Massively Interview

I'm interviewed by Akela Talamasca on Episode 19 of "On the Inside" available online now at Massively:

http://www.massively.com/2007/11/17/on-the-inside-episode-19-rainbow-drake-and-nanowrimo/

all about NaNoWriMo and the SL Wrimos!

Monster Writing

I downed another can of Monster Energy "Natural Health Product" tonight.

My brain had been sluggish all day. Went to the noon-hour SL Wrimos write-in hosted by PhoebeAnn. Wrote 108 words in 45 minutes. Bah! My focus just wasn't there and my brain wanted sleep.

Various and sundry distractions and other responsibilities kept me away from writing throughout the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening, but I'd vowed to top 40K before my head hit the pillow tonight, so I cracked open the caffeine juice and it got me where I needed to be:

2996 words today.
40,796 words to date.
And to all a good night!

SL Wrimos Rock the Metaverse

Well, we rock the word count metres at any rate!

We had our second in-world write-in today and the fingers were flying, committing text to screens.

Of the seventeen gathered for today's meeting, everyone made good progress on their word counts with seven people clearing 1000 words during our timed hour. I squeaked just over the 1500 word mark in the hour myself, but the biggest kudos today go to Samantha and Skell who were really in the zone and both cleared 2000 words in an hour! Way to go mates!

My total words for today: 2441
and to date: 32,605

Report from the Trenches -- One Week In

1. Word Count

Baseline: 11,669
My Goal: 14,000
My Actual: 20,604

Baseline is the 1667 word per day daily minimum required to reach 50,000 words by the end of November.

The NaNoWriMo statisticians report that only 5% of Wrimos are on or above par with the baseline pace at the end of week two. Being this close to the week two baseline target after only one week, I don't think I have anything much to worry about on the word count front. (Of course, no one who knows me ever imagined that I would, including myself. The real challenge for me is going to be making it to the end of my story by the end of the month. That is shaping up to be considerably more than 50,000 words away.)

2. Blogging

I have posted to both this blog and Raindancing Dragons daily so far, however, since I normally post at the end of my day, and my schedule was shifted later on November 3rd due to an external cultural engagement, that day shows as missing from both blogs because I didn't get a chance to update until after midnight.

3. Yoga

My morning yoga sessions have been going well, although they haven't always occurred at 6:30 a.m. (see notes on Schedule below).

The first day my Sun Sals felt okay and I strove for good form in each pose. Days 2 and 3, I felt the previous days' exertions in my shoulders and arms. Day 4 I was staying with a friend and had not brought my yoga mat with me, so I flew through my Sun Sals at a fast pace, not worrying about form at all. Simply trying to avoid slipping on the carpet. Today, for the first time, my yoga actually felt good.

At the beginning of the week, my dog slept right through my morning yoga. Recently she has taken to "helping" me:





Practicing yoga with a dog is perhaps not the best way to encourage proper form in one's poses, but it sure makes for lots of laughter!

4. Mileage

Pretty much right on track for four miles a day. Many of them I have hiked by myself, however. Princess Kendal isn't too enamoured with my outdoor activity plans now that the weather has turned cold and wet.

5. Diet

Right on track here with three square meals a day. Following the Canada Food Guide. Snacking on fresh fruit and Optimum Energy Bars (they're organic, well-balanced, were recommended to me by my dietitian friend and they actually taste good!)

I do have one confession to make regarding diet. Previous to last night, I had not consumed caffeine for medicinal reasons since 1992 and had planned on getting through NaNoWriMo without the drug. The November greys have been effecting me with a strong urge to hybernate however (not something the Californians considered when they shifted NaNoWriMo from summertime to November, I'll wager). When 5PM rolled around yesterday and I had not written my first word of the day, I hiked down to the drug store to buy a bottle of juice and walked away with a can of Monster. I don't plan on making this a regular habit, but 2841 words later, I had written the most adrenaline-packed chapter of my story so far.

6. Schedule

Rising before the sun is over-rated.

I am going to keep trying for the rest of the month to give the idea a fair shot and because my house is actually quiet in the early morning, but come December 1st, I'm pretty sure I'll be falling back to a 7 a.m. rise at the earliest.

7. SL Wrimos

We made it to the century mark in membership and beyond. (125 at last count.) No one has touched the blog so far this month (which is how it should be this early in the game) but in-world meetings are going well. Last Sunday's write-in was a big hit and group members are starting to plan more write-in times in addition to the weekly one I host.

Activity on our forum thread remains high, there have been several excellent entries in my word-of-the-day challenges, and a friendly competitive spirit is developing amongst team members. Everyone is loving Sodovan Torak's word count titlers which were updated frequently during Sunday's write-in, with everyone present cheering whenever a group member logged an important milestone.

8. Local Wrimos

I finally did meet up with some other local Wrimos on October 31st. I neglected to get NaNo IDs from anyone, however, so have not been in touch with the group since. Next meeting is mid month.

NaNoWriMo Bear

This guy is so cute!



