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[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] This is NOT the End! Loosen your trousers, curl into your couches, and prepare for some well-deserved rest fellow wrimos - our month of chicken preparation has finally ended. The end of the meal doesn't mean the end of the fun though - dinner was just the beginning. In fact, join us this Saturday from 1 PM until 3 at the Open Books office (213 W. Institute Place, Chicago) for our THANK GOODNESS IT'S OVER (aka TGIO) PARTY! The TGIO is an annual event, and is a great chance to unwind from the month, tell people about your novel, and win some wicked prizes! The event is a pot-luck of sorts, so feel free to bring some tasty munchies to share! Regarding the Word War against New York City, the results are in! I am THRILLED to announce that Chicago finished 6th this year, beating Holland/Belgium in overall word count; and, while we may have bowed to NYC in overall word count, we did UTTERLY CRUSH them in average word count! Considering NYC had SIXTY PEOPLE MORE than we did, they only won by a mere 100,000 words… Sixty more people and they could only beat us by two novels? Guys, do the math: we pounded them. You can find more details on the Word Count Scoreboard (http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/wordcount_stats). WINNERS GOODIES! Did you hit 50,000? Guess what, you get FREE STUFF! That's right, head on over to the "I Wrote a Novel, Now What?" page (http://www.nanowrimo.org/nowwhat) to collect your winners goodies. NaNoWriMo 2009 might be done, but it's not over for the next eleven months... in fact, ChiWriMo will be going strong in 2010! We're planning some meet-ups, some write-ins, and some other fun stuff for the next year, and hope that you'll join us! Keep an eye on the forum and on your inbox for more information. And, hey, look: JOB POSTING! Do you ever wonder what it's like to be an ML? Do you plan your own write-ins, or think more events need to happen in your area? We're putting out a call for more MLs in 2010! You must be able to commit to at least one write-in a week in your area. We're especially looking for a Suburban ML to help us in the Schaumburg/Palatine area. If you're interested in applying, please send an email to contact@chiwrimo.org with your name, age, NaNoWriMo experience, and what area you'd like to represent. Thank you so much to everyone who came out and participated in NaNoWriMo 2009. Thank you to everyone who logged onto the website, who sat down on November 1 and thought "Okay, I'm going to write a novel", thank you to everyone who came to a write-in, who supported a fellow writer. Thank you to those of you who attempted but didn't win, and to those of you who won on the first day, and to those of you who won at 11:59 PM. In a nutshell, thank YOU. Yes you, reading this email, right now. We thank you, because without you NaNoWriMo wouldn't happen. See you at the TGIO! Sent by: Michelle on 12/04/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Grand Finale Marathon This is it Chicago – the moment we’ve worked toward for an entire month. After hours and days of painstaking work... after nights spent away from family and television, and dishes left unwashed: it’s time to take a seat at the ChiWriMo table tomorrow and feast on the fowlish flesh of the chicken (or veggie tofu chikin) we’ve spent all month preparing. Last week we set the table in preparation for a meal we’d never forget – and tomorrow, by 11:59pm, we hope you’ll all be ready to sit down to dinner with us as we close out another notable NaNoWriMo. Beginning at 10am and going all the way through midnight, ChiWriMo will be co-hosting (with Open Books) our annual Final Marathon – the countdown to the end of NaNo and the celebration of another great year of noveling. Please feel free to stop by anytime beginning at 10am or thereafter – someone from ChiWriMo or Open Books will be there to greet you through the entire 14 hours of writing frenzy. Open Books (http://open-books.org) – our long time local partnering non-profit, is located at 213 W Institute Place just north of the loop. (click here for a map to the location: http://bit.ly/64L5vi) Right off the Chicago brown line, it is both CTA as well as vehicle-friendly. (There’s metered parking on the side streets around the area.) Whether you’re 25,000 words behind, 30,000 words ahead, or right where you need to be, we’d love to see you there. If you are planning to attend, please bring a baked good or pastry – home-baked or purchased, either way – to share. Once everyone begins arriving, we’ll have enough sugar and collective energy in the room to propel us all through the end of the day! Open Books also has free wifi, beverages, and a host of comfy couches and tables/nooks – so you’re bound to find a nice place to sit and write. Once NaNoWriMo 2009 ends tomorrow night, mark your calendars to join us this Saturday (also at Open Books) for our annual Thank Goodness It’s Over (TGIO) Party from 1-3pm. We’ll send out another email Tuesday with more information. For now, good luck in the final hours of NaNoWriMo. May the force of thousands of urgent chickens (spread throughout novels across the city of Chicago) be with you! Sent by: Tim on 11/29/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Donations and Winners and Cookies - Oh My! Heya Wrimos! Despite having blasted you with a regional email a couple of days ago, it’s important I write you tonight for three big reasons: Donations and Winners and Cookies! DONATIONS Have you heard? The Office of Letters and Light (the organization that runs NaNoWriMo) is trying to raise $100,000 TODAY to support future NaNoWriMo and Young Writers Program events. It takes as little as ten dollars (and perhaps ten minutes) to contribute. Just go here: http://store.lettersandlight.org Once there, select your contribution, choose NaNoWriMo as the program you’d like to donate to, enter your screen name (if you’d like credit), and then enter your payment information. Easy Cheesy! Since literally everyone around the world is trying to donate today, the site may run a little slow – but persevere! Get through the donation process! If they're able to raise $100,000 today, Chris Baty & co. will write a song about the fundraising drive—tentatively entitled "That Beautiful Tuesday"—and perform it on NaNoVideo with staff musical accompaniment and Lindsey doing an interpretive dance alongside them! And remember – if you DO donate and that venerable donor halo appears on your profile, ChiWriMo will throw in a special added thank you incentive – a ChiWriMo button! Just