What a great finish!

So there we were in the jabber chatroom. little_shakespeare and liveluvlaugh07 had popped by, as had JenniferRyukage and KatherineWriting; but at the very end it was just TRRDEDEAN, ajey and me. I was mostly writing because I was afraid we might lose the regional word war and because TRRDEDEAN and ajey both had writing goals they wanted to meet: Dave (TRRDEDEAN) wanted to pass by bookgrrl and ajey wanted to win, after being down in the 20k range with four days to go. His progress had been phenomenal; I think he had closed to 44k by the start of Monday.

With just a couple minutes to spare before midnight, I was just 40 words below my goal of 75k for the month. AJ, however, while he had just passed 50k, had difficulty validating. Fortunately, all turned out ok and ajey now sports the coveted purple bar!

What a writing month! Every NaNoWriMo is a bit different. This one didn’t have the last minute regional word war drama we had faced with France, Ottawa and Montreal (though Birmingham-West Midlands and Holland/Belgium had huge comebacks near the end); the jabber chat room, while active early, was only modestly active by the end of the month. On the other hand, we had tremendous success percentage wise.

Here are the stats:

  • Number of affiliated people = 499
  • Number of active people = 254 (50%)
  • Number of Naperville (region-homed) folks = 299 (59%)
  • Number of active Naperville folks = 162 (32%)
  • Number of Naperville folks with titles = 130 (43%)
  • Number of Naperville folks with posts = 98 (32%)
  • Total affiliated regional wordcount = 8495613
  • Total region-homed regional wordcount = 6138563
  • Average wordcount (affiliated) = 17025.28
  • Average wordcount (Naperville) = 28413.42
  • Average wordcount (active) = 33447.30
  • Average wordcount (active Naperville) = 52442.06
  • Num of those > 50K words (Naperville) = 84
  • Num of winners (Naperville) = 80
  • Num of donors (Naperville) = 38

This means that an amazing 49% of active, region-homed Naperville participants won.

From the NaperWriMo wordcount graph,

  • Total wordcount: 3574387
  • Average wordcount: 51062.67
  • Wordcount standard deviation: 158.05
  • % Active (non-zero wordcount): 98.6% (70/71) – (compared with 36.1% internationally)
  • % Winners (wordcount>50k): 77.5% (55/71)
  • % Winners of Active (wordcount>50k): 78.6% (55/70) (compared with 30.38% internationally)
  • % 40k+ (wordcount>40k): 77.5% (55/71)
  • % Returning: 40.8% (29/71)
  • % Returning Who Won: 31.0% (22/71)
  • % Returning Who Won of Active Returners: 75.9% (22/29)
  • % of Winners who were Returners: 40.0% (22/55)

So an even more amazing 77.5% of those who added themselves to the NaperWriMo scanpost wordcount graph won.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all the validated winners region-homed in Naperville!
KatherineWriting, TRRDEDEAN, bookgrrl, loki125, cfrech, someone1001, seraphimcrux, LemonFairy, EllieHugh, Roger Lubeck, DJRM, mongrelvw, Nitrocat, NewMexicoKid, sweetnightingale, LadyJealousy, Larkk, ACFalk, xxthefanxx, rubyliveshere, rebel_cheese, _Suzie_Q_, chrisirwin, redcod323, liveluvlaugh07, R.Mat2010, Live4him56, thoughtlounge, Gothessa, Little L, Lara Harrison, little_shakespeare, BenWahrman, well. what now., CobaltSnow, MahouBunnyBell, bernakins, ViolaLover, par2323, hross99, Jennifer_Ryukage, Lingonberry99, TiinanoNinja, babsy55, AshleyK, Shadowednavi, oze, TeenWriter, journey, JacknDiane, Cholma, Lady Taliesin, AmaranthMuse, PersiaRose, FinbarrMcG, jennster55, wordrebel, catatone1, tireddadx3, samcadams, KaityGirl, jangogh, tregina12000, pesky-psion, elbakerone, Alura Embrey, writeprice, EmperorSeth, ladyrock87, jlosacco, skowar, Shaoin, Utopiaswriter, barkle, hopelesswarning, Sheeva, Bricklayer, Ajey, Bayfield, marthajoy, serenosaur, JVal, Silrini, books, Westerly
wick, cassidyone, dreamhigher, Shingetsu, kat16, xaanterra, horatio, Buckar007, jannie_delta, Whitey, tomster, Grayraven, Bag, Ruth Ann Nelson, Rikka, Tokaara, ziplizard, Foxtrot838, Loki478, cfbrunner, mrnorton, CameronDaye, lauraelisabeth, sari_anne, susswrite and DianaArtemis

Congratulations also to those with > 50k; however, I sent you nanomail (check the instructions there) because I see that you didn’t validate: Proffesor_Von_Stuben, Taillefer (even though you were homed to Chicago 😉 ), OnceUponATime19, dragonsaege, and ktopel.

And congratulations to the validated winners in other regions:
InspectorStevi, Odakota-Rose, Dichotomy6958, Meadowman, Aquadeo, TimSimms, slrphebos, callalily05, somedayarealwriter, Emily Charlotte, BetsyD, fdahlman, foil, ElvishThistle, sparkletwist, Oh.Dear., stout_chap, musicislife15, Hobbit27, Azh, dragondivine, Arike, el.di.cr, KayTi, jesswiz, misslissylou, unspeakable, imbringinsexyback101, Mary Kowalski, Lofweir, sanity.is.overrated, Jadeblue, Chris Baty, Lita2369, classic., SarahJanet, cruelestmonth, bruciebaby, MacaroniCheese, and cachinna!

Finally, congratulations to everyone who tried and wrote. I know how difficult it is to find/make time; and sometimes (all too often) real life intervenes. The fact that you wrote means something. And I hope that you will find time to finish your stories.

TGIO Party

TGIO = Thank Goodness It’s Over! This is our fun lunch party in the Lunch Room of the Naperville Municipal Center. Be sure to RSVP in the RSVP thread. It’s a pot-luck lunch, so please plan to bring a dish or drinks or something. Guests and family are welcome! Note that you don’t have to be a 50k winner to attend; plan to RSVP and come on out–we will celebrate everyone who participated!

Among the door prizes will be the proof copy from our 2009 Pledge short story anthology Infinite Monkeys!

The fun starts at 11:45 am and continues to 3 pm. Bring your stuffed animal and wrimorock! And, if you like, bring a one page excerpt of your story (with enough copies to hand out–check the RSVP thread for the number to print).

Regional Word War Victory!

Thanks to all of you, Naperville has prevailed and protected its unbroken win streak. Mighty Birmingham-West Midlands and the nations of Holland and Belgium made very valiant (and, at times, scarily effective) comebacks but fell short in the end.

What was at stake? Recall that we had boldly bet each region that whichever region loses the word war will have to sing the regional song of the winning region; and record themselves doing it! This is what France so charmingly did for us when they lost last year. See our regional song (and word war history).

We look forward to receiving two new entries this year 🙂

Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, France, UK::Birmingham-West Midlands and Holland-Belgium. Wow. I am humbled!

The Journey

What to do after NaNoWriMo? Consider joining our year-round (‘cept in November) writing group, the Journey. See this forum posting for details. Note: you don’t have to be local to participate!

Donations

Donations to NaNoWriMo help keep the servers running and the event organized, so please consider helping out this non-profit organization.

–Tim

No Comments

Leave a Reply