Delete Just a quick reminder that the first Journey meeting of 2015 is Saturday, January 10th, 11:30 AM-3 PM at the Naperville Municipal Center, rooms BC. Bring your lunch and the first chapter of your novel you want to edit.

Delete Help us improve for next year by taking this brief, anonymous survey. Thanks!

Delete Photos and video from our fun TGIO are now up. Thanks to everyone who came out--it was a blast. Looking forward to beginning the Journey in January.

Delete IMPORTANT: Those coming to the TGIO should bring a 10-25 word excerpt from a novel they like. We'll use these in the icebreaker.

Delete IMPORTANT: Those coming to the TGIO should put their name on their ingredient cards; we'll be using them directly as the raffle tickets.

Delete Help us improve for next year by taking this brief, anonymous survey. Thanks!

Delete Congratulations to all who won and validated; and to all who wrote and created stories where none existed before. Come out and celebrate with us (bring your family and friends) at our pot-luck lunch Thank Goodness It's Over (TGIO) party this Saturday (Dec 6th). Then consider joining our year-round writing group, the Writing Journey, which kicks off January 10th, 2015.

Delete Today (Nov 30) is the last day to write! Come on out to the final write-in at Nichols Library, 1:30-4:30 pm. I will bring hot water and have hot chocolate/apple cider mixes available. If you have already passed 50,000 words, please be sure to validate--if you do not validate, you will not be eligible for the NaNoWriMo sponsor offers. Your word count bar will turn from green to purple when you have validated. Be sure to RSVP for the December 6th pot-luck lunch TGIO party; only those who RSVP will be eligible for the door prizes. And do consider joining our year-round writing group, the Writing Journey.

Delete Need a write-in? IPPL on Friday, GEPL on Saturday and Nichols on Sunday. Consider the 9K challenge for the final three days. Write the most words on the 26-27 to win the StoryBundle 12 free e-books on writing. Be sure to RSVP for the TGIO! Don't forget to validate! This will turn your 50K+ word bar from green to purple. And help us win against OCGR!

Delete Once you're over 50K, be sure and validate. You can keep writing--you only have to validate once. If your bar turns purple, you've met the word count goal, and then can continue to update your word count normally. Note, there are some differences in how NaNo counts words and other programs, don't worry about it unless you're super close--then you might want to be sure that your count is as high as theirs before the last minute. Also, it's not too early to RSVP for our December 6th TGIO party! (only those who RSVP will be eligible for door prizes).

Delete Join us in the IRC Chatroom if you can't make it out to the Woodridge Public Library write-in (9 am-noon, Saturday, 2014-11-22). And keep writing so we can defeat OCGR! Donate too!

Delete Be sure to consider joining the Journey, our year-round writing group. And, if you need some extra motivation, try to win an owl in the annual 18k challenge!

Delete

Delete The all-day write-in on Friday, Nov. 14th has food, tea, prizes, more prizes, people, space, views of the few snowflakes coming down, and writers. Many writers, but room for more.

Delete Online IRC chat write-in tonight (Thursday, November 13th), 8-10 pm. It's easy to join-in. We'll have a lot of word wars!

Delete Don't forget to backup your novels! (e.g., to google docs, dropbox, or even an e-mail to yourself)

Delete Want to talk about how things are going? There's a meet-up (as opposed to a write-in) being set up for Saturday, November 15th. See this thread for details and vote on the restaurant choices.

Delete Just a reminder that NewMexicoKid will be hosting the November 6th (Thursday) write-in at the Eola Road Branch of the Aurora Public Library. There will be gnome and troll word war prizes:

Delete Need inspiration? Go to a write-in, or join the IRC chat, details
in this thread.

Delete Don't forget to join our regional word count graph! It's very easy--just post there a brief synopsis of your 2014 novel. :-)
Starting Saturday, our first ever Library Crawl--collect all of the library ingredient cards for your hipster PDA and to exchange for raffle tickets for prizes at the TGIO in December! See all the event info details.

Delete Looking forward to seeing you at the NaperWriMo pot-luck kick-off party today (2014-10-25) or the alternative kick-off dinner at Montri Thai Sunday (2014-10-26). For the former, don't forget your stuffed animals for the group photo!

Delete We'll be meeting from 8-9 pm this Thursday (Oct 23rd) online in our new IRC #naperwrimo chatroom for some novel prep. Hope folks can join in.

Delete See the instructions for joining the NEW IRC-based chatroom (yes, we are finally looking to replace the Jabber chatroom with the IRC-based one that other regions use). Let me know if you have questions/problems.

Delete Prep session -- “Surviving NaNoWriMo With Your Sanity (Mostly) Intact” by Jen Moore (October 18th, 1-3 pm, Nichols Library).

