We are excited to announce that we’ll be hosting a selection of online workshops again this year. Click on the links below to participate at the specific time. These workshops are held in Second Life®.
Join our Second Life® group Milk Wood Wrimos for event reminders and follow us on Twitter for daily tips – you’ll find lots of great links under the hashtag #virtualwrimos.
NaNoWriMo at Milk Wood in Second Life®
All scheduled events take place at the Milk Wood Writing Group area (unless otherwise stated) or in the writing room at Book Island Library (Sundays at 12 noon PT). Please be aware that the clocks go back in the US on the 4th November and on the 28th October in the UK, and we go by Pacific Time (PT), also known as SLT in Second Life®.
Our main Second Life® meeting place is here: NaNoWriMo at Milk Wood
Writing Workshops & Write-Ins
Wednesday 31st October, 2018
2pm PT / 5pm ET / 9pm GMT
Click here to teleport to the writing area
NaNoWriMo Kick-Off Party
Hosted by Harriet Gausman
A chance for you to meet your fellow Wrimos, pick up the goodie bag and titler, and chat about your NaNoWriMo ideas. We’ll share some plot storyboard and character development resources in readiness for November, then we’ll all sit down together and begin to plot in a timed writing session. Fancy dress a must! This year the theme is ‘Cruel Intentions’, so be creative. We’ll be looking for originality and flair. Best outfit wins a prize of 2,000 Linden dollars, and a month’s free stall rental at Milk Wood.
About Harri
In 2007, Harri conceded her élan vital to pixels and created the atmospheric Milk Wood, inspired by the Dylan Thomas radio drama, Under Milk Wood. Over the years, the sim has become a literary home to many artists and continues to offer a range of writing and reading events, providing opportunities for writers to cultivate their craft, develop literary poise, and establish a strong artistic voice. Harri is experienced at planning and hosting online events, and applies a unique approach to promoting and supporting writers.
The former teacher, turned children’s author, has published non-fiction articles, short stories, and poetry. She is currently completing an MA in creative writing, and writing an historical children’s novel set in Siberia during the Stalin era. She is a NaNoWriMo veteran.
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Wednesday 31st October, 2018
3pm PT / 6pm ET / 10pm GMT
Click here to teleport to the event
Huck’s Cube of NaNo
Hosted by Huckleberry Hax
It’s National Novel Writing Month again. Prepare yourself for pep talks! If there’s one thing aspiring novelists can rely on in the month of November (besides sleep deprivation and bleeding fingertips) it’s other writers delivering their ‘top tips’ for getting 50,000 words written in the space of 30 days. Huckleberry Hax has absolutely no intention of deviating from this formula (chiefly because it makes him feel for an hour like a real, grown-up writer), and will be once again delivering his ‘Cube of NaNo’ talk at Milk Wood as novelists assume the crouch position, ready for the starter’s gun. Why ‘cube’? Because he has six tips, and six without the framework of a cool geometric shape sounds like it really ought to be edited down to five – BUT WE DON’T EDIT DURING NANOWRIMO!
Join us for an hour in voice on 31st October at 3pm SLT. Please come voice-enabled so you can hear Huck talk. Every person who types the line ‘When is it starting?’ five minutes into the talk *will* be given lines to write.
About Huck
Huckleberry Hax writes virtual reality novels, many of which are set in Second Life® (the best known of which is AFK). He has completed NaNoWriMo eight times.
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Friday 2nd November, 2018
8am PT / 11am ET / 3pm GMT
Click here to teleport to the event
Breaking through the Block
Hosted by Rayne Bowdit
Rayne will lead the discussion on the often feared (but never fatal) Writer’s Block and how we can overcome it. The workshop will be followed by a ten-minute writing sprint.
Some of the discussion points:
- What is Block?
- Plans and how they can go awry
- Pantsers and Planners
Techniques to overcome Block:
- Making time and guarding it like a bulldog
- Sound tracks
- Change of scene
- Working with groups
- Talking it through
- Cleansing the palate
About Rayne
Rayne Bowdit has been a RL writer for over 4 years. She has self-published 30 books in a variety of genres. Better known for her romance fiction, most of her books have reached the number one slot on I-tunes and other sellers. She and her partner, Rennyparish Resident, run their own writer’s group at Omega and have been impressed with the amazing writers they have met and watched grow.
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Saturday 3rd November, 2018
9am PT / 12 noon ET / 4pm GMT
Click here to teleport to the event
Setting the Stage
Hosted by Ercila Robbins
God is in the details. But when is too much detail too much? Join Ercila as she leads a discussion on setting the scene and keeping the story moving.
About Ercila
Retired criminal attorney and author of five crime novels – and more in the works. Ercila is also a former journalist and newspaper editor, and a published poet. She is a mother, grandmother, and veteran.
