How did week one treat you all? I hope well, because we’re about to do it all again!

I’m behind, but not horribly so – yet… *sigh*

We have a Word War taking place TONIGHT! 9.30 p.m. until 11.00 p.m. Meet in the chat (http://jannalouise.thehoskincentre.com/nanowrimo/chat.html) or just participate and post your word count on the forum! (Actually, I think it’s two word wars, the first lasting half an hour and the second lasting an hour. But I could be wrong. Our people aren’t always totally coherent when posting madly while procrastinating on writing their NaNo novels.)

Also, Heather has informed me that there will be a write-in EVERY SATURDAY MORNING AT 10.00 a.m. THROUGHOUT THE MONTH! That’s at the same location as this past Saturday: the Second Cup at the corner of Macleod Trail and 90th Ave SE, next to The Carriage House Inn and across the street from Ranchman’s. There is WiFi access, and Heather will be bringing a power bar for those whose laptops don’t run on batteries.

We are also planning to hold virtual write-ins and word wars all weekend! Well, that is, every evening. Just pop into the chat at any time after 8.00 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and join the party! We’ll hold a few group rounds and post the totals on the forum, like we did for the kick-off virtual meet.

Now, some words of encouragement.

Don’t worry about your word count too much. Every word you write is a victory! More is always better, but think about whyyou decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, and remember those reasons when you’re working. I’ve seen some posts in the NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul forum about how horrible people’s novels are and how horrible they feel. I’m going to tell you what I told them: it doesn’t matter how bad the story is or how boring the plot is, as long as you’re having fun. You can always edit it later, and if by some magical happenstance you end up with something good at the end of the month, that’s really just a bonus!

Now, it’s important to be realistic and keep tabs on your emotional state. I say this because it’s November. And it’s November in Calgary, which means that it is just a tad dark and dreary. Really, what that means is that people are more likely to become depressed. We’ve missed depression screening week (it was back in September or something), but that doesn’t mean you can’t still keep an eye out. Depression isn’t fun, and it’s really important to get the right kind of help if you suspect you or someone you love (or at least care about a lot) might be depressed. If you want help finding someone to go to about depression, I would be happy to help you find the right people for you. It would of course be completely confidential. And know that you are definitely not alone in this; I myself was recently diagnosed with clinical depression. For information about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD – a type of depression), check out the thread at http://www.nanowrimo.org/module
s/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=19879&forum=311 or the page over on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder.

Okay, on with the joyousness of insane inspiration and challenges for the week!

I have to say, if you’re at a loss at any point, add a new character and see what happens. I added Tim (username Hero on the forum) to my novel, and he spawned some plot bunnies. Which is great for my word count but not for my sanity. (Since I wasn’t sane to begin with, we don’t have to worry about that too much.)

November 8
“I don’t give a toss about writing really. It’s a bit ironic that the things I’m really into are music and football, and I have never really been good at either.” -Irvine Welsh
(courtesy of crsic)

Words to attempt to use somewhere in your novel this week:
Nouns: toast, cat
Verbs: sucked, yawning
Adjectives: discrete, hugely

And, for extra points, include this word:
OMGWTFBBQ!!!

November 9
“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.” – Jack Kerouac
(courtesy of crsic)

Today’s extra points word:
triumvirate

November 10
“What’s in store for me in the direction I don’t take?” – Jack Kerouac
(courtesy of crsic)

Today’s extra points word:
umbrage

November 11
“Write in recollection and amazement for yourself” – Jack Kerouac
(courtesy of crsic)

Today’s extra points word:
paucity

November 12
“Offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic-stricken.” – Jack Kerouac
(courtesy of crsic)

Today’s extra points word:
autodidact

November 13
“I saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and I could do anything I wanted.” – Jack Kerouac
(courtesy of crsic)

Today’s extra points word:
‘Stilton’ (the cheese)

November 14
“But words come halting forth, wanting Invention’s stay; Invention, Nature’s child, fled step-dame Study’s blows… Biting my truent pen, beating myself for Spite, ‘Fool’ said my Muse to me; ‘Look in thy heart and Write’” – Sir Philip Sidney
(courtesy of cattinheat)

Today’s extra points word:
Gumption

Happy writing!

-Janna

This email is being sent to you by your local NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison using a blind mail forwarding system. Municipal Liaisons are never given direct access to your contact information. To stop receiving emails from NaNoWriMo, simply log into your account on the site, and de-select the option to receive emails. Happy noveling!

So, how've you all made out?  Don't worry if you didn't make your daily quota yet - there are a few hours to go, and days to catch up!

