United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Word Wars Resume with Indianapolis, Dayton, and Louisville!

quantum tea — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:41:10 -0800

OK people, I know some of you have been wanting this really, REALLY badly. This is the state of play on our local Word Wars:

As you can see, we're WELL ahead of all challengers! Crossing that 2 million mark just about made my day last week. I'm so proud of you guys I could cry! OK, that's going a bit too far, but we NEED to maintain and even extend this lead. I know we can do it!

The other region's word counts are not so pitiful they couldn't come from behind at the last minute (even though we have Jondi off the starting blocks now).

Cry havoc and let slip the keyboards of NaNo!
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http://www.quantumtea.com/blog/

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

TGIO PARTY!!! for the vast and mighty St. Louis region!

limin- — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:55:11 -0800

WOOHOO!!! In just two short weeks, it will be time for… Drumroll please! …the TGIO PARTY for the St. Louis region!!! *cheering throngs* *confetti*

WHEN: Saturday, December 1, 6:30pm till whenever
WHERE: Houlihan’s (back by popular demand) at 1085 N Mason Rd., Creve Coeur 314-469-1167

We need a headcount for this, so PLEASE POST IN THIS THREAD by 11/28 (the sooner the better!) if you plan to attend and let us know if you’ll be bringing any guests and if so how many. (Also, please let us know if you post and then have to cancel.)

If you need directions, here’s a map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=38.677567909,+-90.4705291986+(Houlihan`s Creve Coeur)&z=15

Last year, mck2001 was kind enough to post public transportation info. Maybe this year he’ll do that again? Pretty please? 

You do not have to reach 50k to attend, though your food will no doubt taste better if you do. All participants from the greater St. Louis region and their guests are welcome.

Prices mostly fall in the $9-24 range. Separate checks will be provided, and an 18% gratuity will be added.

We had a great time at last year’s TGIO despite a major ice storm. Join the fun and help make this year’s will be even better!

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limin-
Co-ML for St. Louis, MO
Flailing Gloriously

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

St. Louis Write-Ins at Bread Co - Now at Delmar!

limin- — Tue, 2 Oct 2007 12:17:15 -0700

Details on our weekly Write-Ins for November will be posted here as soon as our arrangements are confirmed (and as soon as I can get logged back in), so come back soon!

Denise
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limin-
Co-ML for St. Louis, MO
Flailing Gloriously

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Regional scoreboard is up!

quantum tea — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:02:15 -0800

Check this out! Russ put together a scoreboard of regions and you can sort it by total words, average words, and donations.

Going by pure words written, we are 44th on the list. That's out of the whole WORLD people! Pat yourselves on the back!

But if you go by average word count, we drop to 72nd. That's behind France, behind Naperville IL, and behind the county of Essex in England (Americans tell Blonde jokes, we Brits tell Essex Girl jokes). Essex!

So, buck up your keyboards and get typing, we have some ground to catch up. How are you doing? What's your word count? And can we have a sneak preview? Post something in your profile as a novel excerpt.

Go St Louis! Do it for the Pointy Stick!
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http://www.quantumtea.com/blog/

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

2 More Months!!

daqu — Mon, 1 Sep 2008 16:01:20 -0700

Hey guys! Can you believe NaNo is only two months away?? O.O Are you guys all getting ready? Do you have your plot bunnies, or are you just going to wing it? It seems like just yesterday that I was struggling through my last year's novel, Karina, but personally I think this year is going to be a lot better. Does anyone have any early plot bunnies they want to share?

As of right now (this is very subject to change) my NaNo novel is a lesbian romance novel. I'm trying to look for a smaller project, because my current idea may be too big for NaNo, but if I don't then I'll just write it.

This is so exciting! I'm excited! Are all of you excited, too??!!

:D :D

-daqu
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NaNoWriMo 2008: Beloved (As of right now, anyway)
NaNoWriMo 2007: Karina — WINNER! (51K)
NaNoWriMo 2006: A Raven's Song — Miserable failure. We don't talk about it.
Writing Blog: http://xxdaqu.blogspot.com
E-Mail: xxdaqu@gmail.com

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Start your engines please...

Paul Hawke — Thu, 7 Aug 2008 10:42:13 -0700

By my count we have 12 weeks until Nano begins. Twelve. The way my life runs that's just about time to blink and find that Nano is all over me once again.

Any thoughts about what to write this year?

Have you been writing anything in the last 8 months or so?

