Step One: Login to NaNoWriMo.org (OK, I realize that most people already have this one down!) Type your NaNo ID and password then click on “User Login”

Step Two: Welcome to the Main Page! Find the “My NaNoWriMo” link on the grayish bar just under the pencil-totin’ running guy. Notice how if you hover your mouse over this link, a menu pops down. Click on “Regional Affiliations” and then skip to step three. (Read below if the menu does not drop down for you. Fear not! This is normal!)

Of course, if your computer is flash-impaired you will not see the auto drop-down. (Not an insult to your machine, there are a million good reasons for not being able to use flash menus, or even knowing what that means!) If the menu doesn’t drop down, just click on the link and you will go to the “My NaNoWriMo” page. **Wait! My page doesn’t look like this at all! Am I doomed?** Not at all! This page looks different because I am already affiliated and because ML’s get some extra junk that you may not have. I briefly toyed with the idea of creating a NaNo ID just for the screenshots, but decided against it. Click on the “Regional Affiliations” link in the menu to the left and then go to the next step.

Step Three: Affiliate Yourself! This is the Regional Affiliations page that everyone is so excited about. (Once again, I have already affiliated with some places that I have an interest in. Yours may not have any yet. But isn’t that why we are here?) To join a region, find the drop-down menu near the bottom of the page. Click it, and be amazed at how many NaNo regions there are in the world! Once you have recovered, find the region you are interested in. Look for the National category (Or Continental in some cases.) Then State or Territory (I guess that’s what they are called) and finally your region of choice. When the desired region is highlighted, click the “Affiliate” button underneath the menu. Wait for the Internet elves to fetch your updated page, and “Voila” you are affiliated. **BUT PUT THAT CHECKBOOK AWAY!** You are still homeless! Continue to Step Four: Finding a Home

Step Four: Finding a Home – In this step, you will let everybody know where you consider home, and most importantly, where you want all of your wonderful words to count. Once you have affiliated with one or two regions (or about a dozen like me…) you will then select the one you want to call home and place a dot in the radio button. (Radio button is the technical term for the circle thingy…) When that is done, don’t forget the most important step (as illustrated by the plethora of red arrows pointing at it…) clicking the “Update” button.

That’s it! You are both Affiliated with as many regions as you might want, and you have a home to contribute your hard-earned words to. Happy Noveling!