Word Wars & Sprints

a.k.a increasing your word count for fun and profit. Okay, perhaps not profit. Not on a first draft, anyway.

If you're new to the forums (and perhaps even if you're not), you've probably seen people talking about wars. And sprinting. And they're talking about it enthusiastically. What the heck's going on? Aren't wars a bad thing? Isn't sprinting only done by those crazy energetic types?

When it comes to NaNo, the answer to all those questions is a resounding NO! In NaNoLand, wars are awesome, and not just if you're writing about one. And sprints are just as cool.

What follows is my interpretation of word wars and sprints. You may find some definitions that differ slightly, but in the end it's just terminology. Use whatever works for you.

What is a Word War?


A word war is a competition between two or more wrimos (or regions, or clubs, or unicorns, or plot bunnies) in which you try to write more words than your opponent in a specific time frame.

Word wars are great because they spur us on to write more out of a dogged sense of determination and a desperate need to win. Word wars between wrimos are generally fairly short (10 minutes - 30 minutes or longer), although you can of course challenge someone over the full duration of NaNoWriMo.

A wrimo word war example: @magependragon challenges @NaNo_Bot (your Cape Town MLs) to a 30-minute word war.

@magependragon: Prepare to meet your doom!

@NaNo_Bot: Never!

They set the timer, sweat starts to form on their brows. And they're off... *30 minutes of frantic writing* ... TIME!

@magependragon: I wrote 1603 words. Beat that!

@NaNo_Bot: Curses. I wrote 1599 words. Next time, pen, next time you shan't be so lucky.

Word wars are often a hallmark of a regional Write-In, where everyone wars against each other (breaking news: Cape Town will be having some small prizes for word war winners this year), but word wars don't have to take place in person. They can happen over email, IM, and of course, the NaNoWriMo Forums. Word Wars, Prompts, & Sprints is your one-stop shop for word wars, sprints, and inspiration.

Regional wars generally take place over the duration of NaNoWrimo. In fact, if you look in your home region under "Regional Info", you'll see a leaderboard comparing word count totals for your region and other selected competitor regions. Judging by this thread, we're going to have some rocking intercity competition in South Africa this year!

Okay, so what's a sprint then?


A sprint is like a word war, but you're only really competing against yourself. You (or someone else) sets a specific start and end time, and you try to write as many words as possible in that time frame. Word sprints are as great as word wars as they focus you on your writing for a definite amount of time. If you like the idea of word sprints, but also want some company (without necessarily declaring war on them) then head over to Twitter and follow @NaNoWordSprints. The awesome interns at OLL run regular sprints, though these admittedly happen when the Americans are awake, however you can probably catch a few at night or early in the morning.

So that's my take on word wars and sprints. Have a great day, wrimos. Less than three weeks to go! Woo hoo!

The Travelling Shovel of Death

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

Today we're going to look at one the classic NaNoWriMo memes: the Travelling Shovel of Death (TSoD).

Posted here in it's entirity, directly from the forums, I present all you could ever want to know about our belowed TSoD:

For a while now there's been a tradition amongst the NaNo crowd that likes to kill things. We call it the Travelling Shovel of Death.

The rules are simple. In your NaNo, you kill somone. With a shovel.

It is named the "Travelling" Shovel of Death because, well, it seems to be everywhere. Characters are killed by shovels in droves as soon as their authors find out about this mystical shovel- whether their world has shovels or not. It seems to be infectious. I know a number of characters have died at unfair hands wielding a shovel in my novels, granting me many words to add to my wordcount.

Desperate for a few thousand words? Got a character you don't really like any more? The Travelling Shovel of Death is the solution for you!

Travelling Shovel of Death FAQs (stolen from yangnome, 2009)

What can I do with the shovel?

Use it as a murder weapon. Kill a main character, a supporting character, or even a background character.

What if I don't like violent scenes?

Have the shovel show up bloody on the ground, or maybe just a body that has been beaten. You don't need to describe the murder to use the shovel, though I'm sure it wouldn't stop you.

Why use the shovel to murder someone?

Easy, it provides conflict. Conflict drives stories.

Couldn't I just use a gun or a knife, maybe a sword?

I'm sure you could. Personally, I haven't seen any guns knives or swords traveling around from novel to novel wreaking destruction though. The shovel is something bigger than you or I. It is bigger than our novels. It is a weapon of mass destruction if you will.

What if I don't want to use the shovel?

No one is forcing you. Don't be surprised though if it pops into your novel. It popped into mine. Others who heard of the shovel couldn't resist. Can you?

Does it have to be used as a murder weapon?

I suppose not, but the shovel has developed a taste for blood.

What do I do with the shovel when I am done?

Return it. Set it free so it can travel to another place, another land, maybe even another world.

I'm still not convinced.

Well, use of the shovel will provide you with words. Anyone could easily milk a small 1,000-word scene from the shovel. Those more talented could get more. Heck, I'd bet someone could even get a whole novel out of the shovel's exploits.

Are there any rules regarding the use of the shovel?

No, but we would like to hear about its use. Post the fact that you send it here, and maybe the excerpt from its use.

This sounds silly. It couldn't possibly fit in my novel.