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United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Nano 2008

Paul Hawke — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:50:45 -0700

No-one told me that plot bunnies have big, pointy teeth! Yikes! I got bitten this last week by a plot bunny - sunk his teeth in to the gums and (like some demented ferret) he refused to let go ...

Quote:

Alright people ... these sharks are thinking ... hard & clear ... so here’s the riddle what does an 8000 pound mako shark with a brain the size of a flathead V8 engine & no natural predators think about?

--- Russell Franklin

For five years the secrets of Aquatica have remained hidden, consigned to the depths. For five years Carter Blake and Sherman 'Preacher' Dudley have rebuilt their world after the disaster that nearly claimed their lives.

Dr. Susan McCallister's dream - an Alzheimer's cure harvested from the brain of genetically engineered Mako sharks - long thought dead, is about to rise from the deep. Lawyers from Chimera Pharmaceuticals are pressing charges in the wake of a successful hostile take-over bid by German investors. Meanwhile, a covert skunk-works team has reactivated McCallister's research beginning with some old Aquatica offsite data backups and positively ancient breeding stock.

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United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Creative Night...JOIN US!!!

susabelle — Wed, 7 May 2008 07:50:25 -0700

Join us for the monthly creative night at Borders in Sunset Hills (near 44/270/Watson). Bring whatever makes you creative...writing, reading, craft work, you name it!!

We will be meeting on Wednesday, May 14, 3:30-8 p.m. Just look for the gathering of tables nearest the power outlet. :)
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"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." ~E.L. Doctorow
Visit the NanoWriter's group!
Celestial Chicken Blog

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

I Miss NaNo :'(

daqu — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:17:05 -0700

This happened to me between NaNo 2006-2007, too. I miss NaNo :'(. I was literally just thinking about the novels I've written over the course of months or years, and how they suck because my writing style changed so much from the beginning to the end. But with NaNoWriMo that's not an issue because it's only one month, so it's easy to stay in the same mindset.

Yes, this is pretty much just a pity post. I admit it. But I've tried to do a regular monthlong novel thing and it just isn't the same. I miss all of the write-ins :'(
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NaNoWriMo 2008: Beloved (As of right now, anyway)
NaNoWriMo 2007: Karina — WINNER! (51K)
NaNoWriMo 2006: A Raven's Song — Miserable failure. We don't talk about it.
Writing Blog: http://xxdaqu.blogspot.com
E-Mail: xxdaqu@gmail.com

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

New from Chesterfield!

dturpin — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:51:46 -0800

I just joined. I live in Chesterfield. Any one from Chesterfield?
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United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Instant Messaging/MySpace

daqu — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:07:14 -0700

I know there are these threads all over the forums, but I thought it would be cool if we could have one specifically for St. Louis people :) So just post any instant messaging names you have and your MySpace URL.

Here's Mine:
AIM-whiteflag783
Yahoo IM-happytude25
MSN IM-plutonative@hotmail.com

MySpace-www.myspace.com/aquadaqu
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NaNoWriMo 2008: Beloved (As of right now, anyway)
NaNoWriMo 2007: Karina — WINNER! (51K)
NaNoWriMo 2006: A Raven's Song — Miserable failure. We don't talk about it.
Writing Blog: http://xxdaqu.blogspot.com
E-Mail: xxdaqu@gmail.com

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Post-Nano Creative Night now the second Wed of every month!!

susabelle — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:13:22 -0800

We'll be meeting at Borders in Sunset Hills the second Wednesday of every month. The next one will be February 9th. We'll meet from 3:30-8:00 p.m., come and go as you like!
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"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." ~E.L. Doctorow
Visit the NanoWriter's group!
Celestial Chicken Blog

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Post NaNo Write-Ins

daqu — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 06:57:20 -0800

Hey guys! I know that NaNoWriMo is over now and people are wanting to get back to their normal lives, but are any year-round writers up to having write-ins just for the fun of it throughout the year just for the sheer pleasure of writing a novel with another person sitting next to you that you can bounce stupid ideas off of? Let me know!
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NaNoWriMo 2008: Beloved (As of right now, anyway)
NaNoWriMo 2007: Karina — WINNER! (51K)
NaNoWriMo 2006: A Raven's Song — Miserable failure. We don't talk about it.
Writing Blog: http://xxdaqu.blogspot.com
E-Mail: xxdaqu@gmail.com

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Post-Nano Collaborative Writing

Paul Hawke — Thu, 6 Dec 2007 10:17:45 -0800

A few of us were bouncing around the idea of a sort of "collaborative" writing experiment. Anyone who's read the "Thieves World" books (see Wikipedia for more info on "Theives World") knows the sort of thing we were talking about. Basically, the idea was to create a shared environment for some interlocking characters & short stories.