send me (TimSimms on the forum) a NaNoMail after you donate with the address you’d like the button sent to, and I’ll get it out right away! WINNERS Have you crossed the 50,000 word mark? Congratulations! Almost there? Keep writing! So far away you can’t see the light? Keep reading – the cookies section is especially for you! Once you cross that awesome finish line and win NaNoWriMo, you need to verify your novel in the online validator – and it opens for business beginning tomorrow, 11/25. To access it, go to your profile (http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/mynanowrimo) while logged into the site. Once there, on the left hand link menu, click “Verify & Win (Nov 25-30)” and you’ll be taken to the validator. After you’ve validated your win, the “Collect Winner Goodies” link on the left menu will become active! While on the subject, be sure you have the Central Time Zone set correctly – otherwise you may be cut short on time come 11/30! To check your settings, select "User Settings" from the same menu (Under Edit) to the left of your profile page. Scroll down to Locale settings: Time zone (above the Terms and Conditions). From the drop down menu, select the correct day, date, and time for where you are (Hint: CST is -0600). Also, please note that the time format is military time! Once you have selected your correct time settings, be sure to hit 'Submit' at the bottom of the page. COOKIES Are you going to be counting down the final hours of NaNoWriMo 2009 with us? Open Books (http://open-books.org) and ChiWriMo are combining forces this coming Monday, 11/30 for 14 hours of frenzied writing, word wars, occasional baked goods, and all the other glorious hilarity of minting a brand-new batch of awesome novelists! If you’re behind in reaching 50,000 words (or if you want to pad that awesome word count and finish your novel), feel free to stop by anytime 10am through midnight! How does this relate to cookies, you ask? We’re asking everyone planning to attend to bake (or buy) their favorite kind of cookie and bring some to share! Don’t over-do it – a dozen or so cookies should be more than enough. With our collective writing, baking, and cookie-purchasing powers combined, we’ll have enough sugar to help everyone sprint across the finish line by 11:59pm Monday night! If you have any questions, need any help, or just need to vent novelistic frustrations, Michelle, Matt and I are all three here for you this coming week to help make your NaNo finish a great one. I’ll see some of you in our weekly online chat at ChiWriMo.org tomorrow night, some others this Friday at my downtown extended lunch time write-in, and the rest of you on Monday for the annual marathon. Until then, have a great (and safe) holiday! Sent by: Tim on 11/24/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Week Four: Serving Up Chicken, Chicago-style Right about now other NaNoWriMo regions are talking baseball – you know, the home stretch… making the sprint toward home base to score that novelicious goal. Not us though! We’ve spent all month doing something else… something extraordinary. We’ve been making the best chicken dinner this city has ever tasted. As we enter Week Four, characters should be fleshed out, storylines should be developing into climaxes, and villains should be close to the Scooby-gang-unmasking. It’s time to take the chicken out of the oven, off the grill, and out of the skillet…it’s time to set the table for dinner Chicago! Are you on track to sit at the dinner table with us come 11:59pm November 30? All it takes is effort – even if you’re so far behind 50,000 words may seem impossible. For those of you who are right on track, well, good for you! Bravo, excellent, pat on the back, and all that jazz. But for those of you (like Michelle, who came down with the death plague at the end of week 2) who are struggling to make that magical 50,000 word goal, well, come on out to a write-in during our last week, or take a deep breath and plunge into the madness that is our Final Marathon Write-in. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23: Start out the day in Logan Square, at New Wave Coffee on N. Milwaukee Ave, from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. Your host will be Zbluesun, and parents with kids in school, the non 9-5 workers, and those who are currently unemployed are encouraged to come out and get your writing on! Or, if you’d prefer, there are three separate events after work to help you boost that word count: The Aurora Public Library will host an event at their main branch starting at 6 PM, for those out in the far west. A little further north? Try the Schaumburg write-in at the Borders on E. Golf Rd. They’ll meet from 7 to 11 PM. Or, come by our Official Write-in at the Book Cellar on N. Lincoln Ave, from 7 to 9 PM TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24: Take a lunch break and join us for a Loop write-in at the Starbucks at N. LaSalle and Lake St, from 12:30 to 1:30pm. Later that night, if you’re on the north side, come on up to Edgewater for our Official Write-in at Flourish Bakery Café, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25: As Thanksgiving draws closer, start the day off write with another write-in hosted by Zbluesun in Logan Square, at the New Wave Coffee shop from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. Or, as you wind down your day, log online and join our weekly Online Write-in in the ChiWriMo.org chatroom from 6:30 PM until whenever we all go to bed! TURKEYDAY 2009 (aka THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26): Sara (Kinkatia on the forums) has graciously offered her apartment for a Thanksgiving-day write-in and pot-luck! Stop by with your favorite food to share, and relax and get some writing done! Please email Sara to RSVP and to get her address, authoress.kinkatia@yahoo.com! This event will run all day, from 10 AM until Sara kicks everyone out :D. We’ll have more information about post-Thanksgiving write-ins as the week progresses, so keep an eye on your inbox and on the calendar at ChiWriMo.org for more information! And don’t forget: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30: Join us for our MARATHON WRITE-IN, as we scramble to fill our word count quotas or to get that last scene written before the bell tolls on another successful year of NaNo’ing! Open Books, our favorite write-in location from 2008, has had a VERY busy 2009, but they’ve graciously offered us their space for our final marathon write-in! From 10 AM until 11:59 PM, we will partake in 14 hours of frenzied writing, mini word wars, occasional baked