(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)
Writers around the world are experiencing an upset to their November plans. The organization behind the annual National Novel Writing Month is imploding due to its own incompetence, and writers, like myself, who have participated for decades are leaving the community in droves.
The death of NaNoWriMo has been drawn-out, ugly, and depressing for a lot of longtime participants. Arguably, the trouble began, as so much trouble did, in 2020 with the Covid pandemic. That year, it was prohibited for groups to gather for NaNoWriMo sponsored events (for obvious reasons). Municipal Liaisons (who are in charge of regional events) were forbidden from hosting or planning any in-person activities. Which was good! That was a good rule. But a lot of them didn't listen. That led to a lot of liaisons getting fired and banned, resulting in the disassembly of a lot of local chapters. NaNo was in the right, there. But that might have been the last time.
In 2022, scandal broke when NaNoWriMo partnered with a scam artist vanity press called Inkitt, which preyed on ambitious young writers who didn't know they were being scammed. NaNo's endorsement of the company was called out, and eventually an apology was issued, but a lot of damage was done to the good faith people had in them. It was another huge hit to the platform's popularity.
And then 2023 dealt what should have been the final blow. The story broke that a moderator who was in charge of the Young Writers Program forums had been grooming, exploiting, and harassing the children participating in the program. And he hadn't just been doing this himself, but also allowing other internet predators access to those forums in order to groom victims. It's a terrifying, reprehensible thought. And what upset people the most was that this had apparently been happening--and had been reported--for YEARS. NaNoWriMo's initial response was that they knew nothing of these happenings, which fell apart pretty quickly when these very organized young people provided proof that they not only knew, but that the concerns had been repeatedly brushed aside. It was truly a pathetic lack of accountability--an exact demonstration of what not to do. What followed was a mass exodus of both participants and org staff. There didn't seem to be anything left of NaNoWriMo, and it seemed like that might be for the best.
But it's a new year, and as November draws closer, there seems to be room for one more scandal. This time, NaNoWriMo seems determined to finish the job by abandoning literally everything they stand for. The challenge that was based on putting in hours of hard work in order to embrace the creation process has decided to take the stance that it's cool if you just want to use AI bots, tho. Forget the work and discipline, which was the whole point. Forget the creativity, which was also the whole point. Just push a few buttons, and BAM, you'll have a fresh project ready to be exploited by a network of scam artists.
Anyway. This is the time of year when I usually post about what I'm planning to work on for NaNoWriMo. For obvious reasons, that's not happening this year. I was done after last year, seeing how they had ignored the very serious problems in the forums. Last year, they were monsters. This year they're just a joke. I'm actually too mad to be bummed about it.
I'll still be writing, as always. I'll still write with friends, and I'm still going on my annual writing retreat to the lake. We can still make goals and track our progress. But NaNoWriMo is over for good.
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