United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

BELLINGHAM NANOWRIMO SCHEDULE(S):

kefururi — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:42:45 -0700

I'm assuming that you can edit this too, right CT? That way you can add your dates and times when they're available. :)

FRIDAY NIGHT NANOWRIMO MEETINGS:

Every Friday evening from 6pm to 8pm at WWU, (Location/Directions) starting October 12th and going until the end of November.
(Possibly not on the day after Thanksgiving. We will keep you posted!)

BLACK DROP COFFEE HOUSE MEETINGS:

Weekly, at the Black Drop coffee house (Location.)
Dates: Wednesdays, starting November 7. (Nov 7, Nov 14, Nov 21, Nov 28)
Times: 5pm-7pm.
Sceach C. Blackwolf (co-ML) will get there around 3, so if you want to show up early, you can! (The coffee is HIGHLY recommended - all of the drip coffee and decaf espresso is roasted right here in Bellingham!)

NIGHT-OWL NANOWRIMO KICK OFF PARTY:

Sehome Haggen Marketplace, Oct 31 @ 11:30pm until 1am. (Should be fun!)

LATE NIGHT WRITE-INS:

Location/Time: TBA

I SLEEP NIGHTS, YOU CRAZY PEOPLE, WRITE-INS:

Location/Time: TBA

OTHER MEETINGS: (?)
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MORALICIDE

United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

What's It About?

pussinboots — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:16:10 -0700

If you already know what you're writing, share it here. Half the reason I do this silly thing is to see what other people come up with.
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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Wedensdays

Sceach C. Blackwolf — Wed, 9 Jan 2008 18:19:33 -0800

Hello writing group type people.

I am going to show next week, but tonight I am home in bed, sick. Was at the Drop earlier but just couldn't stick it out. Hope you guys are nice and productive and that I see you next time.

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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Western Front

Hannah.P — Thu, 4 Oct 2007 21:12:47 -0700

I've got an editor / journalist friend who wants to do an article in the Front about Nano. If you are interested in talking to her, call me and I'll pass along your contact information.
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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Last Meeting and TGIO PARTY IS DECEMBER 7

kefururi — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:07:36 -0800

The last meeting is tonight! Come, write, and be merry!

The TGIO party will be on December 7th at 6pm at Rudy's Pizza on State St. in downtown Bellingham. There will be pizza, there will be prizes.

The first and second place "won first" prizes go to Maivry and Dormouse.

Two prizes remaining are: Most words by the end of November and Best last sprint (most words in the last two days).

If you won/win, and want your prize and can't make it to the TGIO party, nanomail me! We will figure out another way for me to get it to you. :)

Also, feel free to nominate yourselves for best use of a NaNoWriMo anagram in this thread!
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MORALICIDE

United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Wed Meeting Officially Continued

Sceach C. Blackwolf — Sat, 1 Dec 2007 23:29:52 -0800

I shall be there, snow permitting.

and and SNOW! ZOMG!
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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

What I have learned from Nano

MarkButler — Mon, 3 Dec 2007 08:15:15 -0800

While we still have people checking the board, I was wondering what Nano taught you as a writer. What can you take away from the process, other than a bunch of words that may/may not see the light of day.

For me, I learned a lot this time. Mostly in two categories:

1 - having an outline results in a much better book. I was a seat-of-the-pants writer, starting with a vague outline and letting the words take me in all sorts of cool directions. The result was fun and interesting and totally different than I expected, but resulted in a book that was single-minded, slowly-paced and meandered a lot.. fun as an exercise but not a way to do anything noteworthy.

Using an outline resulted in a much faster (and slower) write. It was faster because I knew where I was going and I could write the scenes knowing what I wanted to get done, which allowed me to concentrate on making it work the right way, making the characters decent, etc. It was also slower because instead of blazing along and not caring about dialog tags, making them believable, etc. this time I was trying to write "good" and make it a better story, and I found my words/hour was far less than I expected.

