2008 flyers are now available

I finally completed the 2008 flyers. Please help us to responsibly publicize our local events by posting these in places that you and your friends frequent.

2008 NaNoWriMo - Our Plans

Hello! It’s June and for us Municipal Liaisons, the specter of November is drifting onto our planning radar. I just put together our schedule of events and the information blurb for the Naperville Public Library Fall Program Guide. We still have to determine whether to hold three October planning events or just one and where we should host them.

We’re also investigating whether the library will let us set up a table to promote our events and NaNoWriMo overall to try to get the word out. If any of you are interested in helping us out, please let us know.

Post-NaNo Log

I am so proud of the efforts that people put out at the end of this
2007 NaNoWriMo. We staved off several terrific comeback attempts (they
closed the gap to just 100 words per game repeatedly throughout
Friday) by a very tough Ottawa region to win our 2007 regional word
war. diurnal_lee, one of their MLs, has promised to deliver to us an
mp3 of them singing our regional song! So: well done, NaperWriMos!

There were many (!) people in the jabber chat room Friday. The tension
and excitement in the room fueled massive individual word wars and
tens of thousands of words were written in that room yesterday.
Several of us were there past midnight!

PARTY TIME!

Please post in our RSVP thread if you’re planning to attend the fantastically fun and oh-so-satisfying potluck Thank-Goodness-It’s-Over (TGIO) Party next Saturday (Dec. 8th), starting at 11:30 AM. Information about the TGIO party is in that thread.

PLEDGE TO PUBLISH!

Everyone who wants to participate in the Pledge To Publish (our year- round
writing/critiquing group for people who want to pursue the steps needed to get
published), please go to
the Pledge thread. Our next meeting will be from 9:30 AM-11:30 AM December
8th (come out even if you are curious about what the Pledge is).

CONGRATULATIONS!

Congratulations to the amazing 60 winners in the region! That’s 46.5%
of the active region-homed members (52.9% of multi-year NaNo’ers won):
KatherineWriting, TRRDEDEAN, TriciaG, InspectorStevi, scrtprncs,
Hezzah, Emperor_Nero, Sapphire, Raskolnikov93, TiinanoNinja,
tinygreyhound, fogoflife, Turboshaft, Larry72367,
kathys65@hotmail.com, NewMexicoKid, Ajey, Roger Lubeck, bookgrrl,
Cassinia, FinbarrMcG, caitrin, Cholma, hopelesswarning,
ethereal.:.essence, tunewood, Emily Charlotte, chiroptera, moookau,
elbakerone, tregina12000, BeaconsBright, Lady Taliesin, Plumey,
socref419, jannie_delta, slauthor, purplepig, Jennifer_Ryukage,
LadyJealousy, Kathy B, horatio, cachinna, Ely Mera, books, ArrMatey,
lavender_in_distress, Isamov, Westerlywick, oze, SniperPenguin, Bag,
Anrea, kevino, elvenwonder, PrincessPicc48, OnceUponATime19,
DianaArtemis, guitar_baby_72, jackwilson

Among those who crossed the line the last day: Kathy B (amazing
heroics in completing this NaNo in the face of tragedy), purplepig (a
first year NaNo’er and good friend of my daughter books), anrea (of
the amazing comebacks and one of the fastest writers in the region),
slauthor (with 26000 words over the last three days and a repeat
winner from last year) and mookau (whose dad won NaNo last year).
hopelesswarning made up a huge deficit, writing 13349 words Friday
(many in the jabber chat room) to do her final validation just before
midnight.

Strong performances were made not only by the winners but through
continued perseverance of many who continued to write in spite of
being way behind due to RL issues. Brian (stout_chap), co-ML in 2006,
wrote an amazing 7511 words on Friday in the jabber chatroom. Brian
(cableshaft) turned in a 6321 word performance on Thursday. And
AsteroidMinific added 2937 after a difficult time in RL.

I also want to note our top word count writers in the region this
year: KatherineWriting wrote 139352 words; TRRDEDEAN followed with an
impressive 100222 words; and TriciaG wrote 99167 words, good for third
in the region. InspectorStevi was 4th, and Melinda (scrtprncs) was
5th. In positions 6-10: Hezzah, Emperor Nero, Sapphire, Raskolnikov93
and TiinanoNinja. My other co-ML, Meredith (tinygreyhound), finished
11th (but won our intra-ML bet in reaching 50,000 words ahead of
Melinda and me–come to the TGIO to see Melinda and me pay up!).

