CantoWriMo

Holy smokes, November is always such a rush! It’s been a blast, and it’s only halfway over… I hope you’re all having a great time too, and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the weekly meetup tomorrow. :)

Here are the latest photos, starting with the Sunday Kick-Off:

(If you don’t see the slideshow, you can view the picture set here.)

And the weekly meetup from November 8th:

(Again, if you don’t see the slideshow, here’s the link.)

Now, back to writing my novel instead of stalling with blog posts!

[From my recently sent Municipal Liaison Regional Email]

This is the week where many of us completely crap out, having taken too many days off early in the game, thinking we’re so far behind that the end will never been in sight, and wondering why we picked this completely crap story in the first place. As Chris Baty mentions in his pep talk this week, Week Two SUCKS.

But, once you survive this week, you CAN finish, and odds are, if you push yourself through this week and keeping writing every day, you WILL finish.

It’s all a steady downhill descent to the 50k mark after you finish off this week, so push yourself harder than you did last week and get the momentum you need to survive the rest of the month. Picture yourself telling relatives at Thanksgiving that you’re about to finish a 50,000 word novel that you just started this month. Imagine how completely spectacular you’ll be feeling on December 1st, when you collapse on your couch and stick those stiff typing fingers in a bowl of popcorn and watch a mindless movie instead of writing a single thing.

You don’t get that feeling if you don’t push forward. You’ll wake up on December 1st and you’ll still have that “what if I wrote a novel?” feeling that you had before you started. Those of you who’ve finished before know the feeling, and you KNOW it’s worth pushing forward to achieve, and those of you who haven’t finished before deserve to experience it for the first time, so make THIS that year!

I have this handy little iPhone app that lets me add local users and track their word counts so that I can see how everyone’s doing. Some of you are smashing through to 50k with enviable speed, but some of you have word counts that haven’t been updated in two or three days, which tells me we’re hitting the Week Two slump, and I don’t want any of you to be defeated by Week Two.

Don’t let this week conquer you!

Now, the number of words in this message total 406 (not counting that handy signature area that Nanowrimo puts at the bottom). I want you to try TWICE that much before getting up from your computer. I don’t care if you’re not at your designated Nanowrimo computer or if you’re at the library or if your computer will self destruct in 60 minutes. Having read this message, give me the Nanowrimo version of 20 push-ups: WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!

Sincerely, sternly, and lovingly,

Brandice
(Your ever-encouraging task master of an ML)

Hi there, Cantowrimos!

This has been a GREAT first week, and I’ve enjoyed spending quite a bit of it with all of you. The midnight kickoff was a blast, the Sunday kickoff brought new wrimos on board (at least 10 of us kicked off on Sunday together), Rachel kicked my butt at the online write-in with her stupendously wordy word wars, and four of us had fun last night at Panera for our first write-in.

You all have great plots, great ideas, GREAT imagination going into this novels, and I’m proud of how well many of you are already doing this early in the game. For those of you who are faltering, remember that you are STILL (I know it’s almost Week 2, but still) in the time period where it really wouldn’t be too difficult to catch up with one really hard core day of writing. We’ve had some illness, some frustration with plots, some frantic yearning for editing instead of writing, and there was that one particular Cantowrimo who was devoured by one of the monsters in PaulB’s novel at last night’s write-in, but we are ALL STILL WITHIN RANGE OF VICTORY.

You will NOT give up during the first week, because it’s still completely possible for you to catch up. Don’t do it! Don’t abandon a novel that desperately wants to be written. Every bit of this novel you’re writing is useful, because even when it’s complete and utter trash, it’s teaching you something… about your writing style, about the way your creative process works, about your weaknesses and your strengths, about *yourself.*

Even if your novel is the biggest piece of crap with the wordiest sentences ever conjured, this is NOT the time to throw in the towel, because there is still time, and you are STILL within reach of victory, and most importantly, because I will find you and glue your palms to the surface in front of your keyboard if you give up so easily.

Cantowrimos are going to ROCK this Nanowrimo! I can sense it already, and if you can’t sense it yet, come to the weekly meetup tomorrow and I’ll convince you!

Happy noveling,

Brandice
_____________________________
(Canton ML Who Should Be Writing a Novel But Instead Decided To Write Inspirational Emails in Blatant Avoidance of Said Novel)

1. Play-Doh – Mold yourself a new character, exercise your cramped typing fingers, or eat it for nourishment if you’ve been at your computer for too long and haven’t had any sustenance.

2. Bouncing Ball – Don’t have someone around to bounce ideas off of? Bounce this ball around for a few minutes and maybe the break from plot-agonizing will jump start your brain. If the ball begins to actually verbalize ideas, even better!

3. Squarepants Krabby Patties – They are delicious. Eat them if you become crabby about your novel progress, or simply eat them because they are delicious.

4. Sticky Eyeballs – …my sister insisted that these are awesome and should be in any goody bag. Please do not throw them all over Panera, or we may have to find another location for food and typing.