goods, and all the other glorious hilarity of minting a brand-new batch of awesome novelists! As always, check ChiWriMo.org and the NaNoWriMo Chicago Forum for all the latest on Word Wars, Write-ins, and more! - Michelle, Tim, and Matt PS: If you can, make a donation this Tuesday during NaNo HQ’s all-day drive to raise $100,000 dollars! If NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program can raise $100,000 in donations through their online Donation Station, they will write a song about the fundraising drive—tentatively entitled "That Beautiful Tuesday"—and perform it on NaNoVideo with staff musical accompaniment and Lindsey doing an interpretive dance alongside them! Sent by: Michelle on 11/22/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] The NaNo Midway Point (cue foreboding music) Heya Wrimos! How are your novels coming along? Are you on track to make it to 25,000 words by the end of the weekend? If not, don’t fret – there’s still a whole half a month to get on track, get your self in gear, and throw those chickens on the grill! That’s right Chicago – this is that messy, magnificent middle of the month area where writers lose their way, lose their marbles, and generally lose the will to keep going. (That’s why God…er, Chris Baty created Municipal Liaisons – to keep you energized, enthused, and ecstatic about your novel and its characters!) Think of this gray, Week Three middle area as the time where your chicken is on the grill and you have to treat it just right in order to begin the finishing touches in Week Four. Week Three is about slogging through the seasoning and bursting through the basting. If you take it off the grill too soon, it’ll still need more work; if you leave it on too long, you’ll have burned chicken for dinner. Use Week Three to develop character situations and subplots. Throw in some twists; create a love triangle; have your characters drunkenly buy Snuggies at Jewel (yes, Jewel Osco *does* sell them…I witnessed this last night while buying items for the statewide!). Begin tying storylines together that you’ll bring to fruition come Week Four. Need help getting there? Need a break? We can help with both! Join us tomorrow for the Mid-Month Awesome Alliteration Bowling Blow-out Bash (see the forum for details). If you need more support with writing, ChiWriMo has write-ins all over the city every night of the week in Week Three culminating in the second annual CTA write-in next Saturday! We’ll be riding around the city on various CTA trains banging out words while using those kooky, interesting characters on the El many of us see every day to and from work as inspiration. That all being said, here are a few other things before I let you get back to writing: STATEWIDE AFTERMATH You guys are awesome. Seriously! You made this year’s Illinois statewide write-in SO fun! And with all the word sprints, our collective word count soared! (Plus, I don’t think it hurt that we gave away swag and prizes like they were going out of style!) Pictures from the event should be up on our Flickr account (accessible through ChiWriMo.org) later tonight. REGIONAL WORD WAR Speaking of soaring word counts…we’ve been neck and neck with NYC the past few days. Be sure you’re regularly updating your word count using the widget at the top right portion of the NaNo website! DONATIONS Both fund raising contests are going swimmingly! We’ve sent several ChiWriMo buttons out to generous Chicago wrimos who have donated and received halos on their profiles. Along with that, we’ve received a great outpouring of support in the ChiWriMo 2009 NaNo Poster contest as well – so much we’ve almost been able to cover the Kickoff and Statewide event expenses! Remember – you receive an entry ticket in the contest for every $5 you donate either in person to an ML or through the ChiWriMo website. And for $20 you receive TEN entries! We’ll be drawing for the poster prize (and several other side prizes) at the TGIO Party on December 5th at Open Books. SWAG Have you missed every-single-event this year? We miss you! Also, we can’t hand you a pretty, colorful swag sticker either if we can’t see you! Send me a private message via NaNoMail (TimSimms is my screen name – just click on my name on the forum header) and let me know what address to send it to! THANK YOU Michelle, Matt and I didn’t become ML’s for the fame or glory…we did it to meet and help all of you, our awesome, creative, inspiring local peers. I don’t think we stop often enough to say how much we appreciate your participation in NaNoWriMo – whether this is your first or fifth (or more) year, NaNoWriMo and ChiWriMo exist because of writers like you. Under all the hype, between the insane word sprints, tucked just behind a couple of regional emails, and nestled comfortably in a coffee shop or office/den, each of you make the month of November my favorite month of the year. Thank you for that. If I haven’t been able to meet you personally yet, I look forward to it. If we have met, I hope Michelle, Matt and I will see you at another event before the end of the month. Like I said…that’s why we do what we do – we want you all to succeed, and somewhere in there, we’d love to get to know you all a little in the process. As always, if you have any questions, concerns, plot plunders, caffeine crises, or even swooping velociraptors, we’d love to hear from you. Give us a shout out via email, the forum, or NaNoMail. Have a fun and fruitful Week Three Chicago! Sent by: Tim on 11/14/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Week 2, Otherwise Known as KEEP GOING! Are you still out there ChiWriMos? As Week 1 winds down tonight, we head into the murky waters of Week 2. Week 2 is typically the week that makes or breaks most NaNo novels. As I type, hundreds of novels across the city are reaching that point where they either begin taking shape or fail. Don't let your novel down! Throw in some dancing ninjas! Plot velociraptors can also swoop in (do velociraptors actually swoop?) and cause some havoc! Or, if all else fails, throw in some chickens. Week two will be when we take those chickens we spent all of week one chasing down and begin making a proper dinner. (For those vegetarians and vegans among us, imagine a ball of wild chikin tofu rolling through the jungles awaiting your capture!) Now that you have an idea where you need to go, take that chicken, throw it in a pot, and get to boiling up some difficult situations for your novel's main characters to deal with! Here's some vital information to get you through week 2: THE 3RD ANNUAL CHIWRIMO CHALLENGE Have you noticed the chicken motif? We here at ChiWriMo