USA :: New York :: New York City

* If you plan on donating to NaNo (local raffle information!)

fshk — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:28:03 +0000

Posting this on behalf of the whole team at NYC NaNoWriMo:

Are you helping fund NaNo this year? Have you already donated online? If so, you can win some great prizes here in the New York City region. We are giving out raffle tickets throughout the entire month of November to all donors. 100% of the money will go to the Office of Letters and Light. The raffle drawing will take place December 1st at the TGIO party, and some of the prizes are:

--Scrivener software (or a comparable program for PCs)
--A one-year subscription to Poets & Writers magazine
--NaNoWriMo shirts, posters and other goodies.

There are three ways to participate in the raffle:

1. Cash donation to any ML at any meet-up. For $1 you already get one raffle ticket. Give us $5 and you'll get seven tickets! And if you donate $10 we will give you a whopping 15 tickets. Woo hoo!

2. Donate through the OLL web site. You'll get NaNoWriMo's own thank-you gifts, plus raffle tickets from us. Just print out your donation confirmation form or email, and show it to an ML before the end of the month.

3. Help sponsor two of our wonderful MLs (Erin and Olga) on their journey to San Francisco for a Night of Writing Dangerously on November 22. Yes, they've already reached the minimum amount, but any additional money goes a long way to help the OLL's funding of the event. Again, just show an ML your donation confirmation and you'll get your tickets.

If you gave money at the kick-off party, you're already part of the raffle! And if for some reason you can't make it to the TGIO party, just hold on to your ticket. After the party, we'll post any unclaimed winning numbers on the forum and you can contact us to get your prize.

We thank you in advance for any and all donations!

(And use this forum to post questions! I (Erin) currently have the roll of raffle tickets, so talk to me if you see me this week.)
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~Erin
New York City Municipal Liaison
blog | twitter

USA :: New York :: New York City

* Send us to San Fran! (Night of Writing Dangerously)

notoffred — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:49:39 +0000

So last year Erin and I decided we were going to go to the Night of Writing Dangerously.

It's an amazing event the Nano HQ people throw in SF every year, and this year we are hoping to be a big part of it. We have our plane tickets and we are staying in a fancy hotel (Thanks, Dad who is a travel agent!). Now, we need your help.

The goal is set to 300 dollars, which is what it will cost to get us both in, but we and The Office of Letters and Light would appreciate any help you could give. All the money goes to really good causes and also feeds us for an evening. (No, we don't just eat foie gras and caviar).

The link is below and again, we appreciate you guys so very much. THANKS!

http://www.gifttool.com/athon/MyFundraisingPage?ID=1891&AID=806&PID=1067...
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Olga. Famous. Tyranny.
NYC - Brooklyn Co-ML (Williamsburg/Greenpoint)

USA :: New York :: New York City

* IRC Clients!

notoffred — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:24:12 +0000

Here's your IRC client primer.

The web interface connects to an irc server. That server is irc.mibbit.com
Our chat is #nycnano.

Step 1:
Download a Client. There are many available. XChat is a client that exists on both Windows and Mac and is free. I have personally tested both these clients and found that they work. There are many others, with varying degrees of freeness.

Step 2: Add the server to the client. Both these clients will prompt you to enter a server when you first use the program. Click the little plus and type irc.mibbit.com . You can also choose your default nick so that when you sign in, you don't have to specify your name every time.

Step 3: Type '/join #nycnano' in the little command line on the bottom.

Step 4: Chat away.
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Olga. Famous. Tyranny.
NYC - Brooklyn Co-ML (Williamsburg/Greenpoint)

USA :: New York :: New York City

the Flaunt Your 50k Thread

silea — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:27:14 +0000

Because some crazy people have already passed 50k (Cornbread, i'm looking at you).

This is the thread in which you give yourself a shout-out, and the rest of us some jealousy, when you go purple.
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Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.

USA :: New York :: New York City

walker siblings!

cornbread — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:05:32 +0000

let the trash talking begin:

so, how far did you get? did ya even stay up til midnight? huh? huh? did ya? i bet you didn't. i bet i'll be ahead of you before 3am eastern standard time. :-)
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"drench yourself in words unspoken
live your life with arms wide open
today is where your book begins
the rest is still unwritten"
-"unwritten" by natasha bedingfield
write hard!

USA :: New York :: New York City

back up your novel!

silea — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:21:48 +0000

I guess i'm this year's practical reminder. My laptop committed ritual sepuku after The Night of Writing Dangerously, so the 4k words i wrote there are locked away in its inaccessible hard drive. Lucky for me, i'd backed up just before the Night started, so all isn't lost...
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Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.

