Background
I have fond memories of the NaNoWriMo Validator. Back in the day (my first NaNo attempt and win came in 2003), to officially be declared a winner, you had to copy/paste the text of your novel (or use a text generator to produce the text to be counted) into a text area box and press a button. NaNoWriMo would count the words and, if you had at least 50,000 words, you would be declared a winner and allowed to download a printable winner’s certificate (that you could fill out yourself).
I found the process validating–it was like some external entity saw the words I pulled out of my mind and my heart in November and said, “You’ve won!”
So I was very sad when NaNoWriMo announced it was retiring its Validator, only requiring people to just ensure their self-reported word count was at least 50,000 words.
Technology
Back in the early to mid 2000’s, web applications required everything to be done by the central, back-end computing processes. If you wanted to count words, you had to require the user to upload them to your server and then process them there, returning the resulting information and action to their browser.
Now, however, browsers and user computers are much more powerful and it is possible for the local browser to do a LOT more without having to upload anything to the server. In the case of the 2025 NaNo 2.0 Validator, the user doesn’t send ANY information ANYWHERE. Instead, the values that are input by the user are temporarily stored locally by the browser and operated upon within the browser using javascript, which customizes the winner’s certificate and badge, making it available for download. If the user decides to copy/paste their text into the text area indicated and press the “Count the words” button, then the word counting is all performed locally within the browser.
Philosophy
The NaNo 2.0 org, built up of a very small group of volunteers (including original NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty), is not sized or resourced to deal with any kind of user accounts. We have studiously avoided any scope creep that might lead to having to deal with user accounts (e.g., user profiles, user progress tracking, user forums).
Because of this, the 2025 NaNo 2.0 Validator, while it has fields to be filled out, leaves the data in the user’s browser and does not share any information from the user with anyone else (including NaNo 2.0).
How it works
The blue text in the diagram above shows the fields where you can enter your data. Again, note that all data you enter into this page stay in your browser and never is sent anywhere.
The red text shows where you can optionally put your current word count (or hours if you are editing). You need to click the purple Count My Words button to validate.
The purple box shows the text area where you can copy your novel text and paste it. When you click the purple Count My Words button to validate, it will populate the Actual Progress and fill it with the actual number of words that your browser counts.
When you click the magic purple Count My Words button, it will reveal any milestone badges that your progress entitles you to. You are free to download these from your browser and display them on your social media (if you like). If you have achieved your target (by default 50,000 words of writing), then you will also see your customized winner’s certificate and badge that you can download and enjoy.
Come try it out! Just visit nano2.org/validator.