United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Karaoke writing break?

JeremyAtHome — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:55:52 -0800

Well, I'm done for the weekend. I'll be trying to sing karaoke down at the Viking Lounge tonight (get there about 11:30p) in case anyone needs a break from writing or a new venue for writing...I hear rum is excellent and dissolving writing blocks...

Jeremy.
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United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

I have a DAREing Proposal

improg — Fri, 3 Oct 2008 09:03:43 -0700

Hey everyone. Does anyone here like the TV program Psych? It's a detective show with a bit of a twist. The main character is an unusually observant individual who falsely claims to be psychic. It isn't large on realism, but it does have a playful charm and sharp sense of humor.

One of the show's playful affectations is every episode (with one distinct exception) has a pineapple written somewhere into the script. It may be a pineapple danish, a pineapple upside down cake, or as in the case of the pilot, a whole pineapple. It has become a game for regular viewers to find the pineapple in each episode.

In keeping with that example, I would like to propose that the Rochester, Minnesota group choose one item or concept that all of us have to incorporate into our novels. It could be something simple, like the pineapple idea above, or something a bit more complex like we all have to have a hobo who wins the lottery but donates his entire winnings to a favorite charity or something.

The point is that we all have to work on a common thread at some point in the month. As we finish, we can post excerpts of the part of our story that deals with our chosen prompt here.

Is everybody game? If so, let's get some suggestions as to what our common dare should be and take a vote.

Here's my suggestion:

Since we're from Med City, we have to include a character who lives in a decomissioned ambulance.

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United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

How much dialogue

SueSuzanne — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:26:00 -0800

Wondering how much all of your characters are talking. And are they talking just a line at a time or are they talking more in-depth to express themselves.

As for me, I have lots of dialogue and most of it is one-liner talk -- and once I get done with NANO, I'll need to go back and have each one talk more in a unique voice. Right now, they sound like they all talk in the same style and manner.

Hope today's write-in was fun. I wrote in my living room pretty much all day long.
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Suzanne
Writing since I was 5

United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Late Night Write-in

improg — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:56:57 -0800

DeanJohnson mentioned in the Write-In thread how he is most productive with his writing late at night and how it would be cool to have a late night write-in at Perkins or somewhere.

I think it's an awesome idea and would love to know what weekend night would work good for people.

Friday the 21st, Saturday the 22nd, Friday the 28th, or Saturday the 29th.

We had a late night write-in the first year I participated, in 2004, and it was loads of fun.

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United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Vocabulary

DeanJohnson — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:16:47 -0800

At the end of the month, it might be fun to have every run their literary masterpieces through a counter that figures out the number of unique words that were used. Does anybody know of some web-based tool that would be up to the task? I know some people barrel ahead repetitively with "he said"'s, in the name of efficiency, but I have very specifically opted to be non-repetitive where I can. I've had to rely not only on vocabulary, but also structural tricks to keep this up.
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United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Write-Ins?

JeremyAtHome — Wed, 5 Nov 2008 10:27:51 -0800

Do we have any write-ins scheduled? If so, when and where?
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United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Meandering

SueSuzanne — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:20:28 -0800

I'm feeling a little tired of my characters. I've heard that if you are bored with what you are writing, your readers will be, too. Not sure I'll have readers of this novel, but I'm wondering what any of you have done when you feel dullness creeping in. Don't get me wrong, I still LIKE my characters, they intrigue me and I want to see what they decide to do next. and where and how the plot continues to manifest itself. Maybe it's just fatigue, trying to write so much so quickly and I just need to get some sleep.
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Suzanne
Writing since I was 5

United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Progress?

SueSuzanne — Sat, 1 Nov 2008 19:51:07 -0700

Hey everybody. The site seems slow and keeps closing down on me, must mean there's a lot of activity. Hope the enthusiasm keeps up and hope the site gets quicker responsivness. Wondering how much writing got done since midnight by all of you? I've got about 1,500 words in today -- I don't know if they are words that I'll keep, but it feels good to have that kind of momentum. I'm not going to edit myself, instead will just keep ploughing forward. Also wondering if any of you work at Mayo and would want to meet at Harwick for lunch sometime?
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Suzanne
Writing since I was 5

United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Books

SueSuzanne — Sun, 9 Nov 2008 10:58:51 -0800

Wondering what some of your favorite writing books are. My all time fave is Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott. Also any that you would stay away from?
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Suzanne
Writing since I was 5

United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Naming Technology and Other Quirks

Hilton — Fri, 7 Nov 2008 18:01:50 -0800

I was writing in the back-up thread, and I was wondering if anyone had any quirks or strange habits that they wanted to admit to. For me, and I haven't met many people who do this, but I name my possesions. Not all of them but the ones I use everyday. My lap-top is Nicholai. My cell-phone is Nathanial. My three USB's are Remington, Celeste, and Delita. My once devoted care was Levine (Levi for short) the Seventh. I guess even though I grew out of stuff animals and toys (well, mostly :P) I never quite grew out of the naming stage. Quirky, I know I am, but how about you? :P

Night!
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"Cross a perfectionist with indecisiveness and you get a person still stuck in the bottomless pit and thinking, 'Is this the best and only way to get out of here?', which is the one of many ways to describe me but not the best, I don't think."

