2009 National Novel Writing Month

... new beginnings

2009-10-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

... new beginnings: "NaNoWriMo

Tomorrow it starts. Thirty days of frantic writing and, towards the end, hurting hands. It will be crazy, it will be scary, it will be tiring, but most of all it will be fun. The 1st of December I will, hopefully, have accomplished it again. Winning NaNoWriMo. Last year was amazing. The trills of watching the word count go up. The stress when it doesn’t go up, or it doesn’t go up fast enough.
I will still need to look decent and fresh for work and I will need to pay attention to the customers problems, even though it will be hard. For I will also write during work. After work. Maybe even in the bus to and from work."

National Novel Writing Month

2009-10-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

National Novel Writing Month: "Geeking out with NaNo geo stats, city-style

As promised yesterday, here are the Top 50 NaNoWriMo cities, measured by traffic to our site over the last month. In total, we had 12,983 cities and towns send their inhabitants to NaNoland in October!

In 12,983rd place was a town called Dinosaur, where a single citizen stumbled onto the site on October 20th, spent 20 minutes browsing five pages, then wandered back out into the night, never to be seen again.

We miss you, Dinosaur citizen.

Anyway, here they are! Thank you, Google Analytics for allowing us this moment of nerddom!

City/Visits

London 31,407
New York 18,168
Sydney 12,373
Los Angeles 10,466
Seattle 10,054
Melbourne 10,032
Portland 9431
(not set) 9171
San Francisco 8378
Chicago 8213
Denver 7358
Minneapolis 7043
Houston 5150
St Louis 5136
Atlanta 5131
Brisbane 5107
Austin 5086
Eugene 5035
Don Mills 4993
Edmonton 4808
Washington 4630
Calgary 4469
Dallas 4047
Manchester 3816
Birmingham 3753
Ottawa 3694
Perth 3670
Philadelphia 3595
Sacramento 3528
Phoenix 3521
Columbus 3476
San Antonio 3435
Albuquerque 3402
Dublin 3313
Indianapolis 3295
Helsinki 3170
Tucson 3123
Vancouver 3103
Pittsburgh 3095
Nashville 3087
San Jose 3056
Adelaide 3053
Honolulu 3003
Winnipeg 2981
Singapore 2969
Auckland 2946
Kansas City 2926
Glasgow 2868
San Diego 2833
Colorado Springs 2822

Two days until noveling commences!"

snowflake method

2009-10-17T00:23:00.000-07:00

Archive for snowflake method » Jordan McCollum: "entry is part 12 of 20 in the series The plot thickens (Mwahahaha)

The Snowflake Method of story design is just one way to create a plot—but it’s not the best way, nor is it even a good way for all of us. (And we’ll continue to look at more methods to plot stories over the next two weeks.) We’ve already seen how Carol adapted the Snowflake Method to suit her needs as a writer, using its strengths for her and discarding its potential weaknesses. So what are the potential strengths and weaknesses of the Snowflake Method, so we can do this for ourselves?
Pros

After spending so much time refining them and writing about them, you get to know your characters and your plot well. Really well. Before you even write one word of your story, you have pages and pages of information on the characters, their backgrounds, how they see the story unfolding. You know the events, the sequence, the logic there.

Another strength is that you can start with almost nothing and “grow” a plot “naturally.” If you start with just the most basic idea"

Randy Ingermanson For his Snowflake Analysis - Google Search: "Interview: Randall Ingermanson
Randall Ingermanson (shown here with his first two daughters) is the author of ... analysis to automate the interpretation of microscope images of cells. ..... This is my infamous Snowflake process, and it's the most-downloaded page on ..."

chatnano.net - Birmingham

2009-10-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

chatnano.net - Birmingham: "A new window or tab will open and you will be asked to type in your username. It is best if that name is the same as the one you use on the NaNoWriMo web site, so that people know who you are. Then click on 'Connect' and away you go!

This new chat interface is an actual IRC channel; if you would prefer to connect to the chat using your own IRC client (e.g., mIRC, Ice Chat), direct your client to irc.mibbit.com and /join #birminano."

Kitty, cell phone novelist

2009-10-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

Today's Guest: Kitty, cell phone novelist | National Novel Writing Month: "Q: Kitty, you wrote your NaNo-novel on a cell phone. How does that work? Are your thumbs damaged from your efforts? How is this better than noveling on a computer?
A: I actually type faster on my Blackberry—using only my thumbs—than I do on a computer keyboard. On a computer, I already type at 40 words per minute, so on a phone I can churn out quite a lot of words! Because I spend most of my day typing, I’ve built up a tolerance to any pain that may occur. My thumbs are pretty quick!

I’ve met many other people who wrote their novel over the phone, but I don’t know how many did it using the memo pad feature like I did. Memo pad is a program for writing notes or making lists or—in my case—writing a novel!

Once I have a full chapter, I cut and paste it onto my novel page on MobaMingle, where I have a loyal readership of fourteen registered fans. Because I can make my novel public, people can comment on my writing (and literally demand that I write more!)."

NANOWRIMO

2009-10-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

Breaking News | National Novel Writing Month: "Relaunch!

The October 1 relaunch of the adult and Young Writers Program sites will likely happen in the late afternoon, California time. You'll know we've begun blast-off sequence when you see the 'Temporarily down for maintenance' screens go up.

When we rocket out of the launch chute, we'll have a new masthead, a new communications module that you don't need a computer science degree to operate, new Municipal Liaison-controlled regional info stations, a complete list of this year's guest pep talkers, the inaugural Procrastination Stations and NaNo Q&As, a sexy placeholder image for the new videos we're launching this year, and beautifully wide-open forums."

Ten Tools for Your Bestseller - Reviews by PC Magazine

2009-08-19T04:42:00.000-07:00

Ten Tools for Your Bestseller - Reviews by PC Magazine: "Got the next great American novel in you? These ten sites, services, and apps can help you get it down on paper and share it with (or sell it to) the world.

by Erik Rhey
The English author and playwright W. Somerset Maugham (Of Human Bondage) famously quipped, 'There are three rules to writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.' Others have deemed novel-writing the most difficult human task next to hitting a major league fastball.
For those who have embarked on this odyssey, congratulate yourself, no matter how putrid you feel your first draft may be. And for those who have always wanted to write a book but don't know where to begin, the good news is that you don't have to spend thousands on classes to learn how. Thanks to our good friend technology, there are Web sites, software apps, and services to help you get started."

yWriter - Google Search

2009-08-19T04:37:00.000-07:00

yWriter - Google Search: "yWriter is a free word processor for authors. Free story writing software. Perfect for novellists - projects are split into chapters and scenes,"

Q10

2009-08-19T04:35:00.000-07:00

Q10: "Joaquín Bernal

I'm a Spanish programmer, designer and fiction writer who didn't find any plain text editor comfortable enough.

Ok, ok. I was looking for a pet project to spend time on instead of writing, but don't tell anyone.

If you want to show your gratitude for Q10, you can browse my Amazon wish list."

How To Write When You Think You Can’t - Dumb Little Man

2009-07-29T01:17:00.000-07:00

How To Write When You Think You Can’t - Dumb Little Man: "When you have to write something and you feel as if a family of butterflies has taken up residence in your stomach, you aren’t alone. Many people become anxious when they attempt to write. Some get panicky at the sight of the blank page and say they have a writing phobia.

No one is born with a writing gene. With a little work and effort, anyone can write. Here are some ways you can begin to build confidence about writing:"

Mysterious Matters BLOG

2009-05-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

Mysterious Matters: Mystery Publishing Demystified: "Mysterious Matters is designed to educate and entertain both writers and readers of mystery and suspense novels with tips, comments, and the inside story of the mystery publishing business."

from my usenet email:-

"This has been a pretty busy season for manuscript submissions, despite (or perhaps because of) the economy. Since Mysterious Matters seems to get the most hits when I write about "things not to do," I thought I'd offer the most common reasons for rejection in the last couple of months. We may not say these things directly in our rejection letters, but we turned down your book because...

1. Your story didn't start in the first 25 pages of your manuscript. You'd be amazed at how many manuscripts have absolutely no action, or no initiating mysterious incident, in the first couple of chapters. Boring your readers in the first two chapters is no way to get a book published.

2. You burdened your early chapters with backstory. You gave me your protagonist's entire life story almost immediately, before I really developed an interest in learning about the protag. Your manuscript was so mired in the past that I couldn't get excited about the present.