Our virtual meet was quite a success.  You can read all about it (including the round-robin story we wrote) on the forum at http://www.nanowrimo.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=14539&forum=95  We're still meeting in the chat room all through the month, so feel free to drop by!  The instructions were in the last e-mail I sent out, or you can e-mail me directly and I'll give them to you again.     

Don't forget about our next in person meet!  It's happening on Saturday (November 4) at 10.00 a.m., at the Second Cup at the corner of Macleod Trail and 90th Ave SE, next to The Carriage House Inn and across the street from Ranchman's.  There is WiFi access, and Heather will be bringing a power bar for those whose laptops don’t run on batteries!

Now, just in case you're beginning to panic because of all the plot bunnies (or maybe dust bunnies) threatening to take over your story, here is a week's worth of inspiration!

November 1“Writing is nothing to be ashamed of. But do it in private, and wash your hands afterward.” - Robert A. Heinlein(courtesy of IronKite)

Words to attempt to use somewhere in your novel this week:Nouns: bicycle, fireVerbs: eating, lickingAdjectives: madly, casually

And if you can find a place to use the following word, you get extra points!window

November 2"When you find something at which you are talented, you do it...until your fingers bleed or your eyes are ready to fall out of your head." - Stephen King(courtesy of TristanParrish)

Today's extra points word:mine

November 3"People assume you sit in a room looking pensive and writing great thoughts. But mostly you sit in a room looking panic-stricken and hoping they haven't put a guard on the door yet." - Douglas Adams(courtesy of Monte9875)

Today's extra points word:no

November 4"Remember - always be yourself, unless you suck." - Joss Whedon(courtesy of karalianne)

Today's extra points word:antidisestablishmentarianism

November 5"If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion." - Noam Chomsky(courtesy of karalianne)

Today's extra points word:Contrafibularities

November 6"I cannot expect even my own art to provide all of the answers, only to hope it keeps asking the right questions." - Grace Hartigan(courtesy of karalianne)

Today's extra points word:spathic

November 7"There is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

~Lewis Carroll(courtesy of Miss Krista)

Today's extra points word:terrible

So, good luck, and keep writing!  I know I'm inspired just by the dent I made in my total today!     

-Janna

This email is being sent to you by your local NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison using a blind mail forwarding system. Municipal Liaisons are never given direct access to your contact information. To stop receiving emails from NaNoWriMo, simply log into your account on the site, and de-select the option to receive emails. Happy noveling!

We had a number of people turn up in the chat room on Tuesday, beginning as early as 8.00 p.m.! I think we had between 12 and 15 in all, and about 10 at a time in the room. A grand, hilarious time was had by all!

At 11.30 or so, we settled into the serious work of writing a round-robin story. It was supposed to be a sci-fi romance between the user Spacefille and the room’s bot, Chaos, but, well… read it for yourself:

It was a dark and grimy window.
Behind the window sat the backlit figure of an old woman.
She appeared to be idly petting her cat and staring into the distance, rocking softly.
Despite her gaze focused intently on the window, she was unable to see it coming…
the quiet purring of the kitten was interrupted by a loud crash.
the kitten jumped off her lap as the old lady’s arm turned into a weapon and fired back (like the terminator)
The shot narrowly missed the unknown intruder as it came crashing through the window.
A devilishly handsome man past his time strided in, “Mariam sometimes I underestimate you” he chided.
“And I you, old friend,” Mariam said as a smirk crept across her face.
The man leaned in to kiss Mariam, but the kitten hissed and scratched at his face.
Mariam tugged at the hem of dress, revealing two gnarled knee caps.
Which she then gave to the cat in order to vanquish its anger.
“Interesting, how reality fractures in this place.” he grinned, looking around the room. He nodded his head at the albatross in the corner. “It always so busy in here?”
“Very busy, but we have time” Mariam batted her stumpy eyelashes at him.
“Evidently!” Exclaimed the albatross in the corner as he adjusted his admiral’s cap.
They both swiftly turned towards the albatross.
“What?” said the albatross. You didn’t think I could talk? If I have any sort of grasp on the situation, it seems we may be the product of a computer program designed to emulate the style of the late Douglas Adams… a program named, appropriately enough, (dramatic pause) CHAOS.”
Mariam and the man (whose name was Karlos) looked at each other and shrugged.
Admiral Bird squawked in annoyance and flew off, croaking, “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”
“Of course!” shouted Mariam, “Fish! The solution to CHAOS!”
Karlos looked at his old friend Marium sadly. He wanted to tell her what was going on, but knew that the very fact that she didn’t know was helping her to stay alive.
Spacefile was exceedingly jealous if anyone touched her CHAOS, but Karlos knew that if he didn’t turn off CHAOS they would all be dead
and they got together and had mad passionate sex, settled down and had 2.5 kids and a nice white picket fence out in the country.
THE END

At midnight, we all went to work and wrote for a full ten minutes! The results of that word war were as follows:

12.10 a.m.
Fronzel 483 words **WINNER!!**
Spacefille 441 words
Ushi_chan 380 words
WordsmithAndWesson
karalianne 332 words
CanadianDee 317 words
Leenietwins 268 words
TheOneCalledTim 215 words
IronKite 138 words365 words

A few people had to leave at this point, following which the rest of us went back to work and wrote madly until 1.00 a.m.

