NaNoWriMo 2011 In Arizona [Write A Novel Month]

It’s almost that time of year when everyone with the ambition to write a novel gathers and pushes each other to stop dreaming and actually do it.

November is NaNoWriMo! (National Novel Writing Month.)

The challenge is to write 50,000 words within November’s 30 days. The idea is not that you’ll have a perfect (or even close to perfect) story, plot, novel, or characters, but that you’ll have an amazing start, and have fun doing it. You just have to keep writing, spilling out all your ideas.

There’s really not enough time to edit, re-write, or second guess yourself.

So how does NaNoWriMo fit into Arizona?

Arizona has some fantastic groups that go all out for this marathon of words.

They’re very active, involved, and dedicated to helping everyone in their group succeed. As part of the East Valley group two years ago, I can tell you they are wicked friendly, helpful, and fun. So if you think you might try to go for it this year, do yourself a favor and join one.

They usually meet together pretty often, sometimes at interesting locations, like the light-rail, to keep things fun.

A lot of them meet at Bookmans, who also does a lot to support the madness. So will Storytellers AZ out of Gangplank.

You can find all of the Arizona groups right here – just type Arizona into the filter to narrow it down.

Last year I asked some of you what you were writing and got some pretty interesting responses.

So will you plan something out then write like mad during November, or open up a Word document on Nov 1st and see what happens?

Either way, write on!

Bite Into CopperCon This Weekend [Conventions]

Some geek conventions tend to focus on SF & Fantasy books, and tabletop gaming.

Case in point: Arizona’s CopperCon, of which the 31st manifestaion is presenting itself this weekend.

Although things like Anime are still a part of the experience, guests, panels, and events tend to focus on writing. This year’s theme seems to dwell on things that go bump in the night, like werewolves and sparkle-resistant vampires.

I’ve never been to a CopperCon, but I am a big fan of nerdy books – although less so of the vampire/werewolf variety.

Bite into these details if you’re interested:

• This weekend Sept 2nd – Sept 5th.
• At the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in Avondale.
• Prices skew a bit high – $55 for the whole weekend, with daily rates as well.
• (Also, they only accept cash, FYI.)
• They’re bringing in some bigger authors, as well as spotlighting locals.

As I wrote about last year’s then-upcoming CopperCon:

I really like the idea of a convention that focuses less on promoting movies, TV shows, and video games, and instead dives deeper into books, writing, gaming, and the core of SF and Fantasy – ideas.

Phoenix Storytellers [Group]

We of the nerdy persuasion get to enjoy multiple forms of story telling.

Unwilling to limit ourselves to the mainstream forms of media – we get to go further with video games, tabletop games, comics, graphic novels, RPGs, webcomics, and web-series’. (And some of you even LARP.)

But it’s all story telling. It’s everywhere.

Which is why a group was recently formed at Gangplank, accurately called “Storytellers,” to help each other improve at this ancient art. They describe themselves as more of a support group than anything.

I think it would be a great resource for any of you who are writers, bloggers, novelists, NaNoWriMo’ers, comic or script writers, or even game masters who are interested in learning more about conveying ideas through stories.

Their first meeting is tomorrow night (Tues, March 15th) at 7pm.

Just wander in to Gangplank in Downtown Chandler, and bring your writer’s block, a willingness to learn, and your willingness to share what you’re good at.

From there they’ll be meeting every other Tuesday night, same time.

For more details, check out this post by local blogger Wendy Coneybeer, who helped organize the group.

When I was at Saturday night’s Cinematic Titanic show, Joel told us the story of how the night before the Mystery Science Theater 3000 pilot, he had the awful realization that he’d never actually asked anyone to man his two now-famous puppets.

Intuitively, he picked up the phone and called two people from a local writers group he was part of – and Joel, Trace, and J Elvis are still touring the country riffing movies.

You never know!