I mentioned on our About page that YearNoWriMad began as a group on my acting website, User Based Casting. I founded the group on December 1st of 2011 and gave it a facelift sometime last year. Although I neglected to take any screenshots of the true original "home" area (GRR!), I would nevertheless love to show you all how YearNoWriMad got its start.
HOME AREA
This was the re-designed home area of the original YearNoWriMad group. There's a book cover widget, a suggested word count calendar, links to tips and tricks, and a drop-down list of participants.
PROFILE PAGES
(Fun fact: our Author Profiles were actually forum posts!) This is the top portion of my personal profile page. As you can see, I kept track of my overall word count progress for the year as well as my progress on individual works. Because I started both novels before 2012, I made sure to maintain two separate word counts for each so as to keep things fair for other participants.
We also tracked our monthly progress. (Note: The YearNoWriMad website will keep track of all these stats automatically!)
Because our Author Profile pages were actually discussion posts, I created a profile layout that users could copy and paste into their own discussions. At one point, users had to edit their profile page's HTML in order to update their word counts (!!!).
HOW-TO
Because our Author Profile pages were actually discussion posts, I created a profile layout that users could copy and paste into their own discussions. At one point, users had to edit their profile page's HTML in order to update their word counts (!!!).
COMMENTS
Because we didn't have any way of having our word counts display side-by-side, we used the comment area to post word-count "shout-outs" and updates.
THE FUTURE
Rest assured that the YearNoWriMad group doesn't hold a candle to the beauty and functionality of the website. NOT ONE CANDLE. There is no comparison. The website is freakin' amazing. All of the limitations I faced with the original group have been completely eradicated. You guys are going to look back at this post after the site launch and be blown away by how far the YearNoWriMad concept has come. The elements we most desperately needed—features which promote competition—are finally front and center!
Are you excited? (I sure am!)
 |
| An early stage of the development process. |
You can check out the original group here.
No comments:
Post a Comment