Nanowrimo or Not?

Nanowrimo season is almost upon us, and with it comes a dilemma.

You may not have heard but the organization is currently embroiled in numerous controversies - some would say scandals - and its continued existence is in question, not to mention the annual November event that is the organization’s main reason for being.

I’ll break down the issues briefly, but everything I’ll discuss is covered in comprehensive detail at nanoscandal.com, a Google doc that continues to be updated as needed, as well as in several Reddit threads (just Google “Nanowrimo controversy” and links to the threads will come up).

In a nutshell, there are three main issues. First, in 2023, Nanowrimo had one or more predators in one of its forum threads (one actually being a moderator of said thread). The minor-age writers felt unsafe and notified the Nanowrimo organization, which apparently was slow to respond, and when they did respond they initially tried to sweep it under the rug instead of handling it properly.

In response to the problem, the organization closed all of the forums, right in the middle of Nanowrimo. To date, only a few official Nanowrimo announcement-type threads are open and all others remain closed.

Second, the Municipal Liaisons, the people that manage different writer groups before and during the November event - year-round, actually - were fired this past spring, possibly in a misguided attempt to clear the decks after the forum problem. The MLs are all unpaid volunteers, many of whom had put in hundreds or thousands of hours over the years. The organization also presented MLs - if they wanted to continue being MLs - with a document to sign that some felt tried to shift all responsibility for anything that might go wrong (i.e., such as the forum issue) onto their shoulders and not the organization’s shoulders.

Finally, just recently, Nanowrimo put out a statement regarding AI that confused and angered people. They were vague on whether novel drafts written using AI would “count” for the purpose of winning Nanowrimo (which requires 50,000+ words written entirely during the month of November). One of their sponsors happens to be Pro Writing Aid, a software program that enables writers to utilize AI for plot and story generation.

But that wasn’t the thing that caused the most controversy. It was several sentences embedded in the statement that seemed to imply that disabled people could only write fiction if they used AI (which is obviously untrue and insulting) and further that to question this position was “ableist and classist.”

There are two types of AI. The first is the Grammarly type of writing aid, spellcheckers and the like, which is not the AI in question. It’s the generative AI, the ChatGPT type of does-the-writing-for-you AI that people are objecting to. If AI is writing the actual story and not you, then even if it’s for Nanowrimo, a challenge that has no cash prizes and is based on the honor system anyway - what is the point exactly? It’s nonsensical and basically makes a mockery of the whole point of doing Nanowrimo.

Again, Nanowrimo uses the honor system now. They used to require that you upload your draft in order to win the challenge (you could use a word scrambler to scramble the words before uploading if you didn’t quite trust the Nano folks with your masterpiece), but they got rid of that requirement years ago.

So... why do I care? Because Nanowrimo has been an important part of my writing process for years now. I wrote the first drafts of several of my Queendoms Series books, as well as other books I now have for sale, during Nanowrimo Novembers. I remember evenings after work when I’d write feverishly to get the 1,667 words needed for that day, then log into the Nanowrimo site at 11:55 p.m. PST to log my word count before midnight.

I would then go into the forums as my reward to see how others were doing with their drafts and their word counts. I would leave comments encouraging people. I would go looking for the fun threads where people talked about their snacks and beverages during Nano and uploaded their recipes, etc. It was a community at arm’s length but a community nonetheless and it had value for many of us. It was the online space once a year where you saw, literally saw that you weren’t alone, that there were writers out there who were just like you, lots of them.

I don’t know if I’m going to do Nanowrimo this year. Many are bailing on it permanently. It’s clear that the organization has messed up repeatedly, and badly, the worst being the forum debacle involving minors. The organization has made many changes and is trying to right the ship. I don’t know if that will be enough for people. I’m not sure if it’s enough for me.

As an alternative, there are free word tracker sites to keep track of word count such as Track Bear. But that wouldn’t replace the camaraderie of the old Nano forums. Some are setting up Discord chat rooms, but I don’t know. It wouldn’t feel the same for me.

Meanwhile, Nanowrimo’s forums remain closed as of today. The forums, along with the word tracker, were the main draw for me so I may base my decision on whether the forums open up again before November 1st.

Obviously, anyone can “do” Nanowrimo without Nanowrimo, that is, write 50,000+ words of a first draft in November (or any month of the year). I’m not one to blindly hold to traditions and most of my writing life is conducted on my own anyway, so I could simply do my writing come November as usual.

Whatever I decide, there are many in the same boat as me. But ironically we won’t actually be in the same metaphorical boat if the Nanowrimo forums remain permanently closed, since we wouldn’t be able to see or comment on one another’s posts.

It is, simply put, a mess. I’m not going to judge anyone who either does Nano this year or who closes their Nano account and walks away. It is just an unfortunate situation and a really painful loss for those of us to whom Nanowrimo once meant a lot.