like do to more than just motivate; we love to challenge you. Each year, we issue a writing challenge meant to make you think outside the laptop. Last year we dared you to incorporate dancing cows into your novel after seeing one (well, someone dressed as one) jiggling his utters outside the Starbucks Halloween midnight write-in. This year, on Halloween, we experienced something of a similar animal nature! Inspired by a man dressed as Colonel Sanders running up and down the street as fast as he could while brandishing a bucket of KFC under his arm, we issue this challenge to you ChiWriMos: "Chickens with a sense of urgency!" If you can incorporate that concept in any way into your novel, bring the excerpt containing the theme to the TGIO Party on 12/5, and your name will be entered into a drawing for one of several prizes! SET US AS YOUR HOME REGION! It's quite easy! If you're receiving this email, you've already taken the first step by affiliating with Illinois::Chicago. By setting us as your home region though, your word count and donations all count toward Chicago's grand total. To set us as your home region, visit the NaNo site here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/og/home Click on the circle next to Chicago, then click "Set Home Region" to save. It's as easy as that! WORD WAR! Each year we engage another region in an all-out typing frenzy to see who comes out victorious come December 1st. In the past, we've had sign-ups and word war teams. This year though, after negotiating with our competing region's ML's, we're battling the ENTIRE city of New York! That's right Chicago - it's everyone in Chicago versus everyone in NYC! To keep track of our progress, keep an eye on the progress widget on the Regional Info tab on the Chicago forum. We also have a word war thread here if you want to discuss writing strategy: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3324655 FUNDRAISING, SWAG, AND THE DONATION DERBY Hey Chicago - we're doing pretty awesome this year in terms of donations to NaNo HQ online! As a city, we've donated $2220 to NaNo...and that's from just 5.97% of our active users this year alone! Imagine if another 5% of you donated! Currently, we're ranked #10 in our Donation Derby league, averaging a little less per wrimo than we donated last year. We can correct that though! To add a little incentive to donate online, I will personally send ANY wrimo new or veteran a shiny ChiWriMo button just for donating! As soon as your profile halo appears, just send me a note on the forum via NaNoMail so I can get it out to you! To keep up to date on our online Donation Derby progress, see the Donation Derby page here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/contest/donation_derby/1/ Speaking of donating, we're also throwing a secondary contest this year as well. For every $5 you donate either online via ChiWriMo.org or directly to an ML at a write-in, your name will be entered into the TGIO prize raffle I mentioned earlier. If you want more chances to win, we're giving TEN entries for just $20! We have some awesome prizes to raffle off this year, so don't miss out. To wet your palate: A NaNo Coffee Mug, Comedy Sportz tickets, entry tickets to the Chicago Children's Museum, and more! Also, if you haven't received your annual swag sticker and can't make an official ChiWriMo writing meet-up, send me a NaNoMail on the NaNo site with your mailing address and I'll get one out in the mail to you! WEEKLY EVENTS If you're as busy as me, making a write-in can feel impossible. Fortunately for you, there's a write-in meet up in various parts of the city EVERY NIGHT OF WEEK 2! At the end of the week, we'll celebrate with a statewide Illinois write-in at the Inn of Chicago right off Michigan Avenue where you'll enjoy free food, wifi, prizes, and more word sprints than you can shake a stick at! RSVP today: http://bit.ly/2lCmUC We only have around 30-35 seats remaining as of this email! And if that's not enough, we'll also be holding our first-ever midway point social event that Sunday - the Mid-Month Awesome Alliteration Bowling Blow-out Bash! RSVP here for that: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3389097 Space is limited for both events, so speak up today, even if it's with a maybe! CHIWRIMO.ORG - YOUR RESOURCE FOR A GREAT NOVEMBER Need a handy desktop calendar wallpaper saying how many words you need to be at each day? We have that. Need a table tent for a write-in you're hosting? We have that too! ChiWriMo.org is chalked full of fun and useful stuff that wrimos can use throughout the month of November to stay on task. ChiWriMo.org also has our calendar of events, a chat room for word sprints with other local writers, a link to event pictures, information about your insanely busy Municipal Liaisons, archived regional emails, and SO much more! Check it out! As always, we’re here to help you in any way we can whether it’s getting your write-in promoted, twittering out some words of inspiration, or helping you get your mind off that awful character death. Have a great Week 2 everyone! Sent by: Tim on 11/07/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Mid-Month Madness and Other Miscellaneous Hello Chicago! How has the first week gone for you? Is your plot sizzling happily on the stove, like a tasty piece of chicken dropped in the oil to fry? Or are you running around, plotless, like a chicken with its head cut off? Either way, we wanted to shoot you off a quick email to remind you about some of our upcoming mid-month events. BUT FIRST! Please note that events on the calendar are changing all the time; new ones are being added, and old ones being changed. For example, the LOOP WRITE-IN TONIGHT originally scheduled for Starbucks had been CHANGED to a new location due to a conflict with our original venue: **** We will now meet from 6 to 9 PM at the cafe inside the Borders Books & Music at 150 N State St. **** Coming up in the middle of the month, we have two fantastic events for you. But hurry to sign up now: space for both events is limited! If you don't RSVP, our space might fill up, and you may not be able to attend! The first event is our STATE-WIDE WRITE-IN on November 14. We'll meet from 10 AM to 3 PM for a mini-marathon with writers from all over the state (as many as we can con (cough, um, convince?) to come!) at the Inn of Chicago (162 E. Ohio Street , Chicago, Illinois 60611). Please visit this thread for more information, and to RSVP: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3277474 The following day, join us for an evening of bowling with our MID-MONTH AWESOME ALLITERATION BOWLING