Teddy bears are a long-standing tradition in Second Life and now, thanks to team member Ziggy Quirk, the SL Wrimos have our very own bear, complete with his own NaNoWriMo participant badge, NaNoWriMo 2007 pencil and his own little auto-biographical story which reads:

Once upon a time there was
a toy bear sitting on an
avatar's shoulder.

The view was okay, and the
company was great,
but there was never going
to be enough coffee
to write 50,000 words
in a month.

I'm not a coffee-drinker myself, but I am a south paw and was tickled to see that Wrimo Bear is too! (It's not easy to come by left-handed stuff in Second Life.)

Survey Says

The polls are closed and the votes in. The new title of the SL Wrimos' group adventure story is:

All My Avatars

A slow starter in this race, "All My Avatars" came from behind to edge out "As the Grid Lags" and "Bytes of Our Second Lives" on the final day of voting. It was a very close vote however, so I have decided to keep the (tied for) second choice titles as our story's alternate and sub titles. (Condolences to those who voted for "The Ruthed and the Restless". I thought that one was pretty funny myself, but I guess it's a little too esoteric for the unwashed masses.)

As Yet Untitled

The start of novelling craziness is less than a week away.

I have finally found some other NaNovelists in my geographical region.

I posted in the regional forums over three weeks ago, looking for other local Wrimos and last week I sent a poster around to all of the public libraries in my region, inviting other Wrimos to connect with me.

My first response came on October 16th from someone who said she didn't think there were too many of us in this area, but she was and hello. Then today, another forum poster who claims that the NaNoWriMo crowd in our region is alive and well and they have meetings planned -- but then declined to post details of said meetings in the official forums.

Ah well. I have a strong writing team in the metaverse.

The SL Wrimos are 81 members strong as of this writing and still growing. So far, we have two meetings per week planned from now through the end of November and a wrap party (otherwise known as the "Thank Goodness It's Over" party) for the first weekend in December (and, unlike certain of the meatspace regional groups who apparently wish to remain insular and closed to new blood, we do post the times, locations and agendas of our meetings to our thread in the official NaNoWriMo forums as well as in the group notices of our open enrollment Second Life group).

The SL Wrimos even have our own blog! It's not so much a web log in the traditional sense. It's a group story which some of us are creating together -- a bit of craziness about Second Life -- just for fun.



The SL Wrimos blog/group story doesn't have a title yet. If you hurry, you can help us decide what our title will be. The poll closes in a few short hours and, so far, the competition is fierce. "All My Avatars" has just pulled into a slim 11th hour lead over early favourites "As the Grid Lags" and "Bytes of Our Second Lives" but "The Ruthed and the Restless" is still in the running. Visit our as yet untitled adventures to vote for your favourite and check back often to see what sorts of scrapes Newton Newbie and his friends have gotten themselves into most recently.

Second Life Wrimos

One of the key factors of NaNoWriMo is the companionship between writers who are participating in the experience together. There is an active NaNoWriMo group in my old town, but not so far in my current town -- so I decided to start an online group in my virtual world. Thus was born the SL Wrimos.

As of this writing, the SL Wrimos are 45 members strong. These are all current Wrimos, participating in the 2007 challenge, who have joined the group in the past two weeks. Compared to the regional groups listed on the official NaNoWriMo web site, we stack up as a fairly decently sized crowd. (The regional groups listed on the official NaNoWriMo web site include new sign-ups, returning participants and dead wood -- participants from last year who are not participating in the challenge this year but have not yet been purged from the NaNoWriMo database. Remove the dead wood from the regional groups, and our little team of metaverse writers looks even bigger.)

The SL Wrimos are planning several different types of meet-ups in November to help us all help one another to achieve NaNoWriMo success. Meeting themes proposed so far include:

Downtime Dips - a chance to relax in my hot tub in a peaceful park setting and chat about anything but NaNoWriMo.

Koffee Klatches - a social get together in an in-world café where any topic (NaNo or not) goes.

Reading Circles - Wrimos read excerpts from their work-in-progress to the group. Group members provide positive feedback and comments. (Remembering that November is not the month to get too critical.) Authors may also wish to ask questions of the group regarding specific aspects of their stories.

Block Busters - suffering from writer's block? Explain your stumbling block to the team and we'll all brainstorm together ideas for a way out. (This could be a great creativity-inducing exercise for all Wrimos, not just those who are struggling with a block.)

Write-Ins - a staple of NaNo writing groups. Team members get together in-world for speed writing sessions and challenges and to cheer one another on for their progress during the session.

We also have members who are creating in-world builds and scripting cool gadgets dedicated to NaNoWriMo. There will be a NaNoWriMo school bus in the sLiterary sim which will track the combined word-count of all SL Wrimos, and I'm hoping to put together "titlers" which will enable SL Wrimos to proudly display their current individual word count above their avatar's head. Additionally, all SL Wrimos receive this fabulously stylish t-shirt upon joining the group:



(Now I know I've got you hooked because every avatar needs another free digital t-shirt!)

What are you waiting for? If you're participating in NaNoWriMo this year and you have a Second Life account, come and join us in-world for some NaNovelling fun and support. Look us up in search (Search -- Groups -- SL Wrimos) or IM Rainbow Drake for a group invite.

Write on!