1.00 a.m.
Fronzel 2083 words **WINNER!!**
Spacefille 1971 words
ShyEmpress 1555 words
TheOneCalledTim 1446 words
karalianne 1372 words
WordsmithAndWesson 888 words
IronKite 650 words

We had a lot of fun! Thanks everyone who came “out” and joined in the insanity! Hopefully we’ll see more of each other, both online and off!

-Janna, who is going to bed ASAP… just need to upload the word count for the night first

Heinlein’s Rules for Writing

1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.

(Courtesy of IronKite – Aaron)

First, business.

We have TWO MEETS this week!

The first one is a virtual write-in. It will begin at 11.00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 31, and will go as late as people want it to go. At midnight, we’ll begin writing – for a pre-determined length of time – and see who can write the most words to start their novel. The “winner” will be noted – with word count – on our regional forum. This will be taking place in the #calgarynano IRC channel on irc.ircstorm.net (port 6667). If you don’t use an IRC client, you can easily join us via the java interface on my web site, which you can find at http://jannalouise.thehoskincentre.com/nanowrimo/chat.html. It’ll log you in as a guest; all you have to do then is type in a handle (if you use the one you’re using on the forum, we’ll know who you are) and you’ll be able to join the chat! This chat room will be open and available for virtual write-ins and meets all month long, so feel free to make arrangements on the forum to hang out there are specific times whenever you like!

The other meet is a live meet! It will begin at 10.00 a.m. on Saturday, November 4. Heather (my lovely co-ML) is planning a pep talk, discussion of techniques for upping word count AND developing your character at the same time, and a 10-minute write in – winner will get a prize! Location: Second Cup at the corner of Macleod Trail and 90th Ave SE, next to The Carriage House Inn and across the street from Ranchman’s. There is WiFi access, and Heather will be bringing a power bar for those whose laptops don’t run on batteries!

Now, survival tips.

First and foremost, Don’t Panic! (Douglas Adams was a genius.) I know it seems a daunting task, but the sheer numbers of people who have completed this challenge each year proves that it’s possible! (I have yet to succeed, but I’m hopeful that my challenge with SarahJanet – one of Edmonton’s co-MLs – will help cure my procrastinating ways this year.)

Remember that The Forums Are Our Friends. (They’re also a great place to procrastinate, but that’s neither here nor there.) If you hit a snag, get confused about your plot, or can’t figure out if sparfles are worth more than drakurts, POST! I moderate the Character and Plot Q&A forum, which is a great place to find out facts. The Plot Doctoring forum is a lovely place to sort out plot snags, and Reaching 50,000 is full of inspirational tips (and don’t forget the lovely Dares Thread!). I also moderate NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul, which is the forum to post in if you’re despairing of ever reaching your goal, your characters rebel, or your real-life friends and family just don’t understand how insane your life is this month and keep trying to get you to *gasp* spend time with them and eat actual meals.

A few preparatory tasks that will make November much easier on everyone (including you):

1. Do the laundry. Why? Well, if you don’t, you may find yourself completely without friends or family by the end of the month. Your loved ones’ noses will adore you if you do your laundry. And if you do it NOW, you won’t have to do it in the middle of writing! (Or, at least, not as soon.)