BLOW-OUT BASH! No writing to be found at this event: instead, a few hours of relaxation at the half-way point, old-school bowling and taking out our character frustration and plot stress on the lanes! Check out more information and RSVP over on the forums: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3389097 We hope to see you all at one (or both!!!) of these events! And, as always, check ChiWriMo.org for the latest write-ins, meet-ups, news, photos, helpful links, email archives, chat room shenanigans, and anything else we can cram in there! Happy Friday! Sent by: Michelle on 11/06/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Kick-off Party Wrap Up, and your Chicago Week#1 Happy November! It's amazing to watch everyone's word counts slowly climb upwards. As of today, you should have just over 3,300 words... crazy, right? Just two days ago, you were sitting around on your couch with not a single word written, and today you're delving into strange worlds, setting up your plot for your main character to ward off evil or save the day or just win their one true love. We’re in week one, so anything can happen. It’s like we’re all collectively scurrying around the ChiWriMo barn yard chasing after chickens… those poor, piteous peons of poultry. By the end of the month, we’ll all be chowing down on some delicious fried chicken – but for now, we have to get everything started – just like you’re starting your novel. Like catching a chicken (which will run away from you with all its might), NaNo week one is all about getting to know your novel, becoming acquainted with your characters, and developing what will hopefully become a plot. Speaking of getting things started, last night was our annual Kick-off Party, and what a success it was! Thank you so much to everyone who came out, chatted, battled over goodie bags, and devoured platter after platter of grilled cheese. You guys are the best, so thanks for helping us to kick the month off right! We made a couple of announcements toward the end of the Kick-off Party, so for those of you who missed out, here's what we talked about: DONATIONS AND RAFFLE PRIZES! This year, there are two ways to donate: 1. Donation Derby: This year NaNo HQ is beginning the Donation Derby, a friendly inter-regional contest to see who can raise the most money. These donations must be made through the NaNoWriMo website; as an added incentive to donate, ChiWriMo will once again be offering a ChiWriMo button for anyone who donates and receives a halo on their profile. 2. The 2009 ChiWriMo Poster Contest: While we want everyone to donate online to NaNo HQ to get your halo right away, some people may prefer to pay an ML in person. For those of you who prefer to donate offline - we have a contest made for you! For every $5 you donate to an ML at any ChiWriMo event or official write-in, you'll receive an entry into our raffle. For $20 you'll receive ten entries, which means more chances to win! The Grand Prize is a 2009 NaNoWriMo Poster, a $100 value! For more information on both of these, check the forums (http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3353064). RSVP FOR THE STATE-WIDE WRITE-IN AND THE MID-MONTH BOWLING BASH! Coming up in the middle of the month, we have two AWESOME events! The first is our STATE-WIDE WRITE-IN! We'll meet on Saturday, Nov. 14 from 10 AM to 3 PM, and we're expecting writers from all over the area! Put in your RSVP as soon as you can, though, because our venue has limited seating! For more info and to RSVP, email Tim (ml-tim@chiwrimo.org) or pop onto the forum: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3277474 And then on Sunday, Nov. 15, another fabulous event! To celebrate reaching the half-way mark on the month, join us for an evening of bowling at the Mid-Month Awesome Alliteration Bowling Blow-out Bash!!! We'll meet at the Timberlanes Bowling Alley from 4 to 7 PM for three hours of bowling and socializing! The cost is $10 per person. For more information and to RSVP, you can contact Matt (ml-matt@chiwrimo.org) or check out the forum: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3389097 EVENTS IN WEEK ONE! We have a ton of events happening in the first week of November, so check 'em out! MONDAY: Whether you're in the City or the Suburbs, there's an event for you! If you're out in Schaumburg, drop by the Borders at 1540 E Golf Rd. from 7 to 11 PM! Or if you're in the City, head down into the Loop for an after-work write-in at Au Bon Pain at 122 S Michigan Ave. TUESDAY: Lunch or dinner, North or South, we've got you covered! Join us at lunch for two separate Loop Lunch-time Write-ins! If you're in the North Loop, Tim will be meeting fellow WriMos at the Starbucks at Lake & LaSalle from 12:30 to 1:30. Or if you're in the South Loop, join A.Catherine.Noon at the Starbucks in the Willis (Sears) Tower, also from 12:30-1:30 PM! After work, you have two other options to choose from! If you're in Hyde Park, head over to the Third World Cafe at 1301 E. 53rd St. from 5:30 to 7:30 PM! Your contact will be fellow-WriMo ktpollock. If you're up North, head to Edgewater for a write-in at Pause (1107 W Berwyn Ave) from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Tim will be hosting this one, so send him an email with any questions (ml-tim@chiwrimo.org) WEDNESDAY: There are FOUR! options to choose from for your mid-week write-ins. For those of you early-birds, head to Logan Square to join Zbluesun at New Wave Coffee (2557 N Milwaukee Ave/3103 W Logan Blvd) from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. After work, you have three other write-ins to pick from! If you're in the Northern Suburbs, check out the write-in in Evanston at Barnes and Noble (1630 Sherman Ave) from 7 to 10 PM, hosted by A.Catherine.Noon. Closer to the mid-City area? Goodbyewaffles is hosting a write-in at Starbucks (4557 N Lincoln Ave) from 6-9 PM in Lincoln Square. Or if you're tired and just want to stay home? Join us online for our weekly Online Write-in from the comfort of your couch... just log-on to http://www.chiwrimo.org/chat.html. THURSDAY: Another set of choices! Those of you in the Western Suburbs, don't feel left out! Instead, head over to the Caribou Coffee in Downers Grove (5100 Main St) from 6 to 9 PM, hosted by kiyote! Or if you're in the city, head uptown to the Noble Tree Cafe (2444 N Clark St) from 6:30 to 9 PM, hosted by Matt (ml-matt@chiwrimo.org)! FRIDAY: To wind down the week, we'll relax at Starbucks at Lake and LaSalle (180 N LaSalle St.) from 6:30pm – 9:30pm. Have a cup of tea or coffee and get some post-week writing done! SATURDAY: A morning and afternoon write-in