USA :: New York :: New York City

Post NaNo Events! Get 'em here!

nfwbls — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:52:45 +0000

As we go into the final week of November, now is the time to post about things that happen after November, before people stop checking the forums. If you've got any ideas, events, ways to keep connected during the rest of the year, post them here!

I'll start -

a) The official Thank God It's Over party is on Tuesday, December 1st at No Idea Bar (details in the calendar.) Come and party like it's 50,000!

However, I know that there are a few Wrimos who won't be able to make it to the TGIO due to scheduling conflicts, so I'd like to propose an unofficial TGIO redo some other night, maybe in the second week of December or the second week in January (thereby consigning the entire holiday season into a black hole time warp), giving people who have to miss it the first time around a second chance, and those who made it to the first a chance to to it again! Anyone interested? Anyone have a preference for scheduling?

b) Peregrina and Cat.Tales are interested in doing a NaNonFicWriMo in January. Anyone up for writing non-fiction after the holidays? I'll let them hammer out the details, but post here if you think you'd like to participate.

c) There is a google groups email list for the off-season: http://groups.google.com/group/nyc-nanowrimo
Sign up and you'll get emails about events during the rest of the year (or use it to propose some events of your own.) I promise that there will be more get togethers in 2010, some for writing, some for hanging out.

d) NaNoEdMo is an unofficial editing event in March. Get in 50 hours of editing and win! I've never done EdMo, but I'm strongly considering it this year. I'm thinking of doing my own EdMo in January alongside the NaNonFicWriMo above, and make it out to write ins but do editing instead. Anyone else interested? We could have a combined non-fiction and editing month, and spur each other on!

e) Writing and critique groups. If you're interested in starting a writing/critique group, or interested in joining an already existing one, or looking for new members for your existing group, go ahead and post. Hopefully we can help match people up and keep the writing going for the other eleven months :)

Feel free to post any other ideas!
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Livvy, but you can call me Weebles
Manhattan co-ML
NaNoWrimo Haiku: 30 days of noveling, 17 syllables at a time

USA :: New York :: New York City

what techniques are you using to keep your story on track?

nfwbls — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:23:24 +0000

Now that we're entering the final week of November, the lucky ones are entering the final stretch of their story and they can see their story coming to a satisfying conclusion, making the words just fly out of their fingers.

I am not one of those people.

Instead, I'm finding that I am getting bogged down in transitions and that nebulous "something happens in the middle" no-man's land that has to occur before I get to the glimmers of resolution and the accompanying writing momentum.

I've never been one of those writers that can skip forward - since I don't do a lot of planning, the story changes too much when I write it, so my only choice is to barrel through the parts that don't seem to be working.

What I usually do when I am really spinning my wheels and my characters just refuse to move forward in the story is only write the dialogue and stop trying to figure out descriptions or actions. And I let the exposition fairy write my dialogue. Oh exposition fairy, how I love thee...

On the other hand, sometimes my characters just want to sit around and chit-chat, so I make them stop talking and I let the narrator cut to the chase and summarize everything they're supposed to say. I often make a note in the text that says something like "this will be much better when I show the dialogue later."

What other things are you finding work for you to get that story moving when it seems to be swirling aimlessly in circles?
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Livvy, but you can call me Weebles
Manhattan co-ML
NaNoWrimo Haiku: 30 days of noveling, 17 syllables at a time

USA :: New York :: New York City

If you haven't donated yet

nfwbls — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:21:25 +0000

Remember that today (Tuesday) is the great $100K fundraising day. Chris Baty has promised to write a song commemorating this day and members of the Office of Light and Letters will perform it on NaNoWriMo video if we can successfully raise $100,000 today.

So if you haven't donated yet or can donate a little more, today's a good day to do it!
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Livvy, but you can call me Weebles
Manhattan co-ML
NaNoWrimo Haiku: 30 days of noveling, 17 syllables at a time

USA :: New York :: New York City

anyone else under 5000?

dezelle — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:11:02 +0000

My word count sucks.
I would really like to make 50,000 words but I'm not sure I can.

My main reason is that I actually want to try and get this book published eventually so I spend a lot of time thinking. I also want my dialogue to be realistic.

I'm not doing major reasearch (saving that for december) but I do want to be heading in the right direction. So I find I don't usually use a lot of the word count tricks...

I know if I wrote more diligently I'd have a better word count... Oh well.

So who's with me? Right now I have to write about 3064 words a day to catch up. I'm going to try and get 5000 today (cross fingers). Anyone else want to join me and try to boost your word count?

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DC

USA :: New York :: New York City

NYUers Represent!

