Well, it's that time again! This is the signup thread for the Traditional Utah Wordwar. Rules are pretty much the same as last year:
1. Signups close November 7th at 11:59 PM.
2. You can't withdraw after the close of signups, but you may withdraw at any point up to that time.
3. The winning team is the one with the best average wordcount.
4. No updates of more than 10k words a day. Clarification: This is intended as an anti-ambush rule. If you regularly update your wordcount (every day or two), don't worry about it. If you have a good reason for being unable to get online and update your count, let the MLs know as soon as possible, and it won't be a problem. If you forget to update your wordcount for a week, and post a 15k update, that's a problem. It might be forgiven early in the month, but in the last week, it will be a problem. Violations of the rule will be judged by the MLs, and at their discretion, the wordcount of the violator will be locked to their count from before the large update.)
5. Three (!) teams: SLC, Utah County, and Elsewhere. Make sure to post which team you want.
6. No verbal abuse, or vulgar language. Offenders will be removed from the word war at the discretion of the MLs.
To sign up, post in this thread for the time being. I'll see if I can polish off the upgrade to the stats page before NaNo starts, and then we'll use that, but for now, this is the place.
Previous years:
2006 Stats
2007 Stats
2008 Stats
This year (not perfect yet, but it has most of the '3 teams' fixes in place.):
2009 Stats
Teams:
See the above link. I'm tired of maintaining two lists. :)
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UtahWrimos.net - The Unofficial Forums for Utah Wrimos. Drop by and chat sometime.
89,699 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 19 51
Well, I'm obviously in for SLC.
----------Banai
ML for Salt Lake City, Utah
AIM, YIM, GTalk, GWave: banai47
Twitter: http://twitter.com/banaifeldstein, http://twitter.com/SLCWriMo
44,315 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 20 49
I'm totally in for SLC, but I'm wondering why updates of more than 10k per day are forbidden? I don't remember that rule from last year, and checking my spreadsheet, I had a 10k and a 12k day last year. Really big word days like that are actually fairly central to my NaNo winning strategy, especially as I may be attempting two novels this year, so I guess I'd just like some clarification on that point.
37,353 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 20 56
I'll join for Elsewhere. I might not provide amazing posts, but I'm usually rather consistant.
40,029 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 21 24
Signing up for team Elsewhere here. :)
34,415 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 21 33
I'm for SLC, too!
43,809 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 22 36
Count me in for Elsewhere!
50,180 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 22 45
Should I join? Hmmm... This is a tough one.
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Yeah, count me in for Elsewhere!
69,145 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 22 52
Greyhome Broadmeadow, signing in for Team Elsewhere. For what it's worth, I broke a 100K last November.
SLC, you're going down.
----------Graham Bradley
www.onagrahampage.blogspot.com
www.grahamchops.blogspot.com
50,165 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 06 11
The rule was requested by SLC after we beat them the first year. It's been around in various incarnations since, this one probably being the simplest. The idea is that they don't want someone caching up their wordcount for three weeks and then dropping a 40k bomb that pushes one team way out into the lead.
If your are commonly hitting large daily wordcounts, there won't be any problem with 10k days. Just don't go for a week without posting an update and /then/ post a 10k day. (Even in those circumstances, if you can provide a legitimate reason you were unable to post updates, us MLs can grant a stay of execution. ;) )
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50,666 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 06 17
Count me in for SLC.
Elsewhere is going down!!
starrarte - Last year I took a day off work and basically wrote for 24 hours straight. I let the ML's know that I was going to be doing this and there was no problem at all.
~J.
----------38,162 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 06 30
Sign me up with Elsewhere.
2,921 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 06 39
Hello All~
I'm new to Utah. I did NaNoWriMo last year from Orange County, CA.
Put me in the Elsewhere group, as I plan on helping the winning team... :)
Mark
23,205 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 06 45
I'm for Elsewhere again! I only broke 90,000 last year, but this year I'm totally going to get 100,000!
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QuietMischief.etsy.com - all sales through October and November will have 30% donated to The Office of Letters and Light!
5,308 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 07 28
Count me in as elsewhere!
89,699 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 08 47
That bomb was dropped by 4 individual Elsewheres that year -- one of which was 65k. It's just to be sure that this is a war and not an ambush. One team can't keep up with the other if the other is hiding their word count.
----------Banai
ML for Salt Lake City, Utah
AIM, YIM, GTalk, GWave: banai47
Twitter: http://twitter.com/banaifeldstein, http://twitter.com/SLCWriMo
46,136 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 08 48
I heard about the wordwar about halfway through November last year, so I'm glad to hop on board early this year! Count me in for Elsewhere!
----------"So...you defeated a thousand enemy warriors on a single day?"
"It was only 982." He blinked. "But we weren't really counting."
