Welcome to our new and improved edit profile tutorial! We have simplified our edit profile pages, and added lots of new features to wow and amaze you!
To edit your profile, click on the "My NaNoWriMo" option on the menu at the top of the page. This will take you to your profile, which will include all of your personalized features for NaNoWriMo. For those users whose browsers permit it, all of these options can be selected from a drop-down menu when you mouse over the My NaNoWriMo link.
User/Account settings
Email address - This is a must. Make sure you have a valid email address, or you will NOT receive any communications, password resets, etc.
Password - entering your new password twice in these boxes will reset your password. If you've clicked on a "reset password" link in an email, you have to reset your password here... that link is only valid once.
No NaNoWriMo Emails - check this box to OPT OUT of pep talk emails and other email communications. If this box is selected, you will not receive any emails from Chris Baty or the guest authors.
Picture - This is the avatar that will appear in your profile. It doesn't appear in the forums. HQ prefers that this be a picture of you, simply so we can see who all is writing, but it is NOT required. :) Pictures must be no more than 100 x 100 pixels in size, and no more than 30kb. If you're having trouble getting your picture to change, try deleting the old one first, then uploading a new one. There is a 15 minute site cache, so it may take some time for the changes to appear.
Interface Language - this doesn't translate all the dynamic content for you. What it does is change links and things to a different language.
Private Message Settings - use this option to manipulate how your PMs work, or if you can receive them at all. If you want people to be able to send you a NaNoMail, then make sure the "Allow private messages" box is checked.
Region settings - This is separate from subscription settings. Subscription settings can be altered in the Email Notifications section of "My NaNoWriMo." Details of how to alter this are provided later in this tutorial.
Comment settings - Signature! Please abide by signature formatting guidelines. For instructions on using HTML to format your signature, check the tech help forum. For instructions on how to upload cover art or add a signature to your posts, try this thread for some excellent, detailed instructions!
Locale Settings - This is a vital box. Please make sure your time zone is set correctly, because this is the setting that will determine the availability of word count, excerpt, and novel validation functions.
Terms and Conditions - cannot be altered. You accepted these when you logged back in the first time after the site was reset.
Clicking submit on this page will update all of the above settings at once.
Edit Author Info
This is where you change the information shown on your profile. Please don't enter information here that could compromise your personal safety, such as phone numbers or addresses. All of this is viewable by anyone who visits this site, logged in or not.
Location - Locations that are 64 characters are more may be removed without notice. Locations are for locations, not for musing or status messages.
Years Participated/Won - A little trick for you: You may select multiple years by holding down either the shift key while clicking (will select a consecutive range - two choices, and everything in between) or the ctrl key... this will allow you to select individual years, if you didn't win them all. ;)
Other optional information: Age, personal website, favorite novels, writers and music for novel writing, non-noveling interests, and brief bio. All information entered on this page is viewable by anyone, so please use caution when sharing personal details.
Edit Novel Info
Here is what everyone loves the best. This is where you can share details of your novel, including its title, genre, a short synopsis, and an excerpt! You can also add cover art for your novel here (cover art should be limited to no more than 230px wide by 300px high, 50KB file size). All items entered here DO need to abide by our guidelines, so keep that in mind while posting.
This is where you will find our cut-and-paste novel validator. It will not be available until November 1. You can also enter your manual word count here, in addition to the word count box that's available at the top of any page on this site.
You can enter your novel title, choose your approximate genre (this isn't a limit, just a descriptor), and a short synopsis. This is NOT your excerpt. This is your synopsis.
Your excerpt is the part of profile that you can display your wondrous writing ability. Your entire novel doesn't go here; just an excerpt. Try not to abuse this feature, because the more we stuff into the database, the slower the site will behave.
