Well, it’s happened.
I woke up to the news this morning that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) will be no more. They’re shutting down.
Part of me hopes this is an April Fools’ prank. Part of me feels like a weight is lifted from my shoulders.
After the controversy in 2023, and so many more issues (which you can read about here), and the mess that was early 2024, I denounced them entirely.
Ironically, 2023 was my best writing year where I finished my draft in December.
Perhaps that proved that I’m past needing external validation to write a full-length novel. Perhaps that was the first sign it was time to move on. Still, I held out hope. I hoped the admin would clean up the mess that was 2023 and give the long time users and volunteers and supporters a reason to come back and support the cause.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. After the events of 2023, I was on the fence. I’d been an ML for 8 years, NaNoWriMo was something I supported fully and at one time defended through any vitriol, but 2024 was a rough year. I wasn’t in the right headspace for any volunteering, any creative writing or creation at all. Then, before I could make the decision, all the MLs and volunteers were let go with little mention. Some of us didn’t even get an email.
I grieved NaNoWriMo just as I grieved the other handful of deaths I had in 2024. I went through all the stages of grief:
Denial (No, NaNoWriMo wouldn’t…)
Anger (How could I have not known?!)
Bargaining (Ok, NaNo is sucking right now, but they’re making positive changes. I’ll return when they’re better)
Depression (Great, another thing that’s fucked up in the world and triggering my anxiety through the roof)
and
Acceptance (Fuck ‘em).
That’s about where I am right now. Does it absolutely suck that NaNoWriMo as an organization is over? Yes.
But, at the same time, the program has done what it set out to do when it started in 1999. It had a hand in building writing communities all over the world, it helped writers find the drive to tell their stories. It proved to writers that yes you CAN write that novel.
Several writers have taken up the challenge and have amazing work to show for it. I wrote an entire series over a decade out of the 15 years I participated. I have a lot more finished novels because of NaNoWriMo.
I have a million words thanks to NaNoWriMo.
I’m thankful, but at the same time, good riddance. I hate to be blunt, but they dug their own grave with everything that happened in 2023/2024 and even way before that.
The website change in 2018/19- awful.
The increase of donation reminders over writing pep talks to help fund the website- awful.
The allegations in 2023 and the fall out into 2024- awful.
How they treated users and volunteers who only wanted answers- awful.
That being said, I hope the positives of NaNoWriMo live on. The writing community, the steadfast belief that anyone can tell a story, and the frenzied writing of a lot of crap to fertilize a beautiful future novel that the story could be.
All this toxic BS of blaming users and volunteers, ableism, and gaslighting can go.
So what do we do now?
Thankfully, from the fallout of NaNoWriMo in 2023/2024, a lot of other organizations and programs have stepped up. Plotterati, Royal Road’s Writathon, Writetrack, among several others.
Here’s a decent list. Maybe give the internet a few days to catch up. When I did my search, NaNoWriMo was still listed in most of them.
As a writer, join or make a local writing group. Keep the idea of “writing dangerously” and “by the seat of your pants” alive and well.
Donate to other writing projects, or charity.
As for me, I’m still writing. I still have a writing community.
That’s what matters most.
Keep writing. That’s all we can do.
Programs and organizations may come and go, but the writing will always be there.
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