I've seen some whispers on this board, and November is less than a week away in most parts, so I think it's time to get this year's quiz-writing month (QuiWriMo) launched! Inspired by the worldwide National Novel-Writing Month, this is an honor-system challenge to step up your quiz-writing quantity without sacrificing your quiz-writing quality. After three years, we've contributed more than 5000 questions to the site through this challenge -- that's the equivalent of more than 500 ten-question quizzes! QuiWriMo 2011 set a record to beat at 2328.5 questions. Can we do even better in QuiWriMo 2012? From 12:01 a.m. 1 November to 11:59 p.m. 30 November, your local time, your mission is to write more questions than usual in the month of November. Only questions written during November count -- for example, if I've got five questions written on a quiz right now and I finish it up on 1 November, then that counts for five questions, not ten. If you think it'll help to spend this week plotting, outlining, or researching, go for it! Questions do not have to go online in November, so don't worry about the queue lengths. This is an honor-system challenge: you report (either in this thread or in a private message to me), and we believe you. You can divide up the questions any way you want: quizzes with 10 questions, quizzes with 25 questions, question-quest questions, whatever inspires you. You can even claim thirty questions' worth of credit if you write the first question on each of thirty quizzes, even if you don't actually finish any of them until QuiWriMo 2013. This year I'll post standings weekly (8 Nov, 15 Nov, etc), based on the numbers you've reported in this thread or in private messages. We want you to have something to shoot for, no matter how much time you have to spare, so as usual we have four different types of challenges to choose among. Note that this is an informal, honor-system challenge, so there's no way to award badges or mini-badges; your rewards will be the questions you've written and the admiration of your peers. Here are the levels of achievement we recognize here: Local QuiWriMo: Finish two quizzes or crosswords in November. (It's okay to have started them previously.) National QuiWriMo: Write 30 questions in November. That's at least one per day! Worldwide QuiWriMo: Write 50 questions in November. That could be a Question Quest badge all by itself! Galactic QuiWriMo: Write 100 questions in November. That could be ten full quizzes! And if you'd like to spice things up with your own personal goals -- finish off partially written quizzes, finish the Pangalactic, win the Author Challenge badge, make progress on the 17 unfinished Commission quizzes Kyle has been bugging you about -- then that just adds to the fun! Let us know here what you're going for and we'll cheer each other on. There is no shame in going for a lower goal than others; we all write questions one at a time, and every question counts. This is supposed to be an inspiration to step up your individual writing quantity without sacrificing your writing quality, and how to balance those two is up to you. For myself, I can hardly wait for November! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Frequently asked questions (from previous years): - What about crosswords? Finishing a crossword counts for Local QuiWriMo. If you write a crossword in November, you can also use that toward your question total for the other challenges. A small crossword counts for 10 questions, a medium crossword for 15, and a large crossword for 20. When you tell me these numbers, though, please keep track of quiz questions and crosswords separately so I can make sure to account for them correctly. - Is there partial credit? Yes! Many people like to write their questions and info sections separately, and we can accommodate that. You get 0.5 questions' worth of credit for writing a question/answer(s), and 0.5 questions' worth of credit for writing an info section. In either case, of course, you should only claim credit when you feel that your work is more-or-less publishable as written: proofread, accurate, etc. - What if my question/quiz is rejected? That's fine; it happens! If there's some back-and-forth between you and the editors in order to improve your quiz, we are all in favor. Of course, you shouldn't be claiming credit for completely unpublishable questions like "iS cellardoOR the best or what as of 2012!!!" (Obviously, that question is not acceptable because the answer is a giveaway.) However, even good questions sometimes need revision. Please count each question only once, though: no double-counting the original and revised versions. - What if the system limits how many questions/quizzes/crosswords I can have active at once? You don't have to type your question into a template for it to count. We also count questions that are written on notepaper, or in a word processor document, or on the back of your hand, as long as you have a plan to get them onto FunTrivia. - What if the queues are long and the editors don't review my question/quiz/crossword during November? This is not a problem either; your questions count when you write them, not when they're accepted. That's why we run on the honor system. - How do I know what time to start? You can start at any time after midnight November 1, as determined wherever you are, and finish at any time before midnight December 1, as determined by your local time wherever you are. That's right: there is no tyranny of FunTrivia Time here! If you will be in different time zones on 1 November and on 30 November (like I will), then to choose your starting and ending times, take your pick between using either local time throughout, or taking your starting time based on where you are at midnight on November 1 and your ending time based on where you are at midnight on November 30. I'm letting you pick as a tiny compensation for jet lag.