On November 1, 2010, I logged into National Novel Writing Month’s website for the first time to begin work on my maritime fantasy novel, Ravens & Roses.
On September 30, 2024, I logged into National Novel Writing Month’s website for the last time to delete my account.
NaNoWriMo’s word count tracker was originally a wonderful way to get me to actually write. Back in 2010, I needed that kick in the pants to take the ideas floating around my head and the few pages of scribbled notes in a folder and actually DO something with them. Having a daily word count goal and seeing that tracker tick slowly upward throughout the month of November was inspiration. I loved it and wanted more.
For the last thirteen years, I have (more often than not) participated in National Novel Writing Month on the site. It was a fantastic way to generate content, encouraging me to turn off my inner editor and just get the words down on the page. Some years I won, other years I didn’t, but that was okay. The point was to write. I participated in the single year of Script Frenzy to work on a graphic novel idea. I attended Camp NaNoWriMo when they were offered in April and then July. I prepped and wrote the rough draft for my first completed work, Courting the Moon, for NaNoWriMo in 2015. I purchased mugs, shirts, magnets, and stickers, proudly printed off my winner certificates to frame on my wall, displayed their banners on social media, donated money to the organization, promoted the site to anyone else I knew who was a writer. While I didn’t go on the writer forums, I still felt like I was part of the community.
I was a Wrimo.
But… not anymore.
Because I never went on the forums, I had no idea that the Office of Letters and Light (the parent nonprofit company that runs the website) had been slowly destroying the heart and soul of NaNoWriMo. Over the last several years, they have partnered with sketchy sponsors, abused their volunteers and interns with tons of work and no support, allowed grooming and abuse of minors on their forums without removing or punishing the responsible moderator(s), and suppressing or deleting all criticism of those decisions and whistle-blowers on bad behavior. They didn’t even run background checks on their moderators, volunteers, or municipal liaisons, despite their close contact with minors, both at in-person events and on forums or Discord servers. It wasn’t until they made their disastrous and ill-timed statements about their “stance” on AI that I sat up and took notice.
One of my friends brought the organization’s position on the use of AI to my attention in early September. The original post (which has since been revised several times) originally stated that NaNoWriMo did not condemn the use of AI, and in fact that anyone who did would be classist, ableist, or even racist. The insinuations that poor, disadvantaged, or differently-abled people could not create worthwhile writing without the use of AI sent shock waves of outrage throughout the writing community. Considering how many artists of all stripes have had their work plagiarized and stolen by generative AI programs, and that this theft has been making the rounds recently in media, it was astonishing to see such a statement coming from a program that claimed to support creativity. Many writers on the Board of Directors at NaNoWriMo resigned and prominent former participants have denounced NaNoWriMo for selling out their principles and tarnishing the spirit of this beloved writing challenge for the sake of sponsorship money.
I did not immediately delete my NaNoWriMo account, despite the rush of people tweeting about doing so. I wanted to see NaNo’s reaction to the backlash. Would they walk back their statement? Clarify that they only meant to condone assistive AI, like dissertation software, auto-complete, or spellcheck, and did not in any way support the use of generative AI like ChatGPT to write the novel for you?
Not really. The original offensive post was edited and watered down with a halfhearted, vague-post “apology” that aimed to placate the angry masses without jeopardizing their sponsorship with ProWriter, an AI editing software. While one of their FAQs does state that using ChatGPT would undermine the point of the writing challenge, there was still no condemnation of a technology that can (and does) take advantage of the hard work and imagination of real humans.
When I saw that no real apology or explanation was forthcoming, I started to dig deeper, since many of the articles and videos about the AI controversy referenced prior controversies, including ones where a moderator groomed children in the forums and those who tried to report the behavior were silenced. There is an entire timeline of these events, which you can access on nanoscandal.com, as well as a 2-hour in-depth breakdown on YouTube from Savy Writes Books if you’d prefer to listen to or watch the fall of NaNoWriMo. I don’t have the heart or the stomach to rehash it all here.
Now that I know all of this had happened with no sign of remorse, recanting, or redirection from the Office of Letters and Light, I decided I could no longer have my name or stats contribute to the NaNoWriMo website. I took a few screenshots of my own to commemorate my work, then pressed “Delete.”
I do this with mixed feelings. NaNoWriMo did help me and my writing. It provided structure and encouragement when I needed it, and I wouldn’t have nearly as much written down now if I hadn’t signed up back in 2010. I’m sad and angry that yet another thing that was good and filled with promise and delight has imploded from its own internal neglect and strife, and that innocents suffered because of it. But I also know that you don’t need a fancy website to provide you with a word-count tracker, nor is the NaNoWriMo site the only place to find community with other writers.
All of my shirts, mugs, and magnets from previous Novembers are now packed away. I’m not really sure what to do with them at this point. I don’t want to get rid of them because I bought them in good faith, supporting a mission I believe in: the encouragement of writers to write all across the world. But I don’t know if I can, in good conscience, really use or display them again. If I do, it will be to show support for the annual challenge to write a novel during the month of November (or any month that it suits you) and not the one offered by the now-disgraced Office of Letters and Light.
The Cat's Cradle : On Hiatus! 