Important Disclaimer: Please note that you are NOT to write your novel in this space. Do NOT trust NaNoWriMo with your only copy! NaNo does not save a copy of your novel ANYWHERE. Regular backups are an absolute must. Use Google documents, floppy disks, email a copy to yourself, thumb drives, anything... just make a regular backup every 10k or so (minimum... I'm a little paranoid and do it more often than that) so that you do not have only one copy of your novel anywhere. NaNoWriMo is known for Murphy strikes, and many novelists have failed after a major computer crash or minor glitch kills ALL their hard earned words!
Writing Buddies
Writing buddies are a wonderful way to keep track of your friends and associates as they NaNo. Using the Writing Buddies tab, you can review your buddy list, see if they're online, or remove them from your buddy list. There is an effective limit of 11 buddies; this is the max number that will be displayed on your profile, and there is no way currently to select which ones display. You may add as many as you like, but only 11 will be displayed at any given time.
Recent Posts will show you all the most recent posts your writing buddies have made on the forum. This option may be disabled to improve site performance, so don't panic if it doesn't appear.
The "Buddy Of" tab shows you who has you on their buddy list... you may add them to your buddy list, but it is not required. If you'd like to add someone who has added you, click on their name on this list, view their profile, and click the "add as buddy" link on their profile page. There is no way to remove a buddy from your "buddy of" list.
My Regions
Before you can set a home region, you will need to affiliate with it. All the tabs you'll need are under "My NaNoWriMo" => "My Regions".
- Regions - This is where you'll search for and affiliate with regions. You may affiliate with as many as you like. If your region doesn't appear, that may mean one of two things: Either no one has volunteered to be ML for your region, or they have, and they share the closest Elsewhere forum because it's still a fairly small region. Not all regions can have their own forum.
- My Regions - This is where you can review and manage your regions. From here, you can unsubscribe/subscribe to posts in the regional forum, or unaffiliate from the region entirely.
- Home Region - This is the place. Before you can set a home region, you must first affiliate with one. Once you've done that, you can select any of your affiliated regions, or set yourself to no home region. You may only set one region as your home. Your home region is where your word count will be tallied with other regions
Customize Forums
This fantastic feature allows you to select which forums are visible when you visit the forum summary page. You can opt out of genres you don't care about, lounges you don't frequent, or hide anything for any reason. It's as simple as selecting "Visible" or "Hidden", then clicking "Update Forum Selections".
You may still view any forum by clicking on the Forum Subcategory on the forum summary page (for example, if you have a certain genre hidden, you may visit it by clicking the "Genre Lounges" link on the forum summary page. It will then show you all the forums available in that category.
Check & Send NaNoMail
This is our wonderful PM system. It can be accessed by clicking on anyone's profile, and then "send NaNoMail", clicking on the nanomail button under any forum post, or through your Check & Send NaNoMail option under My NaNoWriMo. Once you've sent someone a message, they will be available in your address book to send them a message easily.
You can use this screen to read received and sent messages, delete them, create new folders, move messages to and from folders, delete folders, and empty them. It's all pretty self explanatory, but if you have problems, let us know and we'll try to help!
Manage Notifications
Here is where you'll manage threads you've subscribed to. Please note that regional lounges do NOT appear in this section... they are edited under "My Regions."
There are four tabs available for you here: Overview, Pages, Categories, and NaNoMail.
Overview - tells you at a glance how many subscriptions you have. In addition, there is a Settings link at the bottom of this tab which will allow you to autosubscribe to your own posts and comments within the forums.
Pages - This will show you what threads you are subscribed to. At this time, this is going to send you an email every time someone posts, or edits a post. There is no way to select only parts of a thread... it's all or nothing.
To subscribe to a thread, go to the thread you want to subscribe to, and look for the "subscribe" option, with a little arrow under it, at the bottom of the first post. You can only subscribe to the first topic in any thread; there is no way to subscribe to comment threads. You can also unsubscribe from either here, or in the manage notifications list in the main menu.