3. Your protagonist was too old. Ouch--hard to say this (though it is one of the benefits of blogging anonymously), but the market for geriatric sleuths is limited. So many manuscripts with retired amateur sleuths, living in Florida or some other retirement mecca, and not enough people who want to read about the elderly.

4. You don't write very well. Either your prose is clunky or too ornate; too simple or too complicated; too heavy to sustain your topic or too light to have any gravitas. The ironic thing is that your story may have had potential, but your writing skills just aren't polished enough."

[...] [and so forth ...]

EPublishing

2009-05-13T22:27:00.000-07:00

EPublishing Innovation Forum 2009 - Strategies for generating new digital revenues through ePublishing Innovations: "Epublishing Innovation Forum 2009 features several pioneering case studies that will focus on how to generate new revenue streams through innovative business models.

Day 1 will show you how to retain and engage readers using collaborative technologies to help build sustainable communities."

Book Advance

2009-04-15T23:13:00.000-07:00

Essay - About That Book Advance ... - NYTimes.com: "The numbers can sound much bigger than they are. Take a reported six-figure advance, Roy Blount Jr., the president of the Authors Guild, said in an e-mail message. “That may mean $100,000, minus 15 percent agent’s commission and self-employment tax, and if we’re comparing it to a salary let us recall (a) that it does not include any fringes like a desk, let alone health insurance, and (b) that the book might take two years to write and three years to get published. . . . So a six-figure advance, while in my experience gratefully received, is not necessarily enough, in itself, for most adults to live on.”

The novelist Walter Kirn agrees. “A low-six-figure advance has allowed me to work at less than minimum wage for three years,” he told me. “Perhaps that’s for the best; a large advance might create a disinclination to do anything other than play blackjack in Las Vegas. When I hear these large, publicized advances, it feels like watching the casino play around me.” (Weep not for Kirn, however; he phoned me from the set of the film adaptation of his novel “Up in the Air,” starring George Clooney.)"

Scandinavian writers indexed by danish TV

2009-03-29T15:24:00.000-07:00

Nordisk Forfatteratlas - dr.dk/Kultur/Forfatteratlas

Locus Online Features: Cory Doctorow: Writing in the Age of Distraction

2009-01-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

Locus Online Features: Cory Doctorow: Writing in the Age of Distraction: "Kill your word-processor

Word, Google Office and OpenOffice all come with a bewildering array of typesetting and automation settings that you can play with forever. Forget it. All that stuff is distraction, and the last thing you want is your tool second-guessing you, 'correcting' your spelling, criticizing your sentence structure, and so on. The programmers who wrote your word processor type all day long, every day, and they have the power to buy or acquire any tool they can imagine for entering text into a computer. They don't write their software with Word. They use a text-editor, like vi, Emacs, TextPad, BBEdit, Gedit, or any of a host of editors. These are some of the most venerable, reliable, powerful tools in the history of software (since they're at the core of all other software) and they have almost no distracting features — but they do have powerful search-and-replace functions. Best of all, the humble .txt file can be read by practically every application on your computer, can be pasted directly into an email, and can't transmit a virus."

Book Trailers

2008-12-18T02:33:00.000-08:00

Five Successful Book Trailers | Poets & Writers: "Just as it's important for aspiring writers to read widely and closely in the genre of their choice, it's equally important to watch videos and trailers for books in that genre and take note of what works and what doesn't. Here are five examples of videos that effectively capture a YouTube viewers' attention."

Write or Die

2008-11-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

Write or Die : Dr Wicked's Writing Lab: "Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you're fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences.

Many people find themselves unable to write consistently. I believe that this is because their reason to write is intangible. For instance, I want to write and finish a book because I want to be published and make a living as a writer. That goal is a long way away so I often find it difficult to sit down to the task of writing.

Conversely, I'm in a creative writing class for which I manage to consistently write and finish projects (albeit at the last minute). . . . .

Negative Reinforcement "strengthens a behavior because a negative condition is stopped or avoided as a consequence of the behavior."

Consequences:

Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself

These consequences will persist until your preset conditions have been met (that is, your time is up or you've written you wordcount goal or both)

This text box is not a word processor, it is not for editing, the way to save is to select all of the text, copy and paste into your own text editor. The idea is to separate the writing process and the editing process as much as possible . . .

Write Or Die | National Novel Writing Month: "One of my Nanowrimo buddies on the east coast pointed me to the Write Or Die website. It's really neat and I haven't seen it on the regional posts for Oregon so here's the info:"

Write or Die website - Google Search

NaNoWriMo - Wiki

2008-11-18T02:14:00.000-08:00

NaNoWriMo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Chris Baty started the project in July 1999 with 21 participants in the San Francisco Bay area. Since then, the event has been held in November 'to more fully take advantage of the miserable weather.'[1] 2000 was the first year NaNoWriMo had a website; participants joined a Yahoo! group in the absence of official forums. It was also the year that many of NaNoWriMo's ground rules were laid out, such as disallowing works in progress or co-authored books. 140 participants attempted the challenge, and 21 wrote 50,000 words."

[NaNoWriMo] Week Two pep talk from Chris

2008-11-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

from my email:-

Dear NaNoWriMo author,

I am writing with excellent news.

The high-speed noveling deities have seen fit to bless us with five whole weekends in November. This hasn't happened since 2003, and the fact that we have three more weekends ahead of us pretty much guarantees that each and every one of us will coast to an easy NaNoWriMo victory. But even in cakewalk years like 2008 (ahem), it's sometimes nice to have short-term goals. So here's my idea: What if we all plan on getting at least 15,000 words by this Monday before we go to bed? That's slightly behind pace, but if we can pull it off, we'll levitate up into an important new stage of the noveling journey.

That stage is called Plot.

Week One of NaNoWriMo tends to be all about characters. Our imaginations have been leaving a lot of them on our doorsteps lately, and it’s pretty much all we can do to bring them in, give them names, and teach them the rudiments of steering their battle-yaks. Then our doorbell rings, and we're rushing off to welcome another group of newcomers to the party.

Because of this, the first week of November is largely a matter of crowd control. I love this part of NaNo, because it's hard to mess it up. This phase also contains one of the greatest moments of novel-writing—that point when characters first unstick themselves from the page and begin interacting with the world around them, revealing aspects of their lives and personalities we hadn't known were there.

This is a sweet moment in the noveling adventure, but now it's time to move on. Getting through the next week of NaNoWriMo will require we set our stories in motion by sending some winds of change howling through our characters' lives. The sooner we do this, the better. If you're stuck for story-launching ideas, consider borrowing from the menu of time-tested plot devices: deaths, firings, loves-at-first-sight, siege ladders quietly appearing against ramparts, disappearances, robberies, accidental wealth, plagues, road trips, illnesses, kidnappings, a shortage of gummi bears when there had appeared to be many gummi bears, mysterious letters, shocking discoveries, betrayal, and wiener dogs.

Any of these things will likely alter your characters' lives forever, which is tough for them but a boon for your book. Still, getting up the nerve to foist these game-changing events onto people you just met is a little daunting. It's easy to worry that you'll blow your potential-filled opening with a lame plot that takes your novel in the wrong direction.

Happily, there are no wrong directions in NaNoWriMo. The only bad plot move you can make in the next week is lingering too long at your story's crossroads, vacillating over the right path. Be bold. Plunge in.

And while you're sprinting through the second stage of your novel, know that some winds of change will likely be blowing through your own life as well. Week Two tends to be when the novelty of NaNoWriMo wears off, and the difficulties of making so many tough decisions in such a short time period add up. Enthusiasm dwindles, fatigue rises, and we begin squinting at our manuscripts, thinking, "This derivative pile of crap is my literary statement to the world?"

Everything gets better soon, trust me. You remember that jolt you felt when your characters first spoke up? Keep writing, and it will happen again. But this time, it will be your whole book rising off the page, pulsing with electricity and life. Today's tangents will become tomorrow's arcs, and unforeseen connections will tie up your loose ends in a way that will make you want to slap your head and holler at your accidental brilliance.

So turn off spell-check. Leave those ungainly sentences on the page, and let your punctuation be imperfect. And whatever you do, don't read your previous day's entire output. The next seven days are all about moving forward. Let's focus on hitting our daily word-count goals, and, before we know it, Week Two will be behind us, and the wonders of Week Three will begin.

See you on Monday at 15K!