Congratulations to everyone on a fine November performance!

THANK YOU!

As you know, NaNoWriMo is sustained by a nonprofit group led by Chris Baty. Their expenses are funded by donations; thus far, our region has generated $560 towards their operations. It’s not too late to add to this total (which puts us at 294th in the world).

I’d like to thank my wonderful co-MLs: Melinda (scrtprncs) in her
second year, who handled all of our publicity and organized our
November 1st kick-off event; and Meredith (tinygreyhound), in her
first year, who organized our three wonderful October events and wrote several of the blog entries here. I’d also like to KatherineWriting, who organized and hosted our Warrenville location write-ins (and her husband FinnbarMcG who
enabled WiFi for that location). Just to note: KatherineWriting’s
husband (FinnbarMcG), son (Raskolnikov93), and daughter (bookgrrl)
all won NaNo this year, a family record for our region!

We all thank our major partner, the Naperville Public Library and Mary
Bannon, the Public Programming Coordinator there. They provided us
with rooms at the beautiful 95th Street Library for our kick-off and
write-ins and great publicity. We also thank our other partner, the
downtown Naperville Barnes and Noble and Debbie Carroll, the Community
Relations Manager there for providing us with space and publicity for
our October events. We thank the City of Naperville for providing us
with rooms for our pre-kick-off and TGIO parties; and the City of
Warrenville for providing us with space for our Warrenville write-ins.

What? Oh, there’s the music to play me off the stage… Wait… I
haven’t thanked the Academy…

–NewMexicoKid

P.S. Visit our cafepress shop!
Proceeds go to reimbursing the MLs for our expenses; everything above that goes
to the National organization.

Three days and change…

Only three days plus change remain in this 2007 NaNoWriMo. How are you doing with your novel? I’ve met the 50K goal but am still about three chapters shy of the end of my novel. Due to RL distractions, this hasn’t been the most fun of NaNo’s for me, but I’m very proud of my daughter books who managed to reach 50K this past Sunday at the 95th Street Library write-in (ahead of her old dad). It’s her second NaNoWriMo and her second win.

I’m also very grateful to have such a wonderful set of co-MLs: Melinda (scrtprncs) and Meredith (tinygreyhound) have been very supportive. Many thanks also go to Katherine (KatherineWriting) and Barry (FinnbarMcG) who organized and facilitated the Warrenville City Hall write-ins.

Don’t give up writing till the very end! Ottawa is only 300-some words per wrimo behind!

–NMK

Ottawa catching up…!

I confess that I, probably like so many others in Illinois::Naperville, wasn’t thinking very much about the regional challenge. After all, Ottawa had fallen way behind in the regionally-homed average wordcount. There was no way they would ever catch up, right?

Wrong!

So write fast, me hearties, arrrrgh!

–NMK

Graphs, write-ins and playing catch-up!

Hello, fellow ‘wrimos!

I’m Tim (aka NewMexicoKid), one of three co-Municipal Liaisons for Illinois::Naperville, our fun-filled region that represents the western suburbs of Chicago (centered in Naperville). We have our own regional song and partnerships with the Naperville Public Library and the downtown Naperville Barnes and Noble.

Graphs!

Our opt-in regional graph is now available:

Just post a reply in this thread to be included on the graph.

Write-ins

Just a reminder that we host write-ins every Sunday in November from 1-4 pm at the Warrenville City Hall and at the 95th Street Library. Three hours of word-war-filled writing time. What are word wars? These are short but productive bursts of writing when everyone tries to write the most words in a defined period. There is plenty of plain writing time as well; it is amazing how much you can write at a write-in, so plan to come out and participate!

Catchin’ up

With work pressures and tool work, I’ve lapsed in my writing the last two days and actually fallen below the line. I can see there are many of you who are in similar situations. Don’t despair! Don’t give up (unless, of course, there is something of higher priority that you can’t avoid, such as school)! It is amazing how many words you can catch-up in a very short time. My very first year of doing NaNo, I made up 15,000 words in just three days (the last three days, as it happens). You can too!

Regional word war

We’re closing in to the end of our second week, so that means it is time to challenge another region to a regional word war… Who will this mysterious region be? Stay tuned…

–NMK

Write-ins, jabber and nanowrimo.org blues

Hello, WriMos!