help make the weekend into a frenzy of novel writing! Ktpollock is hosting another Hyde Park write-in from 10 AM to Noon at the Backstory Cafe (6100 S Blackstone Ave). Or head north and join Michelle (ml-michelle@chiwrimo.org) at Fritz Pastry (1408 W Diversey Pkwy) from 1-4 PM! SUNDAY: North 'burbs? Out west? In Chicago proper? Find the write-in that's closest to you and go meet-up with your fellow WriMos! Satai Delenn is hosting a write-in in Buffalo Grove at Michael's Hot Dogs (340 Half Day Road) from 2:30 to 7 PM! Stop by for some great food, conversation, and writing! Or head out to Schaumburg for a Starbucks write-in (601 North Martingale Road) from 2 to 5 PM, hosted by Michelle! Or hang out in Lincoln Square, where goodbyewaffles will be hosting a write-in at Starbucks (4557 N Lincoln Ave) from 6 to 9 PM. All of these events and more can be found on the calendar at ChiWriMo.org! Can't wait to see you all this week, and Happy Novelling! Sent by: Michelle on 11/02/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Kick-off Party is FULL! Ladies and gents, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we currently have over 130 people RSVPed for the kick-off party this Sunday... that's TWICE what we had last year! The bad news, though, is that we have now reached the legal capacity of our restaurant... congrats, folks, you've done what NO OTHER REGION IN NANO HAS DONE: You've filled up an entire restaurant to the point of bursting! As far as we know, this is the largest kick-off party on earth this year... bigger than NYC, even! At this point, we must, unfortunately, close off RSVPs. IF YOU HAVE ALREADY RSVPED: You are good to go. If you've RSVPed and you're no longer attending, PLEASE LET US KNOW! IF YOU HAVE EMAILED WITH A TENTATIVE FOR YOURSELF OR A GUEST: Please let me know ASAP if you will be attending or not, so we can open that spot up for someone else. IF YOU STILL WANT TO GO AND HAVE NOT RSVP'ed, not all hope is lost: Please email me (ml-michelle@chiwrimo.org, or just hit "Reply" on this email) and I will put you on a wait-list and let you know as soon as a spot opens up. We are so sorry about this, everyone... we never in a million years dreamed that we'd have such an incredible and huge kick-off! *** Please note: due to the unexpected interest in the kick-off party, please try to limit non-WriMo guests to make room for the other writers. Obviously while we'd love for all of your friends to join us, this is a NaNoWriMo event, and we therefore would like to include as many NaNoWriMo participants as possible! We appreciate your cooperation. *** ALSO: If you are planning to bring a laptop to this event, we would like to ask you not to do so! This will not be a writing event, and with so many people in the restaurant there will not be space to set up and write! Also, with such a large crowd, there is always a chance of laptops being damaged or misplaced. Thank you! Thank you all so much for being so awesome... this year is going to be incredible! Sent by: Michelle on 10/30/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] ChiWriMo Events, October 31 to November 2 The end is nigh! The end of your non-novelling social lives, that is. But the beginning of another amazing year of NaNoWriMo is upon us, and with it comes fun events, parties, and an absolute frenzy of desperate typing and word counting. Here’s what’s happening in the ChiWriMo Region over the first few days of November. PLEASE NOTE that Daylight Savings will end this year on November 1st at 2 AM local time. This means the clocks will fall back one hour, to 1 AM. OCTOBER 31: KICK-OFF PARTY AT THE NORTH CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY Stop by anytime on Saturday for candy and to meet up with fellow North Chicago writers! Young Writer’s Program workbooks and AlphaSmart Rentals will also be available. If you don’t have a car and you’re interested in attending, please contact Michelle to see about carpooling. OCTOBER 31-NOVEMBER 1: MIDNIGHT WRITE-IN! Carrying on the fine tradition of kicking the month of right, we’ll meet this year at Pressure Billiards and Café (6318 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60660). Join us shortly before midnight to set up your Writing Method Of Choice and to grab a drink or snack, and then settle in to count the seconds down until the clock rolls over on November 1 and we begin to type away! Pressure Billiards has very graciously agreed to stay open an extra hour for us, so we’ll type away until 2 AM* * please note that DAYLIGHT SAVINGS kicks in at 2 AM on Nov. 1, which means that it will fall back one hour to 1 AM, which means that our midnight-2 AM write-in is actually 3 hours long! Confused? We are too! NOVEMBER 1: KICK-OFF PARTY! This is the party of the century! We’ve rented out the entirety of the 44th Ward Dinner Party restaurant, where we will feast on grilled cheese and pass a few glorious hours enjoying our last moments of sanity before the month really gets underway. *** PLEASE RSVP FOR THIS EVENT IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND!*** We have had an AMAZING response from people planning to attend… so much so that we might actually go over the legal capacity of the restaurant! CRAZY, RIGHT? So if you’re planning to attend, you MUST RSVP or we cannot guarantee that you’ll be allowed in! And if you’ve already RSVPed but cannot attend any longer, please do let us know. NOVEMBER 2: WRITE-INS IN DOWNTOWN CHICAGO AND SCHAUMBURG That’s right, whether you’re a city dweller or a suburbaner, we have two write-ins for you on this first Monday of NaNoWriMo. If you’re in The Loop, join us from 6:30 to 9:30 PM at the Au Bon Pain at Michigan and Adams (122 S Michigan Ave # 2, Chicago, IL). Please note that the entrance is actually on Adams St., despite the address. Free WiFi will be available! If you’re out in the suburbs, please stop by Borders (1540 E Golf Rd Schaumburg, IL 60173) from 7:00 to 11:00 PM! You can PM theinfernumflame on the NaNo site if you have any questions, or pop into the Schaumburg Write-in thread on the Chicago forum. NOVEMBER 3: WRITE-INS FOR LUNCH OR DINNER! Whether you prefer to write over lunch, or after work or school, there are two write-ins today to choose from: Lunch-time Write-in: From Noon to 1 PM, we’ll meet at the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower, 233 S Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60606). The meeting place will be the Starbucks inside the Wacker Drive entrance, but we may move to the Argo Tea kiosk if a bigger crowd shows up. Contact A.Catherine.Noon on the NaNo site with any questions. Dinner-time