United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Weekly Events

startracer — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:34:42 -0700

Hi everyone,

There's a Google Calendar of events scheduled for NaNo 2008 available.

On Saturday mornings starting around 8 or 9, writers are welcome to gather at Bella Vita Coffee in Granger. You're welcome to stay for as little or long as you like. You're encouraged to bring a laptop (or notebook) and write and socialize at these gatherings!

On Sunday evenings starting at 7, we meet up at the Barnes and Noble Cafe in Mishawaka. At these gatherings we're mostly just chatting, swapping stories and ideas. You're welcome to come earlier to try to squeeze in some more writing time (I tend to do that). We'll have our first "Meet and Greet" night the Sunday before NaNo starts - just seek out the group of writer-looking folks!

If there are ideas for other events, on-campus, on the outskirts of the region, anywhere!, please share them here! I know we're talking about meeting up at Legends Thursday evenings, around 6ish or so? ND students have met in LaFortune and other places at various hours, too. To those students who don't have rides to off-campus events, drop a note here and we'll find someone to get you where you need to be, I hope!

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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

50K Klub

Jade Sabre — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:50:38 -0800

or the FKK, as I would call it if that didn't invite all sorts of jokes about some of the kinds of people who live in Northern Indiana.

Here's to everybody who's already hit fifty thousand, and to everyone who will in the coming days!

*proceeds to party*
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NaNo 2006 winner
NaNo 2007 failure, due to the flu

United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Scoreboard

startracer — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:39:39 -0700

Last year I was a little bit of a freak about tracking our regional progress on the official Word Count Scoreboard in the Fun Stuff section of the site. This area is updated once a day to track total word count, average word count, and donations for each region.

Before November 1st, the only real competition is in donations. As of today, October 16, Notre Dame is tied for 82nd in terms of monetary donations. (As an aside, donating $100 gets you a pretty cool cityscape poster this year.) It looks like only "true" donations count, but don't forget you can help support NaNo buy buying anything in their store or by Goodsearching! (end plug)

Once NaNo officially kicks off, I'll post intermediate updates in terms of average word count, the only area we really have a prayer of a chance in being awesome at. Nothing like a little random statistics to encourage some of us to keep writing (can you tell I'm a numbers dork). At the least we should beat out the rest of the state, no? I think it's a fun goal.

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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Insomnia

Angelfowl — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:10:43 -0800

Hindrance? or help? (with your writing of course)

Past couple nights, I've had the WORSE insomnia, coupled with absolutely NO urge to write ><

In my mind sometimes, it is helpful, and sometimes not.... depends... most of the time yes, but the last few nights... UGH!

anyone else?
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Introductions

startracer — Thu, 2 Oct 2008 16:26:58 -0700

Hi everyone! Happy NaNo 2008. I'm looking forward to another fun year of frenzied writing, miscellaneous creativity, and fantastic camaraderie, and I hope you are too. I thought I'd start an introduction thread to get the ball rolling here. Because, you know, you can be totally defined by your name, age, occupation, and favorite color. Or not. Please feel free to introduce yourself here!

My name is Josh, and this will be my third NaNo (I won in 2006 and 2007 - while I hit 50K last year, I never really "finished" my story, alas). I'm currently a fourth-year graduate student at Notre Dame, living in Mishawaka. I like to play board games and video games and watch movies and television, when I'm not reading or writing academically or reading or writing for fun. I can't decide what I want to write this year, because I alternate between two entirely different ideas, but once November 1st hits, I'll be writing something...! So it will either be some supernatural-ish story or else some sort of mainstream fiction.

Best wishes to everyone!

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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Throwdown, NaNo style!

her Aubreyness — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:50:17 -0700

So, for no particular reason whatsoever (except for the fact that I am awesome), Tomas and I are in a feud and everyone here needs to choose a team. Then again, everyone will want to join my team because I am awesome and actually doing NaNo this year, while Tomas is not. So that should make me win automatically. Tomas can come here and defend himself, but for now, it's all me.