Chris
NaNoWriMo

Mariner Software - Storymill

2008-11-02T18:21:00.000-08:00

Mariner Software - Storymill:
"Introducing StoryMill 3.1.
Mac OS 10.4.* or 10.5.*
The latest release in Mariner Software’s long line of writing and creativity software. StoryMill introduces aspiring authors to multi-level writing methods of tracking characters, scenes, and locations, while professional writers will appreciate StoryMill’s time-saving ability to oversee and manage the full creative process with Smart Views."

bargain price to November 3

old attempts

2008-11-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

last year in November 2007
I had the idea of using the plot of a classic danish play, which turned out to have been borrowed itself by Ludvig Holberg

Jeppe på berget - Wikipedia: "Jeppe på berget (original Jeppe paa bierget) är en komedi av Ludvig Holberg 1722."

Jeppe på bjerget - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "a 1981 Danish film directed by Kaspar Rostrup and based on a play by Ludvig Holberg." which I loved

Hilltop Farm

Stale urine in the pot by Jimmy's bed stank sweetly of spirits and a heavy days drinking. Behind the half closed curtains of the box bed the bobble on Jimmy's night cap wobbled with each gargantuan snore. Disgusting you modern readers think, but the twenty first century ecologists have not yet found out that piss, after being kept for fourteen days, is good for washing both the lanolin out of wool and the washing of the hair on their own heads. Two hundred or more years ago any sensible and thrifty farmer's wife like Jimmy's Nelly emptied their night pots into a barrel by the kitchen for future use.

Nellie was in the kitchen and her thoughts were fuming, her no good husband had been too drunk to get up for breakfast again and she had had to set the farm workers their tasks. It was market day and she was too busy to go herself because she was making butter and cheese and keeping the dairy maids at their work pounding the milk up and down with the old style barrel churn. If this was not done at once on a warm summer day the milk would go sour before it could be used or sold. She kept looking up at the riding crop hanging up by the great wood smoke blackened fireplace, she felt the crop,which she had named Master Eric was her only friend. Nellie was small of stature and when she was in a bad temper she would grab Master Eric and lash out. Woe betide any dog or lazy farm servant that stood before her, only a couple of days ag she had had to beat Jeppe about the head and shoulders to get him to do any farm work and take his manly responsibilities seriously. . . . . .

which text I kept in google Docs

National Novel Writing Month: November 2007: "''During the reign of the Caliph Haroun Alraschid, there lived at Bagdad a very rich merchant, whose wife was far advanced in years. They had an only son, called Abou Hassan, who had been in every respect brought up with great strictness.

'The merchant died when this son was thirty years old; and Abou Hassan, who was his sole heir, took possession of the vast wealth which his father had amassed, by great parsimony, and a constant industry in business. The son, whose views and inclinations were different from those of his father, very soon began to dissipate his fortune." one of the original sources also used by Shakespeare

new diary: November 2006: "Wednesday, November 01, 2006
chapter 1
before 1936 to 1942

My mother's life fell apart in 1942 . . . . .

to be continued

and yes I got hooked on research instead of writing for the third time in NaNoWriMo space"

Iron Way: "Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Chapter 1

I heard my cell phone ring and then I woke up feeling scared. When I reached out and picked it up it was off. Was it a dream? My heart was pounding in my chest. Cold sweat beaded my brow.
I sat bolt upright and very very still in the dark bedroom. I could hear breathing."

Viking Novel: November 2004: "Monday, November 29, 2004
Chapter 1
The left wingtip of the aeroplane seemed to reach out to brush the bare rocky hillside, but I was not scared"

Viking Novel: November 2004: "Those wooden swords were jiggling at their hips as the boys walked past the hut where their kinsman Einar from Suderoy still snored.
“Silly old fool – whenever he gets drunk he gets into fights,” said Thorer.
“And runs around waving his axe” answered Sigmund.
“Wicked!” was the reply as they vaulted the sheep proof stone wall around the inner field
of the village."

Viking Novel: May 2005: "Rule #5 is 'Turn off the television. For eight months.
Spend more time writing. You never waste time by writing—you only waste
time by not writing"

Director Chris Baty

2008-10-30T00:45:00.000-07:00

from my email:-

Dear National Novel Writing Month Author,

Hi there! NaNoWriMo Program Director Chris Baty here. Before we get rolling, I wanted to give you a quick guide to our upcoming five weeks of literary domination.

Here's the plan:

Today: Make a tax-deductible donation to help us pay for National Novel Writing Month. So far, we've received donations from 3.4% of our participants, putting us 6.6% away from our goal. Chip in! Even $10 makes a big difference, and pays huge dividends in halos and noveling karma. We're a nonprofit, and we've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars readying this swashbuckling adventure for 110,000 adults and 15,000 kids and teens around the world. We need your support!

Tomorrow: Make sure you've set your time zone correctly (it's under User Settings). Some word-count features appear and disappear at midnight on November 1 and November 30, so dialing those in now will save you stress later. Join a local region, and find out when and where the first novel-writing get-togethers (called "write-ins") for your city or town will be held. Tune in to WrimoRadio, NaNoWriMo's podcast, and learn how you can be on the November 3 episode.

October 31: Get the first pep talk email. You'll receive about three of these a week—one from me and two from our panel of esteemed celebrity pep talkers—throughout November. Note: If you donate $50 or more today, you will receive six years of pep talks from me in a beautiful 80-page PDF, constituting about as much week-by-week NaNoWriMo advice and encouragement as any human being can handle without falling over.

November 1: At midnight, local time, start writing your book. You need to log 1667 words per day to stay on par. The site will be very slow for the first few days of the event, but with patience you can update your soaring word count in the box at the top of our site or on the "Edit Novel Info" page of your profile. Watch your stats graph fill. Send a link to your author profile to your friends so they can follow your progress. Revel in the majesty of your unfolding story. It's November 1! You are an unstoppable novel-writing machine!

November 2: Stop writing. Wonder if you should start over. Keep going. Feel better.

November 3: The first November episode of WrimoRadio goes up on the site, beaming out overcaffeinated messages of hope from Wrimos worldwide. We'll be podcasting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from here until December.

November 8: As the first full week of writing comes to a close, you will be at 11,666 words. This is more fiction than most people write in their lifetimes, and you did it in a week. Go, you! This is also Municipal Liaison Appreciation Day, a raucous international holiday that celebrates NaNoWriMo's volunteer chapter-heads (the folks who organized the write-in you went to last week). Chocolate, flowers, and gifts of expensive electronics are appreciated.

November 13: Nothing really happens on November 13.

November 15: After the second week of writing, you will be at 25,000 words. This is the approximate length of such legendary works of fiction as Animal Farm, Death in Venice, and Gossip Girl: I Like it Like That. You're halfway to winning! Attend a Midway Party in your town, or come to San Francisco, where the Night of Writing Dangerously Write-a-thon will set records for group noveling and candy consumption.

November 16: The second half of NaNoWriMo dawns. Writerly confidence builds. Your book comes to life, and characters start doing interesting, unexpected things. Nice. Weird.

November 22: After the third full week of writing, you stand at 35,000 words, the NaNoWriMo milestone universally recognized as The Place Where Everything Gets Much, Much Easier.

November 25: Novel validation and winning begins, and Word-Count Progress Bars turn from blue to green (over 50K) to purple (over 50k and a verified winner!). Check our FAQs for details on uploading your manuscript and winning. For the first time ever, a very limited number of 2008 Winner t-shirts will appear in the store. These will make you smile.

November 27: American Wrimos celebrate the true meaning of Thanksgiving by gathering together with friends and family, wolfing down a huge meal as quickly as possible, and then ditching those friends and family to hide in the bathroom with a laptop.

November 30: By midnight, local time, we will all be the proud owners of 50,000-word novels that we could barely imagine on October 31. Plan to attend your local NaNoWriMo Thank God It's Over Party, where grins will abound, champagne will flow, fives will be highed, and wrists will be iced.

You did it. We all did it.

December 1: Sleep will fall heavily across NaNoLand, as 125,000 writers close the book on one crazy, oversized dream, and go off in search of the next.

We begin very soon, brave writer! I can't wait to get started!

Chris
NaNoWriMo

Birmingham NANOWRIMO meet at 12:00 pm saturday 25 July 2008

2008-10-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

Coffee Lounge: "Coffee lounge
10/11 Navigation Street
Birmingham
B2 4BS"

Reason for Writing? NANOWIMO

2008-10-17T22:09:00.000-07:00

Reason for Writing? | National Novel Writing Month:

"1. Because when I was 12 I decided that I would be a great novelist. I'm not, but I am at least a novelist every November.

