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Word war
A word war (also called word sprint, or simply war or sprint) is a short timed challenge in which Wrimos write as much as they can in a short period. These challenges may be conducted with other writers on the NaNoWriMo forums, at a write-in, in chat rooms, or via Twitter. Participants may also conduct a word war alone by setting a timer or using a program such as Write or Die.
Varieties
Word wars may be conducted with specific goals in mind (such as the "Box of Doom" challenge or challenges to write so many words in any interval from five minutes to a day), races to see who can write the most in the set amount of time, or simply a set period of time to write as much as possible in the Write or Die fashion.
There is an official Word Sprints Twitter feed that runs timed word sprints throughout the season, starting in September in preparation for relaunch. Sprints on the official feed run from 10 to 60 minutes long, with the most common being 20-30 minutes. In 2010 the sprints were run by various members of staff and OLL interns including Dragonchilde, Sarah Mackey, Cybele May and Nora Coon. In 2011 hand-selected volunteers, primarily MLs from around the world, joined the word sprint team to provide around the clock sprints.
Online word wars on #nanowrimo's IRC channel and some regional channels on the Goodchatting IRC server are often moderated by BattleJesus, a bot who keeps track of timed word wars. BattleJesus provides warnings before the start and at various intervals throughout the word war. Users can submit their word count at the end of the word war, though on a strictly honour basis. Timmy, a bot seen in other NaNo regional channels, also times word wars and provides warnings before the beginning and end of wars.
