How do timed word wars work?

Captshady said:

I feel really stupid. Lets say I challenge bsolah to a word war (lets forgo time zones and all time differences for the sake of argument). Someone (or a bot) referees this? Then we both start writing - writing what exactly, part of the novel, or just anything we want - and finish in a fixed time frame? When we're done, whomever has more words is the winner? Is content judged at all?

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You both agree on a set amount of time to write - say, 30 minutes, starting at the top of the hour. You then work on whatever you like -- outlining, character lists, prose, freewriting. It's easier to compare the amount of words you've both done at the end if you are both writing prose, but as the aim is to get you moving forward in your WIP, I don't think it's compulsory. You can just say, "I wrote three scene outlines!" if you like. (NaNo word wars are usually prose word counts). Nobody referees, although if there are other people in the chat room who aren't warring, they can keep an eye on the time for you and post "Time!" when time is up, as well as cheering you on if you post an ongoing count every now and then. You can share a snippet of what you wrote; that's between you and the other word warriors, but no one judges content as such.

Edited to add: No need to feel stupid! If we're ever in the AW chat room at the same time, I'd be happy to word war with you. That way you'd get some experience at it before NaNo.