NaNoWriMo+and+Write+or+Die

**NaNoWriMo and Write or Die**
 * [[image:Write_or_Die_logo.png]][[image:NaNoWriMo_letterhead.png]]

**Introduction**

Writing is challenging for many students. Modern students have easy assess to models of outstanding writing, and this is both a blessing and a curse. We may aspire to write like Hemingway, but unless we keep in mind that we are not reading his first draft, Hemingway’s brilliance may be discouraging. There really are two processes the writer go through: first, she writes quickly and sloppily to get everything down, and then, with a critical ear, she edits the first draft. These two processes require two different states of mind. Problems arise when the critical, editing voice talks while you write the first draft. It becomes nearly impossible to write a sentence without backtracking and crossing it out because everything sounds stupid. It is hard to imagine that Hemingway ever sounded stupid. This is where these two interactive websites, [|__//NaNoWriMo//__] and [|__//Write or Die//__], can help students write their first draft. The creators of these two websites recognize the absurd nature of writing. With tongue-in-cheek wit, these websites force the writer to silence the nagging editor because all you have time to do is write, write, write.

**Description** The premise of [|__//NaNoWriMo//__] is simple: you sign up to write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November. Do the math: if you write every day, you must write 1,667 words each day. You upload your daily word count and, if you like, excerpts of your writing for others to read. The NaNoMo website provides a community of addled, coffee-driven writers like yourself who have risen to the impossible challenge of writing a novel in a month. A companion tool for [|__//NaNoWriMo//__] //,// [|__//Write or Die//__] prods the writer to stop daydreaming and get words down on paper. You sign up for a word and/or a time goal and choose a consequence for not writing. If you stop typing, the “gentle” consequence will give you a polite reminder to continue writing, the “normal” mode will play an “unpleasant” sound, and the “Kamikaze” mode will unwrite itself unless you keep writing. For 10 dollars, you can upgrade your free download of Writer or Die to the Desktop Edition, which features customizable fonts, colors, and sounds, a widget that displays your writing statistics, a chatbox so you can either collaborate or compete with a friend. and the ability to publish to [|__Blogger__], [|__Livejournal__] or [|__Wordpress__].

**History** NaNoWriMo was begun in 1999 by Chris Baty, a freelance writer and writing coach. In that first year, only 21 writers--all friends of Baty’s and all residents of the San Francisco Bay area--signed on for the literary marathon. The next year, a friend offered to build a website which immediately increased their number to 140. In year three, 5,000 would-be novelists from unknown places in the world logged on. By the tenth year, NaNoWriMo had 119,301 adult participants, became a non-profit, began a Young Writer’s program and a month-long screen or playwriting event called Script Frenzy, garnered an office, began an internship program, and hired a staff of 13 including a web developer, an email ambassador, and a community liaison. Clearly, the web played a central role in developing this little gathering of friends into an international creative arts organization.

__[|Write or Die]__ is created and maintained by Dr. Wicked, a science fiction writer and blogger. The archive of his posts goes back to June of 2008.

**Impact on Teaching and Learning** These web applications are valuable for teaching and learning primarily for the attitude they inspire: yes, writing is an arduous task, but let’s do it anyway and let’s have fun with it. Both of these sites create community for an activity that is traditionally done alone and in isolation, and community helps maintain motivation and perseverance. In addition, the site helps you “market” literacy and writing by providing downloadable flyers to post around your school, as well as incentives such as badges and certificates.

__[|//NaNoWriMo//]__ maintains a separate web page geared for their [|__Young Writers Program__] that offers prompts, blogs, posts from published writers, and downloadable workbooks for elementary, middle and high school students. Once students are done with their novels, [|__Create Space__], a member of the Amazon group of companies, will print a free proof copy of their manuscript and make it available on Amazon. Teachers can sign up on the [|__Educator’s web page__] to receive a classroom noveling kit, and to participate in an online forum with other teachers, or to get information about [|__AlphaSmart__] ’s lending library of word processing [|__Neos__]. If teachers dedicate classroom time to writing, [|__Write or Die__] can be used in conjunction with NaNoWriMo. In a group setting, I recommend that students use either the gentle or the kamakaze mode: some students, particularly middle school students, may find the “unpleasant sound” amusing and will distract others by setting it off. (The unpleasant sound changes--I tried it twice, the first time I heard crying babies, the second time it played a silly song.) In the works is a special edition for teachers.

**Practical Applications** <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">With the support of its web application, NaNoWriMo is an event that can be sponsored by any literacy organization--libraries, schools, community centers, museums. Its initial mission is to celebrate the creative act, but it also celebrates discipline and intellectual endurance, two qualities that are often neglected in our fast-paced, instant gratification society. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">NaNaWriMo provides regular and daily incentives for a lengthy process that typically is rewarded only at the end. What //is// the reward at the end of NaNoWriMo? The only reward is your written work, and your personal satisfaction. Educators will find this pedagogically sound as it demonstrates that the work is reward enough. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">While NaNoWriMo is designed specifically for novelists, [|__Write or Die__] could be used to produce the //first draft// of any written work: a dissertation, a research paper, a literary analysis, a short story. Once you have a rough draft or even an outline created in Write or Die, you can cut and paste it to a word document and edit it.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">**Examples or Demonstrations** <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__How to Sign up for NaNoWriMo__. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">After you log onto the site, click on the sign up button. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">This brings you to a screen where you enter a user name and an email address. Fill in all the appropriate boxes, and click “Create New Account. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Check your email inbox for an activation link. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Click on the link, which brings you to a screen that allows you to reset your password and edit your profile, or author info. After you fill it out and click “submit”, it brings you to your own NaNoWriMo page. From this page you can upload information about your novel, about yourself, add friends, send messages to other NaNoWriMo participates, and monitor your progress on your word count bar graph.



<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Beginning November 1st, you can upload your word count each day into the box at the top of the screen between your user name and “update”.



<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">On the “Fun Stuff” tab are badges and widgets that you can imbed on your Facebook or MySpace page, your blog, or any web page where you want to track or announce your writing progress. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">At the end of the month, after you’ve written your 50,000 words, go into your personal page and click on “edit the novel info”. Here you can paste in your novel to be counted and be declared an official NaNoWriMo winner.



<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__Using Write or Die.__

Log onto writeordie.drwicked.com.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Here is the home screen of Write or Die.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">After you sign in, it takes you to blank screen where you write.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Here is a demonstration of Write or Die in kamikaze mode.
 * <span style="color: #0225a3; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__[]__ ||

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">When you finish writing, copy and paste your work into a document on your computer (the program doesn’t save for you). Then press the done button. It then takes you to a screen where you can copy and paste a work count widget into a blog or web page.



<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">**References** <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Baty, C., Duvall, D., Lickter, J., Angotti, C. Arzt, J., Goodenow, E.,....& Dudley, H. (2010). //National Novel Writing Month.// Retrieved from [|__http://www.nanowrimo.org__] /

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Baty, C. (2004). //No plot? no problem!// San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Dr. Wicked. (2009-2010). //Write or die.// Retrieved from [|__http://writeordie.drwicked.com/__]

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">**External Links** <span style="color: #0225a3; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__[]__

<span style="color: #0225a3; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__[|http://writeordie.drwicked.com/]__

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">**Wiki Credit** This Wikispaces article was created by **Susan St John** as a class assignment for the ETEC program at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. The above wiki was written in September of 2010.