So, what team are you on? Team Aubrey or Team Tomas?
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Is anyone from Mishawaka?

dorkotheclown — Mon, 3 Nov 2008 14:46:40 -0800

I don't think I've seen anyone from Mishy, and I'm starting to feel a little lonely =P
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Word Count Woes

Bttrflywriter — Fri, 7 Nov 2008 07:14:04 -0800

How's everyone's word count going? I've not done so great this year; I've not even hit 9k yet. This week has been pretty busy, so this weekend I'm planning to lock myself away and make a nice cushion. Hopefully next week will be less demanding on my schedule and more muse-friendly.
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Plot issues

broadwaybaby915 — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:36:08 -0800

Guys, I think I have a problem. See, I've always written short stories, and so fifty thousand words is a lot longer than your average short story. So I am running into an issue: with more than half of my words left, I am running out of plot.
Any suggestions as to how to remedy this problem?
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Word of the Month

gabebradley — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:28:18 -0800

In 2006, we all decided to use the word "nefarious" in our novels. In 2007, it was another word — I don't remember which. Anyway, last night the word "covet" (coveting, covetous, etc.) emerged as a candidate for this year's word. What do you think?
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

A late start is better than no start?

Gesserit2 — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:37:48 -0800

I finally started on my novel today. It's day 10.
I wrote 7700 words.

I thought I would just skip Nano this year. I wasn't writing, I had no ideas for a novel, and it was already day 10.
But Instead, this evening I sat down at about 9pm and wrote for three hours straight. And voila. 7700 words.

So for anyone out there who thinks that just because they are down 16,000 words so far, they should just skip it, hang in there! You can still catch up! (I am hoping to be caught up by tomorrow, or the next day.)

~Carrie
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Inner Editor Strategies

gabebradley — Sun, 2 Nov 2008 06:09:54 -0800

Josh and I talked briefly at IHOP about how, despite the official start of NaNo, our Inner Editors were still carping at us. Don't they know by now what November is? Truth is, I can't afford to completely shut off my Inner Editor this month because I have 25,000 words of term papers to write in addition to my 50,000 word NaNo project. So I have opened a new Word document titled "Inner Edits" where I will store all complaints about my novel. The idea is when I am overwhelmed by how awful my writing is, I can make a two-sentence note on it and then move on, secure in the knowledge that I don't need to rewrite the scene just yet because I have a note reminding me to rewrite the scene later.

Is anyone else having Inner Editor troubles?
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Random Observations about Your Novel

Jade Sabre — Mon, 3 Nov 2008 04:56:55 -0800

It occurred to me that since I'm missing all the write-ins and meet-ups, I'm going to miss out on everyone's observations about their novels, and the writing process, and holy crap I can't believe my character did that what was he THINKING. So here, have a thread about it.

For example, I realized, about 5K in, that my novel is full of paternal deaths. Like seriously, I started off the novel with one of the FMCs's father's funeral, and within another 3K I had killed off the other FMC's father, and that within the course of the novel I'm killing off the MMC's father, and probably this other guy's father...and this is aside from all the faked deaths that are going to plague part 2.

Uh, I haven't really analyzed this at all. Just noticed it. Because it's weird.

Waving at you from France (and +10Kland),
Jade
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NaNo 2006 winner
NaNo 2007 failure, due to the flu

United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Notes from NaNo HQ

startracer — Mon, 3 Nov 2008 18:12:31 -0800

Hey everyone,

Headquarters fired off an e-mail to MLs this evening to announce a couple things--

First of all, the word count thing at the top of the page finally works! Woo and yay! More information is in this breaking news post, including how to edit your count "the old-fashioned way" in case the new way doesn't work.

Secondly, the site will be down for maintenance around 1 a.m. local time as another server goes online. Maybe the forums will be more manageable then!

Hope everyone's had a good three days so far!
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Is Age Going to be a Problem?

Ake92 — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:17:44 -0700

Hey everyone. It's Ashley, from Berrien Springs,

I didn't realize that NaNo was so..."Older genaration"

I'm only 16, not that I have a problem with anything that went on tonight. I'm actually very mature for my age, and yes, I do write "smut" it's not perfected since I haven't actually experenced anything like that and I'm only going on based off what I've read and heard about.

I just wanted to know if my age was going to be a problem with any of you, because if it is, I can communicate on here and not go to the meetings. This is my first year doing NaNo, and I know of the 'Young Writers' program, but that seemed...too childish for me. I've been writing since I was 14, and I feel that I belong here.

I just dont want to cause problems with anyone, so if this is going to be a problem with anyone please let me know.
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I'd rather be writing...
December is for sleeping...
Facebook will miss me in November...
Throughout November I will have even less of a life than normal.
I take my notebook everywhere, you know, in case of insparation.
I LOVE SPELL CHECK!
..._...

