Mehinen, to add someone as a buddy, click on their username. That should take you to their profile, and there's an option to add them right under their avatar. As for confirming them, I think you only have to do that if you haven't already added them as a buddy. Hope that helps!

*heads off to subscribe to both Queen Susan and Gymfan's blogs*

EDIT: Whoops! I see Gymfan's got you covered. Actually, this reminds me; is there a setting where the buddy notifications show up more than just once?

Thank you! I think I managed to do it...

Yayy I came up with a plot! And I wrote a synopsis for it, motivated by the "30 Covers, 30 Days" thing. I doubt I'll be chosen, but still... ^_^
If any of you are familiar with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, this plot was inspired by - and is almost a total ripoff of - their album 'Beethoven's Last Night'. Even the title. But...oh well.

His Last Night

An old, deaf author is sitting in his creaky old leather chair with his papers spread all across the desk in front of him. The desk is lit by nothing but candles while he scribbles away furiously and a storm rages outside, heavy raindrops pounding a neverending rythm on the shingled roof that he cannot even hear.

He knows he is going to die this night.

During his last night, he battles the demons in his head, experiencing flashbacks of his life - the demons forcing him to remember the worst parts: the death, pain, and suffering - things that he has caused. But somwhere he knows he is not evil...is he?

I can't believe I'm writing this...All my previous expierience in writing (two and a half novels) have been action packed (probably too much so) and this is going to be reeeeaallly hard for me to write. And I'm going to try and do it in a month. I'm crazier than I thought.

My username is Andre G (O curse the excitement of signing up which maketh thine mind completely and utterly blank when trying to think of a username...and I can't change it now. *sigh) I think I've already added some of you as my friends...but I don't remember who. ^_^

Actually, this reminds me; is there a setting where the buddy notifications show up more than just once?

I don't think there is a way to change the notifications...as I said, the best way to keep track of your buddies and people who have added you as a buddy is via your My Writing Buddies page.

Nice synopsis, Mr Anderson! I still haven't written my full synopsis yet; hoping to do that sometime this week or next.

Just curious, is anybody going to write in another language? I'm writing in spanish.

That depends - if I'm going to try to finish that which I'm hoping to get published eventually, I'll write it in Norwegian.

If, however, I leave that for yet another year and just write fanfiction about Varna instead, I'll do it in English (and it may end up on fanfiction.net eventually).

I forgot to write down my user name for NaNo. It's Adamantine.

Just curious, is anybody going to write in another language? I'm writing in spanish.

That depends - if I'm going to try to finish that which I'm hoping to get published eventually, I'll write it in Norwegian.

Norwegian? That's great! I'm going to write in Finnish, for the same reasons .

Mr. Anderson: That sounds very interesting!

Different language? Cool! That'd be kind of fun to do, actually... if I knew another language.

Should I or no?

Should I or no?

Should I or no?

Or not?

Destined told me I should. I didn't know what it was, and my brother was watching MacGyver in the background, so I couldn't really understand what it was, or get excited about it.

So later, she hammered it into my head (unconsciously), and I got excited about it. I got lots of ideas.

Then I read this thread. I left it open, and my mom came and sat down at the computer.

"You're doing NaNoWriMo?!!!!?!"

Um, you know what that is?

"Maybe."

Oh, right. She subscribed to writers magazines for several years. Of course she'd know.

Then I read the rest of (the pertinant information on) the thread. (Nice covers everybody!!!) Then I looked through all of my favorite Shorpy pictures, and started making a few covers, even though none of the pictures matched any of my ideas.

Since it was near midnight, I went to bed, but not to sleep. I tossed and turned (figuratively) all (allegorically) night, and went over all of my ideas, and I really don't think that I can do this, because

I have no ideas that are any good at all.

I've always known I'm bad at plots. And I don't want to have an antagonist. I want all of my people to be nice. And I hate crises. And I want to write in First Person, and not Historical Fiction. And I want it to be Realistic Fiction that isn't depressing. And neither do I want to write a Guy-Meets-Girl=Fall-In-Love-And-Get-Married-And-Settle-Down-In-A-1920s-Mail-Order-House-From-Sears-Which-Is-Super-Cute-And-Has-A-Front-Door-And-Back-Door-And-Four-Rooms-On-The-Bottom-Story-And-Have-A-Baby-Story (probably involving England and pianos and libraries and loneliness and surprise meetings and pobby blue jugs and a red geraniums on the window sill and wooden floors and tree-lined streets and umbrellas), or, I guess, a Romance. (Or how about my fantasy [fantasy=not something mythical, but an alternate universe which is just like this one that I visit every night] where *someone* goes to England and marries someone who is a little more important than *some guy* and lives in this really nice house with a fire place and a wide stair case and a library and a sun porch where people sit at their desks and write stuff and a dining room with lots of windows and a kitchen which I haven't been in yet, but probably has lots of white cubboards and doesn't go in the public eye much.)

