Good Morning Brighton WriMos!
It is, once again, approaching that time where we say goodbye to our loved ones and social activities and set out to write for an entire month!
I have two things for you today:
- Events! Preptober, and the start of NaNoWriMo 2024
- An update on NaNoWriMo and where we stand with it
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Events! Preptober, Kick-off Parties, and Write-ins, Oh My!
We have a few events to get you started (or help you along) with your planning this year! You can view the full calendar of events all the way through to the TGIO party on December 1st on our google calendar.
Preptober Events:
Saturday 12th October
What: Collective Brainstorming & Quiet Body Doubling with SerCoat
Bounce some ideas around, and then get your head down and work on that plan! ‘Body doubling’ is a way to Get Things Done by working alongside other people- much the same way that we do with our write-ins!
When: 1-4pm
Where: Brighton WriMos Discord
Thursday 17th October
What: Story Structure & Scheduling time to write with Cerys
A workshop to get you thinking about what a story is, ways you can structure it, genre, characters, and how to carve out time in a busy schedule so that you can hit your goals.
When: 7-9pm
Where: Google Meet – https://meet.google.com/jjv-qcnz-wgd
Sunday 20th October
What: ??? with Cerys
When: 7-9pm
Where: Google Meet – https://meet.google.com/jjv-qcnz-wgd
Wednesday 23rd October
What: Rubber Ducking Roundtable with SerCoat
Problems with your plot? Explain it to your fellow writers! Maybe you’ll figure out the problem just by explaining it, maybe you’ll get some creative ideas from other people, either way it will probably be interesting!
When: 7-9pm
Where: Brighton WriMos Discord
Monday 28th October
What: Brainstorming Strategies For When You’re Stuck with Lawrence
We all hit a bit of a block at some point, so it’s good to have strategies and resources to deal with that- it’s a big stress-reducer to know that you have something up your sleeve for when the going gets tough!
When: 7-8pm
Where: Brighton WriMos Discord
NaNo Events:
Sunday 27th October
IRL Kick-off Party
What: Come along and meet the people you’ll be writing alongside! Let’s chat, play Brighton WriMos Bingo, make a seagull-on-a-stick (among other activities), and generally have some fun!
When: 2-4pm
Where: Alcampo Lounge, London Road, Brighton
Thursday 31st October
Virtual ‘Fancy’ Dress Kick-off Party
What: The online kick-off party with our traditional ‘fancy’ dress theme- and ‘fancy’ can mean anything from a full-on costume, to an excuse to wear your fanciest clothes, to your favourite pyjamas (let’s just keep it rated 12a, okay? 😉 ) while we get to know each other, play the Untitled Gif Game, and have a laugh!
When: 7-9pm
Where: Brighton WriMos Discord
Midnight Word War
What: Kick off the month with a short word war at midnight on November 1st. The night owls can then keep writing, while the rest of us go to bed!
When: 11.45pm-12.15am
Where: Brighton WriMos Discord
Sunday 3rd November
The First Write-In! (in-person and online)
What: Our first write-in of the year! Come along and write with us IRL and get access to rewards, word war prizes, the Panic Jar, double-headed dragons, and sweets! (yes, we are children inside). Or jump on Discord to join in with word wars, celebration, and encouragement!
When: 2-6pm
Where: [IRL location TBC] & The Brighton WriMos Discord
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An Update on NaNoWriMo.
A lot has changed since this time last year. The NaNoWriMo organisation has been digging itself into a hole for a while now, and despite a change of leadership and the mass exodus of 99% of the staff, things have continued to get worse. If you want to read the whole story of what’s been happening with the organisation, you can read up about it here at nanoscandal.com. Since the instatement of the new Executive Director, that has included her firing all of the MLs (those of us who organise events & community for various regions), banning under-18s from almost everything except for the word tracker (including their local communities), and most recently (and publicly) calling people who oppose the use of AI for writing “classist and ableist”.
We here at Brighton WriMos want you all to know that we do not support anything that the NaNoWriMo organisation is doing or has done.
However (it is a good ‘however’, I promise!), we believe that the NaNoWriMo challenge (i.e. writing 50k in 30 days) is still a positive thing- setting wild creative goals and striving to reach them with the support of a wonderful community. With this in mind we’re still going to be doing that– we just aren’t doing it using the nanowrimo.org resources. One of our wrimos, Lawrence, has created our own group word count tracker for us [link], and we will compile a list of alternative tracking websites and spreadsheets for y’all to use (for instance, trackbear.app will let you import your nanowrimo projects if you no longer want to use the NaNoWriMo website).
In the meantime, we are most active on Discord – http://bit.ly/brightondiscord (you may even be reading this there 😉 ), but you can also find us on facebook – facebook.com/groups/brightonwrimos, and we have our own website – http://brightonwrimos.org (it’s very much under construction, my life got a little bit stressful this year, which has been getting in the way!). Plus, you can follow us on Twitter/x @brightonwrimos for event updates and reminders!
We encourage questions about any of this, and about our events! Please feel free to contact us via the comments, or on Discord, Facebook, or Twitter!
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