United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Seasons

SueSuzanne — Sun, 9 Nov 2008 07:45:21 -0800

Wondering how much the time of year is playing into everyone's novels. I often use it to help show progression of time and some for setting mood. Do you ever want to change the season to fit with what is happening in your story?
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Suzanne
Writing since I was 5

United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Non-Linear Writing

ssheire — Sat, 8 Nov 2008 14:19:13 -0800

Anyone else having a problem with writing from beginning to end? I'm finding myself being able to picture certain scenes, only way out of order. Now that my document is pushing 25 pages, its getting harder and harder to figure out where the scene I'm picturing belongs. That, and its like I can see everything that happens throughout my novel in my head at once - I know there's an order to it, but its kind of crazy to be able to see it all. Am I the only crazy one out there?
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United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Lull between scenes

SueSuzanne — Tue, 4 Nov 2008 19:02:10 -0800

Have any of you experienced this -- when you have written a great scene and then feel like your next scene is slow and boring because it doesn't have action like the previous scene did? I keep thinking that having too much action close together seems like a soap opera and that's not good.
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Suzanne
Writing since I was 5

United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Homages

1337Larry — Sat, 8 Nov 2008 00:42:30 -0800

This is gonna sound weird, but [fanfic writers excluded] have you ever unintentionally or intentionally thrown in a a movie or book reference into your books?

Me, since I'm writing an action novel, threw in a Dirty Harry reference. It is in my excerpt.

**BE WARNED: Some material may be considered inappropriate for those ages 17 or under**

That's just a consideration, as I'm writing it, and am, myself, under the age of 17.
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~ Don't be stupid, guns don't kill people, people don't kill people, bullets kill people.

United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Backups backups backups!

DeanJohnson — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:39:29 -0700

Now is the time to think about your backup strategy for the month. It'd really suck if you lost a bunch of writing due to not backing it up properly. As a Mac user (w/leopard), I am quite enamored of TimeMachine for its utter simplicity. It pretty much takes me out of the equation. It's already saved my bacon once this year. I'm setting it up on Nick's mac tonite.

Anybody have input for PC users?
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United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Kick-off Meeting

improg — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:42:48 -0700

Hello everyone,

I'm preparing the packets for the kick-off meeting and I need an idea of what the head count will be. I'm going to send out a region-wide email pointing to this thread. Please post here if you're planning on attending.

Thank you!

NaNoWriMo 2008, Rochester Kick-Off Party
Where: Caribou - 3938 Marketplace Dr, Rochester
Date: October 30, 2008
Time: 7:00 pm

I hope to see you all there. :-)

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United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Helpful Writing Links

improg — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:26:13 -0700

Creativity Tools
Contains a random word generator, a random sentence generator, a random paragraph generator, a name finder (generator), and a brainstorming tool.

652 Different Feelings
An awesome collection of words that describe emotions.

Random Name Generator
Creates lists of names chosen randomly from the 1990 United States census. You can specify male, female, or both and can choose the number of names returned.

Name Meanings
OK, you have your character's name, now find out what it means and interweave that into your story.

Rhyming Dictionary
Are you wanting to include a poem or limerick in your story? This awesome site can help you find common and obscure words that rhyme.

Fictional Charcter Development Template
A little involved but lots of great information on designing a deep and believable character.

Twenty rules for writing detective stories.
This list is a little old but it does offer some things that you probably want to avoid when building a mystery story.

Irish Names
Do you need the history of an Irish name? This site has everything except the doirteal. Oh wait! It has that too.

Beautiful NaNoWriMo Wallpapers
A small collection of wallpapers with word count calendars created specifically for NaNoWriMo.

Murderati
A blog from a fellow NaNoWriMoer with a wealth of information about mysteries.

Post Secret
A collection of secrets sent anonymously from all over the globe. Grab one or two and give a nasty secret to one of your characters. This site is not for kids.

My NaNoWriMo Excel Files
Here are the two spreadsheets I mentioned at the kick-off meeting.
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United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Welcome everybody.

improg — Thu, 2 Oct 2008 17:17:22 -0700

It's October 2nd. The leaves are falling, politicians are arguing, and NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. Soon, we'll be bribing our muses, waving "bye bye" to any latent writer's block, and diving head first into pure, unadulterated literary abandon.

So, why don't we all introduce ourselves first.

I'm Thomas. I live here in Rochester and this is my fifth NaNoWriMo. All of them here in town. I just finished a class at Crossings in Zumbrota called Mystery Writing is Murder, so I think I'm going to do some kind of a who-dunnit. Hopefully with a touch of humor.

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United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Typewriters

Olivander — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 05:29:21 -0700

I have a handful of manual typewriters available to loan to anyone who wants to try NaNo with one. They may not be pretty, but they work.

United States :: Minnesota :: Rochester

Calendar of Events

improg — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:17:17 -0700

In case you haven't noticed, this year we have an easier to use and read Calendar of Events -- Google Calendar. There's a link to it right above the Topic List here in the Minnesota :: Rochester forum.

The only two events on it so far is the Kick-Off party at the Marketplace Caribou on October 30th and the first day of NaNoWriMo.

We're going to be scheduling write-ins for the month as well. Does anyone have a time they'd really like to meet?

Post it here if you do. :-)
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