For the past few years, we’ve been running an all-Ireland word war, that WriMos in (and connected to) Ireland can sign up voluntarily for. The idea is to give us an extra incentive to write, to upload the honour of our province.
I’ve finally figured out how to publish the current chart of how it’s going, so here it is – it will update dynamically!
Edited to add that if you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo, you can sign up here for the word war until midnight on Friday 20th.
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These widgets (when available from the NaNoWriMo site) will update every day throughout November.
With only three days to go till the start of NaNoWriMo, I thought I’d put up some tips on preparation. Hopefully they’re not too late…
Some people start with a fully outlined plot, detailed character descriptions, and a beautifully built world (real or imaginary). Let’s call them plotters.
Other people start with nothing but a vague idea. We’ll call them pantsers – as in, they’re flying by the seats of the pants. (Fliers is also an acceptable term.)
Most of us fit somewhere in between. We’ve had our great idea, we’ve made some notes, we’ve had a few bright ideas about our main character and some other potentials…
You can start NaNoWriMo as any one of these three: a plotter, a pantser, or somewhere in between. But in general, those who have a clear idea of where they’re going with their novel are more likely to stay the course.
So as a minimum, try and decide on the following before the start of November – but don’t be afraid to change your mind if you need to!
Good luck!
I’ve managed to get an automatic word war bot set up in the chat room – although please note that it won’t be running all the time due to server constraints; it’ll probably just be available evenings and weekends.
What’s an automatic word war bot for, you might ask. Well, it’s so you can have word wars – or as I prefer to call them, word sprints – against other writers or even just against yourself. Give the bot the command to start, and it will count down a 10 or 20 minute war for you, during which time anyone who wants to just writes non-stop.
To start a word sprint, make sure that SprintBot is listed in the chat room’s users.
Then type !wordwar# where X is 10, 15, 20 or 30, depending on how long you want the sprint to last (those are the only available options unless someone asks me for others).
Write like crazy until SprintBot tells you to stop! If you have sound switched on, you should get some beeps as well.
What’s the point of a word sprint? Well, it’s a great way to up your NaNoWriMo word count in a quick easy burst – and in company, too. Try it! You might be amazed. 
Not only do we have new Municipal Liaisons this year for existing regions, we also have brand-new regions! Make sure you sign-up to yours, and set your home region too (link only works if you’re signed into the NaNoWriMo website).
Oh yeah – and the official forums have all been cleaned off and made shiny for this year. They’re looking good, so go and visit and update your personal information for 2009!
As I write this, the countdown timer on the left hand side reads NaNoWriMo 2009 begins: in 1 month, 24 days, 9 hours, 0 minutes – it seems like a long way off, but I know from too many years’ experience just how fast that time will go! You have less than two months left to outline your novels and stock up your freezer and cupboards…
Ireland will be getting at least one new region this year – and hopefully more too. Plans for intra-Ireland cooperation between Municipal Liaisons have yet to be even discussed, let alone decided on, but I’ve given this website a bit of an overhaul in any case.
We’re back to using the old basic chat room from pre-2008, which frankly was a lot less bother than the fancy one I implemented last year. I’ve also re-opened registrations – without registering on the site, you can’t comment or post, although you can still use the chat.
And as for other all-Ireland things… well, I’m sure the All-Ireland Word War will be returning, although probably in a revised format.
More later, anyway, from me and hopefully other Irish MLs… As also, comments on and suggestions for the site are very welcome.
Thousands of people are already well into their novelling for November (myself among them, thankfully), while plenty of people have yet to get started.
I thought I’d post here some of the tips I put in a Northern Ireland-wide mail sent yesterday.
Visit the NaNoWriMo website frequently:
Also hang out here to take part in real-time chat and word sprints with your fellow writers in Ireland.
Write every day! Even if you don’t manage 1,667 words one day, you can always make it up the next. Keep track of your progress, so you know how much more you have to do. But pace yourself: although it’s good to get a lot done quickly so you can take it easy later, be careful not to burn yourself out too soon.
Keep your momentum going while writing. If you get stuck for a name, fill in XXX and go back later if you need to. Don’t sweat the small stuff too much; NaNoWriMo is about quantity, not quality, and it’s not going to matter at this point if you haven’t researched something thoroughly, or you think a sentence reads badly. Editing is what the other eleven months of the year are for.
Go to meet-ups as much as you can! They may seem like a waste of valuable writing time, but face-to-face contact with people in the same situation is quite good therapy, and many meet-ups will involve some writing time.
Above all, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t write 50,000 words in a month… because you can and you will!