Villa — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:16:37 +0000

So, as I was going through the intro thread, I noticed a bunch of people from NYU.
Please post an intro in this thread, so I know you're out there! Maybe we can even have some write-ins on-campus! :D

So, err...name/major/clubs-interests/nano#
I'll start!

I'm Lori and I'm studying Marketing & Consumer Psychology. As part of my studies, I intern at MySpace Music, which is super fun! At school, I'm involved with the Latin & Ballroom Club/Team, Swing Dance Society, and Cruelty Free NYU. In addition, I'm into art, music, writing (of course)...and I'm a bit of a health freak (except when it comes to baked goods).
Anyways, this is my 4th NaNo and I'm super-excited about it! Hope to see you around!
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2006-Satan: A Memoir
2007-School High Terror
2008-The Promethean
2009-The Flight of the Bumblebee

USA :: New York :: New York City

Lawyers, Law Students, JDs, LLMs, Paralegals & NaNo?

ssw15 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:41:21 +0000

Hi, all. Figured I'd start another thread, as we get through October!

I saw in the Introductions thread that some of us are in the legal field. I'm in the public sector (lowly attorney for a NYC agency; and a Brooklyn Law School alumnus). I do think that law and fiction writing can be quite compatible. There are John Grisham and Scott Turow as the big names in lawyers and novelists, but there are also so many others, some of which I'll mention...

There are some writers whose books I read and enjoyed - and then learn that they're law people (and then such a fact either surprises me - or not). Among those I've enjoyed (and they probably are more obscure than they ought to be): Matthew Pearl (author of "The Dante Club" and other literary historical thrillers; he was a JD at Yale Law; I'm not sure if he ever practiced law); Sharon Kay Penman (ex-tax lawyer, who writes medieval history novels); Alan Gordon (lawyer of Legal Aid Society of New York, who writes a medieval mystery series that I highly recommend - and he's a New Yorker - from Queens!); Julie James (a former labor and employment law lawyer who writes romance novels that involve (what else?) lawyers - entertaining stuff); and many others (including law professors).

On a side note: should it be any surprise that law professors' novels are really thick? I keep thinking that I should read their novels, but then not do it. On the other hand, the one law professor novel I have read was Kermit Roosevelt's "In the Shadow of the Law," a speedy and decent read for a semi-legal thriller/legal ethics novel by a constitutional law professor - and I don't usually read contemporary legal thrillers, so that's a plus from me about that book.

After spending a long time avoiding the idea of writing fiction about lawyers, I'll be taking my plunge with my NaNo this year with my own variation of the legal thriller; it should be interesting to try this a month (my only other previous attempt at a legal thriller was an on-off project that hasn't reached fruition to my satisfaction over the past two years - which explains why my two past NaNo novels were NOT legal thrillers). I've never actually worked in the private sector, and probably have been corrupted by watching tv law shows rather than quality books, and may plug in mobsters, spies, ninjas, and at least one murder. Ah well!
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2007: "Bread and Circuses"
2008: "The Mystery of the Venerable Chalice"
Blogging at www.triscribe.com

USA :: New York :: New York City

Local Promotion!

fshk — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:42:42 +0000

Here's the place to talk about your events, publications, and awesome things going on in your life. Book deals, readings, non-NaNo related goings on, here's the place to talk about them.

One caveat: Please only post once per item/event!
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~Erin
New York City Municipal Liaison
blog | twitter

USA :: New York :: New York City

the 30k doldrums

silea — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:04:21 +0000

Anyone else have this problem? Every year, around 30k, i deflate.

It doesn't help that my as-yet unseen antagonist may turn out to be global warming. (insert here all the words i'd type if this weren't an all-ages forum.)
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Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.

USA :: New York :: New York City

Write-in Williamsburg tonight

rteernstra — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:03:10 +0000

Hey fellow NaNoers,

There is no official write-in in Williamsburg tonight, but I'm going to be at the St Alps Teahouse anyway, and write my *** off. Join me if you want! :) I'll be there (Bedford & N 8th) from 6-10.

Cheers,
Renee
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USA :: New York :: New York City

Write-in Williamsburg tonight

rteernstra — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:01:59 +0000

Hey fellow NaNoers,

There is no official write-in in Williamsburg tonight, but I'm going to be at the St Alps Teahouse anyway, and write my *** off. Join me if you want! :)

Cheers,
Renee
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USA :: New York :: New York City

How writers write: another peek behind the curtain

angusm — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:46:30 +0000

The WSJ has an article on the ways that various well-known writers work. It's more along the lines of "Dan Brown does all his work lying in a bathtub full of cold baked beans, with a typewriter balanced on his knees" (come on, it's not like you hadn't already guessed that) than "These are useful tips and tricks", but it's interesting all the same.