So, what I mean is, I don't want to write any of that, so there's nothing for me to write, right? Right? Write?

I can't do that one. It's Belles on Their Toes verbatim. Yes, I know there are more kids, and there are people named Pitt and Rex and Winslow. And they live in a mansion. But it's a no go.

And while that one might be fun, you would get bored. And who would live in that house? You'd have to go through time periods you don't like. And you don't know anyone who lives there. That wasn't ever even on your list.

I thought about writing the kind of story I always want to read, but no one writes, where there isn't a plot. But.... no one is asking for that one. And it would be both embarrassing and boring to write about how two (characterless) people get married.

The question:

Will Betsie be able to come up with an idea to write about???

Come back on November 1st and find out!!!

(My mother is taking if for granted that I'm doing this.)

Ooh, I'd be so excited if you joined, Betsie!!

(For no reason in particular) But anyway... I hope you do.

Welcome to the madness, Bestsie; I do hope you decide to join us!

I think you can have an interesting and varied story without a villian or huge disaster...some amount of conflict is necessary for the advancement of a story, but you don't need to make your characters miserable. It sounds like you have the setting and characters down; now just figure out some interesting things to do. Just because it's Belles redux doesn't mean it's necessarily bad.

So I think that if you want to use that story you will need to figure out a bit of conflict, but just enough to make the story last 50k.

Ok, so a little while ago I was convinced to give this a try. I just signed up and now I'm scared. What if I can't think of a plot? What if I can't think of characters? What if my characters are boring? What if my characters get on my nerves and I want to kill them all? (I've done that before in stories)

How do you all advise planning? Scribble down ideas as they come to you? Outline the plot? Write character/setting descriptions?

Ok, I know that was a lot of questions, and they've probably all been answered before but HELP!

Sincerely,
A terrified writer,
WinterStar

...Get-Married-And-Settle-Down-In-A-1920s-Mail-Order-House-From-Sears-Which-Is-Super-Cute-And-Has-A-Front-Door-And-Back-Door-And-Four-Rooms-On-The-Bottom-Story...

I wrote a story like that last year. I'm rather fond of it, though I doubt I'll ever show it to anyone. But I'll be happy to tell anyone who asks about the house. (The most interesting bit is probably that they could (and did) slide down their laundry chute. )

I bet you'll write a fun story, Betsie. I have complete confidence in you.

Winter, if I were you, I'd probably scribble down ideas for a couple of days. Then you can make an outline stringing the ideas together. And relax! It'll be fun.

I think the funnest thing to do, Betsie, is to think up alot of really cool characters that you'd love to be friends with, place them in an everyday situation (doesn't matter if its fantasy, in history, or nowadays) and just tell their story! It can be as simple as chronicling the little, interesting things that happened during theirs days. Their hopes, fear, joys, and dreams. It's a life story.

Besides, who cares if that kind of story is in demand or not? NaNo is not a month to write a novel to publish. It's a month in which you simply write a novel! If you enjoy it and have fun making up random plot twists to keep yourself interested (even if the plot twists are as simple as your character getting new goldfish ), then it's so definitely worth it.

Winterstar: I was in your position last year, and MAN it was scary. Just take a deep breath, don't worry about if your story and your characters are boring, and maybe pour your anxious energy into writing down some cool character names. You can even write down a vague idea of what their personality is like! Having characters and personalities helps me think of adventures to send them on. Also, like I said before, and adventure doesn't have to be anything epic like LOTR. And you can also follow the fun old route of writing a tiny-weeny summary of the beginning, the middle, and the end of your story.

Just writing the beginning and the end is fun too. Then you have your starting and ending point, but you can take a really nutsy path from point A to point B!

You'll do perfectly fine. There's an awesome bunch of people around the forums that are going to be going through the insanity (and awesomeness) of NaNo with you and they'll be supporting you and exciting you to write and write and write!

Cozy slippers and have a lovely night!

Thank you Queen Susan, Gymfan, Mel and sweeetlilgurlie! I'm not sure, but I think you've given me enough encouragement and backbone to actually do this.

I don't think I'll have trouble with characters. I'm making up and developing them in my head all of the time, and just never write them down. What you say about conflict makes perfect sense, Gymfan. Now... to think of some....

sweeetlilgurlie, you summed it up perfectly! That's something I can do... ( ) Thank you!

I wrote a story like that last year. I'm rather fond of it, though I doubt I'll ever show it to anyone. But I'll be happy to tell anyone who asks about the house. (The most interesting bit is probably that they could (and did) slide down their laundry chute. )

Oh, that sounds just like me! Except, I would never come up with something as delicious as a laundry shoot! I think I'll write a story like that... and end up quite fond of it, too! Tell me about the house! What were the people's names? Thank you so much for your confidence!

Now I'll go and read my favorite name book, and hope to meet my new friends!