2 - the second big thing I learned was that I need a LOT more plotting. I created what I thought was a decent plot, several interesting characters, sub-plots, action, a romance, etc. I thought it would serve me quite nicely. Instead, I hit the end of my story at 50k, and that was by padding things out more than I really wanted to! I can't imagine how many words I will end up with after a couple of edits. So my plot-generation braincells need a lot of work. I also found that by the time I got to the end, I had left it considerably more vague than I needed it to be, which further slowed me as I spent a lot of writing time, trying to figure out what to write - my outline said "hero kills the big monster" but the "how" was left undefined. The whole process left me with an end result that was a weaker ending than I really wanted.

How about you?
Mark
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Mark

United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Continuation of Wed meeting?

Sceach C. Blackwolf — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:44:22 -0800

So, a couple of people have expressed interest in continuing the Wed writing meeting at the Black Drop. I am willing to keep going if you guys are; how many would like to keep the meetings going?
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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Purple bar braggin

MarkButler — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:38:46 -0800

Heya - if you got a purple bar, stop on by and do some bragging! How did it go, was it easier or harder than before, or if it was your first time, how does it feel?

For me, it was a lot harder this time because instead of just writing for the pure joy of writing, I actually tried to write "something worthwhile" which I believe will eventually end up as a book that I will self-publish. However, I noticed it was not nearly as much "fun" and I did not laugh while writing like I did last year. Although last years was so bad it has never resurfaced, so I guess there is a trade-off.
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Mark

United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

SO, hows it going?

MarkButler — Fri, 2 Nov 2007 07:14:03 -0700

Here we are, days into Nano.. How is everyone doing? meeting your wordcount? Is the novel flowing as well as you had hoped? inquiring minds need to know!
Mark
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Mark

United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Background Music

jade_kadir — Sun, 4 Nov 2007 18:11:47 -0800

Does anyone here listen to music when they write? If so, what sort of music do you listen to?

I have been listening to the sound track for "The Quiet American" and it's something that puts me in the mood for this particular book I've been writing.

What other sorts of things so you guys do when writing to keep you foccused and keep your energy up?
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"But as for me I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote."
- from "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville.
http://www.nanowrimo.org/user/147986
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/user/147986
http://pc.celtx.com/profile/

United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

This SUCKS.

pussinboots — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:40:35 -0800

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/wordcount_stats/region/177

Oh, come ON. You can barely fill up a tank of gas for that much. Come on, people. I know there's more than 18 of us, and some of those people probably donated more than $10.

It's two lattes you don't drink for the month--I think you can handle it. ;) If you really, really can't, there's always this: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/sponsorship
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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

RE: SO, hows it going?

shatterglass — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:10:01 -0800

I'm several thousand words behind (not that it's unusual!) but planning for a big sprint this weekend to catch up, and am hoping to hit 50k this weekend. If I do 4k words for the next five days, including today....it's doable.
Yes, it is.
I must convince myself of this.

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wordcount widgets

United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

THE OFFICIAL BELLINGHAM WORDCOUNT CHALLENGE LETTER:

kefururi — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:29:47 -0700

Bellingham Region
48° 47' 59" N
122° 31' 47" W
Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy
Universal CurveSpace Code #39-255

To Whom it may or may not concern:

The Bellingham NaNoWriMo region is formally challenging you to an epic word count battle during the Earth month of November, 2007. Should your name appear on the following list, you should consider yourself challenged, except in the case of typo.

Bellingham hereby challenges the following people, places, things and concepts:

Andorra, Antarctica, The Amish, Ankh-Morpork, Antwerp, Azerbaijan, Cambridge, The Cast of Lost, The Color Green, Cthulhu, Death Valley, Alexander Dumas, Estonia, The Everglades, Existentialism, Faerie (and all other spellings), Fairbanks AK, Kevin Federline, Fiji, Neil Gaiman, The Galapagos Islands, Happy Jack AZ, Harvard, Hogwarts, The Holy Roman Empire, Victor Hugo, Humptulips WA, Idaho, Isle of Mann, Spider Jerusalem, Kazakhstan, Caroline Keene, Kermit the Frog, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Microsoft Campus, Middle Earth, Mongolia, Neverland, Normal IL, Okeefenokee Swamp, Oxford, Peru, Pluto, Princeton, Pullman, Quebec, Rancho Peñasquitos, Santa Claus, Saskatchewan, South Sandwich Islands, Spokane, Stanford, Superman, Jonathan Swift, Tajikistan, Tazmania, Thomas Jefferson's descendents, Tillamook, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, U.S.S. Enterprise – D, Uzbekistan, Vatican City, Doctor Venture, Andrew Lloyd Webber, The World Fantasy Convention, Wyoming, Yale.