2. Because I've written a novel every year for four years, and if I don't carry on doing it I'll feel like a failure.

3. Because my real job doesn't exercise my imagination.

4. Because I have a very slight and threadbare hope that I will still turn out to be a great novelist one day.
.
5. Because for one month a year I have an excuse to be unreasonably moody and artistic"

Google Answers: The Seven Main Plots in All of Literature = ???

2008-10-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

Google Answers: The Seven Main Plots in All of Literature = ???

It may be worth noting that Christopher Booker in his "Seven Basic
Plots -- why we tell stories" has a different take -- and it took him
35 years to draw his conclusions, having started in 1969!!

The man vs xxxx plots above would all be summarised as "overcoming the monster".

He gives us, (fogive me for desperately oversimplifying his magnus opus):

1. Overcoming the monster -- defeating some force which threatens...
e.g. most Hollywood movies; Star Wars, James Bond.

2. The Quest -- typically a group setoff in search of something and
(usually) find it. e.g. Watership Down, Pilgrim's Progress.

3. Journey and Return -- the hero journeys away from home to somewhere
different and finally comes back having experienced something and
maybe changed for the better. e.g. Wizard of Oz, Gullivers Travels.

4. Comedy - not neccesarily a funny plot. Some kind of
misunderstanding or ignorance is created that keeps parties apart
which is resolved towards the end bringing them back together. e.g.
Bridget Jones Diary, War and Peace.

5. Tragedy - Someone is tempted in some way, vanity, greed etc and
becomes increasingly desperate or trapped by their actions until at a
climax they usually die. Unless it's a Hollywood movie, when they
escape to a happy ending. e.g. Devils' Advocate, Hamlet.

6. Rebirth - hero is captured or oppressed and seems to be in a state
of living death until it seems all is lost when miraculously they are
freed. e.g. Snow White.

7. Rags to Riches - self explanatory really. e.g. Cinderella &
derivatives (all 27,000 of them)!!!

Each of these plots goes through 4 or 5 main phases which are
universally recognisable and re-used. Some stories choose to jump in
at phase 3 or leave early and often leave us feeling unsatisfied.

Powell's Books - The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by

2008-10-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Powell's Books - The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by: "Underlying the stories he examines are Seven Basic Plots: rags to riches; the quest; voyage and return; the hero as monster; rebirth and so on."
basic plots novel -seven - Google Search

Peter's Evil Overlord List

2008-10-08T23:41:00.000-07:00

Peter's Evil Overlord List: "# I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat."

Controversy Embroils Nobel Literature Prize : NPR

2008-10-08T22:49:00.000-07:00

Controversy Embroils Nobel Literature Prize : NPR: "The 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced Thursday morning, and it's already drawing attention — for the wrong reasons. An official of the Swedish Academy — which awards the Nobel Prizes — caused a furor last week when he described American literature as isolated and insular, and therefore unqualified for literature's most prestigious award.

Playwright Edward Albee, whose credits include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe and Zoo Story, has gained a sort of cranky perspective when it comes to awards. 'All prizes are peculiar,' he says. 'There's politics in everything, and some judges just don't know what they're doing.'

Albee points to a long list of great 20th century writers who were passed over by the Nobel judges: Leo Tolstoy, Marcel Proust, Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov and W.H. Auden. . . .

Still, Prose says that Engdahl had a point when he criticized U.S. publishers for not promoting more literature in translation. Novelist Junot Diaz — who won this year's Pulitzer Prize in literature — says something good could actually come out of this controversy.

"If this encourages the average American to read one more book in translation — if only to spite the kind of sneering Eurocentric elitism of this one individual — that's not a bad thing," he says.

Nor would it be so bad, Diaz says, if it incited U.S. publishers to translate more work from other parts of the world. He has a tip for them: the young Mexican writer Marteen Solares. His work, says Diaz, is brilliant, but mostly unavailable in English — or, in Swedish.

November Spawned: a Novel Writing Handout (2007)

2008-10-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

Novel writing handout | National Novel Writing Month: "i got a little bored while waiting for the nano to start last year and made that.

duochan"
November Spawned: a Novel Writing Handout (2007): "Here's a handout put together for those attending the kick-off meeting in Birmingham for NaNoWriMo 2007. It's part planning tool, part keepsake, and part something to let the MLs relax at the meet-ups, so we don't have to worry if we don't get through everything we'd like to say!

It's pretty much the same as last year's version, with just a few small tweaks after feedback we received last year (and our own experience of using it). For one thing, there are the correct number of notches in the word count axis of the graph! There are also changes to the character pages, timeline and the list of useful websites."

StoryMill

2008-10-07T14:12:00.000-07:00

Macworld | Review: StoryMill 3.1: "StoryMill 3.1 provides an impressive workflow approach and toolset that can’t be replicated in your current word processor. For former Avenir users, the timeline feature alone is worth the cost of upgrade. If you’re willing to learn and make full use of Mariner Software’s nonlinear database-type approach to structuring and filtering your research, writing, and rewriting, your initial investment will pay big dividends. Of course, John Steinbeck and Kurt Vonnegut never needed specialized software to write the Great American Novel. But if you’re the sort who prefers plotting in a MacBook to jotting in a notebook, odds are StoryMill could prove a real asset in getting your 100,000-word opus onto the printed page."

Mariner Software Announces Contour Story Development App TotallyWrite Acquired and Redeveloped: "-Mariner Software, developers and publishers of professional and personal software, announced today an agreement made with LTW Productions Canada, Inc. to acquire and redevelop TotallyWrite, the popular story development software for Mac OS X. Newly-named Contour, will make its public debut under the Mariner brand with existing content and new features, before the end of 2008. Contour is the latest release in Mariner Software's award-winning line of personal creativity and writing software."

Mariner Software - Storymill: "StoryMill has been designed and developed solely for Mac OS X. As a long-time Apple developer (17 years), our commitment to Apple technology is reflected in our feature set. StoryMill is Intel-ready, Leopard-compatible, and fully supports Apple's high standards for an elegant user interface and intuitive functionality. Developing in Cocoa framework also lets us take advantage of Apple OS X functionality and take advantage of the world's most advanced operating system. StoryMill integrates with Apple Backup, Spotlight and more."
See your novel displayed across time.
Visually and interactively display your story across time with StoryMill's timeline view. An industry-first feature, timeline view allows you to visually arrange the scenes in your novel in chronological order. Why just page through your novel when you can get a 30,000 foot view?

The Star Novel Writing Method For Writing Your Novel Or Screen Play

2008-10-07T14:05:00.000-07:00

The Star Novel Writing Method For Writing Your Novel Or Screen Play: "Don't put in powerful or colorful events just to describe them as intense, beautiful, terrible, whatever. The context is not the story. The story may ride on the context but the context is not the story. The novelist Mitchner did tons of research for his novel settings, like Hawaii, but sometimes he included too much information about the place and his story lines were weak. Make your story stronger than your context."

How To Write A Novel Using The Snowflake Method

2008-10-07T13:35:00.000-07:00

How To Write A Novel Using The Snowflake Method: "Writing a novel is easy. Writing a good novel is hard. That's just life. If it were easy, we'd all be writing best-selling, prize-winning fiction.

Randy Ingermanson is a theoretical physicist and the award-winning author of six novels. He has taught at numerous writing conferences over the years and publishes the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, the largest electronic magazine in the world on the craft of writing fiction, with over 13000 readers.

Randy is best known for his "Snowflake Method" of designing a novel. The "Snowflake" page on his web site has been viewed more than 640,000 times over the years.

Randy believes that prepublished novelists fall into four distinct stages, Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors.

Good fiction doesn't just happen, it is designed. You can do the design work before or after you write your novel. I've done it both ways and I strongly believe that doing it first is quicker and leads to a better result. Design is hard work, so it's important to find a guiding principle early on. This article will give you a powerful metaphor to guide your design.

Our fundamental question is this: How do you design a novel?

For a number of years, I was a software architect designing large software projects. I write novels the same way I write software, using the "snowflake metaphor".

Cynthia Lanius' Lessons: A Fractals Lesson - Introduction: "They're everywhere, those bright, weird, beautiful shapes called fractals. But what are they, really?