2. Warn your friends & family. Otherwise you really WILL end up confusing them completely. What happened to their usually easy-going wife/mother/sister/brother/husband/father/best friend in the whole world? The answer, of course, is that you’re attempting to write a minimum of 1,667 words a day and don’t have time for such foolishness as movies, dinner, and hockey games (well, unless it’s Oilers vs Flames, of course).
3. Create a writing space in your home. I’m sure many of us already have one of these, but during NaNoWriMo, it’s exceptionally important to have a special place to go. You want comfort, good back support, and lots of light. Some people eschew the internet while writing; it’s a personal choice (but you may want to stay off of MSN while in the midst of a writing stint).
4. Look after your body, it’s the only one you’ve got! I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have chronic recurring tendonitis in both arms (worse in my right). I’m also really bad at realising that “if it hurts, stop doing the thing that makes it hurt”. I have a number of exercises and exercise materials from my last stint with physiotherapy (last spring), but I also own two Tensor bandages so that I can support my wrists if they start to ache. Some people are resorting to handwriting in an attempt to stave off their RSI, but that’s not an option for me as I have low muscle tone and my hand cramps up when I write a lot. So watch yourself! Give yourself frequent breaks. There are some great RSI self-care programs you can get that will give you an exercise to do every hour or so, and they lock the computer while they show you how to do the exercise so that you can’t ignore them. They’re even free! If you want to try one, I can hook you up – just ask.
5. Food is good. Eat it. I’m not big on coffee myself, but I know many people are. (I actually don’t drink much in the way of hot drinks.) My personal favourite caffeinated beverage is Pepsi, and I’ll be drinking lots of it unless my doctor puts me back on Dexedrine when I go see him next week (yes I have ADHD; if you haven’t figured that out by now, you haven’t been paying attention). If you live alone, make sure you have plenty of food in the cupboard/fridge – and don’t neglect that stock, either! If you have hungry mouths to feed, don’t neglect them, either. I know my guinea pigs get rather noisy if I don’t give them their breakfast and dinner on time (or early *sigh*), so I have to make sure that I have plenty of fresh veggies and pellets on hand.
6. Do you know anything about your novel? This isn’t necessary, but it always helps to have SOME idea of what you’re writing about. No matter how skimpy it is, if you have something planned, you have somewhere to go if you hit a brick wall mid-November. If you can’t figure out the plot (what’s going to happen), at least try to figure out one or two of your characters. Knowing who they are can often help develop the plot, because people interacting can cause all kinds of wonderful plot points!
7. Decide your pace. Now, you don’t have to stick with it, of course, but it can help if you look at your calendar and see which days you’re going to be crazy-busy on and which days are wide open. Those wide open days are prime days for writing more than your allotted 1,667 words, because there will always be at least ONE day during the month that will be so insane you won’t be able to sit down and write AT ALL!

It’s Monday evening. We have just over 24 hours until the madness begins. Use this time wisely, and join us in the chat room tomorrow night so we can all ring in the insanity together! By midnight on December 1, you will be a novelist!

And remember, this is supposed to be FUN!

-Janna

This email is being sent to you by your local NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison using a blind mail forwarding system. Municipal Liaisons are never given direct access to your contact information. To stop receiving emails from NaNoWriMo, simply log into your account on the site, and de-select the option to receive emails. Happy noveling!

Well, disappointment first:

I got the results from that contest that I entered Sylvie’s Song in, and I didn’t even get a mention in it. Owell. Onwards and upwards, right? Right. We’ll see what I decide to do with it once I’m finished writing it.

As for busyness:

I’m moderating three forums on the NaNoWriMo site besides my regional forum: Character and Plot Realism Q&A; NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul; and the All-Ages Coffee House.

I’ve just put up a chat on my web site for the Calgary Wrimo’s to have virtual write-ins and meetups during November.

I’ve signed on to help moderate the forums over at the Young Writers’ Project, an offshoot of NaNoWriMo that is for schools.

I’m trying to figure out what Rosemarie’s school schedule should be, and I’ve figured out that there needs to be a motif of dolphins throughout the story, which might be difficult but should be interesting, too.

In the non-NaNo world, I’ve been cleaning my home, working full-time at the church, and today I had a respite shift in the morning and babysat this evening. I also just e-mailed Autism Partnership (at the behest of a friend) to see if they would like me to be a part-time consultant. We’ll see what comes of that. And I just started a new antidepressant that makes me sleepy all the time. (Better than feeling like I’m About To Die, trust me.)

So that’s my life right now. Joyous day.

I just did some calculations because I wanted to find out how hard it’s likely to be for me to write my NaNo this year.

It is truly frightening.

In order to win, I need to write approximately 2,000 words per day. Since I think better in scenes than wordcount, I’ve been writing one scene of Sylvie’s Song each day since October 1. I’ve written a total of 9 scenes.

Here’s the math:

In 9 scenes, I have written approximately 4,000 words.

That averages out to about 450 words per scene.

Which means that I will have to write at least 4 scenes per day in November to keep my word count up.

I need to up my writing in October to 2 scenes per day so that I can finish and be warmed up enough to do NaNo properly!

Starting that 2 scenes per day tomorrow.

My new favourite quote, that I made up myself: “Today I think I shall go mad. It’s fun, easy, and cheap entertainment for those around me.”

My current sig line on the NaNo forums (cuz I’m a moderator and it’s just easier to not have to remind people to play nice), which I got from someone in the ML forum: “You must have fun here. If you become power-hungry, obsessed, hateful towards others, or disgusted, best advice is to shut the computer off and go get some ice cream to calm your nerves.”

I feel icky right now. My meds are wearing off and I didn’t eat properly today. Bad combination.