5. JUMBO Pixie Stix – I took our traditional goody bag ingredient and I upgraded it!! Keep an eye out for Dianah to become euphoric at the sight of this goody bag item.

6. Hawaiian Lei - They are festive, and we are festive. Put that lei on and let’s celebrate!

7. Smurf Pins – Some things just do not need explanation. I’m not certain that these are one of those things, but I refuse to provide explanation.

8. NaNoWriMo Stickers – A Nano goody bag wouldn’t be complete without the official sticker goodness. :)

9. Paint Samples – Paint samples are the new “idea jar” for this year’s Nanowrimo. They have cool colors and color names that can be used as writing prompts or cool challenges. Use your two paint samples to create a scene in your novel, jumpstart an idea, or provide a challenge (ex. “you must include these two words/phrases in your novel by page 20!”). I will additional paint samples available at all times for further challenges and prompts.

10. A bookmark – You’re all getting one of my Columbus Groove bookmarks, because I love giving them out and they’re quite nice for keeping one’s place in a book, even if you don’t like poetry and have no interest in my book. ;)

11. Random additional items – There are one or two other random items in each goody bag, and they differ per bag, so just enjoy the randomness and put your goodies to good use! :)

Thanks to Dianah, Carmen, Paul, Stephanie, Julia, and Sarah for a great Midnight Kickoff at Denny’s! I think we all had a lot of fun, got some writing done, and have a good head start on Day 1 of NaNoWriMo. :)

Enjoy the pics! See you at the kickoff today if you’re coming!

(If slideshow doesn’t appear, photo set is here.)

Here’s all the pre-Nano goodness before we start kicking things off tonight! :)

Meeting #1 – Arabica

Attendance: Rachel – karygurl, Jhenn – webkitten, Cathy – ganymeder, Dianah – hklbry, Kim – Cam, and Brandice.

Discussion:

Jhenn is writing a novel about a bank robbing assistant who tags penguins and carries dirty money in his pants.

Dianah is writing a third book in her mystery novel series.

Rachel’s writing a fantasy novel.

Kim is writing a novel that involves a con artist.

Brandice has no flipping clue what she’ll be writing (as of Mtg #1).
______________________

Meeting #2 – Borders

No pics, sorry! (Left the camera under the table and forgot about it.)

Attendance: Rachel – karygurl, Maria – blueguitar26, Dianah – hklbry, Paul – PaulB, Kim – Cam, and Brandice

Discussion:

Mostly, we interrogated Paul and Rachel about themselves, and Brandice continued to lament her plot-less-ness.

- The Canton region used to be connected with the Akron region, but isn’t any longer, so please choose the region that is more distance-appropriate for you. I (your ML) will not be planning any events outside of Canton. If you live midway or would like to participate in events for both the Canton and Akron region, please feel free! :)

- Write-ins are for people participating in Nanowrimo only. Do not bring friends/family/babies, and do not come if you’re working on your own “version” of Nano (i.e., nonfiction, an autobiography, work that isn’t new, editing, etc.). These meetings are for all of us to get together and really get some writing done for this specific event, so come prepared to write and also come prepare to be shushed if you are disruptive during word wars or any other period where we are all supposed to be writing.

- Weekly meetups are on the weekend and are more informal. Usually we will gab and eat and generally just hang out for the first half of the weekly meetup and then the second half will consist of a write-in. It’s still asked that only Nanowrimo participants attend, especially for the second half, when we’ll all be writing.

- We like to have fun for Nanowrimo. If your behavior or attitude doesn’t jive with a fun environment and you’re looking for a group of serious, accomplished, renowned authors, please skitter off to a local writers group. Some of us may have goals of being published or may be published, but November is about having fun and maybe coming out of the event with a rough draft or just a really absurd story that we had a blast writing. No turning up noses at the quality of writing or the accomplishments of other group members, unless you’re prepared to be pummeled with Panera bagels and bread bowls.

- Goody bags are not a guarantee for the kickoff and your regional ML is not required to provide them (not to mention the cost of said goody bags comes from the ML’s personal funds), so complaining about what is inside your goody bag is in quite poor taste. Please, no complaining about goodies or prizes, and donating items to be put in the goody bags is VERY welcome and appreciated. Please contact me (Brandice) well in advance of the actual kickoff if you want your donations to go in the goody bags (and bring said goodies to a pre-Nano meetup for me to pick up).

- Do you want to host a write-in? Please let me know if you’d like a write-in on an evening that I don’t have one scheduled. If you can guarantee that you will be there, I will be happy to put more write-ins on the schedule. They simply have to be located in Canton and you must be there as the planner.

Welcome to our little blog/site. :) There’s not a lot here yet, but soon I’ll be posting some videos from last year’s event and giving some information about how you can really get involved with our regional Nanowrimo adventures!

For now, head over to the regional forums (link in the sidebar), subscribe to our event calendar (linked to in the regional forums), and introduce yourself to the rest of the group in the appropriate thread.