Don't Panic!

[Dichotomy6958]

[NOTE: I've been trying to send the following message to the Spokane
Region Affiliates on the nanowrimo website all day, and have not been
able to get it successfully posted. Twice I've gotten as far as the
edit screen, but lost the connection before I could send the message.
Out of frustration, I'm posting it here, although this group is one of
the suggested alternate channels of communication.

If you know of any NaNo participants who are not members of this
group, feel free to pass this message on to them.]

**********

I've heard from several of you today who are having problems posting
your word count to the NaNoWriMo site, and I imagine the rest of you
are experiencing the same difficulties. The website is notoriously
slow and touchy the first few days of November, so you're not doing
anything wrong -- it's just overloaded by everyone trying to log in at
the same time. After the first few days, things settle down and it
won't be so difficult. It also doesn't help that the web host had some
major power outages over the last few days, so it's impossible to tell
whether the problems are resulting from a traffic overload or simply
no connection to the outside world at all.

For now, the only way to update your word count is through your
profile page (when you can get to it). Click on the "My NaNoWriMo" box
on the grey navigation bar at the top of every page. If you're using a
browser other than IE (I'm not), you may see a drop-down list when you
hover over that bar. You would then click on the "Edit Novel" menu
item. Since I use IE, I have to click on "My NaNoWriMo, and then
choose Edit Novel from the link on the left side of the page on the
resulting page. For now that Edit Novel screen 's the only place you
can upload your word count, but keep your eye on the word count box at
the top of every page, as that will soon be activated and you can then
just plug the number of words in there. Just remember that at the end
of November you'll have to go back into the "edit novel" screen to
officially verify your novel's size.

If you can't get nanowrimo.org to load at all, you might consider
accessing the Spokane calendar of events directly.

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ptqa6qsqfqghjn3ebambvn7qao%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles&pvttk=296ebd87783fb83bd5a8a060a472e0f7

If you'd like to add the Spokane schedule to your own Google calendar
(and if you don't have a Google calendar yet, now would be the time to
create one), send me an email and I'll pass on a direct link.

The link to the Spokane chat room is: http://www.chatzy.com/590149067958
if you need the log-in password, send me an email and I'll pass it
onto you. I can't guarantee someone will be there, but as more of us
begin using it, there's a good chance you'll bump into someone who's
willing to commiserate with you.

Spokane also has a twitter feed, and Dana and I will be posting
updates there as we learn more information. In fact, during site
outages, twitter is how I keep track of the NaNoWriMo happenings, too.
Join Twitter at http://twitter.com and follow SpoKaNaNo and NaNoWriMo.
It's not necessary to use text messaging to twitter – I access it
solely from the website. (You're even welcome to follow me –
Dichotomy6958 – but there you'll more likely to be subjected to my
rants of frustration rather than helpful updates.) Consider twittering
your word count until you have a chance to officially post it to
NaNoWriMo.


Finally, we also have a Spokane Google group: http://groups.google.com/group/spokanano
This group is generally used only during those times when the NaNo
website is down: Every September, while the website is being revamped,
during outages like when the server died in October, and periods of
overload that are experienced in early November.

If you can't upload your word count on the NaNoWriMo site, consider
joining the SpoKaNaNo google group (if you haven't already), and post
your word count there.


Samantha
Co-Municipal Liaison for Spokane, WA


PS – Important schedule change for those of you who were planning on
attending the Sunday write-in at the Empyrean: Their winter hours have
them opening at noon on Sundays, so we've shifted our write-in
schedule by an hour. We'll now meet from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm.