Skip to main content

Finished

I've been a supporter of National Novel Writing Month for the past twenty years, and in the beginning it was a wonderful resource for novelists and writers. I donated, bought their merch and promoted them on my old web sites. I was active in the forums and even joined a group one year to help cheer on my fellow writers. I wrote several first draft novels during the years I participated, and sold one to a major publisher, so I was one of their success stories. It was a great thing.

Only then -- rather quickly, in fact -- it wasn't. I noticed the site began pushing for donations -- really pushing -- and they sent countless e-mails trying to wheedle more money out of yours truly. I made a decent donation every year without being asked up to that point. They also endorsing sketchy products and services that were geared more toward profiting off dreams than helping fulfill them. Proving that you actually wrote a novel during November was one of the important points for me as a participant; they stopped doing that a few years back. It became more and more commercialized and less about actual writers and writing. I quit participating and donating when I surmised it was no longer something I wanted to endorse, but I never spoke out against NaNoWriMo. I hoped eventually things would improve.

They didn't. This year the folks at NaNoWriMo advocated using AI to write novels for their annual challenge. They wrapped it up nicely in saying it was helpful for disabled and marginalized writers, but come on. I'm a disabled writer, and I don't use it. The only reason a writer would use AI is because they're not a writer but they want to be perceived as one, or they think they can produce a bunch of books with no effort. NaNoWriMo can and will profit off psuedo writers using AI, too. That's disgusting.

Since I've left NY to work freelance I don't have any sway anymore, but I want to put this out here as a professional writer. Effective today, I cannot support, endorse or recommend being involved in any way with National Novel Writing Month.

Labels:

Comments

Maria Zannini said…
If it hadn't been you saying it, I wouldn't have believed it. How disappointing on so many levels.
September 17, 2024 at 7:12 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.
Post a Comment
Read more

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to
Post a Comment
Read more

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.
Post a Comment
Read more