing that plagues everyone every year. Oddly enough, I think I'm in the strange category this year. <<;

Anyway! Chooky's MSN/Yahoo/IM thread reminded me that we hadn't gotten things finalised so now I present to you our little IRC channel.

Due to some of the problems we experienced last year in MSN (people getting kicked from the chat when idle) we've decided that the best way to counteract that is to have our conversations/word-sprints/write-ins through IRC. Below is a picture that shows you how to connect to the network, but before that I'll give you a few friendly links and help.

If you need to download a program. There are many available with free trials and one or two available as Freeware.
mIRC is a very user friendly client (and quite pretty too) but it only has a 30 day trial. You can use it past the trial but it will prompt you to register every day.
X-chat 2 is a free program although it isn't as pretty as mIRC. (I like pretty programs)
Pidgin is another of which I know nothing about other than it does these things.

If you don't want to download a client to use (or it's not your computer) you can use the online client at www.mibbit.com which the following picture helps to set up. If you have any connection problems you can nanomail me (since I check nano more than my email) and I'll do my best to help you out :)

Feel free to use this channel for chatting/write-ins/word-wars. If noone is in there apart from Zem (he won't talk, he's moody) you're probably best off talking over an IM client like MSN or Yahoo.

We'll announce when there will be online write-ins in their own thread.

I'm done boring you with this novel now!
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Mel / Calliopes.Sin
ML of Adelaide, Australia
Moderator: Character & Plot Realism Q&A
"She's one hoopy frood who knows where her towel is,"

Australia & New Zealand :: Adelaide

[STICKY] Helpful Hints when organising a Write-In/Meet-Up

Calliopes.Sin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:54:05 -0700

Organising a write-in and/or meet-up is a great way to meet fellow Wrimo's but there are a few things that need to be remembered before jumping in the deep end, minor details really.

Given that we now have over 200 participants in the Adelaide Region (Yay!), Christina/queen.christina and I have devised a little information sheet that people can use (or you can create one similar) when organising a write-in. This is just to save confusion and to make it easier for people to pull out the specifics of the write-in.

In the subject line be specific with something eye catching like:
WRITE-IN - Day, Date, Time (obviously this will be the day, date and time of your write-in or meet up)

Where:(where it will be, with a meeting point if needed)
Date:
Time:(start and finish if necessary)
Map/How to get there:(just in case you think people will have trouble finding it)
Details:(things like where to park and whether there are bus stops nearby. You could also include your mobile number or how to get in contact for late/lost people, and anything else that needs mentioning like whether you can buy food or bring food. Include details about extra powerboards/extension cords and other stuff too)

Make sure to include your name so people can ask you questions about things if they need to.

If you PM Christina or myself we can put your write-in or meet-up on the regional calendar for everyone to see. :-)

Remember Nanowrimo is all about fun so make sure you budget for some at every write-in and meet-up!

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Mel / Calliopes.Sin
ML of Adelaide, Australia
Moderator: Character & Plot Realism Q&A
"She's one hoopy frood who knows where her towel is,"

Australia & New Zealand :: Adelaide

Your novel in x words or less

The Patched Fool — Tue, 7 Oct 2008 03:24:57 -0700

Alright, I figured, since no-one's started a thread along these lines yet, that we needed a place to explain the plots of our novels. I'm advocating a few summaries - from ridiculously short to reasonably verbose, and a few stops along the way. Why? Because this way, you have an answer for when people say "But what's it actually about?"

So. To get the ball rolling...

Title: Delcanba
Genre: Fantasy

3 word summary: Fictional world history.

10 word summary: The story of a planet, from swords to spaceships.

30 word summary: Delcanba is an Earth-like planet inhabited by humans. This is a history of its nations (and perhaps one family in particular), told in three parts, 1000 years apart.

And I've already given my verbose summary in the intro thread; it's copy+pasted below.

Verbose
This year's novel, Delcanba, is set on a planet about half as big as Earth. I have a rough map in mind, and know details of a few of the races who dwell there. My devilish plan is to write three separate stories, each set 1000 years apart.

The first third is set in the local equivalent of 1000AD. Dark Ages level technology, in other words. No magic. And the driving dilemma for these guys is, "How do people who don't even believe in gas fight a race of gaseous creatures?"