Write-in: Head up north for an Edgewater write-in from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at Pause (1107 W Berwyn Ave, Chicago, IL 60640), just off the Berwyn red line. Free WiFi will be available, as well as decently priced drinks! For more upcoming events, please check our calendar at ChiWriMo.org! Can’t wait to see you all soon! Sent by: Michelle on 10/29/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] One Week and Counting! Are You Ready? Heya Wrimos! One week from this moment, we'll be sitting in front of our computers celebrating midnight's arrival. With plot outlines and character sheets in hand, we'll forge through the cold Chicago night in building something beautiful: a novel with your name on the cover. Since we're now counting in days rather than weeks, Michelle, Matt and I thought we'd email you tonight with some encouragement, a little bribery, and a lot of reminders: The Midnight Write-in We'll be meeting at Pressure Billiards & Cafe in Edgewater a week from now to kick off NaNoWriMo the way it was meant to be: furious and caffeinated typing the second it starts. Pressure is located at 6318 N Clark Street in Edgewater, and is most easily accessed via car or the 22 Clark bus. You can also take the red line CTA train to Loyola, then trek down Devon (or another east-west street) to Clark Street to reach the location. A map of the location is here for your use: http://tinyurl.com/yzljvyt No RSVP is required to attend. If you're able to make it, you'll enjoy free wifi with purchase as well as an entire billiards room in the adjoining area if you need a short break from writing! We'll also try to be in the online chatroom at http://www.chiwrimo.org for those of you unable to make it! The Kick-Off Party Have you RSVP'ed yet? Who can resist 4-5 different kinds of grilled cheese (one or two of which are vegetarian and vegan friendly!)? It's a wrimolicious party just for you, complete with swag-bags, games, and a door prize or two. PLUS, you'll have the opportunity to meet your ML's and other NaNo writers! To learn more or to RSVP, go to the forum thread here: http://tinyurl.com/yzr8sgm The Poster Giveaway Contest! If you follow us on Twitter, you may already have heard. For everyone else: we're throwing a NaNoWriMo poster givewaway contest this year! For every $5 you donate in person to an ML, your name will go into the drawing. At the end of the month, at the TGIO party, we'll draw names for winners. The grand prize winner will receive this year's awesome NaNoWriMo poster (a $100 value). A picture of the poster can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/ykxmmsj We'll also be giving away a couple of other prizes to those who don't win the poster. You don't need to be present at the TGIO party to win the poster, but you will to win the other prizes. More information will be available on the Donations & Sponors page at http://www.chiwrimo.org beginning November 1st - keep an eye out for details! Set Chicago as your Home Region! If you're receiving this email, you've taken an important first step in affiliating with the NaNo :: Chicago region. To have your donations and word count related to the Chicago region though, you need to take one additional step: setting us as your "home" region. This step should be taken by wrimos new and returning as the site seems to have reset most people's profiles this year. To set Chicago as your home region, go to http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/og/home and choose Chicago as your home region, then click the button that says "Set Home Region" at the bottom of the page. It's as easy as that! Start washing your dishes and cleaning up your houses & apartments everyone - NaNoWriMo is almost here! (And as we all know, those chores will inevitably fall to the wayside once we all start writing, so it's better to start off with a clean slate, right?) And if you really want to get a great head start, join us tomorrow at the NaNo-Pre-Planning meeting. We'll be at Noble Tree in Lincoln Park from 1-4pm. It's located at 2444 N Clark Street. We'll meet on the top floor, space-permitting. Bring: Yourself and your Plotting Device of Choice (laptop, notebook, note cards, personal secretary, etc.) This will be a low-key plotting and planning session. Think your plot might be a bit loose, and want a second opinion? Just want to brag about the awesome novel idea you came up with? Suspect that your character may not be as realistic as you hope? Take a few hours away from the forums and come get some character and plot help from fellow ChiWriMos! If you're not able to make it, we hope to see you soon! Good luck with your pre-NaNo planning everyone! Sent by: Tim on 10/25/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Getting Ready for November! Hello hello! It's been great seeing and talking to many of you on the forums so far this year! Just a general reminder to go get on the Chicago Regional Forum today if you haven't already! Introduce yourself, take note of planned write-ins, and RSVP for our Kick-Off Party and State-wide Write-in!! Even though it's just under two weeks to go until November (and all of the joys and frustrations and writer's blocks that it brings), we at ChiWriMo HQs have decided that we're too impatient to wait until November 1st. We're so eager for NaNo to start that we've decided a pre-NaNo Planning Session is in order! This coming Sunday, October 25 (or, by the NaNo Calendar, "t-minus 7 days"), we'd like to invite you to join us for an afternoon of chatting about the upcoming month. It's a chance to meet some fellow writers outside of the kick-off, to explain your plot to other people and have help in working through any plot holes you may foresee. When: Sunday, 10/25 from 1-4 PM Where: Noble Tree Cafe; 2444 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60614 Details: We'll meet on the top floor, space-permitting, but look for the BRIGHT yellow ML shirts! Bring: Yourself and your Plotting Device of Choice (laptop, notebook, note cards, personal secretary, &c.) This will be a low-key plotting and planning session. Think your plot might be a bit loose, and want a second opinion? Just want to brag about the awesome novel idea you came up with? Suspect that your character may not be as realistic as you hope? Take a few hours away from the forums and come get some character and plot help from fellow ChiWriMos! Sent by: Michelle on 10/19/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Once More (With Feeling) Due to an unfortunate glitch in the system, the
Chicago region launched in NaNo 2009 with a population in the single digits.
