Archive of e-mails sent during the 2009 NaNoWriMo Season.

Welcome to VancoWrimo, 2009

Hello to everyone!
It’s a bit of a dreary day in Vancouver and the NaNoWriMo forums are as empty as can get. Hopefully your winter, spring and summer has been full and productive and your heads are bursting with ideas for November. Or not, as the case may be – I’m in the same boat as you then.

The new NaNoWriMo site launched late yesterday, so it’s time to get all settled in and prepared for the month to come.  Your MLs and fellow Wrimos await in the forums! Come join us as we all prepare for the month to come, organizing events, chatting, planning and getting pumped for November 1st. There’s been several new developments for the region, including:
-Weekly write-ins at a location we’ve been wanting for a couple years…
-New social media contact points, for those addicted to Twitter and Flickr…
-A shiny new website for the region for one-stop information shopping…
-A new ML…
All this awaits you, and more as the last of the pieces start falling into place.

2009 is shaping up to be an awesome year for the Vancouver region. Be sure not to miss any of it!

-MysteriousAges

Week Two in Vancouver

To everyone whose word count is steadily climbing, we have this to say: Congratulations on making it this far! You have come farther than many people who talk about writing books or stories “one day.” The difference? Your day has come. You started. The other ‘one day novelists’ will always be talking about what they will do. In a few short days, you will be talking about what you have done. That’s something to write home about. Don’t worry if you are a bit (or a lot) behind on your word count. Keep at it, writing as much as you can handle every day. You’ll be thankful you did.

Jennerosity and I would like to thank everyone who came out to the Kickoff, despite the last-minute restaurant hiccups. We had just about 70 people come out to party with us, about three times as many people as 2008. I was also VERY surprised by the number of people who turned up for our first write-in at the Vancouver Public Library central branch. We completely filled up the room we had. The community programs librarian was also surprised; so much that she’s trying to find us a bigger room for the next ones! Wow!
If you weren’t at kickoff, or you find that the supplied scene and character outlines or the plot point checklist aren’t enough, we’ve made a PDF of the entire collection available on the VancoWrimo site: http://www.vancowrimo.ca/?page_id=102 You are free to download them and print off as many as you need.

As we prepare to enter Week Two, know that the forums and IRC channel are buzzing with people ready to cheerlead if you find your enthusiasm ebbing. It’s a tough week ahead but if we pull together, we’ll get out of it and into the verdant fields that are Week Three.

See you at the Write-ins or online!

–MysteriousAges

Half-Way!

Dear VanCoWriMo Participants,

Welcome to Week 3 fellow novelists! I have this wonderful feeling about Week 3. This is the week when we find out the secret genius of all those plot twists and turns that surprised us in Week 2. This is going to be the week where we discover that the quiet character sitting in the back corner this whole time, is actually the key to unraveling the mystery. Week 3 the dawn rises again on our inspiration and we leave the slump of Week 2 far behind us. I know I’m very happy to be leaving the slump behind and have great hopes for our word counts to continue soaring up!

To those who have encountered unexpected difficulties and challenges this year, keep your chin up! Just by signing up, you’ve already shown your boldness and daring. We still have 15 days ahead of us in which we can pour ourselves into our creative endeavors and achieve wondrous literary feats.

Summary:
*EVENTS
*REGIONAL WORD WAR
*DONATIONS
*TGIO
*PRIZES

Just to keep you up to date on the events & goings on for NaNoWriMo in Vancouver . . .

WRITE-INS & SOCIAL EVENTS
In case you want some real life support, company, competition, & coffee, here are some write-ins planned across the lower mainland

*Monday 11-12 New Westminster Waves on Columbia
*Tuesday 6-9 New Westminster Waves on Columbia
*Wednesday 6-8:30 White Rock
*Thursday 6:30-8:30 VPL
*Friday 6-? Langley Wired Monk in Walnut Grove
*Saturday noon-4 Transit Write-in meeting at Waterfront station
*Sunday 1-4 Social Meetup Blenz Pacific Centre

REGIONAL WORD WAR
So far we are doing great in our regional word war. Several of our team members have already passed the 50,000 word mark! In the grand total of words written per region we are ahead of New Zealand but the average per writer has been staying very close! If you want to check out how the word war team is doing, just head over to the stats page (http://www.vancowrimo.ca/wordwar/) on our website.

DONATIONS
We’ve put up a donations thread in the forums. If you have already donated, we want to thank you. If you have yet to donate, we ask for you to consider it. Too broke to donate? There are still things you can do to help out. We’ve also started collecting donations for our local area to cover all our expenses. Details about all this in the forums.