Now that the dust has settled a little, is anyone interested? I had an idea that would jump-start the shared world, quest is, who's in? :-)
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United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Greeb bars post here!

quantum tea — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:24:29 -0800

Who's got the green bars! Come and be celebrated for your awesome achievement!

The story doesn't have to stop at 50k though... We still have to keep Indy thoroughly beaten on word count.
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http://www.quantumtea.com/blog/

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

The last gasp

quantum tea — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:03:13 -0800

Ladies and gentlemen, as the Word Wars draw to a close, we are a mere 13,212 words away from breaking the FOUR MILLION WORDS mark! That's right, four million words written by the St Louis region. Can we do it? You bet we can!

We need all you winners to go and post in the Greeb Bars thread to stand up and be counted.

This is the current state of play on the Word Wars:

As you can see, we're leading against all challengers on BOTH total word count, and words per person. The closest is Indy, and we're still 1263 words per person ahead!

Yay St Louis! Yay G.R.O.W.L.!

For the Pointy Stick!
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http://www.quantumtea.com/blog/

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

More than 50k / Longer than 30 days

Paul Hawke — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 07:50:38 -0800

We know that there are a few over-achievers who will manage to get more than 50k written in the time limit of Nano. If it wasnt for you, we probably wouldnt win word-wars. But what about the rest of us mere mortals who have been writing for a while now and are heading for the 1/2 way mark of Nano but are realizing that this isnt the 1/2 way mark of the story? Is there anyone out there?

In '05 I think I would have finished my story if I'd given it about 3-5000 more words after I met my Nano goal of 50k. in 06, I barely made it to the huge mid-story "crunch" when 50k rolled around. If I had kept writing I would have probably landed somewhere post-100k in a few months.

Who's finding that the story is more interesting than they thought, with more plot twists and events, and going to require more than 50k to complete (obviously Mike and Josh you can jump in here) ... and how many days past the 30-day mark do you think you'll need to keep writing to get this plot finished? Note: I am assuming here that you'll make your 50k! I know you can, I believe in you....
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United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Quick question

reliantfc3 — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:33:46 -0800

Hey folks, Merinda here. I'm going to miss the TGIO party, but I will be back in town for a month starting December 3. Just wondering if anybody wanted to get together while i'm there?
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United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

LOL

Thystle — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:16:05 -0800

Thought I had it in the bag, and did a final word-count.

I'm at 49,999: whatever shall I do? If I write "The End", do I get a greeb bar?

-Thystle
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Winner 2005 Rumors of Impending War76,245
Loser 2006 First 52,577
Winner 2007 A Slave o Water 55,521

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Script Frenzy!

somemadhope — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 07:20:46 -0800

All -

I know, I know - NaNo isn't even over yet and here I am talking about something far off in the future! For those that don't know, Script Frenzy - http://www.scriptfrenzy.org - is another month of writing, but this time the focus is writing a screenplay or stage play - complete with stage directions, setting notations - everything. Don't worry - they teach you how!

April (the new Script Frenzy month) will be here before you know it, and as your friendly St. Louis ML for the event, I wanted to encourage everyone to give it a try next year. It was a lot of fun last year - it's a totally different kind of writing and especially for you NaNo vets, it might be a thrill to try something new! I personally found it helped a lot with learning to develop dialogue and understand character body language more. It's a challenge - though a rewarding one - to not be able to "narrate" the way you can in a novel.

I know these forums go dead after November 30th as people try to adjust to normal life again, but I hope to see some of you in April.

If you have any questions before then, please post them here or send me a NaNo mail and I'll help as best I can.

Hey, maybe we can beat Indy in April as well! :)
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Teresa
ML for St. Louis, Missouri, USA
http://www.dangerouslycrafty.com
http://www.auditoryimages.net

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

I made 25K!

Lyra Ngalia — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:11:01 -0800

Yes, not much to boast about with all of you green and purple bars out there (*looks at MIKE and JOSH*), but this was what I was hoping to achieve this year, and I still even have a little time to get more writing in. Yay!
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United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Wednesday Write-ins chez Jen

etoiline — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 08:17:35 -0700

For those of you who want more write-ins, I will be offering up my apartment once again on Wednesday nights for your writing pleasure. These will probably be around 7 pm so I have time to get home from work and clean up a little. I have a TV, lots of movies, and WiFi, and my roommate has a cat, so take those into consideration. I live near the Loop, so any of you WU students that would like to get cozy with your (fellow alumna) ML, please come.

