I’ve done some general tidying up around the site in preparation for November – specifically, we have a new chat room. Unlike the old one, this one doesn’t run on IRC; it also requires registration which is done through the provider Parachat – unfortunately, I wasn’t able to link it into our own users database so you’d only need to log in once (there is a way to do it, I just don’t have the coding skills – anyone want to help?).

The purpose of our chat room is to provide some instant interaction during NaNoWriMo (and outside), particularly for those people who don’t go to face-to-face meetings for whatever reason. One thing I’ve found we do a lot of in the chat room is have word-wars – one person sets the popup word sprint timer (to 10 minutes, for example), announces the start of the sprint, and everyone writes like mad until those 10 minutes are up. I personally find that a few of those will help me reach my daily target of 1,667 words without too much pain!
(I’ve added a link to the timer to the left-hand sidebar.)

I’ll be in the chat room most evenings when I’m not otherwise occupied – hope to see you there!

However, to be fair, I didn’t answer Cavantucky’s comment asking for more information about what our logo should be.  So. Erm. I hate taking design decisions (which is why I’m a writer not an artist, dammit).

But here goes anyway… These are just my preferences, of course!  I think we need something with fairly blocky text in keeping with the site theme. It can be in the current site colours, although I was thinking of shading the site towards a dark green (somewhere between hues 75 and 95) instead of the current blue (keeping the beige though).

Symbols can be anything appropriate – Irish or writer-type (though how many of us use pen&ink that often these days?) – and it would be useful to have separate graphics files for logos-with-text and logos-without-text and text-by-itself.

Because we use WordPress, we can add plugins to the site to enhance it. Check out the WordPress plugin directory for a list, and let me know if there are any you’d like to see us using.

We need a logo! You can upload files like this:
1) start a new post
2) use the Upload facility to upload a file to the site
3) cancel out of the post by not publishing or saving, just going back to the dashboard

Email me (via the Get in Touch page) or comment here to let me know there’s a new file (and its name), and once we have a selection, I’ll post them up together for comments.

Note that the colouring of this website will probably change according to the logo colours.

The WriMo Ireland website was created for the benefit of Irish writers and writers in Ireland, north and south, who have taken part in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and don’t want to lose the momentum of writing 50,000 words (or more) in thirty days.

The idea behind the site is that it’s somewhere for us to come together, to spur each other on to completing and editing our novels and perhaps even submitting them for publication, to share our writing for comments and critiques, to announce our triumphs and lament our disappointments in a friendly, supportive atmosphere.

Registrations are now open (click here to register). Only registered users can comment on posts.

If you want something added to the lists of Links or Members’ Site, please email me via the Get in Touch page.

A FAQ page will be appearing shortly. If you have any questions for it, please comment with them.