Region/USA/MA/Western Mass

The USA :: Massachusetts :: Western Mass region of Massachusetts consists of the western part of Massachusetts. The region consists of all of Hampden, and Hampshire and Franklin Counties in Massachusetts. The region also welcomes writers from USA :: Massachusetts :: Berkshires.

Note: As of March 24, 2024, the Western Mass region has made to the decision to leave NaNoWriMo and become an independent group known as the Western Mass Writers Guild. The region can still be found on nanowrimo.org.

Events

• Kickoff and TGIO Parties - Usually held at Panera Bread in Hadley, MA, which is considered the most central location in the region. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 parties happened virtually on the region's Discord server.
• Midnight Write In - The tradition started in 2018 and is hosted by penguin5689. The event starts around 11:45pm on October 31 and continues until 2am on November 1st. First word sprint commences at midnight. The event is held on the region's Discord Server. Midnight Write Ins have also happened during Camp NaNoWriMo events.
• Midnight Write In at Noon
  • A daytime version of the traditional Midnight Write In happened in 2022. The event ran with the same format as its midnight counterpart with it starting around 11:45am and ending around 2pm. First word sprint started at 12pm (noon). The event was hybrid, meeting at the Westfield Athenaeum and in the regional Discord server. The event was well attended with 9 participants joining both in-person and virtually.
  • The Noon edition of the popular midnight event happened again in 2023, hosted at the Forbes Library in Northampton, MA. A total of 9 participants joined both in-person and virtually.
• Global Write-In Crawl
  • Western Mass participated in the event in 2020. The region's write in during the event was held November 7 from 20:00 to 22:00 EST.
  • The region participated in 2021 and the region's write in was November 7 from 19:00 to 21:00 EST.
  • The region participated in 2022 and the region hosted two write in during the crawl: November 3/4 from 22:30 to 00:30 and Novemeber 6 from 20:30 to 22:30 EST.
  • The region participated in the Camp NaNo GWIC in April and July 2022. The region's write in during the April event was April 2, 21:00 to 23:00 EDT and the July event was July 1, 21:00 to 23:00 EDT.
  • The region participated in April 2024. The region's write in during the event was April 6th, 20:00 to 22:00 EST.
• Penguin's All Day Write-A-Thon - An all day write in hosted by penguin5689 held on the region's Discord server. The event also had guest hosts including fencing engineer, ML; Ino Aole, ML; and Hollive, participant.
  • Dates of events held and the total word count between all participants:
    • November 23, 2020: 19,456 words written
    • November 24, 2020: 28,099 words written
    • November 25, 2020: 15,634 words written
    • April 29, 2021: 13,261 words written

Regional Stats

• 2014: 277 novelists; 5,100,358 words written; 18,412 average wordcount
• 2015: 253 novelists; 5,306,906 words written; 20,975 average wordcount
• 2016: 202 novelists; 4,154,135 words written; 20,565 average wordcount
• 2017: 220 novelists; 4,528,617 words written; 20,584 average wordcount
• 2018: 200 novelists; 3,784,605 words written; 18,923 average wordcount
• 2019: 222 novelists; 77 winners; 5,697,863 words written
• 2020: 151 novelists; 3,785,054 words written; 25,067 average wordcount
• 2021: 137 novelists; 33 winners; 2,774,735 words written; 21,678 average wordcount
• 2022: 165 novelists; 43 winners; 3,306,677 words written; 20,040 average wordcount
• 2023: 210 novelists; 60 winners; 4,596,486 words written; 21,889 average wordcount
• 2024: TBD

Municipal Liaisons

Present

• TBD (2024)

Past

• penguin5689 (2018-2023)
• Ino Aole (2018-2023)
• art4earthlings (2022-2023)
• aylaanne (2022-2023)
• Epratt (2022)
• fencing engineer (2017-2021)
• Martina121 (?-2011-2013)
• queerprince (2014-2015)
• xcmer (2015)
• no ML (2016)

Local Writing Groups

• Support and Accountability for Novel Editing (SANE) - a year-round editing and writing group run by local NaNoWriMo participants. The idea of a year-round writing/editing group for the region was first hatched in 2018 during the November write ins at the Greenfield Library in Greenfield, MA. The first official meeting didn't occur until 2019. Before the pandemic, the group would meet in-person twice a month either at the Greenfield Library or at Panera Bread in Hadley. During the pandemic, the group would meet every week on the region's Discord server. As of 2022, the group meets at the Forbes Library in Northampton, MA.
• WhipCity Wordsmiths - A social and support group for writers in the Westfield, MA area. Since its founding in 2017, the group has grown significantly and now has members from CT, NY, MO, VA, and VT. Writers from the group can be found writing articles for the Writers Series for the Westfield News, the local newspaper.

Nearby Regions

• The Berkshires - NaNo region consisting of all of Berkshire County, MA and is directly west of Western Mass. As of 2024, the Berkshires region has unofficially merged with the Western Mass region. The Berkshires region can still be found on nanowrimo.org.
• 5-College - A NaNo region in the middle of Western Mass and primarily consists of the towns and cities of Amherst, Northampton, Hadley and South Hadley. As of 2023, the 5-College region has officially merged with the Western Mass region and it no longer has a page on nanowrimo.org.
• Worcester - A NaNo region directly east of Western Mass.
• Vermont - A NaNo region directly north of Western Mass.
• New Hampshire - A NaNo region northeast of Western Mass.
• CT::Valley-Northwest - A NaNo region southwest of Western Mass.
• CT::North - A NaNo region directly south of Western Mass.
• CT::East - A NaNo region southeast of Western Mass.

External Links

• Western Mass regional lounge
• Western Mass regional forum
• Western Mass Facebook group
• Western Mass Discord server
• Western Mass Facebook page
• Western Mass Twitter account
• Western Mass Instagram