After Thursday night’s terrific kick-off event, I have been amazed at the productivity of our region’s writers. Today I’ve been hearing of several regional members who are in the 5k-10k range (or beyond) on day 3 (where, if you are going by the minimum wordcount plan, 5001 words is par for the course). Unfortunately, the main nanowrimo site is down and there has been no word from Chris Baty or Russ Uman yet on when the site will return.

It is disappointing, but NaNo continues anyway. What makes NaNoWriMo work, in the end, isn’t just the online forums (though they are missed this year, with the national site’s slowness) or even the wordcount counting. What makes it work is the concept of the contest–the deadline of 50,000 words in 30 days; and the support of the community. For us in Illinois::Naperville, that community is available beyond the nanowrimo.org site in

• the NaperWriMo local forums
• the NaperWriMo local wiki
• our Sunday write-ins, 1-4 pm at the 95th Street Library and Warrenville City Hall every Sunday in November
• Our frequently-happening Naperville jabber chat room, site of many online virtual word wars and some helpful chats and advice.

Meredith, Melinda, Katherine (KatherineWriting, the primary host for the Warrenville City Hall write-ins) and I hope that many of you will take advantage of our local write-ins and especially of the upcoming write-ins. And we would be happy to have you post in our local forums. Just note that because of spammers, all of the local forum accounts must be approved before they are activated. So sign up for a local forum account but be patient. And if you do not yet have a jabber account, please send me a note or add your request through a comment to this post.

–NMK

It has begun!

Tonight is the big Illinois::Naperville kick-off at the 95th Street Library in Naperville (from 7-9 pm). It’s not too late to RSVP to let us know you are attending.

As for me, I’ve chipped away at my plot preparations:

Was it enough? Only time will tell…

Don’t forget–we have 3 hour write-ins scheduled for 1-4 pm every Sunday in November at the 95th Street Library and at the Warrenville City Hall. So plan to bring your laptops (or bring a usb key and request to borrow one) for some fun and productive writing time. Still can’t make it? Make sure you have a jabber account (nanomail me, NewMexicoKid, to get one) and join us in our jabber chatroom virtual write-ins!

–NewMexicoKid

Wow! A sizzling pre-kickoff!

Today was our fantastic pre-kick-off potluck party. I have to say that it was a lot of fun; and everyone who attended seemed to enjoy themselves tremendously. We had lunch sitting together around a very large table made up of several tables that had been pushed together.

The writing exercise we did turned out to be very useful; in fact, it may just have saved my NaNo preparations. What we did was have people summarize their novels in 1-3 sentences on an index card. Then we passed the index cards around until everyone had contributed a plot twist idea for the novel summary and specified genre. Amazingly, there were at least seven ideas on mine that I am now planning to use, including one that really brings meaning and meaningful added tension to my story.

We passed out the special gifts that Meredith, Melinda and I had prepared for everyone and the NaNoWriMo stickers from headquarters; and there were contests for six signed posters.

I’ll add the photos soon to our regional photo gallery and the recorded songs to the song page. Next up is our sizzling November 1st kick-off from 7-9 pm at the Naperville Public Library (be sure to catch their top add on their front page!) 95th Street Library. Please RSVP if you intend to attend the kick-off. Melinda is the chief planner for this event.

Those of you who attended today (or tonight’s efficient pre-NaNo word war, which was made more interesting by folks copy/pasting in what they wrote), please feel free to add your comments.

–NMK

Update: 10/28

Photos are now up on the regional photo gallery and the mp3’s of our recorded songs

Pre-NaNo Jabber Writing Sessions

The pre-NaNoWriMo jabber writing sessions will be Friday (October 26th), 8-9 pm and Saturday (October 27th), 8-9 pm. If you do not yet have a jabber account and would like to participate, please send me a NaNomail or e-mail.

Since it will be before November 1st, we cannot write anything for our NaNo novels; however, you should find it very helpful to prime the pump by participating in these word wars that should also help you frame your novel. My idea is to focus Friday on the protagonist and Saturday on the antagonist (if you don’t have one (or the other), you can be more creative), writing a short story or scene or set of scenes of pre-history/prequel to your novel. Doing this in the timed atmosphere of our jabber chat room in one hour should help you prepare to start NaNoWriMo by hitting the ground running.

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