Somehow, in the transition to the new system, our 2008 members were
unaffiliated with our regional forum, which means we were unable until now
to send out this email. Thank you so much to Dan and Lindsey at the NaNo HQs
for listening to our whining and for putting so much of your valuable time
into helping us with this! Sent by: Michelle on 10/09/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Testing 1, 2, 3... is this thing on? Aloha ChiWriMos, and welcome to Site Launch
2009! Or, as the rest of the world calls it, "October". Sent by: Michelle on 10/06/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Mid-September Bits and Bobs? Aloha Chicago Wrimos! This past weekend marked another fun and productive (mostly) ML Planning Meeting. We're getting ready for NaNo 2009, and hope to have a whole slew of new and shiny and exciting things for you when the site launches on October 1. Here are a few things that you should know about! I. Twitter Yes, we have a twitter! Follow @chiwrimo today, where we'll be posting all sorts of great updates and newsflashes as we get them! Also, you should probably follow those crazy folks over at @nanowrimo, because we hear they're pretty cool, too! II. Site Wipe As October 1 grows closer, so does the annual Site Wipe, when the techs erase all of the 2008 data to make room for the 2009 posts! Now is the time to get on the forums and save anything that you might want this November, because once it's gone, well, it's gone! III. Suburban Folks Thank you to everyone in the 'burbs who responded to my last email! We've collected all of your feedback and fixed the data points on a map, so we can see where everyone lives and where we need to be this November! We can't promise to make it to your neighborhood, but we're definitely hoping to more events outside of the city. So thank you again for taking the time to respond! IV. ChiWriMo.org As many of you are aware, we have a ChiWriMo website, which can be found at www.chiwrimo.org. Go check it out, it's full of amazing resources, and Tim has been working to update the appearance and bring new content to you all! That's about it! Just a mid-month email to let you know that we're still working hard to make this November the best one ever. We'll send another one out on or around October 1, and then sporadically as November grows closer! Sent by: Michelle on 9/17/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] September Update and Write-in Poll Part Deux Happy September, Chicago WriMos! One of our goals this year is to keep you all much more in the loop about what's going on with planning for this November, so we're hoping to do a broadcast email like this every two weeks or so until closer to November. We're super excited about all of the fun things we're coming up with and planning, and we think 2009 is going to be the best year so far! Today we finalized the location for our kick-off party! We found a really awesome location, and we're kind of in a state of GLEE over it. Unfortunately, we can't tell you what it is just yet... you'll have to wait until October 1 for that, when the 2009 forums go up! But mark your calendars, ladies and gents: November 1, 2009, from 6-9 PM, we are gonna PAR-TAY! A couple of other fun things are in the works, including a partnership with some local libraries. We'll hopefully have more information about this by our next broadcast email in a couple of weeks, but this is a new pet project this year that we're hoping to use to draw more young adults into the NaNoWriMo challenge. And now, a poll! Well, a questionnaire of sorts... We recognize that Chicago is a big region. A BIG region, with a lot of suburbs stretching for miles all around. In the past, we've mainly focused on holding write-ins in and around Chicago proper. However, we know that a lot of you live out in the suburbs, and we're interested to know where you are! Are you able to attend write-ins in the city at all? Do you hold you own suburban write-ins? All of you WriMo's in the 'burbs, it's your turn to speak up and tell us where you are and how we can help you out this November! Our next ML meeting is in just under two weeks, and we'll hopefully get a lot of write-ins planned and on the calendar soon after that. So keep an eye out at ChiWriMo.org for new changes and exciting news in the near future! Sent by: Michelle on 9/02/2009
[NaNoWriMo :: Chicago] Getting Ready for NaNo 2009! Good afternoon, Chicago WriMos! It's almost September (where did this summer go?), which means your MLs are hard at work (no, really, stop laughing) preparing for NaNoWriMo 2009! This is going to be an amazing year, and we're incredibly excited about all of the fun things we've been working on for you (which we can't tell you about yet, but trust us, they're awesome!). Yesterday was our second prep meeting of the year, and we hammered out a lot of details, and also started planning for parties, write-ins, and various fun events in and around the Chicago area. However, WE NEED YOUR HELP! As many of you know, we hold write-ins (group writing events) five or six times a week during November. These write-ins are usually after work on the weekdays, or at various times on the weekends, and they're always a blast to attend. But we're always on the look-out for new locations. So, if you have a favorite coffee shop, or a cafe that's just perfect for writing, please share it with us! Just keep in mind that it should, if possible, meet these criteria: - must have room for 10-20 people - plugs for laptops/power strips - near a transit line Bonus points if the venue is ADA Compliant (wheelchair accessible), has wireless internet, and if the food is not only tasty but affordable! If there was a write-in location from last year that you particularly enjoyed, or that you completely hated, please let us know that, too! Feedback is awesome! As always, please don't hesitate to contact any of the MLs with questions, comments, or anything else! We're looking forward to another great November with all of you! Sent by: Michelle on 8/24/2009
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Disclaimer: This is the official website for the Illinois::Chicago regions of NaNoWriMo and ScriptFrenzy and is managed by the Illinois::Chicago NaNoWriMo & ScriptFrenzy chapter. This is not an official NaNoWriMo site, and the content has not been reviewed by National Novel Writing Month. For more information on National Novel Writing Month, visit www.nanowrimo.org.