On the 'tips and tricks' front, however, here's an observation that might be worth thinking about. It's from Yuri Baranovsky, who wrote the web series Break a Leg. He says:

Quote:

You have a central question that asks a yes or no answer — this is the entire idea of your show/screenplay/whatever. Will the boy be able to come back from the past (Back to the Future)? Will Will Smith & Co. stop the alien invasion (Independence Day)? Will sport Asian people successfully drift (Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift)?"

That's not a bad way of thinking about your novel: what is the central question? Sometimes you need to spend some time bringing the reader to the point where they know what the central question is, but the author needs to know from page one. If you have no idea what the central question is, you and your book may be in trouble.

More of Mr Baranovsky's wisdom in this article.
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USA :: New York :: New York City

Night of Writing Dangerously

fshk — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:57:44 +0000

Olga and I are there. It is freakin' amazing. Check http://www.twitter.com/fshk for sporadic updates! I'll also check in here if any of you have words of wisdom/encouragement/etc.
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~Erin
New York City Municipal Liaison
blog | twitter

USA :: New York :: New York City

'Padding' word count - Any other ideas!

orangetuna — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:15:34 +0000

Someone wrote to take out all of the hypens so that you will have two words instead of one.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

I am going to go back through and; spell out all of my numbers, take out the hypens, change compounds, change ECT to Et Cetera.

Someone is even using BLAH to replace; periods, commas. I guess any little bit that helps our NaNo is a plus! :)

You can make it to 50,000 ~ Good-luck everyone :)
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Orangetunawriter

USA :: New York :: New York City

The Semi-Official Sunday Cosi Write-In

nfwbls — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:17:29 +0000

Some of the writers at Saturday's write-in were talking about getting together on Sunday, 3-6p at the Cosi on 8th St, between Broadway and University Place. There may be an ML there... or not. (or late.) Hopefully there will be plenty of Manhattan regulars. Anyone interested should drop by - get your word counts up, people! We're entering that final week!
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Livvy, but you can call me Weebles
Manhattan co-ML
NaNoWrimo Haiku: 30 days of noveling, 17 syllables at a time

USA :: New York :: New York City

Unemployed NaNoers?

Maloneymic — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:46:14 +0000

So I have been temporarily laid off (hopefully) and find myself with the month freed up for writing. Any other writers unbound by the cruel confines of employment? Maybe start a street corner write-in, put a bucket in front of us for tips?
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USA :: New York :: New York City

New York question - Soho & Elevators.

Jenl212 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:31:54 +0000

I posted this in Character & Plot realism, and fhsk suggested I post here as well:

Quote:

I have a bit of an obscure question about elevators/lifts.

My plot now involves the history of elevators around the world. I know the first ever passenger lift was installed in 1857 in the Haughwout building,(448 Broadway & Broome Street), but I need to know what is in the building today. The ground floor appeared to be let to Staples up until this year, and I found an article online saying that it is now let to Bebes clothing - google street view however is still showing Staples.

I know this is a long shot, but if anyone here could tell me who is in that building (especially on the second floor), if Staples had more than one floor, and most importantly, if that lift is still there, I'd be really grateful.

I could make it up, but I'd like it to be as accurate as possible. Thanks!

After a bit more research, I think the elevator is still operational, but I'm not sure what store is in the ground floor.

I am probably going to use creative liscence and put an Abercrombie in there, as it is a chain (as Staples & Bebe are) and the darkness in A & F combined with the old lift works well for my story. However, is it completely unrealisitc that A& F would go into an older building?

Many thanks!
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USA :: New York :: New York City

Don't give up your day job

angusm — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:23:52 +0000

A best-selling author calculates how much she earned from her novel ...

... and comes to the conclusion that it puts her about $2,500 above the poverty level.

http://www.straightgoods.ca/2009/ViewBrief.cfm?Ref=187

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USA :: New York :: New York City

as if we don't have enough NaNo-memes... anyone wanna kill Cliff Brooks?

silea — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:31:37 +0000

This is something that started in my once-home-region, California/South Bay. You can read about it here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3335706

The short version is thus: include a character named Cliff Brooks, and kill him in an interesting way.

Any takers?
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Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.

USA :: New York :: New York City

Kemia Friday night meetup!

embereye — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:00:32 +0000

Hey folks! Come on out! So you know where it is, the entrance is on 44th (it doesn't look like the entrance but it is!). Follow the velvet ropes in and head downstairs. We're in the room on the right at the entrance. They have food here.
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- Clarice
http://embereye.tumblr.com
http://twitter.com/embereye