For the Honor of Tippy! How to Host a Regional Competition

Every year, NaNoWriMo’s super cool Municipal Liaisons find ways to make writing even more fun. Today, Dayton, Ohio, ML Rochelle Bradley tells us about the November challenge that her region started with the neighboring Indianapolis region. (Want to create a fun regional challenge this year? Join a region and start chatting with fellow participants and MLs!)

For NaNoWriMo 2017, the Dayton, Ohio region declared war on Indianapolis, Indiana. Both regions have awesome Municipal Liaisons ☺, Wrimos, and mascots. Dayton has a cute three-legged cat named Tippy, an actual pet of a former ML. Indy’s mascot is Moe the tomato.

The regional MLs decided on the winning criteria. The losing region had to write a poem in the opposing mascot’s honor.  We posted the “call to war” in Indy’s forum:

Hark!

We the Wrimos of the Dayton, Ohio Region challenge thee to a duel! For Tippy the three-legged cat’s honor, we shall raise our pens and open our laptops to take the battle to the pages of our novels. Our region may be small but we are fierce.

The duels shall three be:

Average word count per Wrimo
Average donation per Wrimo
Percentage of winners per region

The battle of wits and words will commence forthwith on the first of the eleventh month and ending on thirtieth day at the stroke of midnight.

Prepare thyself for battle! Tippy is hungry for marinara sauce.

Indy replied in kind:

The bold Indianapolis Wrimos challenge the entire region of Dayton to a WAR! There will be blood, there will be screaming, there will be… probably lots of writing and money donated, let’s be honest.

The realms of combat shall be as follows:

Average word count per Wrimo
Average donation per Wrimo
Percentage of winners per region

Let the battles commence! Well, starting on November 1, and ending on the 31st at midnight, as specified in the lore of old. Indianapolis WILL be victorious! By the end, a tub of tomatoes will be toppled on Tippy. Bring it, Dayton!

ML Strych and I loved working with Indianapolis’ MLs, Chelleybean13 and Cgarrett. We all were motivated to inspire and encourage our Wrimos.  From the Hogwarts House Cup challenge, weekly Write-Ins, and even meeting mid-way in Richmond, IN for a cross-region write-in, we worked to prod the words out of our regions. What greater motivation do you need than a fuzzy three-legged kitty?

Who won the challenge? Indianapolis. This time.

Here is the ode the Dayton Wrimos wrote at the TGIO (Thank Goodness It’s Over) party:

Moe’s Ode (AKA Tippy’s Lament)

To Indianapolis and rotten tomato Moe,
a lament from Tippy and Dayton, OH.

Tomato! Beauteous, Moe! Delish in marinara,
freshly chopped in salad, red as Scarlett O’Hara.

Poor Tippy, we tried,
how sad to see your tomato-covered hide.

O Glorious orb, ripe, red, and round,
emerging from the sun to pound us to the ground.

“Tippia volt!” we cried and charged into the fray.
How odious that a vegetable/fruit should carry the day,
while Tippy the kitty lazed away.

Indy’s writing game was mean,
whether Moe was fresh and red or crispy, fried and green.

And we must admit, the tomato, however green or soft or flavorless,
will always cook up better than a cat—a tasteless cat.

So keep on rolling, oh great round fruit,
while Tippy tries to right (write) herself.

Even though Dayton didn’t come out on top, we collectively wrote 8,438,171 words. That’s eight million words! Crazy awesome!

New friends, more words, collaborative poem writing…we all won. There’s nothing like the competition of a regional NaNoWriMo war to motivate DayOhWrimos to write for the honor of Tippy.

In autumn of 2008, Rochelle Bradley wrote her first romance novel. Midway through, Hurricane Ike (yes, a hurricane in Ohio) rendered her laptop useless with a nine-day power outage. She didn’t give up, but continued to pursue her dream. Introduced to NaNoWriMo in 2008, she became hooked and has won every year since. In 2015 she became a Municipal Liaison for the Dayton, Ohio region. Her 2013 NaNoWriMo novel The Double D Ranch was published in December 2017. Rochelle shares her home with one cat, three lizards, two high schoolers, and her Prince.