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Tuesday 6th November, 2018
9am PT / 12noon ET / 5pm GMT
Click here to teleport to the event
Approaches to Developing Characters
Hosted by Aoife Lorefield
Strong characters are key to successful fiction. Especially when you’re a character-driven writer like Aoife!
But how do we find and develop good characters? In this session, Aoife will share how this has worked for her. She’ll discuss techniques she has tried that didn’t pan out, and share others that did. Aoife will also offer resources for finding what works best for you.
About Aoife
Aoife has written everything from academic, technical, and instructional, to essays, short and long fiction, and poetry. She finally completed an indie-published novel last year.
After not meeting her writing goals this year, she is diving into NaNoWriMo to restart her writing engines.
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Wednesday 7th November, 2018
9am PT / 12noon ET / 5pm GMT
Click here to teleport to the event
The Show Not Tell Show
Hosted by Wolfgang Glinka
Novelist and poet, Wolfgang Glinka (Colin Bell), will lead a workshop on the age-old problem of telling the reader what to see rather than showing it in an imaginative and vivid way. Bring writing equipment and yourselves.
About Colin
Before becoming a writer, Colin Bell was a TV producer-director and executive producer making arts programmes for ITV, Channel Four, BBC, and for American, Japanese, and German broadcasters.
His novels, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer of Love (long-listed for the Polari Prize) and Blue Notes, Still Frames are published by Ward Wood Publishing. His poetry has been published in the UK, and the USA where he was nominated for the 2016 Pushcart Prize. His first poetry collection, Remembering Blue, is scheduled to be published in 2018. His Fibonacci poems have been set to music by American composer, Tim Risher, in a song cycle for tenor and piano, Fibonacci Poems (2017).
Under his ‘cyber’ name, wolfiewolfgang, he writes his almost daily blog with comments, photographs, and observations about things that take his fancy, make him laugh, or just get up his nose.
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Friday 9th November, 2018
9am PT / 12 noon ET / 5pm GMT
Click here to teleport to the event
Keeping your Writing Production on Track
Hosted by Emz Mazie
Emz will tell you how she gets so much done on a limited time schedule, how to stick to your deadlines, and tips on how to pump out more words with each writing session.
About Emz
Emerian Rich (Emz Mazie) is a writer, artist, voice actress, speaker, and editor. She writes the Night’s Knights vampire series, is the horror host for the internationally renowned podcast HorrorAddicts.net, and Publisher at HorrorAddicts.net Press. She also writes romance and is Editorial Director for SEARCH Magazine. You can find out more about her at emzbox.com.
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Tuesday 13th November, 2018
8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT
Click here to teleport to the event
World Building
Hosted by Doyle Slen
World building can be a nerve-wracking exercise. Cultures of the current era, ruins of bygone times, and characters swirl together to make a stinking peat bog of your mind. How do you keep everything from boiling over like some Shakespearean witch’s cauldron?
Take a deep breath and sip that brew slowly. Mind the eyeball floating to the side. World building is fun and can be profitable if you’ve a mind to go in that direction. Join Doyle for World Building 101. Bring your own black cats and broomsticks.
About Doyle
Hailing from the swamps of central Xanth (Florida) where he lives with his servitor band of goblins (wife and kids) and pet beagle-pig. He whiles away the day dreaming of world domination. He’s an avid table top roleplayer and war gamer, finding ADnD in 1983 as well as such games as Panzer Blitz, Arctic Storm, and Gamma World.
R.E. Howard, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, Margaret Weis, Mary Shelley, Piers Anthony, Robert Asprin, Robert Jordin, George R. R. Martin, Lynn Abbey, and too many more have been influences.
When not dreaming of world domination, he scribbles furiously to translate the world he began building in 1983 into print. Now with a handy multi-volume guide for his future subjects (currently standing at nine books), he continues to expand on it daily to keep his characters busy.
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Saturday 17th November, 2018
9am PT / 12 noon ET / 5pm GMT
Click here to teleport to the event
She Said, He Said: Writing Dialogue in Roleplay and in Stories
Hosted by Gwen Enchanted and Nathaniel Ballard
Join Gwen and Nathaniel as they share the different ways you can use and write dialogue in roleplay and in stories. They will consider the differences between real life spoken dialogue, roleplay dialogue and written word dialogue.
They will discuss:
- Different dialogues (casual, formal, intimate etc.)
- Utilising dialogue to indicate relationships, situations etc.
- The ways dialogue changes depending on the relationship between participants (strangers, friends, men talking to men, women talking to women, parent to child, boss to worker, wife to husband); as well as how dialogue changes depending on the situation – relaxed conversation vs stressed (e.g. in an emergency), private vs public, role vs person (e.g. talking as colleagues vs talking as friends).