Maybe you are correct. I don't know what you are writing about. The first year the shovel visited me, I wasn't writing a silly novel and it fit in mine with little problem. TSoD does not discriminate based on genre.

Anything else I need to know about the shovel?

No. Well, don't turn your back on it.

And yes, I'm including the TSoD in my novel this year. In fact, the TSoD is going to be featured in the opening scene, nay, the opening sentence of my book. Now if only I had a plot to go with it...

Home Regions and Affiliating

This year for the first time South Africa has city regions in the forums, rather than a singular South African catch-all. This is mainly because South Africa has grown from 23 participants in 2003 to over 300 in 2009 (and growing!) This is very exciting news, but has caused some not-unexpected teething problems and confusion.

There was a great feeling of comraderie on the SA forums last year, so people are understandably concerned about losing that. What's more, having city regions means we can't "word war" (more on these in later posts) with other countries (New Zealand, I'm looking at you!)

But all is not lost, as we are able to affiliate to multiple regions, we can still enjoy each other's company in the Elsewhere region, and keep the local interest stuff (for instance events) in the local regions. And of course, it builds up lots of nice inter-city competition.

But why is it important to set your home region accurately?. I was going to write all these reasons up myself, but instead I'm going to repost the reasoning that Austen Texas ML "lazym" gave:

Why is it important for local participants to affiliate with your region?

Affiliating provides one of the best lines of communication between MLs and their local Wrimos. The affiliates list is the "to" list for our carefully crafted NaNoWriMo emails. However, your affiliates list may contain the names of past participants and current peeps from other regions who are just looking on. It's not an accurate count of who is actually participating in your region.

This is why you need to get your Wrimos "homed." Homing makes it much easier to identify local participants and get an idea of how many may be NaNoing in your region. Plus, only homed participant numbers are included in the totals for word count on the Word Count Scoreboard and donations in theDonation Derby.

The Scoreboard and Derby show you how your region stacks up against other regions, and you can use these to get some friendly competition going.

-----------------
Two, Four, Six, Eight – Why do we affiliate (and make [region name] our Home Region)?

Toto, we're home. Home! And this is my room, and you're all here. And I'm not gonna leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all, and - oh, Auntie Em - there's no place like home!

During November, it's fun to compare [region name's] progress against all the regions in the world, both in word count and donations. Please show your pride in our region by making sure your successes are included in our regional totals. To do this, you need to affiliate with [region name] AND set [region name]as your Home Region.

It's a relatively painless process:

1. If you're not affiliated with [region name]: Log in and click My NaNoWriMo, then click My Regions. On the All Regions tab, locate [region name], and click Join. Then click Join again.
2. If you are already affiliated: Do not pass Go. Proceed directly to the Home Region tab. On the Home Region tab, click the circle beside [full region name], and click the Set Home Region button near the bottom of the screen.

That's all there is to it!

But what happens if you aren't in or near one of the cities that is an official region this year? Then you can either set your home region as one you feel some connection with, or you can set your home region as South Africa::Elsewhere. No problems :) 

So please set your home region accurately to make your ML's lives easier and thus your NaNo experience better.

Happy Tuesday! Now go and affiliate!

Site Relaunch Excitement

Every October 1st, the Office of Letters and Light (OLL - i.e. the people who make NaNo happen) relaunch NaNoWriMo. The forums are wiped clean, the counters are reset and the excitement level goes up a hundred-fold. We really like October 1st :)

The site relaunched at around 3am, South African local time, so I've spent the day enjoying the community and the excitement that personifies October. And it's only going to get better. It's also my first official day as Municipal Liaison, so I've been making sure that my region has a warm welcome, some info to get started and a place to meet and greet their fellow wrimos. I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing - we'll see what my co-ML has to say on Monday.

I've also spent my time browsing the forums, and as usual have found my way to Games, Diversions, and Other Forms of Procrastination. I'm merrily associating words, corrupting other people's wishes and kicking people off MY HILL! The forums are a great place to meet people, ask questions, adopt plots and premises, and more. I'll be doing some forum featurettes as October progresses, but in the meantime go and poke around and see what you can find.

I'm itching to get back to explore the new forums and topics some more, but a quick shout out to the OLL team! You've done us proud once again. Thanks a million, guys, especially Dan and Jezra (techies extraordinaire).

Enjoy the weekend, Wrimos!

Oh, you were expecting content?

Welcome to the wonderful world of the ZAWrimos. Glad you could join us. Please pay attention to the safety briefing and keep all fingers, toes and appendages in the vehicle at all times.

This blog is dedicated to the brave writers and Wrimos (NaNoWriMo participants) hailing from the beautiful rainbow nation that is South Africa.

I'm Alex, a 3-time NaNo veteran and this year's co-ML (Municial Liaison, local representatives that help make NaNoWriMo run smoothly) for Cape Town.

I'm going to be charting my journey through NaNo-land, as well as sharing stories of other ZAWrimos, offering tips and suggestion on hitting word count, giving writing prompts to help beat writer's block, offering insight into the workings and memes of Nano-land, and giving you a sneak peak into the hidden world of the Municipal Liaison.

I'm looking forward to the journey, I hope you'll be along for the ride.