TGIO
Since we’re at the halfway mark, it’s definitely time to start thinking about another party. We’ve definitely decided on splitting it up into two separate events. One on the evening of December 1st held in New Westminster and another to be held Saturday December 5th in the afternoon. Check back this week for some forum posts to help decide on venues and figure out the numbers for each event.

PRIZES!
Yup, this year we’ve got some prizes and we’d like to give them away. First, there’s a $5 Blenz gift card that I’m giving away. How do you win it? Watch the forums for a giveaway post where I’ll post the details. This will only be for a limited period of time, so don’t wait too long to check the forums.

This year, we’ll also be raffling off some NaNoWriMo items. We have some posters, stickers, pencils, and buttons that we’ll be raffling off. The raffle will be drawn at the TGIO party on Saturday. If you aren’t able to attend, don’t worry, you can still enter. We’ll find some way of getting the winners connected with their prizes. Again, stay tuned in the forums for details.

Happy Writing!

-Jennerosity

Final Stretch

Hey everyone!

I hope all is well with the amazing novelists in Vancouver!  I know that the month has passed by all too quickly.  I can’t believe I’m already writing this ‘final stretch’ email!

SUMMARY
*PEP TALK
*EVENTS AND REMINDERS
*GIVEAWAYS AND PRIZES

Some of us have already surpassed 50,000 words and to you I say Congratulations!  You’ve worked hard this month and have proven that today, you *are* a novelist.  You’ve achieved something that few people ever manage to do.  You committed yourself to a huge crazy goal, stuck with it, and can now enjoy the fruits of your labour.

There are lots of other people who are close to the goal now.  For you, this is the last leg of a long journey.  I have faith that you all can achieve it if you put your mind to it and throw yourself in with reckless literary abandon.  The end is in sight.  The golden ring can be yours, you need only stretch and reach out a little further and it’s within your grasp.

As always, there are some of us that are a little bit behind (myself included).  And to us I want to send the reminder never to give up hope.  We are lucky to have two full weekends ahead of us to get caught up.  Now is the time to set aside an entire day or two and throw yourself in to your novel.  Can you manage a 5K day?  Maybe a 10K day?  Everyone here will be cheering you on as you go in for one last glorious effort.

Now I know that there are some people out there who will not be able to make it to 50,000 words this month.  Chin up though, don’t despair!  This year there’s been many challenges with sickness, travel, jobs lost and gained, to name but a few.  Maybe this was your first attempt at NaNoWriMo and it turned out to be a lot harder than you thought.  Maybe this was your fifth attempt at NaNoWriMo and it’s still just as hard as you remember.  But, it’s important that you remember that even if you’ve ‘lost’ you’ve hopefully still gained a little insight and experience about yourself, writing, life, or all of the above.

So, regardless of your word count, please know that you are still a member of our group and welcome at any event.  We hope we’ll see you next year too!  And feel free to stop by the forums to share what you learned this year too!

EVENTS AND REMINDERS:

We still have lots of write-ins left during this last week.  If you need some company, check out the regional calendar or the forums.

Also, the amazing Sue___B has offered up her house as a venue for a final last ditch write-in on November 28th.  All the details are in the forums, so if you want to participate, make sure you pop in and let her know so you can get the location details sent to you.

Like all good things, NaNoWriMo must also come to an end.  But, like the very best things, we like to finish off with a party So, the details for the December 1st TGIO (Thank Goodness It’s Over) Party have been posted in the forums.  We have a bit more limited space with this location (about 40 ppl), so hurry and RSVP to guarantee your spot.  There will also be details of our second TGIO party posted soon (and yes, you can come to both).

GIVEAWAYS AND PRIZES:

Don’t forget the $5 Blenz Gift Card giveaway ends SUNDAY AT MIDNIGHT.  To enter in the random draw, you need to go post an idea or a bit of feedback in the giveaway thread in the forums.  The only thing I ask is that you not duplicate an idea already in THAT thread.  You can post ideas discussed in person, in chat, twitter, or in other threads.  In keeping with the NaNo theme, we’re going for quantity over quality here folks.  If you have a bit of thoughtful feedback on how something went this year, that’s also perfectly acceptable.  It can be an idea for a way to use our website or twitter account.  It could also be an idea for a game or activity to take place at a write-in or social event.  After the contest closes, I’ll randomly select a winner for the $5 Blenz gift card.  The more ideas you post, the more chances you have to win

Ok, that’s it for this week’s email.  As always, happy writing!

-Jennerosity