Toronto NaNo

As another NaNoWriMo draws to a close it’s time again to thank the wonderful people who help make our community such a wonderful and welcoming place to write.

For his sterling work wrangling Wrimos at our most crowded location this year Andrew has truly earned the title of King of King. It wasn’t easy to sort out the many satellite colonies that took over every available space at Starbucks, but Andrew handled it with true zen.

Our online home wouldn’t be the beautifully crazy place it is without Bunnyhero, our very own Lord of the Chat. Particularly since this year ToNaNo has been saddled with an ML who is continually baffled by the speed of the chat room, Bunny has been truly invaluable in keeping chat a fun and safe place to be.

Speaking of chat, special thanks go to CheekyStoat for jumping into the fray to keep us safe from spammers at all hours. For their courage in the face of trolls they are awarded the honor of Last Minute Lifesaver.

Of course it wouldn’t be ToNaNo without our resident Word Fairy, Daeja. Her inspirational words and boundless enthusiasm drove many of our word counts to new heights. She’s also done a sensational job of managing the regional Twitter account this year.

Returning to run our teen event were the redoubtable Sunny and Franci. Balancing modding and school is no easy feat, but they managed it handily, and are hereby granted the Teen Spirit award. Their event may not have had the highest attendance, but I think it may have been the one I got the most words written at.

She may have been frolicking with wizards and manatees for the first part of November, but Elizabeth was an invaluable help in keeping us going during the Overnighter, and helping us celebrate in style at the TGIO. Sorting out sleep deprived Wrimos takes the skill of a true Mischief Manager.

And finally, from the Cemetery Walk through to the TGIO, no other mod has made it to as many write-ins and events as the ever valiant LoP. Accompanied by her faithful owl Perry she spent the month making sure Wrimos both in person and in chat had an amazing time. She has more than earned  the title of Wonderful Wizard of Mods.

November is zooming by and we’re now officially in the home stretch of NaNoWriMo 2015.

Whether you’re flying high and ready to sprint to the finish, or if feel like you’re struggling up hill all the way: KEEP WRITING! Come the end of November you’ll be glad you did.

If you’re looking for an opportunity to get a lot written and have amazing amounts of fun at the same time join us for the annual ToNaNo Overnighter. RSVPs are required for this event, so please make sure click on the link to let us know you’re coming.

Our regular writing sessions on Mondays at King and Fridays at Davisville also continue every week of November.

Finally, keep your eyes on the forums for details coming soon about a brand new online writing marathon on November 28. You wont’ want to miss it.

It’s time to start writing!  I wish you many happy words now and in the weeks to come.

If you weren’t able to make it to the Kick Off on the 30th here’s the low down on some of the exciting things happening in November.

Passports are back! You can collect one from myself or one of our fantastic mods at write-ins and events. You can use your passport to keep track of your NaNo achievements and to be eligible to win a prize at the TGIO.

The gauntlet has been thrown down for our 2015 Word War with the Edmowrimo Literary Ninjas. You can sign up to join the battle on team ToNaNo DinoPirate by posting in this thread. Whichever region writes the most in November will win bragging rights and fame forever.

Keep an eye on our Regional Forum for all sorts of upcoming events. You can also feel free to host your own write-ins if you feel like getting together for a date/time/part of town where we don’t have something already scheduled.

Now that you’ve all hopefully had time to recover from your turkey comas hopefully you’re starting to get excited for NaNoWriMo 2015!

Our forums are now live. How many pages will we get the introduction thread up to this year? Come introduce yourselves and make me scramble to write replies to all of you 🙂

On the forums you’ll find info on our first two events:

Cemetery Walk on October 24 at 2pm – Come walk through Mount Pleasant Cemetery, get some ideas for your novel, and meet some other Toronto Wrimos.

Kick Off Party on October 30 at 7pm  – Launch NaNo 2015 in style at Pauper’s Pub. This is a great way to meet (or catch up) with friends and get the inside scoop on what’s coming up in November.

Now if you’ll excuse me I need to get back to frantically planning my own novel, which currently appears to have three nameless characters and no plot.

September is upon us and, despite what the meteorologists would have you believe it always feels like the beginning of fall to me. With the beginning of fall come returns to school, work, activities, and most importantly thoughts of NaNoWriMo.

Planning is well underway for this year’s event in Toronto, and you can expect more updates as we get closer to November. The annual “forum wipe” is scheduled for early October, after which our forums will start to get active and you’ll be able to find more information on some of the events we have planned for your delectation and delight.

If you’re desperate for ToNaNo fun before October feel free to swing by our official Facebook group. That’s where our off-season write-ins usually get organized.

I’m looking forward to seeing lots of new and familiar faces soon

Your ML

How’s it going, wrimo?

Is your word count soaring so high you can barely see it up there in the clouds? If so, congratulations. You’ve worked hard and maybe had a bit of luck, and you’re well on your way to a November that’s successful not just for the purple Winner bar, but also because you’ve done something you probably didn’t think was possible. Maybe you’ve won before, but this year is different because life threw different challenges your way and still you’ve found time and energy and ideas to write big. Keep up it, stretch your goals, stretch yourself. Aim for the stars! (I don’t hold with this shoot for the moon, if you miss you’ll land among the stars nonsense. The stars are further away than the moon If you miss the moon, you’ll land among satellites and space waste. Shoot for the stars. They are prettier and there are more of them.)