The second third is set around 2000AD. I'm thinking something about global conspiracy theories, with a dashing female anti-hero and lots of elaborate fight scenes. I also plan on having a minor character named Chekhov, who will carry a very efficient-looking rifle but never get the chance to use it.

The third third is set in 3000AD. Space opera is a genre which really enthralls me, but I've never tried writing one before. I don't really have any thoughts about this third yet; I'm hoping something will naturally come to me, as I'm writing the other two.

Feel free to use the layout I'm suggesting, or to only give a verbose summary, or whatever. I know you all want to talk about your ideas as much as I do.
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Australia & New Zealand :: Adelaide

MSN, Yahoo and other Chat arenas

Chooky — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 03:47:47 -0700

Just like every year, add your chat user names so people can get together and talk while NaNoing.
Of course, if you're posting emails, because not to post them in a way it can be easily picked up and spammed.

On MSN I'm chooky_ at hotmail dot com (yes, that is chooky underscore a...)

I'm currently getting spammed like crazy by people wanting to chat with me and send pictures of hot naked.... who knows, so make sure when you find me, mention where you know me from otherwise I might accidentally ban you.
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Pervert's Paradise- 2007

Australia & New Zealand :: Adelaide

The Great 2008 Kick Off!

Calliopes.Sin — Mon, 6 Oct 2008 08:13:46 -0700

The Kick Off!
It's like the calm before the storm, the deep breathe before the plunge, the - I think you get what I'm saying. The Kick Off is a great opportunity to meet your fellow Wrimos face to face before they duck behind their computers and all you see is the back of their screen.

It's also a great time to talk about your novel and maybe have a friendly hashing out of some lesser formed ideas that you've been dying to tell someone. Let's face it, your family and friends have already started to get that glazed over look the minute you say, "I have this idea about my novel..."

The Details:
Date:Sunday, 26th of October
Time:2pm
Place:Cafe Brunelli/Brunelli's.

It's located at 187 Rundle Street. It's a few stores East (not north, oops) of Hungry Jacks and the first stop after you cross the U-Park. Parking in the U-Park is $5.40 maximum on a Sunday or most buses stop reasonably close by. If you need clearer directions nanomail me.

Finally, could you please let Christina or myself know if you plan to attend (either in this thread or nanomail) because we'd like to book a table. We'd hate to see people sitting in high chairs when it can be avoided :-P
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Mel / Calliopes.Sin
ML of Adelaide, Australia
Moderator: Character & Plot Realism Q&A
"She's one hoopy frood who knows where her towel is,"

Australia & New Zealand :: Adelaide

If you're procrastinating and you know it, clap your hands!

queen.christina — Wed, 8 Oct 2008 21:47:22 -0700

*CLAP CLAP*

I know there are others ;)

So here's the almight question: are you currently using NaNo to procrastinate doing something much more important, or doing something pointless to procrastinate planning your novel?

Or maybe you're like me, who was using nano to procrastinate doing her homework, and using Twilight to procrastinate planning her nano! ~~because yeah, I'm a shameful fanpire ;.; and there's totally a new trailer coming out in 5 hours which needs proper counting down........~~

procrastinate is totally not a word anymore. =/
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Christina
ML of Adelaide
Moderator of Chick Lit
"Take your clothes off, we've got some writing to do!"

Australia & New Zealand :: Adelaide

Nano Planning Day

Chooky — Sun, 5 Oct 2008 08:13:38 -0700

Anyone feel like getting together to sit down and plan and plot out their story?
I know I've been procrastinating about putting anything down in writing yet. But this year I am determined to hit the 50,000, so I want to make sure I have it well planned, even to the point of writing out an overview of most scenes.
I was thinking nothing too formal and organised, chat with others if you want, use it to finally stop procrastinating, mull over ideas, develop and flesh out characters, research (or at least work out what you may need to research), maybe even some writing sprints on a random topic to get the creativity flowing.
Date: possibly the Sunday 26th, or the weekend before on the 18th or 19th are good for me.
Venue: I had a look through that list I posted of wireless internet hotspots. The State Library cafe is no longer open on a Sunday, because that would have been perfect for coffee, free wireless, use of powerpoints and researching resources. But the State Museum Cafe is near by and also has free wireless. There are also several Cibo cafes on the list, including the one down Melbourne St, next to Dairy Bell Ice Cream.
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Pervert's Paradise- 2007