Each year, thousands of writers worldwide accept the daunting challenge of crafting a novel—50,000 words—within the month of November. This frenzied rush to the finish line can be a powerful motivator, propelling writers into a creative overdrive that forces us to silence our inner critics and just write.
Yet, the marathon of NaNoWriMo isn't just about word count. It's an exercise in persistence, a test of personal boundaries, and a bold declaration to prioritize our craft. For many, it's the spark needed to turn long-held aspirations into a tangible manuscript.
Despite the creative triumphs inspired by NaNoWriMo, the organization behind it has faced significant criticism, some of which cannot be ignored. Founded in 1999 and becoming a 501c3 nonprofit in 2006, NaNoWriMo has evolved from an inspiring grassroots movement into a more complex institution. Unfortunately, with that growth have come growing pains, and some of those have been quite serious.
One of the most alarming instances involves a moderator who allegedly used their position to exploit access to minors in a disturbing manner. The organization’s response to these allegations has been a point of contention, raising concerns about the safety and welfare of its younger participants.
Additionally, NaNoWriMo's partnerships—with companies such as Inkit—have sparked debate. Some collaborations appear to conflict with the values and well-being of the writing community. As a community-driven effort, maintaining transparency and prioritizing the safety of participants is crucial.
Despite the organizational issues, one core element of NaNoWriMo remains invaluable: the writing community it fosters. Joining forces with thousands of other writers can be incredibly motivating and inspiring. Writing can often feel like a solitary endeavor, but NaNoWriMo transforms it into a communal experience, rendering the seemingly insurmountable challenge of 50,000 words into a shared journey.
In this episode, we emphasize the significance of these communities. They offer moral support, accountability, and valuable feedback. However, community isn’t owned by NaNoWriMo—it exists wherever writers come together. Whether within local writing groups, online forums, or other tailored writing communities, we can find support systems that align with our values and creative goals.
One critical aspect of my discussion focuses on goal-setting within NaNoWriMo. While the 50,000-word target can be an effective catalyst, the broader lesson lies in discovering a sustainable writing practice. Writing is a craft honed over time, and consistent, realistic goals often lead to more profound growth than sprints to arbitrary milestones.
Moreover, we delve into NaNoWriMo's stance on AI-assisted writing. Although the organization has voiced opinions, they lack the depth needed for a thorough engagement with the issue. AI's role in creative writing is evolving, and it’s essential for leading organizations to offer nuanced guidance as we navigate these changes.
Ultimately, NaNoWriMo can be a stepping stone—a powerful motivator that jumpstarts our creative endeavors. Yet, it’s up to us to continue the journey beyond November, fostering a writing practice that fits our individual lives.
Don’t let the end of November mark the end of your writing. Whether or not you hit 50,000 words, what matters is that you write, you create, and you keep moving forward. Smaller, more intimate writing communities may offer richer, more personalized support, adding immeasurable value to your creative journey.
So, dear writers, embrace the chaos of NaNoWriMo if it serves you, but always remember: your writing journey is uniquely yours. Your words and stories hold power, and the true victory lies in the courage to keep writing, one word at a time.
Heads up! Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain errors.
Oh, hey everybody. It's that guy who buys like a dozen books every month, but maybe reads only one of them. Blake Reichenbach welcome back to the Inkwell Insights podcast, your go to podcast for all things writing, publishing, creativity, and of course, curiosity.
I am back this week with a podcast episode about NaNoWriMo. Now, this episode is going to be coming out toward the end of November or maybe early December. I would have to check my podcast episode calendar, which I do not have pulled up in front of me right now, but either way, it's coming out at the end of what is officially NaNoWriMo. Or again, National Novel Writing Month. Take this episode as a bit of a, let's say retrospective.
Now I run the bookshop howdocuriosity, and on the howdocuriosity blog I did write an article about nanowrimo and some of my feelings about National Novel Writing Month back in I think it was September. So if you have read that blog post, a lot of this is not going to be new information. If you have not read that blog post, and I have seen the web analytics, so I know that most of you in fact have not read that blog post. But if you have not read that blog post, then some of this might be new information. It might inform how you think about NaNoWriMo.
Now, there are a few little just caveats that I want to throw out before we get into the episode. First and foremost, I am not judging anyone who does NaNoWriMo. In fact, if you participate in NaNoWriMo, if you really lock in for a month and have productive writing sprints, I think that is absolutely fantastic. I applaud you. If you are someone who wins NaNoWriMo and does 50,000 words in a month like that is amazing. That is a huge accomplishment and you should be so proud of yourself. Like, genuinely writing 50,000 words in a month is insane and you should be giving yourself a pat on the back.
