Region/USA/MI/Lansing

USA :: Michigan :: Lansing is a NaNoWriMo region for the Lansing, Michigan area. It was originally founded in 2005 as the East Lansing region.

Going by the name NaNoLansing, the region has two rhino mascots (NaNoRhinos to be precise) named High Admiral Reginald Pantsmuffin and Wordcount Warren by popular vote in 2013.

A Little History

2005

A region was born.

2007

After confirming with HQ that there was not an active ML in the region, Alaina (A_Rachelle) and Anne (TheJadeCat) volunteered to take over those responsibilities. Emails were exchanged on November 8, 2007, and confirmation was received on November 9, 2007.

Write-Ins were held at the Chapbook Cafe at the Okemos Schuler's.

There was no Kick-Off Party, but a TGIO party was held at Gone Wired on December 1st. Zack of OLL fast processed some official swag for the region, which arrived just in time for the party.

2008

Kick-Off Party: October 31 @ Gone Wired
TGIO Party: December 6 @ Gone Wired

Inner Editors drawn at this year's kick-off may or may not have survived the TGIO party after being imprisoned all month.

Write-ins were held at Gone Wired and Schuler's Chapbook Cafe.

2009

Kick-Off Party: October 31 @ Gone Wired
TGIO Party: December 5 @ Gone Wired

Write-ins were held at Gone Wired, Schuler's Chapbook Cafe, and LCC.

2010

Kick-Off Party: October 31 @ Gone Wired
TGIO Party: December 9 @ Gone Wired

Write-Ins were held at Wanderer's Tea House, East Lansing; and Gone Wired, Lansing.

2011

Kick-Off Party: October 30 @ Gone Wired
TGIO Party: December 11 @ Gone Wired

Write-ins were held at Wanderer's Tea House, East Lansing; Books & Beans, Owosso; Delta Township Library, Delta Township; and Gone Wired, Lansing.

Stats:

• 252 Homed Wrimos
• 67 50k winners
• 1 100k winner (that we know of)
• 7,861,127 words written
• $535 donated

2012

NanoLansing 2012 Trading Cards

Kick-Off Party: October 28 @ The Avenue (formerly Gone Wired)
TGIO Party: December 2 @ the Capital Area District Library

Annette (Contemplative Cat) officially became a co-ML for the region after unofficially assisting for four years.

The Guilt Monkey Game was introduced. Twenty-eight wrimos passed 195 monkeys in the course of the month. The most monkeys passed by a non-ML were 28 by Random_Gauge followed by a tie off 22 by howthemoonfeels and RunningOutOf_Ink.

The first NaNoLansing Trading Cards were introduced with the Inner Editor and NaNoRhino.

Write-ins were held at Grand Traverse Pie Company, East Lansing; The Avenue, Lansing; the Capital Area District Library, Lansing; and the Courtside Cafe, Owosso.

Stats:

• 255 Homed Wrimos
• 79 - 50k winners (31% of active wrimos)
• 7,147,000 words written
• $740 donated

2013

Frederick the Ferocious, personal Guilt Monkey of A_Rachelle

Participant Guilt Monkeys at a 2013 write-in

2013 Cauldron of Doom ninjas

Kick-Off Party: October 27 @ The Avenue
TGIO Party: December 1 @ Haslett Public Library

The year of the Ninja. NaNoLansing pep talks, trading cards and prizes were themed after the ninja.

Outside of the usual candy and stickers, NaNoLansing write-in participants could also win ninjas after a Cauldron of Doom.

October prep workshops were introduced and included the following:

• Are You Ready for NaNoWriMo?
• Finding Your Vision with Inspiration Boards
• The Plot Thickens
• Breathing Life Into Your Characters

During the inspiration board session, a high fashion photo of Tilda Swinton was discovered in an issue of W, which led to the regional meme of the Forest of Swinton, multiple David Bowie references, and the Ziggy Stardust Award. The Ziggy Stardust award was given to Wrathofgod, gbjazzman, sigmaechoes, and Random_Gauge for "for keeping the spirit of Bowie... and possibly starting a cult".

