I had a great time last night at the write-in at Borders Books & Music in West Des Moines, Iowa. We had a smaller crowd than previous write-ins, probably due to it being a Friday but we had far more people participate than in previous years.

I did have one hiccup involving the live streaming of the write-in. On Thursday, it seemed that I would have to discontinue the live streamed video for legal reasons. I was under the impression that any time you video tape someone, you have to receive a waiver from them. However, that does not necessarily apply in places where no privacy can be expected, like a public place or a place where video taping is already occurring such as a retail store. It turns out that you can simply notify people of the videotaping by placing signs in the area the camera covers informing them that they are being recorded. As for the retail store, as long as no products or customers are shown on the video, it is acceptable to record an event taking place there. So, thankfully, I’m able to continue the live streaming. It’s been surprising to me how popular it is, many writers using it as a way to participate in write-ins, to feel a sense of camraderie, while writing at home or at smaller venues. I used to do some video production a few years ago and even had a huge editing suite in my basement but got out of it when I started doing more painting and drawing. Now I’m getting interested in it again but, fortunately, the equipment is now far less expensive and much smaller.

Last night I broke 20,000 words which is the fastest I’ve ever reached that point in five years of doing NaNoWriMo. It’s been fun so far but my novel has gone in a very unexpected direction, as I’ll discuss in my video blog: