Well that’s that – NANOWRIMO is no mo’ – an elegy for writing challenges everywhere. The nascent National Novel Writing Month ‘was an annual, international creative writing event in which participants attempted to write a 50,000-word manuscript during the month of November. Well-known authors wrote “pep talks” in order to motivate participants during the month. The website provided participants, called “Wrimos”, with tips for writer’s block, information on where local participants were meeting, and an online community of support.’
And now it’s gone. I’m still processing my emotions about that. I know that NaNoWriMo – the annual ‘write a novel in 30 days’ competition that encourages writers to ‘write more’ has been around for 25 years. Wool by Hugh Howey, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, and Cinder by Marissa Meyer are NaNoWriMo novels along with almost 400 other titles. I’ve talked about this before.
But within the previous discussion came the seeds of NANOWRIMO’s own destruction. GenAI writing and the people who love it and the people who hate the people who love it. ‘The nonprofit has had some challenges in recent years, stemming from both money and missteps. Arts nonprofits seem to always be struggling for cash, but NaNoWriMo’s troubles were made worse after it was scrutinized for some inappropriate behavior by volunteers and moderators and then more recently for its equivocating stance on AI.’
Then It Got Worse
Reddit – as per usual – dunked all over NANOWRIMO’s good-bye message. ‘This is SO typical of how all of their communication has been over the past couple of years…. absolutely no acknowledgement of their own responsibility for what happened. Nothing about their tolerating a pedophile, nothing about their support of AI for writing, nothing about how they basically said that people with disabilities couldn’t possibly write 50,000 words in a month without AI, those poor things, etc etc etc. Instead, they want to blame everything on general problems with funding that most nonprofits are having.’
Was Anything of Value Lost?
That’s the real question. Anyone who wants to be a writer is going to write, with or without a contest. Gamifying the creative process reminds me of what Dave Grohl said about American Idol.
“It’s destroying the next generation of musicians! Musicians should go to a yard sale and buy an old f****** drum set and get in their garage and just suck. And get their friends to come in and they’ll suck, too. And then they’ll f******* start playing and they’ll have the best time they’ve ever had in their lives and then all of a sudden they’ll become Nirvana. Because that’s exactly what happened with Nirvana. Just a bunch of guys that had some s***** old instruments and they got together and started playing some noisy-a** s***, and they became the biggest band in the world. That can happen again! You don’t need a f****** computer or the Internet or The Voice or American Idol .”
Any time you systemitize the process of human expression, you lose. I always thought NANOWRIMO was hurting the writing process. It’s convincing a generation of creative artists that success only comes in one size. NANOWRIMO said you had to wait for a single month to write, and then maybe your 50,000 words will get noticed in among every other person writing 50,000 words. Completely bogus.
Anyway, now it’s gone. Time to get back to writing, folks. You never needed NANOWRIMO’s help – the art was always within you. Take on other writing challenges because that’s what you want to do. NANOWRIMO’s elegy is a moment for you to realize that.
Write on!
