Regions and Writing Buddies
How do I add or remove a writing buddy?
How can I meet and write with Wrimos in my area?
How do I affiliate or home with my local region?
Why can’t I find a local region?
How do I add or remove a writing buddy?
Adding buddies can be tricky! First, make sure that you are logged in to the site.
Then use our search engine.
Type in the username of your friend, and their name should appear below. Click on their name, and you should be able to view their profile. Then, to the right of their username, there should be a link that says, “add as buddy.”
Deleting buddies is just as easy. If you accidentally friended “Count Chocula” but you mean to friend “BooBerry” all you have to do is click on “My NaNoWriMo –> Writing Buddies”, click your accidental buddy’s profile, and then select the red text that reads “Remove Buddy” to the right of their username.
Unfortunately, you can’t remove yourself from the “buddy of” list, unless you get in touch with that person and ask them to ‘unbuddy’ you.
How can I meet and write with Wrimos in my area?
Dropping by the Regional Lounge for your area in the NaNoWriMo forums is a great first step towards meeting up with Wrimos in your area. To see your Regional Lounge, you have to first affiliate with your region by clicking on “My Regions“ under the “My NaNoWriMo” menu option, finding your region, and clicking the “Join this region” link. From then on, your Regional Lounge will be visible at the bottom of the Forums.
Many regions have Municipal Liaisons—volunteer chapter heads who organize local writing events. Check your Regional Lounge to see the calendar of events for your area. You can also just post a note in your Regional Lounge inviting fellow participants to join you at a cafe for an impromptu writing session!
What are regions?
When you first sign up for NaNoWriMo, you’re asked to affiliate with the chapter(s), or region(s), closest to where you are. Doing so is a great way to find out about write-ins in your area. This also helps you meet fellow Wrimos in your area.
Attending NaNo events and writing with other Wrimos is a great way to keep your word count on pace. Sitting in a coffee shop while six or seven other Wrimos are clickety-clacking away helps keep you writing, even when inspiration might be flagging.
When you set a region as your home region, your word count is tallied along with other local participants’ word-count totals. Furthermore, any donation you make through the online donation station and store is counted toward your region’s standing in the Donation Derby! Just be sure to include your site username when making that donation in order for it to count toward the Derby totals.
You’re under no obligation to affiliate yourself with a region.
How do I affiliate or home with my local region?
When you affiliate with a region, you can post in the regional forum and receive email updates from that region’s Municipal Liaison.
To affiliate with a region, simply go to My NaNoWriMo and click on the My Regions menu item. You’ll find instructions on affiliating with the region or regions closest to you! By scrolling or searching by region name from the complete list of regions, locate the region or regions you’d like to affiliate with, and click on the Join button in the column to the right. Confirm that you’d like to join, and that region will be added to a list of “My Regions,” accessible by the tab of the same name.
Once you’ve affiliated with your preferred region or regions, you should pick one of them to be your home region by clicking on the “make this region my home” link to the right.
By setting your home region, you’ll still be able to post in the regional forum and receive email updates from the ML. Even better, your word count is tallied along with other local participants’ word-count totals!
Why can’t I find a local region?
We only create regions where we have an MLs in place to coordinate for the area. (ML stands for Municipal Liaison, a wonderful volunteer participant who organizes writing events in their community).
If there is not currently a region where you are, we won’t be able to open a new region until application for new regions open on the site around September 1. If you’ve participated in NaNoWriMo and won (i.e.reached 50,000 words), meet the other qualifications on the Becoming a Municipal Liaison page, be sure to apply! Look for those applications to go up on the site on September 1.
To check out the regions that have MLs, and to learn more about the role of a Municipal Liaison, visit the Becoming a Municipal Liaison page.
