Edited to add that if you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo, you can sign up here for the word war until midnight on Friday 20th.

Some people start with a fully outlined plot, detailed character descriptions, and a beautifully built world (real or imaginary). Let’s call them plotters.

Other people start with nothing but a vague idea. We’ll call them pantsers – as in, they’re flying by the seats of the pants. (Fliers is also an acceptable term.)

Most of us fit somewhere in between. We’ve had our great idea, we’ve made some notes, we’ve had a few bright ideas about our main character and some other potentials…

You can start NaNoWriMo as any one of these three: a plotter, a pantser, or somewhere in between. But in general, those who have a clear idea of where they’re going with their novel are more likely to stay the course.

So as a minimum, try and decide on the following before the start of November – but don’t be afraid to change your mind if you need to!

• How you’re going to start.
• What a possible end might be.
• How you want your main character to change during the story.
• Whether you’re writing in first or third person, past or present tense, with a linear plot or by jumping about between scenes.

Good luck!

What’s an automatic word war bot for, you might ask. Well, it’s so you can have word wars – or as I prefer to call them, word sprints – against other writers or even just against yourself. Give the bot the command to start, and it will count down a 10 or 20 minute war for you, during which time anyone who wants to just writes non-stop.

To start a word sprint, make sure that SprintBot is listed in the chat room’s users.
Then type !wordwar# where X is 10, 15, 20 or 30, depending on how long you want the sprint to last (those are the only available options unless someone asks me for others).
Write like crazy until SprintBot tells you to stop! If you have sound switched on, you should get some beeps as well.

What’s the point of a word sprint? Well, it’s a great way to up your NaNoWriMo word count in a quick easy burst – and in company, too. Try it! You might be amazed.

• Ireland :: Dublin
• Ireland :: Galway
• Ireland :: Northeast
• Ireland :: Northwest
• Ireland :: Southeast
• Ireland :: Elsewhere
• Northern Ireland

Oh yeah – and the official forums have all been cleaned off and made shiny for this year. They’re looking good, so go and visit and update your personal information for 2009!

Ireland will be getting at least one new region this year – and hopefully more too. Plans for intra-Ireland cooperation between Municipal Liaisons have yet to be even discussed, let alone decided on, but I’ve given this website a bit of an overhaul in any case.

We’re back to using the old basic chat room from pre-2008, which frankly was a lot less bother than the fancy one I implemented last year. I’ve also re-opened registrations – without registering on the site, you can’t comment or post, although you can still use the chat.

And as for other all-Ireland things… well, I’m sure the All-Ireland Word War will be returning, although probably in a revised format.

More later, anyway, from me and hopefully other Irish MLs… As also, comments on and suggestions for the site are very welcome.

I thought I’d post here some of the tips I put in a Northern Ireland-wide mail sent yesterday.

Visit the NaNoWriMo website frequently:

• to read the FAQs (remember to read the rules thoroughly) and to get hints and tips from the people in the know
• to donate to NaNoWriMo if you can afford it; it’s a non-profit organisation and needs money to keep going, plus some funds are given to charity, and all donors get a virtual halo plus some real life goodies; if you can’t afford to donate, consider using GoodSearch as your search engine for the month, full details on the site
• to keep in touch with others in your region, or writing in the same genre; there are over a hundred thousand of us WriMos and we can all help each other out
• and most importantly, to update your word count and validate it when you’re done!

Also hang out here to take part in real-time chat and word sprints with your fellow writers in Ireland.

Write every day! Even if you don’t manage 1,667 words one day, you can always make it up the next. Keep track of your progress, so you know how much more you have to do. But pace yourself: although it’s good to get a lot done quickly so you can take it easy later, be careful not to burn yourself out too soon.

Keep your momentum going while writing. If you get stuck for a name, fill in XXX and go back later if you need to. Don’t sweat the small stuff too much; NaNoWriMo is about quantity, not quality, and it’s not going to matter at this point if you haven’t researched something thoroughly, or you think a sentence reads badly. Editing is what the other eleven months of the year are for.

Go to meet-ups as much as you can! They may seem like a waste of valuable writing time, but face-to-face contact with people in the same situation is quite good therapy, and many meet-ups will involve some writing time.

Above all, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t write 50,000 words in a month… because you can and you will!

I’ve done some general tidying up around the site in preparation for November – specifically, we have a new chat room. Unlike the old one, this one doesn’t run on IRC; it also requires registration which is done through the provider Parachat – unfortunately, I wasn’t able to link it into our own users database so you’d only need to log in once (there is a way to do it, I just don’t have the coding skills – anyone want to help?).

The purpose of our chat room is to provide some instant interaction during NaNoWriMo (and outside), particularly for those people who don’t go to face-to-face meetings for whatever reason. One thing I’ve found we do a lot of in the chat room is have word-wars – one person sets the popup word sprint timer (to 10 minutes, for example), announces the start of the sprint, and everyone writes like mad until those 10 minutes are up. I personally find that a few of those will help me reach my daily target of 1,667 words without too much pain!
(I’ve added a link to the timer to the left-hand sidebar.)

I’ll be in the chat room most evenings when I’m not otherwise occupied – hope to see you there!

——-

The Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest is open to all and anyone who loves to arrange words into the beautiful art of poetry or to write a short story that is worth telling everyone! And to all who have the ability to dream. Write your best short story or poem for an opportunity to win cash prizes. All entries must be original. http://www.dreamquestone.com

Guidelines:
(1) Write a poem, thirty lines or fewer on any subject or style, single or double line spacing, neatly hand printed or typed.
And/or
(2) Write a short story five pages maximum, single or double line spacing, on any subject or theme, creative writing, fiction or non-fiction (including essay compositions, screenwriting, diary and journal entries), neatly hand printed or typed.
Multiple entries into both contests are accepted.
Deadline: December 31, 2008
Winners will be announced on January 31, 2009
Prizes:
Writing Contest First Prize is $500. Second Prize is $250. Third Prize $100.
Poetry Contest First Prize is $250. Second Prize is $125. Third Prize is $50.
Entry fees:
Writing Contest entry fee is: $10 per short story.
Poetry Contest entry fee is: $5 per poem.
To send entries by mail: Include title, name, address, phone, email, and brief biographical info. (Tell us a little about yourself) on the coversheet, add a self-addressed stamped envelope for entry confirmation. Fees payable to: DREAMQUESTONE.COM

Mail to: Dream Quest One
Poetry & Writing Contest
P.O. Box 3141
Chicago, IL 60654

Visit
http://www.dreamquestone.com for further details, to print out an entry form or to enter online.

”And remember, in whatever you do. It’s okay to dream, for dreams do come true.” – Dream Quest One

But this year, HQ has decided that any geographical area with a municipal liaison should be a region in its own right, so Ireland:Northwest (covering Leitrim, Donegal, Sligo, Roscommon and West Cavan) and Northern Ireland have been added to the list.

If you think you belong in one of those regions, then please subscribe to it (or even both) and set your home region as appropriate. You can stay subscribed to Elsewhere still, of course!

Anyway, this change leaves the Elsewhere region without an ML to look after it (though its ex-MLs, Onyva/Cavantucky and me (Farfalla) will still be keeping an eye out) – but it also leaves plenty of scope for other bits of Ireland to become regions in their own right. So if anyone wants to volunteer to be an ML, please do! It’s a lot of fun and doesn’t have to be hard work. And it can definitely help your own word count.

……….

November is getting closer though – anyone got their plot already decided?