Categories- This will show you what forums or front page blocks you are subscribed to. You will receive a new email every time a new post is made in your subscribed forums, but not if someone replies to an existing post. To get notifications of existing posts, you'll need to subscribe individually. Be careful with this option; high traffic forums can easily overload your inbox.
NaNoMail - Allows you to choose how (And if) you are notified of new NaNoMail messages. This is separate from the persistent "you have a new private message" notification that shows up on every page. To change this, you'll need to access your User/Account settings, and select/deselect the "Aggressive notification of new messages" option.
These tabs offer you the option to unsubscribe from anything you've subscribed to.
To subscribe to existing threads, simply click on the "subscribe" button at the bottom of the first post in the thread.
NOVEMBER ONLY FUNCTIONS - These options are only available between 12:00:00 November 1 and 11:59:59 November 30. All of these options are disabled in December, and will not be re-enabled until next the NaNoWriMo season begins.
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***Novel Validation*** Please note that this section is subject to change. Novel validation is not available at this time. This section is provided so that you will have an idea of what to expect.
You've hit 50k. You're ready to go. NOW WHAT? How do you enter the annals of history as a novel writer, to be recorded forever and ever? For questions about what you can include in the word count, check the Rules and Regulations forum. If you have already submitted your novel and your bar has turned green, you will still have to re-submit for official validation... it doesn't change automatically.
First: Make sure your time zone is correct. Go to My NaNoWriMo => Edit User Settings, and check your time zone... the servers don't roll over for daylight savings, so you may need to change this manually. Just select the date and time where you are, and at midnight YOUR time, the official novel validation module will activate! Be sure to submit to save the changes if you do change.
Now, you can back up and scramble your novel, if you like (this is a strictly optional security step for those concerned about novel theft, and will not affect your ability to win either way. For instructions, click here. This will change the contents of your novel into unreadable form, without altering your word count), and have the word count robots count and validate it!
In your word processor, copy your ENTIRE manuscript, paste it into the Word Count Validator box ONCE, and click the submit button at the bottom of the page.
If you have over 50k, you will be taken to the Winner's Page, where you'll be able to download your winner's certificate and web icons, and your word count bar will turn a very pleasing shade of purple! Note that after verification, your novel is deleted unread by human eyes... we do not keep a copy of your novel ANYWHERE.
Please be aware that there CAN be a discrepancy between your word processor's count and the word count of the NaNo robots... this is usually a small one, and you should probably pad your word count by a hundred or so words just to be safe. If you do come under 50k, it's okay... just write a little more, then try again! Large discrepancies can usually be blamed on punctuation problems... the word count robots count the spaces between words, so multiple words that have been hyphenated will be counted as one, for example.
Your word count can continue to be updated after your winner status is granted.
Word Count and Excerpt
So, now that you've started on your epic manuscript, where do you update the word count and excerpt? Look up at the top of your screen. Next to your name, you will see a nifty little box where you can manually enter your word count. If you want to enter your word count, simply enter your total word count - not the count for that day... it doesn't do the math for you. (If you wrote 2k yesterday, and 2k today, you enter 4k in the word count field... always enter your total word count.) Your daily progress will be saved, however, and should be accessible from the NaNo Stats section in your public profile, and through word count widgets available under Fun Stuff. Widgets will be released as site traffic permits.
In your Novel Info section, you may see the copy-and-paste word count validator.
***If you don't see the copy and paste Word Counter option on your Novel Info screen, that may mean that it has been disabled to improve site performance.***
This is where you can paste the contents of your entire novel, and see what the robots have to say about it. :) It will update your word count accordingly; you can change this manually either before or after you use it... you don't have to use the copy and paste counter every time. As you can imagine, thousands of novelists uploading entire novels can put a bit of a strain on the system. :) This feature will become the official validator on November 25th, local time.
You may change all of these options at will, between November 1 and November 30. After that, they will be disabled.
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Edit History
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Heather Dudley
Forums Moderator