What we'll get into and where my criticisms of NaNoWriMo come from are more about the organization behind NaNoWriMo as well as some of the practices that it can instill in less experienced writers. And I think people who have misset expectations about what it takes to to succeed as a writer and to make writing part of your life as opposed to something that you do just here and there. Right? So we'll get into that in just a moment.
The other thing that I want to call out is actually it's a little bit of a confession because I record my podcasts on a schedule and without really paying much attention to how I was setting my schedule. I originally penciled in a certain Tuesday evening to record this episode. That happened to be election night when I originally was supposed to record this episode.
And I, I think it's probably pretty obvious if you check out my socials or honestly just how I talk about things where I am politically. That is not the point of this podcast. So I'm not going to get too in the weeds there. But let's just say that Tuesday night when I was supposed to be recording this podcast, I was feeling a little stressed out. And so I had taken... How should I describe this? So that my podcast distribution is not penalized by any algorithms. I had taken a garden variety gummy. Is that descriptive enough? Does that make sense? An herbal candy, let's say.
I had taken an herbal candy and then I came down to my office to record this podcast episode. And so on my computer There is a 15 minute recording of me trying to start talking about NaNoWriMo and oh my gosh, it is an adventure complete with like a solid two minute pause of me doing, just staring into the distance, trying to think of the appropriate way to segue between my like little cold open and the topic of the podcast. It was a mess.
Coming back to record this episode a few days later, my recording schedule is all kinds of thrown off, but I think a lot of us are a little bit thrown off right now. Election season is always weird, I think, even when you're on the political side of the aisle that is in power or when you're happy with the election results. Presidential election years are always tense, right? They're always about half of the country sitting there feeling resentful toward the other half. And it's not a good feeling to acknowledge that there is a significant sense of division and resentment and conflict in your community.
And so I would just like to take a moment to say if you are currently hurting or fearful or upset or stressed, please know that you are not alone, that I care for you, that I am here to support you, and that as writers, as artists, I believe that we have a great opportunity to do what we do best, which is to envision and create realities that challenge hope, harmful narratives, and that push back against these paradigms that do cause harm.
This is not a Democrat or Republican thing. I think if you are someone who is feeling excited and optimistic about what is coming within the country politically, the same opportunity, in fact obligation applies. If you are a creator, what you create is either going to reinforce or subvert dominant narratives and the narratives that we create are going to inevitably help or hurt people.
And so my call to action on this front would be to say, if you, like me, need to have some time to have some garden gummies, just get a little giggly, get a little silly, do that. But ultimately, as an artist, come back to using your gifts, your talents, your craft to help people in some way, even if the person you're helping is yourself. And what that looks like is processing what you're feeling in a really productive and therapeutic way.
The other thing I will say about the election is I think, the biggest silver lining for all of us and context here. I think it's really important, especially right now, that we all find common ground with each other, Even on very different sides of the political spectrum. I do think we can find common ground. And one of those places where I believe we can truly find common ground is that at least right now, the donation text messages are going to slow down for all of us.
So let's all just take a moment to be happy about that. We're not going to be getting the daily text messages asking us to send $25 to some faceless political entity. Now, if you miss getting those text messages, let me know. I will absolutely text you and ask you for $25 if you are willing to receive those text messages. And more importantly, if you are willing to send me $25 when I send you those text messages.
I suppose you might call that like a pay pig relationship, but I just made a comment a few minutes ago about not wanting to say something that would get the distribution algorithms angry at me. Why on earth did I just use the expression pay pig? Okay, we're not going to go down this rabbit hole any deeper. I was going to make a bit out of it. I was going to make a joke, but I'm going to bite my tongue because I don't want to get in trouble. I don't want my podcast network to get angry with me. I don't want my editor to slap me on the wrist for talking about financial dominance kinks on a podcast that is supposed to be about creativity and writing.
My, my, my, the diversions that we take. So let's get back on track. Let's move back into the territory of National Novel Writing Month. And I will start with just a little bit of context and a little bit of history about NaNoWriMo and where it comes from.
Okay, so NaNoWriMo, I believe if it were a person, it would be a millennial, but like the tail end of the millennials, it could claim Millennial status, but just barely, right? NaNoWriMo started in 1999 formally as a pretty straightforward challenge to ignite the spark of creativity in everyone. The concept is really, really simple. For one month, you commit to writing and you aim for the tangible goal of 50,000 words in that month by maintaining an average of 1667 words per day. You can proudly say that you have completed NaNoWriMo.