Fractals are geometric figures, just like rectangles, circles and squares, but fractals have special properties that those figures do not have.

There's lots of information on the Web about fractals, but most of it is either just pretty pictures or very high-level mathematics. So this fractals site is for kids, to help them understand what the weird pictures are all about - that it's math - and that it's fun!"

"

celtx new version

2008-10-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

celtx - #1 choice for media pre-production.: "Celtx is the world's first all-in-one media pre-production software. It has everything you need to take your story from concept to production. Celtx replaces 'paper, pen & binder' pre-production with a digital approach that's more complete, simpler to work with, and easier to share."

Letters: Hugh Watkins - Salon

2008-10-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

Letters: Hugh Watkins - Salon: "yes - you don't have the discipline to make a great sportsman - in the end art is a competitive sport, and you may be a one trick pony.

Start over on a new project - it is your only chance.

Feelings are irelevant only the job counts."

Naming Characters

2008-10-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

Author Jennifer Hudson Taylor: Naming Characters: "I can't write a story until I have the names of my characters situated in my head. This isn't as easy as it sounds. Most often, I start with The Character Naming Source Book. It's a great reference because it gives you surnames with the country they originated from and the meaning of the names. This is important to your characters' background, family origin, culture and beliefs. . . . . .

Other ways I like to choose names is through Genealogy research of known family surnames in the area of where my books are set. These are accurate and appropriate. Tombstones and census records will tell you who lived in the area and when they lived there. You can't get more accurate than that, although keep in mind some of the spelling variations were different from place to place and family branch to family branch. This is because of dialect in regions, illiteracy, and people changing their names to accommodate the new area where they are living. Some great genealogy resource sites are http://www.ancestry.com/ and http://www.rootsweb.com/. These sites will get you started in the right direction."

CHRIS BATTY WROTE

2008-09-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

Dear NaNoWriMo Author,

NaNoWriMo's 10th anniversary year is almost upon us! We have some NaNo news bits for you before the site relaunches on October 1 and another beautiful season of novel procrastination begins.

NANOWRIMO.ORG LOCKED ON SUNDAY FOR SCRUBBING
We'll be turning off new sign-ups, locking the forums, and turning off NaNoMail-sending from Sunday, September 21 until October 1 so we can archive the site and delete all forums posts. This will free up database space for the 800,000 new posts we're expecting this fall. We'll also be deleting all NaNoMails that are more than a year old. If you have any old NaNoMails that you want to keep, be sure to go in and grab 'em before Sunday.

DONATION STATION & STORE HAS GREAT "NEW T-SHIRT" SMELL
Thanks to Tavia's whip-cracking skills, we have our 10th Anniversary NaNoWriMo t-shirt, the Young Writers Program t-shirt, and our stunning new travel mug in the Office of Letters and Light store. Our donor goodies are ready too! You want seven years of NaNoWriMo pep talks from me with embarrassing behind-the-scenes commentaries? You got it! And, uh, this year's poster? Yowza.

OUR DREAM: 10 FOR 10
We have a 10th-anniversary dream that 10% of Wrimos will support NaNoWriMo with a donation this year. Please join our "10 for 10" revolution by chipping in something small towards our costs.

2008 PEP TEAM IN PLACE, RARING TO GO
One of the great things about NaNoWriMo is the pep-talking you get in November. These bi-weekly emails are scientifically calibrated to make you feel so inspired and/or guilt-ravaged that you sit down and work on your novel even when you don’t want to work on your novel. This spring, we asked what authors you would like to receive pep talks from, then tabulated your responses on the NaNoWriMo blog, and sent out invitations to the 50 most-requested folks. Who answered our Invitations to Pep? You'll have to wait until the site relaunches on October 1 to find out. But we're pretty dang excited.

NANOWRIMO SITE SWEETER, MORE SERVER-Y
Thanks to donations from our 2007 participants and our summer vintage-sticker fundraising drive, you'll see some new features and improvements when the site relaunches. These include the ability to update your word count from every page of the site, a place to add a synopsis and book cover image to your author profile, and a more feature-rich NaNoMail. We've also moved your "action links" into your profile (instead of hiding them up in the masthead) and invested almost $10,000 in extra hardware and server testing to give the site as much zip as possible. We know it'll still get very slow right around November 1, but our servers are now rippling with new muscles to help them lift the load better.

GEEK? LET US HIRE THEE!
Our longtime tech guru Russ is sadly retiring at the end of this year's event, so we're looking to bring a new Tech Director on board in December. We're interviewing candidates now. Check out the listing on our Help Wanted page. Then quit your job, move to the Bay Area, and come join our team.

Looking forward to seeing you in NaNoLand in a few weeks,

Chris
NaNoWriMo National Novel Writing Month

NANOWRIMO 2008

2008-09-14T13:12:00.000-07:00

Who's getting set for 2008? | National Novel Writing Month: "All the posts here seem quite a while ago. I'm just wondering if there's anybody out there getting ready for NaNoWirMo 2008?"

Misery

2007-12-02T06:05:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Misery lit... read on: "The bestseller lists are full of memoirs about miserable childhoods and anguished families. Waterstone's even has a 'Painful Lives' shelf.

Why are authors confessing their hurt so freely and do readers find morbid enjoyment in them?"

good luck

2007-12-02T06:04:00.000-08:00

Home - andyconway.co.uk: "And I'm pleased to announce that I chested the 50k line two days before the month was out and can now officially call myself a NaNoWriMo 'winner'.

But let's hold the champagne. I may have written 50,000 words in a month but my novel is still unfinished, which means I'm still waking up every morning and reaching straight for the laptop and writing 2,000 groggy-eyed words before breakfast (alas, the word counter doesn't recognise when you see double).

So I've now set myself a new deadline of 75,000 words before Christmas, which should be a piece of piss if the last 30 days are anything to go by. I have to confess, though, that I have cheated just a little bit with this. Although, hear me out. I'd like to explain how I don't think it's cheating at all.

First of all, I didn't actually write a novel. What I wrote was an autobiographical account of my mother's five year illness with vascular dementia and eventual death in a care home. I believe the current hot publishing buzz word is misery memoir. But I approached it as a novel and tried to write it as one, so I do think of it as a novel. . . . .

Step forward NaNoWriMo.

The discipline of it made me sit down and do it every day and amaze myself with how much was actually ready to pour out of me. There were many mornings when I thought I had nothing in me, but ten minutes into tapping away it would always come.

A reminder yet again (because I forget it so easily) that the only solution to writing is to just sit down and force yourself to write. The solution to any writing problem will always be solved by the very act of writing.

And treating this misery memoir as a novel gave me that emotional distance I needed to get it written, as well as allowing me to make discoveries about my relationship with my mother as if I were reading about two characters in someone else's novel.

The Longest Death is a novel full of anger and despair and outrage, but thanks to NaNoWriMo, I wasn't consumed by any of those emotions while I was writing it. There was only ever time to get out of the way and allow the words to write themselves.

So in that sense I think I stuck to the spirit of the contest and am allowing myself to feel proud of the achievement.

NaNoWriMo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2007-11-29T02:32:00.000-08:00

NaNoWriMo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The project was started by Chris Baty in July 1999 with 21 participants in the San Francisco Bay area. Since then, the event has been held in November 'to more fully take advantage of the miserable weather.'[1] 2000 was the first year NaNoWriMo had a website; instead of a message board, the group had a Yahoo! club. It was also the first year many of the ground rules for NaNoWriMo were laid out, such as disallowing previously started works or co-authored books. 140 participants signed up for participation and 21 completed 50,000 words. In 2001, Chris Baty stated that he expected 150 participants; 5000 signed up.[2] At that point in time, sign-ups were not automated, so the end of October and the beginning of November were spent with Baty and a small team of volunteers signing the massive backlog up by hand. Other troubles included a hacking of the site and massive bandwidth use forcing Baty to turn down the idea of official wordcount verifications.[3] 700 writers crossed the finish line that year."

NaNoEdMo - Pick up that red pen

2007-11-29T02:31:00.000-08:00

NaNoEdMo - Pick up that red pen: "Welcome to National Novel Editing Month! (Otherwise known as NaNoEdMo, or just EdMo) You have entered the portal to the crazy world of novel editing. Have you written a 50,000 word novel but haven't edited it yet? Then you've come to the right place! It is here that people from all over the world gather together to spend 50 hours in March editing their novels. This is not as easy as it might sound but the forums are available to get advice and ask all the important questions you may have. Advice from real published authors will also be here to help you and a certificate of completion awaits each winner at the end of the month. We know it's a crazy thing to do, but it is loads of fun and we do hope you'll stay. We've got many pots of strong coffee brewing to help keep you going as well as a store room full of sugary candied goodness just waiting for you to jump in and start editing!"

the end

2007-11-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

Full text / script of the play The Taming of the Shrew Act V by William Shakespeare: "

KATHARINA
Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease.

