This time last year I was gearing myself up to take on the NaNoWriMo challenge – to write a 50,000 word novel draft in the 30 days of November. I did it, and the momentum I achieved carried me on into January of this year. I ended up with 80,000 words or so of a zero draft and I was so very pleased with myself.
In February and March I worked on it further, then let it lie fallow over the next few months as I concentrated on making my magazine. The plan was to take it up again in the autumn and write the next version. And, indeed, I am doing that, but I won’t be working with the same intensity this November as last, and I won’t be taking the NaNoWriMo challenge this year.
OK, that’s me and (a part of) my creative plans. But this post is about NaNoWriMo – a.k.a. the National Novel Writing Month – and that’s a whole other story.
TLDR – click here to skip to Can I do NaNoWriMo?
NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo is a niche event. Most people in the world have never heard about it. (Hence the necessary, potted definition in my first sentence above.) Even in the world community of creative writers, while many are certainly aware of it – it claims half a million registered members aka ‘Wrimos’ – far more are untouched.
It’s bigger in North America (it started in the USA, hence the ‘National’, which I’ve vented opinions about previously). But there are – or were – associated regional, local and genre focused groups all around the world.
It’s perfectly possible to set yourself the challenge, to write intensely and single-mindedly for a month – and get your draft written – without involving yourself in NaNoWriMo.
Perfectly possible, but not easy.
Motivator
Speaking for myself, (but I think channelling a consensus among many), knowing you are following a challenge that thousands of other writers are also following is a great motivator.
Writing is (often) a very solitary activity. I like that! But to be solitary together with others is a different thing than being solitary all on your own. Being in communication with just one other person who is also following the challenge, reporting your progress to one another and pepping one another forward, is extremely helpful. (Shout out to fellow Pens Around the World member Michael P in Singapore, who I partnered with last November.)
NaNoWriMo has (used to have) a complex and extensive series of forums where Wrimos could become more or less involved. In my region, here in Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast, there were even physical meetings to socialise. Maybe to write together. (I don’t know. I didn’t take part last year. The times were never right.)
NaNoWriMo also has (still has) a website where you can register your project, report progress and see a graph that shows your progress towards your goal. You can ‘win’ badges of achievement. (Some that I won last November decorate this post.)
I was dubious about this gamification element, but actually found it was a spur to keep me going.
Out of California
NaNoWriMo started in California in 1999 with a group of 21 writers. Everyone had a great time and the following year there were 140 wanting to participate. The year after that, 2001, there were 5000 from across the States, with some from abroad.
For a voluntary organisation with no income, this expansion must have been daunting. But they took it and ran with it. I find myself wondering if there weren’t people even then who paused to ask: What are we doing? Can’t we just let people find their own local groups or their own on-line groups?
Maybe. Or maybe I’m using hindsight, which is always so very much clearer.
Non-profit
In 2005 NaNoWriMo registered as a non-profit organisation (as The Office of Letters and Light) and cemented itself in with this mission statement. To offer children and adults Web-enabled writing challenges that contain real-world components and foster self-expression while building community on the local and global levels.
(I’m reproducing this from an article – from 2011 – on the website of Philanthropy News Digest because the Office of Letters and Light’s own website is unavailable as at the time I write this.)
It’s really commendable to want to do all those things, but isn’t it a bit grandiose for an organisation that, at its core, is ramshackle and volunteer? Perhaps the intention was to become a better, more slick organisation in order to deliver on this mission? It seems, behind the scenes, the organisers are trying to be make that happen now. Twenty years down the line. (Twenty years late? Or am I being uncharitable?)
There are commercial advantages to non-profit status, but there are also laws to follow. And there’s an increasing need for cash to finance the organisation and satisfy the laws. Not only did NaNoWriMo continue holding fundraisers and soliciting donations, now they could have sponsors. (At least, I think that was one of the motivations for becoming incorporated.)
Criticism before 2023
The criticism NaNoWriMo faced earlier – as it’s fame spread – was largely divorced from the Mission Statement. It was about writing and writers.
- By encouraging people to write, NaNoWriMo is putting people off reading! (This was a criticism that seems to have come largely from the publishing industry. As if there was a hermetic seal between readers and writers.)
- A 50,000 word manuscript is not a novel! (No, it isn’t. It’s a draft. A ‘zero’ draft, also known – to my delight – as a ‘vomit draft’.)
- Writing that quickly you’ll just produce rubbish! (Yes, probably, but see above. You draft. And then you redraft, rewrite, reassemble, reprocess, edit, polish, etc.)