This workshop promises to be a great resource for both writers and roleplayers. Gwen’s workshops are always lively and spirited, so come have some fun and learn something at the same time.
About Nathaniel
Nathaniel has worn many hats over the years – devoted son, accountant, merchant seaman, reluctant vampire, club owner/manager, barman, seneschal, commander of the garrison, Lord of Mysthaven, Husband and Consort to the Faerie Queen. He is a passionate supporter of the arts, particularly music and poetry, surprisingly good at woodwork and extremely bad at flying.
Nathaniel’s author has been a shop assistant, a sausage straightener, burger maker, avionics engineer, railway engineer, and is currently an assistant shop manager in a charity shop. He has been involved in RPGs for over 30 years, 8 of them in Second Life®. He is a host of the daily Writers’ Dash at Milk Wood, and finds himself doing a lot of writing both in and out of Second Life® (occasionally accused of being good at it). Sometimes he dresses up in medieval clothing in Real Life, too. He is owned by a cat called Rosie.
About Gwen
Gwyneth (Faerie Queen): mercurial, intelligent, sometimes trustworthy, usually kind, always late, rarely unprepared.
Gwen (herself): teacher, writer, musician, knitter, photographer, blogger, roleplayer, lover of cats and porridge.
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Write-ins
Word Snatch: Monday – Sunday at 8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm GMT. Additional Word Snatch at Book Island every Sunday at 12 noon PT.
Writers’ Dash: Every Monday – Friday at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm GMT.
Click here to teleport to the Milk Wood writing area
Click here to teleport to the writing room at Book Island Library
The session begins with a prompt, and a timer is set for fifteen or thirty minutes. Participants then write feverishly for the allotted time, using the word (or picture) as inspiration. The key is to disengage your inner editor and write freely. As well as being useful for sketching out notes and scenes before November, and for kick-starting your writing sessions during the month, these sprints are a fun way to increase your word count. For those attending the Dash sessions, there will also be an opportunity for you to receive a brief critique from fellow writers. Sessions are held throughout November at Milk Wood (unless otherwise stated).
Sharing your work: You can share work in Second Life® by dropping your notecard in the rabbit by the Events display. Don’t forget to add the following to your document: copyright mark, date, and your name. Linden Lab changed its ToS in August 2013 and added a clause giving it greater rights to your work. We therefore suggest you use an alternative to notecards for any writing you intend to shop to publishers.
Word Scrimmage
Random word wars held during November. Most battles begin on the hour and last for 30 minutes. Look out for the start and end notices from Milk Wood Wrimos. Feel free to start your own scrimmage by posting an alert in group chat, or hitting the Dash Bell (found on the hill behind the writing camp) to alert others on the sim that a battle is about to commence.
Virtual Field Trips
This year, we will be taking an excursion every Thursday throughout November, and visiting a unique and inspiring sim during our writing session. As we won’t be gathering at Milk Wood during these Thursday meets, be sure to keep an eye out for the notices so you have the correct SLurl.
How do I join the event in Second Life®?
You will need to sign up through the Second Life® website. Go to SecondLife.com to start the process. It’s free to join.
Click on the JOIN NOW button and this will take you to the Registration screen. Here, you simply fill in your personal details and choose a name and look for your avatar. Don’t worry too much about your avatar’s appearance as there will be plenty of opportunity to tweak it once you are inworld.
Once you have completed your Registration, you’ll be asked to download and install the Second Life® viewer to your computer.
Follow the signs and read the information boards as you come to them. There is also a short Second Life® tutorial provided on screen. Try and absorb as much information as possible, but be mindful that you can always return at a later date if there is something you feel you missed. At the very least try and understand the most important concepts such as how to move, how to talk and your camera controls.
Once you have completed the Orientation Tutorial you will need to find your way to Milk Wood. This is the sim that is home to Virtual Writers. At the bottom of your screen you will see a search tab. Click on this and look for Milk Wood. Now the teleporting fun begins. Click on ‘Teleport’ and you will be moved from your present location to our welcome area. Make sure you save the landmark so you can easily return.
We look forward to meeting you at one of our various daily writing events. Don’t forget to click on one of the group joiners, so you can stay abreast of happenings in the writing community. You can also join Virtual Writers through the search facility. Simply put Virtual Writers, Inc. under group search, click on the group name to bring up the profile screen, then click ‘View Full Profile’, followed by ‘Join’.
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If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit our sim in Second Life® then make some time this November. You’ll find an incredibly diverse and active community of writers, and the level of support is second to none.
Our Second Life® NaNoWriMo word meter will be up and working on the 1st at our virtual writers’ camp, and you’ll need to join the Milk Wood Wrimos group in order to obtain our participant titler. Be sure to pick up the free gift box for virtual Wrimos at the camp. It’s full of fun writing resources to use in Second Life® and beyond.
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