Is your word count floundering? Are you struggling to find time to write among the rest of life’s demands? Or ideas amongst the mire of inner editor and self-doubt? Or energy because you’re sick, or working too hard, or just burning the candle at both ends and in the middle too? Don’t panic. Even if you stop now, you’ve probably written more words this month than you otherwise would have, and that makes you a winner too. Really, it does – NaNoWriMo is only a challenge against yourself and you just beat your none-nanoing self! But anyway, you’re not going to stop now. We’re not even halfway there yet. There’s plenty of time to catch up, or at least to write more. Review your targets, set yourself something stretching but achievable whether that’s 50,000 or 5,000 words and then GO GO GO. Tonano is behind you. If it helps, head over to our chatroom for some real-time motivation from fellow wrimos. If it doesn’t, ignore chat and get back to writing. You can do this, and when you do, we’ll be there to pat you on the back!

Or are you like me? Little Miss (or Mr, Dr, whatever) On Par? We, my friends, are the plodders. But you’ve read about the tortoise and the hare. You know that plodding is nothing to be ashamed of. We’ll win, just like the Soarers and we’ll beat our non-nanoing selves just like the Flounderers. Keep plodding on, keep hammering out those 1667 words and maybe a few extras on a good day, and we’ll drag ourselves across the finish line at 11.59pm on November 30th with a smile on our faces and our shells still firmly attached.

This is NaNoWriMo, people, we will ALL win in our own ways, we will ALL support each other to the end, and we can ALL celebrate at the TGIO on 1st December.

OK, it’s November. Let’s write!

But also, don’t forget to come to write-ins on Mondays at Yonge / King Starbucks, 6pm and on Fridays at either Davisville or Runnymede Starbucks, 7pm.

We’re also hoping to have some “hosted” write-ins his year, but details are still TBC. At the very least, mark your calendars for 10pm on Wednesday 12th at Indigo’s Eaton Centre store.

Now, let’s write*!

(Please note, the writer of this post, Elmo, has about as much chance of writing over this weekend, as of having the Pope round to tea. She’s organising a birthday party, failing to bake (let alone decorate) a cake for said party, and doing a whole bunch of stuff that isn’t writing-conducive. She’ll catch you up on Monday. Hopefully. If she’s not dealing with a toddler on a post-party sugar-hangover.)

For those who missed last night’s Kick Off excitements, here’s a run-down of the Exciting Announcements we shared.

Your Passport To Novelling Success

Ever feel like you need a map and compass to navigate NaNo? Well, we can’t help you with that, but this year we are offering you an exciting opportunity to see where you’ve been! Your ToNaNo Passport is free and the more stamps you collect, the better chance of winning a PRIZE at TGIO on December 1st. Stamps are available from any ML or Event Mod, and are awarded for things like attending events, hitting word count goals, even making a new friend!

If you didn’t get a passport at the Kick-Off, collect one from the MLs or Event Mods at events throughout November (while stocks last).

Please note, you must attend the TGIO to be eligible for prizes, but even if you won’t be there, feel free to join in the passporting fun.

Grab your cutlass, sharpen your claws – the Word War just got personal!

We’re getting too good at beating over the regions, so this year we’re going to beat each other. Elmobeard’s Pirates will take on The Sarahsauruses in a fight to the finish! Check out the forum for how to get involved and then sign up by 5th November to be placed in one of the teams. Your MLs need you!

Teams will be drawn at random, but please let us know if your intended word count for the month is going to be hugely more (or – shock! horror! – less), than 50,000.

Calling all manatees!

Sunstreak is running our annual mentoring scheme this year, so if you’re a seasoned veteran keen to help out, please consider signing up, and if you’re new, get yourself a personal cheerleader. Details and sign ups are on her forum post and the deadline to be involved is 3rd November.

Money, money, money

Last but not least, while NaNoWriMo is free, it runs as a not-for-profit and both the OLL and your MLs incur some expenses in bringing this awesomeness to you every year. If you are able to donate, you can do so in cash at events, or via the website. And if you do donate (suggested donation $15 or above), you can sign up for our “Adopt a Day” scheme. You can also Adopt a Day by sharing a pep talk with the rest of the region on the same thread – and if you do both, you get a WHOLE DAY all to yourself. Don’t say we never give you anything!

The forums are live, the turkey bones are safely disposed of and leaves are covering my street in a carpet of crinkliness, so it must be almost November and time to announce the Kick-Off!

Everyone’s invited, whether you’ve done NaNo a thousand times before, never written a word or somewhere in between. We’ll have fun and games and the Tonano crowd prides itself on being welcoming and inclusive, but if you want to bring a friend that’s great too. Costumes are strictly optional, but don’t be surprised if you see a few funny-looking characters around – it is almost Halloween, after all!

We don’t need to you to RSVP for this event, but you can feel free to let us know you’re coming anyway 🙂

Hosts: Jaaelmo, bunnyhero and Daeja

Where: Pauper’s Pub @539 Bloor Street West, Toronto, M5S 1Y5. Upstairs.

When: Monday, October 27, 7-10pm

By TTC: Just East of Bathurst subway station (Bloor line) on Bloor Street.

Wheelchair accessible? We’re sorry, but no. We’ll be upstairs and there are stairs.

Lost on the way there? Call Jen / Elmo (ext. 2) through the ToNaNo Hotline, 647-478-3055

We’re looking forward to seeing you there – or at the Workshopping Workshop this weekend first!