For reaching a regional fundraising goal of $1100, or the Guilt Monkey Boogie level, a video was made by the MLs for the region.

Stats:

• 324 Homed Wrimos
• 84 Wrimos wrote over 50K, 80 wrimos validated their word counts and officially won.
• 249 Wrimos wrote at least one word.
• 6,366,040 words written
• 281 Guilt Monkeys passed
• $1126.85 donated

Write-ins were held at Grand Traverse Pie Company, East Lansing; Old Chicago, Okemos; and the Capital Area District Library, Lansing.

2014

Kick-Off Party: November 1 @ The Avenue
TGIO Party: December 7 @ The Avenue Cafe

The regional theme of steampunk was chosen based on the NaNoWriMo official artwork for the year.

October Workshops:

• NaNo 101
• MindMapping
• Villainy: Crafting a Villain Worth Its Salt
• Creating Believable Dialog

Stats:

• 324 Homed Wrimos
• 86 Wrimos wrote over 50K, 83 wrimos validated their word counts and officially won.
• 270 Wrimos wrote at least one word.
• 6,588,872 words written
• 224 Guilt Monkeys passed
• $860 donated

Write-ins were held at Grand Traverse Pie Company, East Lansing; Old Chicago, Okemos; Panera Bread, West Lansing; and Abiding in the Vine, Owosso.

2015

Kick-Off Party: October 25 @ The Avenue Cafe
TGIO Party: December 5 @ The Okemos Public Library

The yearly theme was based on library books and cards.

October Workshops:

• Plotting in a NaNoWriMo Second - presented by Kelly Rogers.
• Developing Great Settings - presented by Erin Bartels.

Stats:

• 338 Homed Wrimos
• 87 Wrimos wrote over 50K, 84 wrimos validated their word counts and officially won.
• 274 Wrimos wrote at least one word.
• 6,945,673 words written
• 185 Guilt Monkeys passed
• $1115 donated

Write-ins were held at Grand Traverse Pie Company, East Lansing; Old Chicago, Okemos; AI Fusion, East Lansing; and Denny's West Lansing.

2016

Kick-Off Party: October 30 @ The Avenue Cafe
TGIO Party: December 3 @ The Okemos Public Library

Yearly theme:

This year we had a special 4 region theme - Harry Potter.

• NaNoLansing MLs Contemplative Cat and YuOfOwari22 were the house heads for Gryffindor
• Flint, MI ML (kdskid007) was the house head for Hufflepuff
• Cape Cod, Mass ML (Flyleaf) was the house head for Slytherin
• Corvalis, Oregon ML lachattefatale was the house head for Ravenclaw

Wrimos from all four regions combined their word counts to determine which house won the house cup. (Slytherin won)

October Workshops:

• What Harry Potter Can Teach Us About Writing
• Using Characters to Add Depth to Your Writing
• What is NaNoWriMo and Tips to Win

Stats:

• 301 Homed wrimos
• 222 Wrimos wrote at least one word
• 64 wrimos won NaNo with at least 50K words
• 7 people wrote over 75K words
• 5271592 words were written
• 29% of people who wrote at least one word won
• $1465 donated
• no guilt monkeys passed - game retired this year

All Day Write Ins:

• Word Wizardry Write In, Okemos Public Library
• Come Write In with Alexandria Sure and Richelle Renae - Foster, Swift, Collins & Smith PC, Lansing

Regular Write Ins were held at Grand Traverse Pie Company, East Lansing, Old Chicago, Okemos and Biggby Creyts Rd, Lansing

2017

Kick-Off Party: October 29 @ The Avenue Cafe
TGIO Party: December 2 @ The Okemos Public Library

The yearly theme was SuperWriters

October Workshops:

• The Personality of a Novel presented by Lori Nelson Spielman
• Juiced: Techniques to Power Up Your Creativity presented by Teresa Crumpton
• NaNoWriMo Plot In

Stats:

• 295 Homed Wrimos
• 238 Wrimos wrote at least one word
• 73 Wrimos wrote over 50K words
• 5 people wrote over 65K words
• 5,608,905 words were written
• 31% of people who wrote at least one word won
• $1524 donated

All Day Write Ins:

• SuperPowered Write In - Library of Michigan
• Heroic Write In - Okemos Public Library

Regular Write Ins were held at Old Chicago, Okemos, IHop, East Lansing,

2018

Kick-Off Party: October 28 @ The Avenue Cafe
TGIO Party: December 1 @ The Okemos Public Library

The yearly theme was Seas Your Novel.