Delete Prep session on Sat, October 11, 1pm – 3pm
at 95th Street Library, Cedar Glade Road, Naperville, IL, United States

Delete October 2nd (Thursday), 7-9 pm, Aurora Public Library is the Stone Soup Method for NaNoWriMo Success preparatory workshop (free, like all our events). Be sure to register so the library can know how many folks to expect. This workshop will provide a model for organizing your novel writing process and tailor it to your own preferences. Bring something to write on/with. We'll be unveiling the new NaNoWriMo hipster PDAs at this workshop.

Delete Local workshops to help you get ready for NaNo start at the beginning of October. There are four of them this year. For details, please see naperwrimo.org/events.

Delete Author Catherine Brennan leads a workshop on Orson Scott Card's MICE Quotient at Saturday's Journey meeting (2014-03-08). All are welcome; bring your own lunch. 11:30 am-3 pm at the Lunch room in the lower level of the Naperville Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle Street, Naperville.

Delete The Journey's Accountability Path begins Saturday, 21 December (see Calendar) at the Woodridge Public Library, 1:30-3:30 pm.

Delete Jabber meetings have been moved to Thursday nights, 8-9 pm!

Delete Don't forget to sign up for the TGIO party. You don't need to have won to come out and have fun. Come celebrate the adventure! Bring your friends and family! And don't forget your stuffed animals for the group photo!

Delete

Delete Need incentive to write more for the next week (through 23 November). Join Tim's 18K challenge that is based on your wordcount gain from 16-23 November!

Delete If you're feeling bogged down, which often happens in the middle of a novel, remember, it takes much longer to write a scene than it does to read it. Just because it feels slow while writing doesn't mean the scene is too long, or too slow. Get it down and move on.

Delete If you're having trouble getting started, just get something on the page. Jen shared her great beginning which went something like, "I guess I have to start somewhere, so I'm going to start here." (I can't remember her exact words, but the point is to just start writing. That is true of each scene as well as the beginning of the book.)
KatherineWriting

Delete Today is a good day to bookmark our events page -- naperwrimo.org/events and plan out your writing strategy for the next several days. Good luck!

Delete Thanks to everyone who made our potluck kick-off party such a fun success! You can see pictures from the event on our blog.

Delete Don't forget to bring your stuffed animal to the kick-off party today (for our group photo)! Looking forward to seeing everybody. Looks like we will have plenty of food, so last minute guests should not be a problem--don't be shy.

Delete Notes from Frank Dahlman's preparatory workshop are now available on the naperwrimo.org blog and wiki.

Delete Don't forget to RSVP for our pot-luck lunch kick-off party this Saturday (26 October)! Everyone should also bring their favorite stuffed animal for the group photo.

Delete Notes and pictures from Roger Lubeck's preparatory workshop 12 October are now available. Don't miss the final workshop in the series 19 October, Keeping your readers engaged, presented by Frank Dahlman.

Delete Notes from the 5 October workshop (Characters are story) are now available on naperwrimo.org. Roger Lubeck will be leading the third of our four planned workshops Saturday, October 12th at the 95th Street Library in Naperville.

Delete Notes from our past preparatory workshops are now available online

Delete First prep workshop went great--thank you Todd! See Tim's notes at our blog.

Next session is this Saturday (5 October) at Nichol's Library in Naperville from 1-3 pm. Katherine Lato's "Characters are Story" session is an exercise-intensive workshop that will cover characters: getting them to do things, having reasons for what they do, keeping backstory short, avoiding flat characters, and having bad stuff happen. The exercises can be used to explore the characters in your novel, or to help find the story in the characters. Katherine will also share tips for how to finish the first draft in November, something she has done every year since she joined NaNoWriMo in 2006.

Delete First prep session is this Saturday--September 28th -- at the Warrenville Library. Todd will discuss NaNoWriMo's goal of 50,000 words in 30 days, why a writer might want to accept the challenge, some ways to hit the goal, and some of the hurdles that the writer might expect during those 30 days. We'll explore ways to get ready for November, how to get oneself psyched and excited to begin writing, and how to maintain that enthusiasm through 30 days. We'll talk about the other sessions that are offered, the benefits of associating with the Journey, and writing in general.

Delete We're offering several preparatory workshops to help people get started on planning their novels. The first one is Saturday, September 28 at Warrenville Library. Information can be found at: http://naperwrimo.org/events for this and all our events.

Delete Have you started thinking about your novel for November? Summer is a great time to play with ideas, seeing what excites you, what you might want to pursue, and gather background data. Yes, it really can be time to get started.

Delete Looking for things to do? Join our year-round writing group, the Journey, come out with us to watch Les Miserables January 6th, and consider submitting a short story for the Other Worlds anthology.

Delete Looking for ideas on how to tackle that first draft? See this thread.

Delete
Thread for people continuing to write in December.