2007-11-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

from myemail:-
Dear NaNoWriMo participant,

When you sit down to begin that novel of yours, the first thing you might want to do is toss a handful of powdered napalm over both shoulders---so as to dispense with any and all of your old writing teachers, the ones whose ghosts surely will be hovering there, saying such things as, "Adverbs should never be...", or "A novel is supposed to convey...", et cetera. Enough! Ye literary bureaucrats, vamoose!

Rules such as "Write what you know," and "Show, don't tell," while doubtlessly grounded in good sense, can be ignored with impunity by any novelist nimble enough to get away with it. There is, in fact, only one rule in writing fiction: Whatever works, works.

Ah, but how can you know if it's working? The truth is, you can't always know (I nearly burned my first novel a dozen times, and it's still in print after 35 years), you just have to sense it, feel it, trust it. It's intuitive, and that peculiar brand of intuition is a gift from the gods. Obviously, most people have received a different package altogether, but until you undo the ribbons you can never be sure.

As the great Nelson Algren once said, “Any writer who knows what he's doing isn't doing very much.” Most really good fiction is compelled into being. It comes from a kind of uncalculated innocence. You need not have your ending in mind before you commence. Indeed, you need not be certain of exactly what's going to transpire on page 2. If you know the whole story in advance, your novel is probably dead before you begin it. Give it some room to breathe, to change direction, to surprise you. Writing a novel is not so much a project as a journey, a voyage, an adventure.

A topic is necessary, of course; a theme, a general sense of the nexus of effects you'd like your narrative to ultimately produce. Beyond that, you simply pack your imagination, your sense of humor, a character or two, and your personal world view into a little canoe, push it out onto the vast dark river, and see where the currents take you. And should you ever think you hear the sound of dangerous rapids around the next bend, hey, hang on, tighten your focus, and keep paddling---because now you're really writing, baby! This is the best part.

It's a bit like being out of control and totally in charge, simultaneously. If that seems tricky, well, it's a tricky business. Try it. It'll drive you crazy. And you'll love it.

Tom Robbins

--
Tom Robbins is the author of eight novels, including Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Jitterbug Perfume, and his latest, Villa Incognito.

Tom Robbins - Google Search:

Thomas Eugene Robbins (born July 22, 1936 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina) is an American author.

The Sleeper Awakened Part One - Arabian Nights Tales

2007-11-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

The Sleeper Awakened Part One - Arabian Nights Tales:

"'During the reign of the Caliph Haroun Alraschid, there lived at Bagdad a very rich merchant, whose wife was far advanced in years. They had an only son, called Abou Hassan, who had been in every respect brought up with great strictness.

'The merchant died when this son was thirty years old; and Abou Hassan, who was his sole heir, took possession of the vast wealth which his father had amassed, by great parsimony, and a constant industry in business. The son, whose views and inclinations were different from those of his father, very soon began to dissipate his fortune.

Abou Hassan had always envied young men of his own age who had been more liberally supplied, and who never denied themselves any of those pleasures in which young men too readily indulge, and determined in his turn to distinguish himself by making an appearance consistent with the great wealth with which fortune had favoured him.

Accordingly, he divided his fortune into two parts. With the one he purchased estates in the country and houses in the city, and, although these would produce a revenue sufficient to enable him to live at his ease, he resolved to let the sums arising from them accumulate; the other half, which consisted of a considerable sum of ready money, was to be spent in enjoyment, but he laid it down as a primary rule . . . . " source of Jeppe paa Bierget and The Taming of the Shrew (Jeppe på Bjerget in modern spelling) and my own tale for NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo EVE

2007-10-31T05:40:00.000-07:00

from my email:-

Dear NaNoWriMo participant

Well, we're on the cusp of another beautiful noveling November. The turn-out so far has been phenomenal. Between our main program and Young Writers Program, we'll have over 90,000 authors on board by the end of the week, making this officially the largest NaNoWriMo since the event was first adapted from an Andorran mule-wrestling ceremony back in 1999.

For those of you who are new to NaNo, I want to quickly run through the noveling schedule for the month ahead.

Step 1: Keep reading this email; learn the secret of NaNoWriMo.
Step 2: Wait for 12:01 AM local time on November 1.
Step 3: Write a novel.

No problem.

Okay, back to Step 1. The secret of NaNoWriMo. Which is this: There is a door in your brain. The door has been there your whole life. You may not have noticed it before because it blends in with everything else in your brain. Weird art. Mismatched furniture. Squishy gray bits clinging to everything.

So what does this door have to do with your novel?

Your job this month is not so much writing a book (which is intimidating) as it is finding that door (which is easy).

It's easy because you'll have guides in November who will take you right to it.

These guides are also known as your characters. They're kind of an abstract notion now, but you'll meet them in all their glory in Week One of NaNoWriMo. They'll be a strange lot. Insecure warlocks. Stamp-collecting squirrels. Teenage detectives.

Whoever shows up, go with them. And go quickly. You may have a general sense of where you're going together; you may not. It doesn’t matter. Just write your allotment of 1667 words (or more) on November 1. Don't edit any of it. Editing is for December. Then come back and write another 1667 words the next day. And the next. And the next.

By Week Two, you'll be at the door. A few words later, you'll be through it. You'll know you're there because the writing will feel different. Less like work, and more like watching a gloriously imperfect movie with cringe-worthy dialogue, heaps of confusing tangents, and moments of brilliance so delightful that you'll want to scream.

Once you've stepped through that door into the vast reaches of your imagination, you'll be able to return there as often as you like. It's an enchanted, intoxicating place, and there are other great things besides novels in there.

But we'll talk about that later.

For now, here's our game plan for the coming week.

1) Make sure you've affiliated with a region and then made it your Home Region. This is a two-step process. You do it by signing in and then going to the My Regions page of My NaNoWriMo. The far-left tab gives you a list of regions to choose from. Choose one by clicking "affiliate," then go to the far-right tab called Home Region and make sure your region is ticked.

2) Make sure you have your Edit Profile settings geared to allow emails from us (if you got this, you're good), and that your email program knows to accept messages from noreply@nanowrimo.org. Pep talks from esteemed authors will begin landing in your inbox this week, and will continue to arrive every four days or so. To turn off emails from us, just head to Edit Profile and change your settings to "No mail."

3) On November 1: Begin writing. At this point, you'll be able to begin updating your word count on the Author Info tab of the Edit Profile page. You can do this on the honor system by just typing in the number, or you can paste the whole book in and let our robots count it for you. If you paste your book, please scramble it first, using instructions in our FAQ. You can also post an excerpt of your book in the same area of the Edit Profile page.

4) For the first week of the event, the site will be on fire. This year we moved to a completely new back-end system, and it has made me beat my head against the wall almost every single day. Pages disappear. Parts fall off. Error screens everywhere. It handles high traffic the way a country lane would handle a freeway. We have so many plans on rebuilding the site it for next year it's not even funny. But for now, we have to work with what we've got. Russ is making all the improvements he can to make it suck less.

If the site isn't functional, just postpone updating your word count until the dust settles. NaNoWriMo does not live on a website. It lives in your heart, in your powerful typing fingers, and in your dramatically escalating word count.

We'll keep working on the site. You keep working on your novel.

Together we will rock November.

Happy noveling, everyone! We're so glad to have you writing with us.

Chris
NaNoWriMo

TessD1891

2007-10-29T16:04:00.000-07:00

Tess Does NaNoWriMo: "I am 'Tess' and 2007 is my first ever attempt at NaNoWriMo. This blog will be my way of keeping tabs on my progress, and hopefully it will help me stay motivated so I can be a winner."

