NaNoWriMo 2010: Eat Clay, Grass-Munchers!

As I may have mentioned, November is National Novel Writing Month; in other words, the lunacy has begun! (Go catch up, I’ll wait…ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, well, la, lala…)

Okay, now that you’re up to date, let’s cut to the chase: Atlanta is going down! That’s right, the Pandas from Hotlanta are trailing Seattle in both total word count and average word count per WriMo. And also in donations and number of participants, I might add. (And just did.) So, where do we stand on Day Four of the competition?

Germany currently leads all regions with a total word count of 5,761,896. 1,170 Germans have written about 4,924 words each to claim the number one spot, but they started earlier, due to that freaky rotation-of-the-earth thing that results in time zones. Also, Germans speak a language that requires three multi-syllabic words to say “Yo!” which in other circumstances might be considered a handicap, but not in November, when word count is where it’s at.

Have no fear, though, because the hometown heroes, Seattle’s own Hydrophobic Ducks, are at number two and closing fast. As of this writing, the Ducks have produced 5,508,822 words, well within spitting distance of Germany. If the Ducks can maintain momentum, we will overtake Germany within days.

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The Ducks are also trouncing our challengers, the Atlanta Pandas. High on their average word count fumes from last year, Atlanta dared Seattle to “Bring it!” and we have, with a lead of 84 words per WriMo: Seattle is averaging 3,692 words per WriMo, versus Atlanta’s 3,608. Ha! Suck it, A-Town! (Ahem. I say that with love, I do.)

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How many are participating in NaNoWriMo 2010? Out of about 175,000 WriMos, 1,492 Seattlites have verified their word-count, while Germany has 1,170 actively writing, and Holland-&-Belgium, the team in third place for overall word-count, has 1,132 writing mo-fos. Atlanta, our nemesis, numbers only 798, which frankly puts them out of the running for a spot in the total-words Top Ten, unless they can get the 973 registered WriMos currently warming Dogwood City’s benches to step up.

Registration for NaNoWriMo doesn’t close, so if you were thinking of signing up, but haven’t yet, go do that. And while you’re waiting for the page to load, watch an inspirational video. Or this one, if you prefer puppets. And who doesn’t prefer puppets?

Alternatively, you can join Salon’s Laura Miller in the peanut gallery–although, if Ms. Miller was aiming for snark, she should have spent some time getting skooled in the Seattle LiveJournal community, because those people eat mean-cakes for breakfast, and still manage to make it funny. Well, funny if you’re not from L.A.

Is Ms. Miller from L.A.? No, just another narcissistic New Yorker, whew. Gotham, by the way, is trailing Seattle by 1.2 million words, so maybe Miller is just jealous, as my mom used to say. You would think that a city crammed with New Yorker contributors and MFAs, a city that managed to recruit 3,629 aspiring novelists (out of 6,551 total registrants), could do better than sixth place. Sad, really–the Big Apple should be kicking our Emerald asses, based on sheer number of participants, but they trail Seattle by more than 300 words per person.

Stop by next week for another update from the NaNoWriMo trenches, and write on, you crazy diamonds!