If you're not a math person like me, trust me, I used a calculator. It works out. So again, 1999. So when this started, and it was a challenge, that started among local community, a local community group to write 50,000 words in one month. Most common way to do that is to commit to those daily writing commitments, which again averages out to a little bit over 1,667 words. But folks, since its inception have taken a variety of approaches. Folks have written in burst where they might do like three or four days a week and write more words than that, but the goal has always been the same. One month, 50,000 words.
And what has made NaNoWriMo so attractive and so appealing is that it allows people who enjoy writing or who have had aspirations to start writing to make it a priority for a small amount of time. And I think it's that small amount of time that has allowed NaNoWriMo to have such staying power. Right? Because when you are a busy working professional and parent and caregiver and spouse, like you have such limited free time saying that you want to take something as indulgent as writing feels and commit to doing that on a daily basis year round, a lot of people have a hard time justifying that, or they feel like they need to justify that.
Whereas with something like NaNoWriMo, you're saying that you're only doing this for a month, right? It feels very different. You're putting a time box on it, and so you're able to commit to it a bit more easily. Plus, when you have that time bound sprint, there's something psychological that happens where writing a full length novel no longer feels like an insurmountable task. You're able to more easily visualize the outcome that you are trying to achieve. You know, it is 30 days of writing 50,000 words. That is what I am doing. It's not this nebulous story and plot and character and publishing contract. It is just one month, 50,000 words.
And so it takes away a lot of the fear factor that comes from sitting down and writing a novel. And in that way, it makes adopting some form of a creative habit, a lot more approachable for a lot more people. And it's this adoptability and approachability that gave NaNoWriMo such a compelling groundswell. And what started in a local community group grew and grew and grew. And by 2006 Nanowrimo had become a formal 501c3 nonprofit organization with official programming and centralized leadership. If you ask me, that is also when things started to go downhill a bit for NaNoWriMo.
So let's get into some of the messier parts and history of NaNoWriMo and oh boy, where things have gone a bit off the rails. I do feel like I should probably give a quick heads up, a quick content warning where I am going to be talking a bit about sexual content and grooming. So if that is something that you are sensitive to, just be aware that that is going to come up, particularly grooming involving minors. Unfortunately, that is part of the NaNoWriMo organization saga and we can't do justice to talking about NaNoWriMo as an organization without discussing it.
So let me just pause here for a second. Say, hey, I'm about to talk about the grooming of miners. You have been warned.
Like many 501 C3s, Nanowrimo is helmed by a pretty small team, and understaffing is no joke. You know, the nonprofit sector in particular is constantly strapped for resources. It is so hard for teams with big ambitious missions to achieve their goals. Like, I am not denying that NaNoWriMo and any nonprofit in the position that they're in is going to be facing an uphill battle.
Like a lot of nonprofits, one of the things that NaNoWriMo did to address their challenges is they have relied on volunteer labor to sustain a lot of their initiatives. And that includes volunteer moderators in their online forums and volunteer local chapter leaders. And chapter leaders are involved in a lot of the more local or group specific programming that comes along with NaNoWriMo. And unfortunately it seems that for a long time, far too long for an organization nano size, they did not have an established due diligence process process for vetting who was eligible to be in these positions, including people who were supposed to arrange and coordinate events aimed toward children.
I already gave my content warning here. I'm going to give a quick legal disclaimer. What I will discuss are allegations. I was not a direct observer. Some of the content is blocked behind forums that require login. I am not making direct accusations that the people involved did the things that they did. I am simply reporting what has already been reported about NaNoWriMo and people involved in the organization. Okay, again, everything I am discussing from here on out is alleged, alleged, alleged.
So one particularly horrid part of the organization's history involved a Young Writers Program online forum moderator. This moderator allegedly also owned and operated an adult website of an explicit nature and was using the Young Writers Program forum to recruit teenagers to go to his adult website where they interacted with pornographic content and adult users. Reports indicate that the nanowrimo board was notified of the situation, but did not act until the FBI was alerted and involved.
Okay, people reported this moderator to NaNoWriMo. Let them know what was happening. Right. Kids, Kids. These were children. These were minors were being sent to an adult website where they not only saw adult content, but were interacting with adults on that website. I do not know the full nature of this website. I do not know the domain of this website. If I did, I would not give it out. But from the reports that I have read, this was the kind of site where it wasn't like an adult streaming site, but it was more like an adult forum site where users were encouraged to post their own photos and videos and interact with each other. And this moderator was sending minors to that website where they were being exposed to this content and where the users were then talking to these minors.