Birmingham by the canals

2007-10-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

to NANOWRIMO 2007 and back - a photoset on Flickr

Birmingham Kick-Off Party: Sunday 28th October, 4pm onwards, The Malt House Pub

www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/178
and
www.nanowrimo.org/

View as slideshow ()

Nanowrimo 2007 Kick-Off

2007-10-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

from my email:-
The Birmingham and West Midlands Nanowrimo 2007 Kick-Off will be held at the Malt House Pub, 75 King Edwards Road, Birmingham, from 4pm onwards. It's at Brindley Place, on the canal, overlooking the NIA and Sea Life Centre.

malt house loc: Birmingham - Google Maps

The staff at the Malt House have kindly agreed to reserve a space for about 20 people. In the event that more people turn up, I'm sure we can spread out. As long as people buy at least one drink, the management will be happy. We'll have a big nanowrimo sign on our table to let you know who we are.

Rolnikov (Stephen) and I, the two ML's for Birmingham, will be there of course. We'll do all the formal stuff in the first hour or two: introductions, handing out freebies, initiation rituals etc. Stephen and I both have family commitments, so we probably won't be staying out drinking late into the evening, but obviously everyone else is free to stay as long as they like.

Stephen will be bringing his camera to record the occasion, and there may be other people with cameras too. If you don't want your picture taken, just let them know. I'm sure everyone will be considerate about this.

Looking forward to meeting some of you on Sunday,

John Greenwood

Johannes V. Jensen

2007-10-16T03:37:00.000-07:00

Johannes V. Jensen - Autobiography: "For many years I was engaged in journalism, writing articles and chronicles for the daily press without ever joining the staff of any newspaper.
Nor have I ever belonged to any political party.

After extensive journeys to the East, to Malaya and China, and several visits to the United States, I inspired a change in the Danish literature and press by introducing English and American vigour, which was to replace the then dominant trend of decadent Gallicism.

The essence of my literary work is to be found in my collection of poems, which may be regarded as a reaction against the fastidious style of the day bearing Baudelaire's poisonous hall-mark.

My poems represented a turn to simple style and sound subject matter (Digte, 1904-41, 1943 [Poems])."

Johannes V. Jensen (1873-1950) developed his theories of evolution in a cycle of six novels, Den lange rejse (1908-22) [The Long Journey], which was published in a two-volume edition in 1938.

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969

This autobiography/biography was first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

Johannes V Jensen, 20. January 1873 - Google Search

The Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy, from Silver Age Books - Lulu.com

2007-10-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

The Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy, from Silver Age Books - Lulu.com

What Is Theaker's Quarterly Fiction?

Theaker's Quarterly Fiction publishes fantasy, science fiction and horror; to date most of the contents might best be described as science fantasy. It was launched in 2004 with the goal of encouraging the eponymous Theaker to do a bit of writing every few months, because writing stories makes him happy. As time has gone by, and it's kept going, other writers have begun to make more ambitious contributions.

The format was initially modelled after that of the Medico-Legal Journal, the official publication of the Medico-Legal Society, and, like that esteemed publication, every issue is designed to be a good, solid read. You can sit down with a cup of tea and lose yourself for a couple of hours in thrills, adventure, laughter and wilful foolishness. Hence, stories tend to be longer than in most small press magazines, with serialised novels not being uncommon.

Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #19

2007-10-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #19: "ln theory, two of our issues a year should be specials of some kind, so that we can still justify calling the magazine a quarterly. This year, we’ve decided to have a Halloween special. Luckily, we had some suitably scary submissions! “Pumpkin Jack” is the most appropriate, for obvious reasons, and so that’s where we begin the issue. It’s a story by Laura Bickle, about the discoveries a pair of bored teenagers make in and around their grandma’s isolated home. I’m not totally familiar with the way that pumpkins grow in real life, but there’s definitely something strange about these ones!"

just imagine

2007-10-15T08:32:00.000-07:00

from my email:-

We got this email today from your imagination. It was misaddressed to us, so we're sending it along to you. We hope it finds you well.

-----Original Message-----
Hello!

This is your imagination. I know work, school, and general craziness have been keeping us apart lately. But there's something we need to do together this November.

It's called National Novel Writing Month. For it, we'll bash out a 50,000-word novel, from scratch, in 30 days. You and me. Writing a book. Together.

I need you to sign us up. Because I don't have any arms.

http://www.NaNoWriMo.org

Love,

Your imagination

Historical geography

2007-10-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

Historical geography - browse maps | British History Online:

"Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 Epoch 1 The County Series maps at scale 1:2500 for Birmingham, Cardiff, Chester, Chichester, Colchester, Coventry, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lichfield, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, Portsmouth, Salisbury, Southampton, Winchester, Worcester, York and much of central London.

Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 Epoch 1 The County Series of Ordnance Survey maps for Great Britain. Begun in 1840, this is the first comprehensive historic mapping of England, Scotland and Wales."

excellent site new to me -worth a bookmark

How to Write a Personal History

2007-10-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

WorldVitalRecords Blog » How to Write a Personal History

Day One: Write down a list of various questions you would like to ask someone else. Start out with ten.

Day Two: Answer these questions yourself, adding as much detail as you want.

Day Three: Add your basic vital statistics, such as birth day, marriage, children, parents, locations lived in, and other things that are important to you, such as ecclesiastical information, occupations, fraternal organizations, political affiliations, clubs, hobbies, etc.

Day Four: Look at a timeline such is found in the e-Sourcebook of American History. (It is a free download that came when you signed up for the newsletter. Look for the newsletter confirmation letter in case you didn’t download it at the time you first confirmed.)

Day Five: Use the timeline to help in the recollection of memorable historical events and your, your family’s and others’ reactions to them. Do the history books reflect your feelings on the events that have so far transpired in your life? Why or why not?

Day Six: Make sure that the questions and answers are typed.

Day Seven: Email to a close relative, or to whoever may be interested to make sure that the history has multiple copies available.

This is not meant to be an all-inclusive article concerning personal histories but something to get readers started.

By Amanda Forson, World Vital Records, Inc

OR YOU COULD DO THE SAME ABOUT AN IMAGINARY PERSON TO PLOT A NOVEL

Dystel & Goderich Literary Management :: Submission Requirements

2007-10-12T01:31:00.000-07:00

Dystel & Goderich Literary Management :: Submission Requirements: "Contrary to popular belief, we like our unsolicited queries to be concise, well-written and well-proofed, and as devoid of gimmicks as possible. Tell us who you are (past writing credits or celebrity status is helpful to know about but not mandatory), what your project is (a summary paragraph is good), and whether you have submitted this project to the entire publishing community already."

sunday jottings

2007-10-07T02:59:00.000-07:00

I am an

Hm | National Novel Writing Month
thread in the Regional Lounge Europe :: England :: Birmingham

Bringing the novels home in Birmingham.

on a very very slow server

National Novel Writing Month

2007-10-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

National Novel Writing Month:
"Russ is working around the clock on the site's turtle slowness and the "unable to connect to database" errors---both caused by the same issue of heaps of people accessing the site at once

. . . The slowness and connection problems are frustrating, but the number of sign-ups causing it is exciting. It's going to be an amazing, record-setting November, and I'm thankful we have the next couple weeks to get everything fine-tuned before the big event commences. Thanks so much for your patience!"

classic web site mistake having an opening date

nanowrimo

2007-10-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

nanowrimo - Google Search

too much traffic on http://www.nanowrimo.org/

The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

ad I had a job uploading my new thumbnail yesterday too
- taken with the K800i videophone by Sony Ericsson

Proust Questionnaire

2007-09-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

Proust Questionnaire and for your characters too

The young Marcel was asked to fill out questionnaires at two social events: one when he was 13, another when he was 20. Proust did not invent this party game; he simply responded to the questionnaires. At the birthday party of Antoinette Felix-Faure, the 13-year-old Marcel was asked to answer the following questions in the birthday book, and here's what he said:

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Where would you like to live?
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Who are your favorite characters in history?
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Your favorite painter?
Your favorite musician?
The quality you most admire in a man?
The quality you most admire in a woman?
Your favorite virtue?
Your favorite occupation?
Who would you have liked to be?