United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Midnight Kickoff!

startracer — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:16:43 -0700

As we said at last night's meet-up, there are a handful of options for a midnight write-in to kick things off just as November starts. We couldn't make a decision then and there and said we'd take it here to the forums to cast our votes and choose a place and be there! What we didn't know is Barb might have some pull at IHOP with an assistant manager to reserve us a little section, which I bet we can make syrup-free and laptop-friendly. :-) There was talk of crashing the deli/cafe sections in local Meijers or Martin's, and doubtless other options.

I'm cool with IHOP, though. Other thoughts, opinions, votes?

Of course, there will still be a write-in at Bella Vita in Granger on the other side of sunrise on November 1st, from whenever you get there 'til whenever you leave (the cafe itself is only open 6-2 on Saturdays now). I'll probably be at both, but there's no telling when for sure I'll show up at Bella Vita yet.
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Meet and Greet night

Bttrflywriter — Tue, 7 Oct 2008 10:20:10 -0700

How would everyone like to get together prior to NaNo? I think it would be nice for all of us to meet each other to brainstorm or simply say hello and be able to put a face to a name. I'm throwing an idea out there but if the date/time/place doesn't work, feel free to suggest something else.

Sunday, October 26th at the Barnes & Noble cafe on Grape road. Is 7pm too late?
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Livejournalers!

startracer — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 05:01:01 -0700

For those of you who have Livejournals, apparently this year they are donating a dollar to NaNo for every LJ user who wins this year. All you have to do is comment to the welcome post in their LJ-NaNo community and tell them your NaNo username.

The fine print says they're only donating up to a thousand dollars, which, boo, but why not try to be one of those thousand people anyway?
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Municipal Liaison?

startracer — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:03:01 -0700

Has anyone in our region applied to be the official ML? I was just curious. I read somewhere that they get some sort of kit to help organize events, and since we've been largely self-assembling the past couple years, we haven't needed anything, but it'd be a shame to not be getting stuff that we could be getting!

Anyway, the application for new MLs comes off the site at the end of this weekend (I guess on the 13th), so I thought I'd throw that out there if someone was motivated to apply last-minute. I was considering it myself, though I'll be out of town for about a week and a half of November proper...
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United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

Brainstorming/Planning sessions, anyone?

allbarbmay — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:32:35 -0700

I don't know about you guys, but sometimes sitting down with other writers and talking about my work out loud helps me get going when I'm stuck. If anyone is interested, maybe we could start meeting up to chat and work on outlines/character sketches or whatever.

I'm a working mommy now (yikes) so my schedule is best for Mondays through Wednesdays afternoons/evenings, or afternoons on Thursdays and Fridays, or mornings on Saturdays and Sundays. If this works for you, post me a reply and we'll get something going. I'm moving into a large and luxurious apartment this week (although that could all be just my perception after being crammed into a 1-bedroom for a year) and I have a working coffee pot. Or I can lay my hands on a coffee urn like they have at church/AA meetings, if that kind of caffeine consumption is required. Or we could meet up at a local coffee house/eating establishment. As long as babies are allowed in, because unless my husband is home, that poor kid is joined to my hip. But he's a literary baby (I started reading to Roland at birth) so he'll fit right in.
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"The system gives you just enough to make you think that you see change. Then it sings you right to sleep and screws you just the same." - Ani DiFranco

United States :: Indiana :: Notre Dame

The "Thirty Days of Death" Idea

startracer — Tue, 7 Oct 2008 21:49:01 -0700

No, we're not the more morbid people on earth (I hope), but one of the ideas we tossed around and teased about at an early NaNo 2007 gathering was the concept of "Thirty Days of Death." I think when it was brought up I thought of an easy, lazy way to write thirty short stories where people died. Maybe they'd be connected, if I was lucky. But maybe describing some character and the manner of their death each day for thirty days would be an easy way to knock out the requisite 1,666 words per day, no?

Anyway, I've started seriously considering it and think I want to run with the idea. Not thirty disconnected stories but rather follow the "lives" of a few grim reapers, who are responsible for filling a death quota, and helping bring souls to... whatever happens after here. Each reaper has a distinct "ability" related to how they once lived - being able to influence the thoughts of the living, or manipulating the weather, or starting fires - to aid them in their, uh, killing of people. I think my story would start with the introduction of a "new" reaper, who is being oriented and is required to reap thirty souls in thirty days. Or maybe he's struck a deal somehow and will be allowed to do something (return to the world of the living, as if he were only in a coma?) if he reaps thirty souls in record time. I don't know.

Anyway, I thought I'd start a thread to throw out my initial thoughts and invite others to share ideas for their take on "Thirty Days..." whether they're using the idea, or something similar, or not. Maybe this is the worst idea ever. But I felt like sharing.

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