89,699 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 08 49
It's cute how Elsewheres think they might win. When we all know that SLC has won every year except for the ambushed year.
----------Banai
ML for Salt Lake City, Utah
AIM, YIM, GTalk, GWave: banai47
Twitter: http://twitter.com/banaifeldstein, http://twitter.com/SLCWriMo
50,165 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 09 04
Pffft. We're just good sports. We knew it hurt your feelings, so we've let you win a few years to help you feel better. And to let you build up some over-confidence.
Also: Every year since that year, Elsewhere has been the larger team, which is actually a handicap. Anyone have ideas for how to counter-act that handicap? I'd like everyone to be able to participate, but it is a very real handicap to have a larger team, since it makes it harder to move your average.
----------UtahWrimos.net - The Unofficial Forums for Utah Wrimos. Drop by and chat sometime.
21,712 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 10 13
Yikes! Utoxin, I pulled up your old email about signing up for WordWar, clicked on the site you listed, and was informed (in bright, Women's-Cancer-Awareness pink, no less!) "You are not authorized to post comments."
NEVER MIND...I JUST FORGOT TO LOG-IN FIRST (I'm tired, OK? I had to teach last night. I'm brain-dead.)
So NOW I can throw down the gauntlet and join the Utah::Elsewhere fight to eradicate those smiles from the faces of the Utah::SLC people! Let's get 'em!
BenschWensch
Oh, yeah...were we supposed to intro ourselves??? I live in Lehi. This will be my sixth year as a NaNoWri-mer (and I'm not even all that much of a poet!). The first 3 years, too busy with teaching at UVU, I didn't make my 50,000---but ended up with 3 GREAT ideas and partial manuscripts. The last 2 years I made it in SPITE of teaching. Last spring I quit at UV, so I'm giving myself NO EXCUSES. This year will make my record 3/3, and next year I'll be on the upswing!
Of course, I'm still teaching a fiction-writing class one night a week in Sandy through Continuing Ed in Jordan District---but that should keep me writing/thinking fiction, right? And anyway the class will be over the week before Thanksgiving, just in time for my Ambition to KICK into overdrive, and KICK my procrastinative (is that a word---it is now) personality out of the way. Last year I wrote all but about 4,000 words of my 52,000+ in the last eight days of November. I CAN DO IT!
And "mrhankuk" --- U R hilarious!
BB
65,775 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 11 17
Finally managed to log in!
Assuming it's still okay for me to do what I did last year (i.e., a collection of short stories, rather than a traditional novel), I'm in for Elsewhere.
15,000 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 12 12
I'm here for elsewhere. SLC is going down!
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Here's a really awesome scifi book aimed at YA females. it
65,775 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 12 46
Maybe it's time to break up into groups of more equal size. Possibly SLC, Utah County, and Elsewhere?
31,503 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 12 48
I'm in for Elsewhere.
----------<3 Avery
2,256 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 12 51
Sign me up for SLC :)
9,530 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 12 52
I would like to enter the wordwar for Elsewhere. Of course, if we follow the suggestion of breaking the groups into more equal sizes then I would go into a Provo or Utah County group. I favor that suggestion.
----------Bloodlust is escape...embrace the fantasy.
50,165 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 13 02
My biggest concern with splitting elsewhere up (no matter how we do it), is that it will reverse the situation, and leave SLC as the largest team, and thus unduly handicap /them/.
I propose that we stay with two teams for the official competition for now, but I'll work on the ability to track the SLC / Utah County / Elsewhere split on the stats page, and we can see how that goes, informally. If the numbers come out close to equal, maybe we can make that the official division going forward. :)
----------UtahWrimos.net - The Unofficial Forums for Utah Wrimos. Drop by and chat sometime.
5,468 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 13 17
Count me (Welfycat) in for SLC.
----------------------------------------------------
Script Frenzy 2007: Winner! (Don't remember what it was called)
NaNoWriMo 2007: Untitled 22,185/20,000 Winner! (Help I need a title!)
NaNoWriMo 2008: Untitled Sequel - Winner!
89,699 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 13 20
Excuses, excuses, excuses. It is not a handicap to have a larger team if the word counts are averaged. Unless, of course, you think that you can't motivate your team because it's got more people...
----------Banai
ML for Salt Lake City, Utah
AIM, YIM, GTalk, GWave: banai47
Twitter: http://twitter.com/banaifeldstein, http://twitter.com/SLCWriMo
65,775 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 13 23
Sounds to me like SLC *wants* to be handicapped this year.
50,165 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 13 25
History would contradict you. :) The larger team has always lost. The main reason being that generally, by the end of the month, 50% of each team has stopped writing. And the larger team thus has to write more to keep up than the smaller team.
Anyway... we'll see how the numbers on the Elsewhere breakdown look, once we get closer to the close of signups. I suspect we won't have enough Elsewhere's to make 3 even teams.
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