Seven years after the first questionnaire, Proust was asked, at another social event, to fill out another; the questions are much the same, but the answers somewhat different, indicative of his traits at 20:

Your most marked characteristic?
The quality you most like in a man?
The quality you most like in a woman?
What do you most value in your friends?
What is your principle defect?
What is your favorite occupation?
What is your dream of happiness?
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
What would you like to be?
In what country would you like to live?
What is your favorite color?
What is your favorite flower?
What is your favorite bird?
Who are your favorite prose writers?
Who are your favorite poets?
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Who are your favorite composers?
Who are your favorite painters?
Who are your heroes in real life?
Who are your favorite heroines of history?
What are your favorite names?
What is it you most dislike?
What historical figures do you most despise?
What event in military history do you most admire?
What reform do you most admire?
What natural gift would you most like to possess?
How would you like to die?
What is your present state of mind?
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
What is your motto?

and my thanks to:-

Personal site of Stephane Chabrieres: my literary translations, wood sculptures, favorite books, rock albums, movies, paintings, existentialism:

"IT IS A GOOD VIEWPOINT TO SEE THE WORLD AS A DREAM. WHEN YOU HAVE SOMETHING LIKE A NIGHTMARE, YOU WILL WAKE UP AND TELL YOURSELF THAT IT WAS ONLY A DREAM. IT IS SAID THE WORLD WE LIVE IN IS NOT A BIT DIFFERENT FROM THIS."

BBC - Food - Recipes - Faggots

2007-09-22T22:51:00.000-07:00

BBC - Food - Recipes - Faggots:

Ingredients
1 pigs caul
500g/1lb pigs fry (liver, heart and lights)
250g/8oz pork belly
500g/1lb onions
75g/3oz breadcrumbs
15g/½oz fresh sage, chopped
salt and pepper, freshly ground

Method
1. Soak the caul in tepid water for 1 hour, then drain and dry.
2. Cover the pigs fry, pork belly and onions with water and simmer for 1 hour. Drain off the liquid and reserve.
3. Mince the pigs fry, pork and onions and add to the breadcrumbs. Add the sage, season with salt and pepper and stir well, adding approximately 2 tbsp of the cooking liquid to the mixture.
4. Cut the caul into 10cm/4in squares. Shape the mixture into balls and cover each with a piece of caul. Place in a baking tin and cook in the oven at 200C/400F/Gas 6 until brown.
5. Serve with thick, rich gravy made from the reserved cooking liquid and the juices from the tin in which the faggots were cooked.

Keith Floyd

Chris Baty says

2007-09-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

from my email:-
Dear NaNoWriMo author,

You know what time it is? Time for a novel-length email about things afoot at NaNoWriMo!

SIGN-UPS START OCTOBER 1; SITE LOCKED DOWN MONDAY 9/24

We'll be opening sign-ups for another noveling season late at night on October 1. Between now and then, all of the content on the current site will be archived, and the forums will be wiped clean for the 2007 event. All active NaNo accounts from last November will stay active, and Script Frenzy log-ins will work as well.

We'll be turning off sign-ins this Monday so we can have a week of thing-resetting and something-migration that Russ swears is very important we do without anyone hanging around the site watching us. We will miss you that week, but we'll be reunited in October, and we can share stories of our time apart then.

YEAR OF BIG, FUN, SCARY ADVENTURES COMING TO A CLOSE
At the end of the last NaNo, I invited everyone to join me in publicly posting a couple big, fun, scary goals for the new year. Then we went after those goals like otters on lutefisk, and kept a progress log of it all in the NaNo forums.

You can see what kinds of amazingly scary goals people set for themselves (and pulled off!) here:
www.nanowrimo.org/modules/newbb/viewforum.php?forum=359

Officially the YoBFSA comes to a close when NaNoWriMo 2007 begins. If you are a YoBFSA participant who has achieved one of your goals by then, please let us know by sending an email to info@nanowrimo.org with the subject line: BFS Winner. We'll email you a certificate in October to commemorate your achievement.

My big, fun, scary adventure? I set out to learn basic Spanish and work on my radio production skills. Did I earn the certificate? You better believe it---I'm even a proud graduate of Piedmont Adult School's Spanish 1A class. My radio production skills: still ailing. But it's a start!

OCTOBER: IT'S CALLED BETA FOR MANY REASONS

We're going to be implementing a bunch of new things this year to help get the site ready for a freakishly superpowered future. These include an entirely new back-end system, a new server, and new Author Profile pages (more on this below). Some or all of these things will break spectacularly and immediately upon launch. We will hurry to fix them. They will break in different ways. We will fix them again. This will last most of October.

NEW AUTHOR PROFILE PAGES!

So you know those beautiful gray book-like author profile pages with the turning pages we've had on the site for the past three years? We're saying goodbye to them this week.

I know, I know. The design was so beautiful and sleek it made us weep. But as nice as it looked, it caused us a lot of problems, financial and otherwise. The system was built by a genius designer/programmer who created it in such a complicated way that most professional Flash programmers wouldn't touch it. Which meant every time something broke or needed an update, we had to hire a Flash Yoda who charged us Jedi-level hourly rates. Last year, adding a "Winner 2006" image to the winners' photos, changing a few text labels, and adding a European character set cost us $2000.

That made us weep too, but for different reasons. The other problem was that the tidy, magical books are very hard to slip new features into without a major overhaul. Which is bad because we receive dozens of great Author Profile page feature suggestions from participants every year, and we also have tons of our own ideas for new things we want to integrate into the pages.

We'd like comment-able novel excerpts, customizable participant blogs with room for audio and video, in-dash Twittering, an "encouragement capsule" where friends and family can upload morale-boosting messages to be released to writers when they hit certain word-count goals, and a billion more things.

As a first step towards a future where we can easily add new modules to the AP pages, we'll be launching a much more expandable system on October 1. It's clean and pretty, and over the course of the next year---knock on fundraising wood---we'll be able to add the exciting new features and powers you've been requesting. Once in place, those cool new functions will make the current Author Profile pages look gray and lifeless by comparison.

MORE CELEBRITY PEP TALKERS REVEALED
In case you missed the announcement in the last newsletter, we're going to have some extraordinary help writing the pep talks we email out to participants in November. In the last email, I revealed that NaNo 2007 authors would be receiving a pep talk from none other than novelist Sue Grafton.

Now I'm here to unveil the identities of three more of this year's NaNoWriMo pep talkers. They are...drum roll please...the ferocious Garth Nix! The fantastic Naomi Novik! And the awesome Neil Gaiman!

Yep. These writers have all answered the no-pressure-at-all call to inspire 100,000 authors in various states of noveling exaltation and despair with their kind words. We actually have eight pep talkers signed on for this year, but Tavia has asked me to wait until the site relaunches to share the identities of the other four. Which I've agreed to do. But one of them is Tom Robbins.

Oops.

See? This is why I shouldn't be in charge of these things.

YOUNG WRITERS ON THE GROW; ROOM TO READ PARTNERSHIP RETIRING

Did you know we run two events in November? There's NaNoWriMo, which you're already familiar with. And then there's the completely separate Young Writers Program, over at http://ywp.nanowrimo.org. Where kids 12-and-under and K-12 classrooms taking part as a group enjoy their own private creative mayhem. Authors in the YWP get to pick their own word counts, and they receive extensive curriculum, activities, games, YWP participant and winner certificates, private forums, and a VIP lounge for teachers. We also mail a free poster, progress chart, button pack, and sticker bundle to the classrooms to help incite noveling in the students.

The whole thing has gone a little bonkers in the last couple years, growth-wise. Last year, we had 15,000 kids and teens take part. That number will likely double this year.

That’s the very good news. The bad news is that we don't have enough money to host NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program and continue our Libraries in Southeast Asia project.

Donating 50% of our net proceeds from donations and merchandise sales so Room to Read can build libraries on our behalf has given thousands of kids in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam the chance to fall in love with reading. But now we want to take the next step, and help kids around the world fall in love with writing. And to do that, we need to start putting 100% of our resources into our own programs.

Happily, Room to Read is doing great. They were a tiny start-up when we first met them, but they've since mushroomed into a global philanthropic powerhouse, raising over $1,000,000 per month in donations. Go Room to Read!

Since becoming a nonprofit ourselves last year, we've struggled to find the funds we need to keep the doors open and servers humming year-round for NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy, Young Writers Programs. With every dollar as precious as it is, we want to focus the donations we receive on what we do best: Hosting life-changing writing adventures for kids and adults.

We hope you'll join us in that goal by making a donation to NaNoWriMo when the site opens in October. We also hope that those who loved our Libraries in Southeast Asia project will continue to support Room to Read directly through their website, www.roomtoread.org.

EMAIL HAS GONE ON TOO LONG, AS ALWAYS

So true. So true.

See you on the site in October!

Chris
NaNoWriMo

my fourth attempt

2007-09-21T04:53:00.000-07:00

will I finish my novel this year?

http://www.nanowrimo.org/