Delete Congratulations for every word written during November!

Win or lose, come to the TGIO party on Saturday, Dec. 8th - RSVP here with what you're bringing to our awesome potluck.

If you can't make it -- there's an alternate the following Thursday evening.

We'll talk a bit about the Journey (our year-round writing group) and share a lot of laughs. If you RSVP, Dave will know to include you in his icebreakers, Tim will make you a special award card, and Katherine will bring a purple bar. So, sign up!

Delete You can only validate up to 11:59 on November 30th--make sure your time zone is correct, and validate as soon as you get above 50K . You can keep writing and updating your word count, but if you wait until the very last minute to validate, the site might be too slow or you may be a few words short -- the site counts words differently than some tools.

There will be people on jabber chat cheering people on. And some coffee shop write-ins today.

Win or lose -- come to the TGIO!

Delete Don't forget to validate -- if you have 50K, then do it now. You can keep writing. You only have to validate once, then you can just update your word count like you do now. But if you wait until the last minute, the site might be slow. (Also, you might want to verify that your time zone is correct if you plan on writing right up to midnight on Friday.)

Delete Need something to push yourself a bit more? Sign up for the 18K challenge. Tim counts the words you wrote since the 22nd (not just from when you sign up.)
See this thread.

Delete It's not too early to RSVP to our pot-luck Thank Goodness It's Over Party!

Need motivation to write through the Thansgiving weekend? Post your word count goal for Sunday evening in this thread, then track your progress here. Need motivation to write till the end of the month? Take the 18k, 7 day, 20 nanobots challenge (Track your progress here). Top wordcount in the second challenge wins this nanoborg:

Delete It's not too early to RSVP to our pot-luck Thank Goodness It's Over Party!

Need motivation to write over Thanksgiving weekend?
Post your word count goal for Sunday evening in this thread, then track your progress here.

Delete Further evolution of the nanoborg bot (available 25 November at the 95th Street Library); and I am starting work on a new series of black nanobots...

Delete Not yet finished, but here is the start of the nanobot borg, which I probably will give away in a word war at the 95th Street Library write-in November 25th:

Delete Need a tiny name card to balance atop your laptop so others can see your first name and NaNoWriMo handle? Here is a PDF you could print to cardstock (or print out on paper, cut out and then glue to cardboard). It makes six placards (each 2"x4", or, when folded, 1"x4")

Delete Don't forget to add yourself to our regional wordcount graph--it is a great motivational tool to see how you are doing relative to the others in the region. See the graph and NaNo Faces page.

Delete Photos from the kick-off are now available, including the signed small poster you can download and print out.

Delete All right. I felt the pressure, so in addition to gold paperclips that can be chained together, I'll
also be awarding the following creatures at write-ins.


KatherineWriting

Delete

Delete Did you add anything to your outline from the writing exercise at the kick-off? (If you missed the kickoff, the exercise is posted in this thread.

Commit to a write-in--so people know you're coming and so you know you're committing to it.

Delete Just a reminder that we have a standing jabber chat meeting on Thursday nights at 8 pm. Stop by for some writing-related chat and writing exercises.

Delete See our calendar of fall events and our Frequently Asked Questions (faq). Visit our useful resources for writers. Need more help?. This fall, we will have NaNoBots (visit the store)!

Delete Today is a good day to start your planning for NaNoWriMo 2012. Tomorrow is all right, but today is better.

Delete Look at the threads below for information on the Journey--and check out the google calendar for get-togethers with other writers. Feel free to plan more by creating a thread below.

Delete Take our survey! Help us plan for next year!

Delete See our video reply to Maryland (and their response to us)

Delete Now that November is past, consider coming out to the TGIO pot-luck lunch party December 3rd or an alternate dinner party December 8th (and/or 10th). Also consider signing up for the Journey, our year-round writing group. There is also a thread for those wanting to finish/rewrite/edwrite their novels in December and January.

Delete

Delete RSVP for the Dec 3 TGIO! Sat Nov 26 write-in? Join the Journey (year-round writing group)!

Delete

Delete In response to requests to have graphs that people can see themselves on, we've created a number of threads with 'Graph for ...'
Please pick the thread that will most motivate you, or where you can help motivate others. Note, it takes an hour or two to see yourself on the graph.

Delete If you can't make it to a write-in, think about logging in to jabber chat. Rumors are that word wars run rampant there. Or do write-ins and jabber chats multiple times. Many people find word wars very useful to stay focused.

Delete

Delete The Naperville region's wordcount graph is now available. You can add yourself to the graph by introducing yourself to the region.

Delete Let us know if you have any questions. Be sure to introduce yourself.

Delete Almost time to begin writing (Nov 1st). Take note of the write-ins on the google calendar or at our events page. Try to start with a bang! Ready, set, ...