If you feel like it, you can bring a (shareable) snack, as I'm pretty low on cash this year and unfortunately won't be able to provide much. Or you can eat dinner beforehand and avoid the hassle of trying to avoid crumbs on your laptop ;)

I'm here:
.
(Click for a map!)
Please post here if you're thinking of coming, or call the number listed above. And for those of you who are horrified that I'm posting that information...it's not hard to find, and nothing bad has happened yet. I prefer to believe in the good of humanity. Besides, how else would you know where to go?

Also, if anyone is interested in joining me for a Nov 1 write-in (even though it's Thursday) I'd be pleased to host that as well. I'll be hopping on the computer as soon as the midnight hour after Halloween chimes, but y'all would have to wait until 7 pm, as normal ;)

Much luck,
~j
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Co-ML of St. Louis, MO
2004: Artorius Rex Novare
2005: Artist of Heaven
2006: The Sixth Ring
2007: Forging the Forest
aspirations: http://etoiline.com

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Sunset Hills Write-Ins!!!

susabelle — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 05:09:33 -0700

chthonicgoof and I are starting Write-Ins in Sunset Hills. Sunset hills is at 44 and 270, so close for those coming in from Jefferson County, or any of the southwest or south suburbs. We'll meet at Borders in Sunset Hills Plaza on Watson Road, just east of 44. The same plaza has a big Home Depot, amongst other things. We will meet in the cafe, come join us anywhere between 3:30 and 8 p.m.

She will be there before me, and I will be there later, and hopefully at least one of us will be there until we wrap up. The only week I won't be there is the first one, I'll be in Colorado on business.

She will be wearing her Nano tshirt, I'll be making up a little table sign as well, so we all can connect. If you need further information or directions, please feel free to post here, or drop either of us a private email.

We're about three weeks away...I'm getting all excited!!
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"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." ~E.L. Doctorow
Visit the NanoWriter's group!
Celestial Chicken Blog

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

Unofficial Write-In South Grand BreadCo.

susabelle — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 06:51:25 -0800

I'll be there again today while my son is at an event in Carondelet Park. I should be near the restrooms/fireplace area in the back. I'll be there from about noon to 4 p.m. if anyone wants to join me. I've reached my 50K but still have story left to write, so I'll be using my time appropriately.
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"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." ~E.L. Doctorow
Visit the NanoWriter's group!
Celestial Chicken Blog

United States :: Missouri :: St. Louis

St. Charles County Unofficial Nano Write In

actortommyd — Fri, 2 Nov 2007 19:44:53 -0700

I know this is last minute, but I'm going to be at the St. Louis Bread Co. at I-70 and Zumbehl road from 2pm to 4pm tomorrow (that's Saturday, November 3). My writing buddy spouse, Nom de Plume Julia, is, at this point, planning to be there with me. So we thought we would offer this as a St. Charles County write in opportunity. So, anyone from the Westplex area, please feel free to join us any time during those two hours.

If I remember correctly, the name of the shopping center that the Bread Company is in the Bogey Hills shopping center. To get there, from I-70, take the Zumbehl road exit, and head South (which would be a left if you were getting on Zumbehl from I-70 westbound). Take the first right after the frontage road. Go all the way to the end of the entrance road and take a right. The Bread Company is in the corner.

I'll be the guy with the slightly reddish blonde hair on the classy black IBM Thinkpad, a laptop almost never seen outside a corporate lunchroom. My lovely wife will be on her silver widescreen Acer. We'll try to find an area with some power outlets. I've never brought my laptop in there, so I'm not sure of the quality of their internet connection, but Bread Companies are often pretty good.

Seriously, anyone who wants to join us is welcome. If there is interest, maybe we'll do this every week.

PS...We also plan on attending in Clayton in Sunday at Clayton, so if we don't see you in St. Charles, we'll see you there.

PPS If anyone has questions or comments, I'll be watching for replies to this thread or you can NanoMail me
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actortommyd
St. Charles, MO
Attempting two novels for Nano 2007!
First Novel: All the Days of My Death (Horror/Thriller) - finished, 51000 words
Seond Novel: The Last Flying Ace (Historical Fiction)
...and now a member of the Trebuchet Club!