Community
The official forums provide a place for advice, information, criticism, support and an opportunity for "collective procrastination." The forums are available from the beginning of October, when signups for the year begin, until late September, when they are archived and the database is wiped in preparation for the next year.
Most regions have one or more Municipal Liaisons (ML) assigned to them, who are volunteers that help with organizing local events. MLs are encouraged to coordinate at least two kinds of meet-ups; a kickoff party, and a "Thank God It's Over" party to celebrate successes and share novels. Kickoff parties are often held the weekend before November to give local writers a chance to meet and get geared up, although some are held on Halloween night past midnight so writers start writing in a community setting. Other events may be scheduled, including weekend meet-ups or overnight write-ins.
Starting in more recent years, NaNoWriMo now hosts a fundraising Write-a-thon event every November called 'The Night of Writing Dangerously', held in San Francisco. The first 250 participants to raise at least $250 receive reservations at this event. It has been described as a "mid-November extravaganza of food, drink, and lots and lots of noveling". From 5 pm to 11 pm, hundreds of writers are gathered together in the Julia Morgan Ballroom to eat, chat, exchange excerpts, enter raffle contests, listen to speeches, meet the staff, but most of all, to write. Every hour or so, a 10–20 minute 'word war' is held in which the entire room falls almost completely silent with concentration, save for the sound of keystrokes. Whoever writes the most words in the allotted time frame is temporarily awarded the much-coveted flower pot hat. If a guest reaches the goal of 50,000 words while at the event, they are allowed to ring a bell kept at the stage, and receive much cheering. There are lots of sponsors for this event, many of which are the donors of most of the raffle prizes. In 2011, this fundraiser raised over $50,000.
Read more about this topic: National Novel Writing Month
Famous quotes containing the word community:
“It never was in the power of any man or any community to call the arts into being. They come to serve his actual wants, never to please his fancy.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... no community where more than one-half of the adults are disfranchised and otherwise incapacitated by law and custom, can be free from great vices. Purity is inconsistent with slavery.”
—Tennessee Claflin (1846–1923)
“When a language creates—as it does—a community within the present, it does so only by courtesy of a community between the present and the past.”
—Christopher Ricks (b. 1933)