We also participated with wrimoverse

October Workshops:

• 10-4-18 How to be an Organized Writer - Richelle Renae McFate
• 10-11-18 The Hero's Journey for Writers - Colleen Gleason
• 10-18-18 Developing Important and Memorable Settings - Lev Raphael
• 10-25-18 How to Write Efficiently and Effectively - Elizabeth Heiter

Stats:

• 271 Homed Wrimos
• 208 Wrimos wrote at least one word
• 72 Wrimos wrote over 50K words
• 71 Wrimos officially won
• 7 people wrote over 70K words
• 2 people wrote over 100K words
• 5,477,209 words were written
• 26333 words were written by each wrimo who wrote at least one word
• $xxxx.xx donated

All Day Write Ins:

• Dive into Your Novel Write In - Library of Michigan
• Seas Your Words Write In - Okemos Public Library

Come Write in Locations:

• Okemo Public Library
• East Lansing Public Library
• Howell Carnegie Public Library

Regular Write Ins were held at Old Chicago in Okemos, IHop in East Lansing, Panera at Lansing Mall, Aspen Lakes Clubhouse in Holt

2019

Kick-Off Party: October 27 @ The Avenue Cafe
TGIO Party: December 7 @ The Okemos Public Library

The yearly theme was NaNoLansing Digs Writing.

October Workshops:

• 10-3-19 How to Prepare to Write Your Novel - Sarah Zettel
• 10-10-19 Self Publishing - Alexandria Sure
• 10-17-19 Round Robin Discussion on Writing - (Lev Raphael was going to speak on Developing Powerful Scenes, but needed to cancel.)
• 10-24-19 Honoring Your NaNo Journey - Isabelle Drake

Stats:

• 244 Homed Wrimos
• 202 Wrimos wrote at least one word
• 70 Wrimos wrote over 50K words
• 6 people wrote over 70K words
• 4 people wrote over 100K words

All Day Write Ins:

• 11-9-19 Writing Rocks at the Library of Michigan - Library of Michigan
• 11-17-19 Excavate the Artifacts of Your Creativity - Okemos Public Library

Come Write in Locations:

• Okemos Public Library
• Howell Carnegie Public Library

Regular Write Ins were held at Old Chicago in Okemos, Panera at Lansing Mall, Constellation Cat Cafe in East Lansing

2020

This is the year that the COVID-19 Pandemic hit the world. A decision was made by NaNoLansing and made official by NaNoWriMo to prohibit any in-person events. It was the year our theme was NaNoLansing NaNo at Home.

Kick-Off Party: October 31 on Zoom
TGIO Party: December 5 on Zoom

October Workshops:

Regional Stats

• 2014: 334 novelists; 6,596,994 words written; 19,751 average wordcount
• 2015: 337 novelists; 6,894,055 words written; 20,457 average wordcount
• 2016: 302 novelists; 5,272,785 words written; 17,459 average wordcount
• 2017: 295 novelists; 5,608,905 words written; 19,013 average wordcount
• 2018: 271 novelists; 5,477,209 words written; 20,211 average wordcount
• 2019: 255 novelists; 80 winners; 5,900,268‬ words written

Municipal Liaisons

Present

• Contemplative Cat (2012-?)
• Sihaya48 (2019-?)
• T. Lou Warren (2020-?)

Past

• YuOfOwari22 (2016 - 2018)
• A_Rachelle (2007-2015)
• TheJadeCat (2007-2009)
• Elrina (2005-2006)

External Links

• Lansing regional page
• Lansing regional forum
• NaNoLansing Facebook page
• NaNoLansing Twitter
• NaNoLansing Instagram