Hi, and welcome to all my Santa Cruz homies!
There's a serious thing I'd like to bring up to all of you: MONEY.
Nobody's charging you money to participate in Nanowrimo. You can participate, come to all the write-ins in the world, collect prizes and swag, attend parties and even win, and no one will charge you a dime.
The problem is that making this all happen costs money. All the bandwidth, the construction of the very website you're currently viewing, office staff who make sure that everything happens the way it's supposed to, the stickers and buttons and online certificates - all of those things cost money. Most of that money comes from folks like you and me, donating a little bit to keep things running.
What is this experience worth to you? What is having a ready-made cheering squad, pulling for you night and day as you toil toward a seemingly impossible goal worth? If you wanted to join a program like Team in Training, which would train you to do the physical equivalent of writing a novel in 30 days, they would require that you raise thousands of dollars in order to participate in the actual event for which you are training. Nano asks no such thing of its participants. Rather, it asks that, if you can, you kick down a few bucks. Whatever you can afford. If you're completely strapped (and in this economy, you're not alone!) check out the "Donating When Broke" heading in the "About" section - there are all kinds of ways to help out!
I don't get paid to do this, but I think it's important to help people tell their stories. I sincerely hope that each of you feels that it's equally important that each of you feels that you benefited by the support and encouragement that Nano provides.
Thanks!
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Junglemonkey
Santa Cruz Co-ML
Nanowrimo Winner '03, '04, '05, '06, '07, '08
Future Winner 2009
Wearer of the Eyebrow Dots of Power