- Your novel won’t find a publisher! (Maybe not – though some certainly have. Maybe publication isn’t the objective. And besides – there’s always self-publication.)
(Tip of the hat to Devon Price for the above. See his 2014 article on Medium.)
Fan fiction, Genres and Codes of Conduct
I mentioned NaNoWriMo was a niche interest, didn’t I? Niche interests can get very intense. Along with the friendly help and pepping that went on in the NaNoWriMo forums and elsewhere, there were exchanges that became heated over these and other issues.
Fan fiction was one tinder point. Different genres and their perceived status was another.
Fan fiction is when you you write stories that draw on the world, characters and plot lines of a novel (or film, or TV series). Think of writing an alternative version of the Harry Potter stories in which the evil Voldemort is not defeated. Or a version of Star Trek in which Captain Kirk and Spock – ahem – “fall in love”. (Go look!) These stories easily drift into plagiarism and can find themselves in copyright infringement territory.
As for the other genres, If you think literary fiction (Booker or Nobel) is the peak of literary aspiration, then you may see romance, fantasy – or even romantasy – as something in the swamps of the valleys of the lowest foothills.
Writers who don’t write fan fiction often find it difficult to understand why anyone would want to write it. Writers who aspire to literary fiction can be snooty (at the very least) about genre.
As we all know by now, on-line internet forums and social media platforms are places where some people feel they don’t need to hold back. Along with all the good synergy that the NaNoWriMo forums stimulated, they also became a home for things specifically identified in the Codes of Conduct as not acceptable.
Acting, Reacting and AI
All this came to a head in November last year. (Something of which I was blissfully ignorant.)
An accusation was made of inappropriate behaviour in one – maybe more – of the forums in which adults and children mixed. Web-enabled writing challenges that contain real-world components turned out to mean something that sounds a lot like paedophile grooming.
At first, NaNoWriMo organisers reacted slowly. (For which they were criticised.) Then they reacted with overkill. (For which they were criticised.) They closed down all the forums. The forums remain closed as I write this with the 2024 November challenge in the starting blocks.
NaNoWriMo’s 2024 has been an anno horribilis. Behind the scenes it seems the organisers have been working hard to bring the organisation in line with the law, and in line with good practice. Also to attract continued and increased financing to pay for all this. Among their sponsors is a company apparently offering AI assisted services to writers – ProWritingAid.)
(Just a side note. I’ve looked at ProWritingAid’s website and I personally don’t find anything objectionable there. Maybe this is another false trail?)
Perhaps because of this sponsor, at the beginning of September, NaNoWriMo made a bizarre statement in favour of writers using Artificial Intelligence to write their novel. It sounded like they were giving the green light to everyone taking the challenge. Go ahead, get generative AI to write your novel for you!
They published a statement claiming that categorical condemnation of AI has “classist and ableist undertones” and could be a means by which minorities are oppressed.
It caused an uproar.
NaNoWriMo back-pedalled rapidly, but the damage was done. Published writers associated with the organisation, sponsors who are critical of generative AI, long-time volunteers and registered members began to quit. Some of them quite publicly. For one report (of many) see this at Wired Magazine from 4th September this year.
For an excellent analysis in the form of a YouTube video I recommend D’Angelo’s “criticizing AI is racism,” says AI-backed writers group.
Can I do NaNoWriMo
So here we are, November fast approaching and many Wrimos and former Wrimos are wondering: Can I do NaNoWriMo?
The short answer is: Yes, you can.
The challenge hasn’t gone away and the website is still up with all the gamification paraphernalia I found so surprisingly helpful.
You cannot join a forum or, through NaNo, have any sort of link with other Wrimo writers though. For the social side, if that’s your thing, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
You can do NaNoWriMo, but should you?
Why not?
Because you respond to the challenge does not mean you support the statements the organisation has made about AI. It does not mean you condone paedophile grooming. (Nor does NaNoWriMo. That’s why the forums are down.)
But if you feel uncomfortable, then it’s not hard to find alternatives. My own go-to alternative (for when I used to feel 50,000 words was too much to commit to writing in one month) was Nancy Stohlman’s FlashNano. Write 30 flash fiction stories in 30 days. That’s still running and it’s not affiliated to NaNoWriMo.
Alternatively there’s this on Reddit. The original post is seven months old, but scroll down to see the updates and additional info in the thread below.
Do NaNo or do something else. Whatever you choose, do keep writing. And have a creative November.
