Your turn to help me –
So I’m planning to write a novel next month, and am wondering if any of you are too. Are ya? Are ya?
LA’s sweetest blogger Cybele’s running the forums for NaNoWriMo, if you need an extra reason to get involved.
And while I know NaNoWriMo writers go for caffeine kicks mostly, I’m wondering if I can organize a writing group around wine. Renee’s, for ex, does lunch now — complete with free wifi (though perhaps that’s not conducive to novel writing) from noon to 2 pm. I’m thinking meet up there, type madly for 2 hours over wine, then go back to work or in my case, take a nap. Anyone?
Other options: Hotel bars, late night. Ambrose or Fairmont both work for me — Lemme know what your best ideas for wine-writing are –
The mysterious WC/ECD line at the end of my infrequent blog posts refers to the progress on my novel. That number is soon to reset to 0 as I finish up draft 2 (I’ve got about 3000 words to go). In theory, I treat NaNoWriMo as try-to-write-50K-words month, but in practice, it’s not been so much (last November, I wrote 9,646 words, compared to 11,990 last October and 14,523 last December).
The key thing, though, is to write. In one of my notebooks, I have a great quote from W. P. Kinsella. Quoting from memory: “Writers write. Other people talk.”
The most important thing about getting a novel finished (says the guy who has only ever finished one, which he immediately trunked), is that you need to be willing to give up not-writing.
Comment by don hosek — October 9, 2007 @ 10:23 pm
Haha. If only I were old enough to drink wine =P.
Comment by Roy H — October 9, 2007 @ 11:59 pm
No many novel ideas, dragging on in partial form for so long. I need to follow Kinsella’s advise.
Comment by Kate — October 10, 2007 @ 6:24 am
Although apparently I should follow his advice somewhat later in the day, when I can proofread what I’ve just typed.
No suggestions on location, though–I’m not much of a wine drinker, and my work doesn’t give me quite that long for lunch! That’s the one thing I miss about my freelance days, not that I was writing then, either.
Comment by Kate — October 10, 2007 @ 6:28 am
Hey, I’d love to join a wine/writing group, but I’m not sure if I’d go for NaNoWriMo. It’s gruelling, and I have *lots* of other things I need to finish writing. Are you taking in non-novelists, too? ;)
Comment by Robert 'Groby' Blum — October 10, 2007 @ 11:46 am
I’m gonna! But in DC so that doesn’t do you any good…
Comment by Penny Nickel — October 10, 2007 @ 5:21 pm
Having thought about your proposal a bit, my thinking is that writing is too solitary an endeavor for what you suggest to be productive. That said, if you wanted to start a critique group in the aftermath of NaNoWriMo (I suggest starting in January as reading first-draft prose is a painful endeavor), I’d be up for it.
I’m also realizing that given that I’m entering draft 3 stage on my novel, NaNoWriMo-style plunging in doesn’t make sense for me at this point: I really need to be writing slowly and carefully at this point.
Comment by don hosek — October 11, 2007 @ 12:54 pm
I’m taking the plunge this year, finally. Writing with wine instead of coffee might help… If you decide on a regular place/time, let me know.
Comment by Jen — October 11, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
I’m soooo wishing I lived in your area right now! I’ve been needing a motivator to get me to sign up for NaNoWriMo and this would have been just the thing to push me over the edge…*sigh*
I guess I’ll just have to start up my own little “support group” of sorts.
Comment by smtwngrl — October 12, 2007 @ 7:08 am
You know I wrote a comment here yesterday and today it’s gone! Is wordpress sending my own comments to spam? Sigh –
Okay — would-be wine-novelists in LA (as in me and Jen, so far) — we would need to set some ground rules so wine-writing doesn’t turn into just wining. Maybe like zip it for 40, then chat and get a second glass for 10, something like that –
Comment by Siel — October 12, 2007 @ 9:17 am
I’m in. I have identified 4 Santa Monicans including you and I. I’m still trying to get my bearings here but have been trying to scout out good places for coffee, wine, margaritas, whatever.
Comment by Deli Korkmaz — October 12, 2007 @ 6:19 pm
Wine and writing in hotel bars late at night sounds fun! I live in Santa Monica as well. Yeah, Renee’s sounds fun!
Comment by rannva — October 12, 2007 @ 9:45 pm