If you are not on the list, but have received this challenge in error, then you are challenged anyway. Wordcounts will be compared at the end of November!

Additionally, if you are not on the list, and would like your region to be added to the list of challengers to Bellingham, Washington, then please leave a comment in our regional forum, or send nanomail to the Bellingham Municipal Liaison, kefururi.

With Subdued Excitement,
Bellingham, WA.

P.S. For regions or areas with considerably more or considerably fewer participants than Bellingham, Washington (we have about 230 registered Wrimos), the region with the highest average wordcount will win. If you would like your region to challenge Bellingham, just make sure you tell me which region I should add to the list.
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MORALICIDE

United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Tonight (November 23)

kefururi — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:50:01 -0800

There will not be a meeting in CF 23 on WWU's campus tonight because I do not believe that the building will be open!

Instead, you are free to meet me at the Black Drop coffeehouse in downtown Bellingham from 5pm to 7pm tonight.

I hope I'll see you there! Great wordcounts, everybody!
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MORALICIDE

United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Us vs Seattle and Spokane

Criada — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:58:37 -0800

Here's the current status of our nemesis and the guys down south.
(Assuming I get the widget right...)

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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Too much turkey and gravy?

Dormouse — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:40:06 -0800

No wonder you're all pooped out.

I had prawns, smoked salmon, roast chicken and an Abacela albariño and my words are flowing.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Indy Article

Sceach C. Blackwolf — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:40:13 -0800

An article about NaNo, written by yours truly, ran in the Whatcom Independent last week. Check it out.

:)
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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Back to the drawing board!

Dormouse — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:10:22 -0800

Just as I was happily coasting along with this novel, I thought of some totally different angles.

My first thought was to start from scratch and redo everything.

My second thought was to try to weave the new chapters into the existing text.

I guess I'l learn what works best.

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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

This Wed's meeting

Sceach C. Blackwolf — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:37:28 -0800

I am going out of town this week for Thanksgiving, and won't be there on Wed. People are still welcome to congregate of course, but I was thinking perhaps we could move the official get together to that following Saturday. Any thoughts?

ETA: I am thinking five o'clock Saturday, which should mean we won't be overlapping with the B.S.
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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Setting

Dormouse — Mon, 5 Nov 2007 06:39:56 -0800

Do any of you use a Pacific Northwest setting for your novel? (I do.)
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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

NaNoWriMo payoff

Dormouse — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:24:51 -0800

I'm used to writing printer-ready magazine stories and non-fiction books, but I've been struggling with novels. My first year of NaNoWriMo was worst (though I wrote two), last year was better (one 82,000 word novel which I'm still revising), and this year went very smoothly. I still have to add several chapters to flesh it out but I think I will have very few revisions to make. The book almost wrote itself.

I hope this bodes well for the future.

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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Winners and Finishers

Maivry — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:38:22 -0800

Post here if you've reached 50k and/or finished your novel.

Either way, hurrah for you. ^_^ I just crossed the finish line, even though it seemed a little insane to make it by now. And there's still time left over to write a bit more before the day's over! Which is good, because my novel is supposedly only 1/3 done now. u.u So, I won't be posting in this thread as a finisher for some time.
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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Where is everybody?

Dormouse — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:09:38 -0800

The words are flowing and the night is still young.

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United States :: Washington :: Bellingham

Black Black Weekend

LucyQ602 — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 16:47:40 -0800

So the Black Drop was closed on Saturday, TRAGEDY!!!! I had to go somewhere to write. And as always its closed today(Sunday). So in case of emergency where do you go to write?
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