So again, allegedly, this is what was happening. Rather than reporting the moderator or taking action to remove him from potentially causing more harm, the NaNoWriMo board sought to minimize the situation and avoid bringing any negative publicity onto the organization, even at the cost of continuing to harm minors and other members by pretending nothing was wrong.
Once the FBI was involved and victims set up an anonymous tip line website called Speak out to report harms encountered through the NaNoWriMo organization, the board finally, finally got involved and effectively shut down the entire NaNoWriMo forum. Many felt that their actions were too little, too late, obviously, and that the individuals responsible for allowing abuses to go on for so long did not receive due punishment.
At the time that I wrote my blog post about this situation, I was not able to verify if the organization had implemented any background checks or other safety practices for volunteer leaders. And when I checked earlier this week, which, yes, was when I was under the influence of my little garden gummy, I still couldn't find anything to indicate that there was a more robust background check process.
I hope to God that there is now as well that, you know, there are just safety measures in place to prevent moderators or leaders from having any kind of unsupervised access to minors within the NaNoWriMo community. But this was a pretty, pretty messed up situation. And, you know, things can go wrong, right. Even if they had done background checks, even if they knew that he had an adult website. Right. Maybe that shouldn't have disqualified him from being able to be a moderator.
You know, I'm not against sex work. I think adult content websites like that, that is a lucrative business. And if people make money hosting adult content like, okay, cool, that is their vein of entrepreneurship. Problem, of course, comes from the fact that there are boundaries around how you can engage with people. There are abuses of power that can occur when you are a community forum moderator engaging with people who are not moderators. And then, most egregiously, there's the dynamic of the fact that this person was engaging with minors. Minors are never, never, never responsible for the situations that adults put them in.
And what I find most concerning about this particular situation and the nanowrimo organization is not that someone got into the organization, became a moderator, and that this incident occurred. Like I said, shit happens. What I find most concerning is that when it was reported, the board wanted to minimize negative publicity. That is a huge red flag.
Yes, it would have, in fact have been bad. The board would have gotten a lot of publicity for saying, hey, we let someone in who is abusing their power, who is effectively grooming children. That would have been bad, but it would have been the right thing to do. And it would have been significantly less bad than what ultimately happened, which is, of course, letting the abuse continue.
I cannot stand it when businesses and organizations refuse to take accountability for, for the mistakes that they have made, especially when it puts people in harm's way, double. Especially when those people are children. So again, NaNoWriMo as an organization has made some pretty huge missteps, which starts to muddy the event itself, at least for me.
And of course, you can still do the, hey, I'm going to take a month and write 50,000 words. We're going to get into that in just a moment, right? If you were to say, I'm going to do this with absolutely zero ties to the nonprofit organization, I'm not going to use their forum, I'm not going to use their web app. I'm just going to write for myself. That is 100% valid, 100% an option. I'm going to get into that in a little bit more detail in just a moment.
Before I do that, believe it or not, got more to say about the organization itself. So the grooming situation is by far the most egregious and upsetting thing that has come out of the organization in my opinion. But it's not the only misstep that they have made. Another pretty frustrating happening... Happening. That's not the word I'm looking for. Another pretty frustrating decision that they made has been with regards to some of their partners over the years.
And by partners I'm talking specifically about like event sponsors, right? Again, I acknowledge the non profit sector is frankly brutal and sponsors are necessary. Always not like not sometimes always necessary. Having a sponsor is so important for making events possible, especially when you are a nonprofit and you rely on sponsorships and donations for pretty much everything, right?
When you actually look at nanowrimo's revenue streams, they're fairly limited on where the cash is coming from. But in 2022 I believe it was one of NaNoWriMo's sponsors for the year was Ink it, and they sponsored one of NaNoWriMo's events, boldly claiming the tagline "Submit your NaNoWriMo novel for the chance to win a publishing contract." Interesting publishing contract. Quite the choice of words.
I think most people who sit down to write a novel likely aspire to having a publishing contract dream of being a published author. It would be an ideal sponsorship for something like NaNoWriMo. The problem is that Ink it at best is a vanity press, at worst it is an outright scam they have let's go with an interesting business model in which inkit covers acquisitions and their sister platform Galatea is a reading app that distributes titles that inqit acquires.
Inkit has a long history of misleading, aggressive sales tactics. It claims to act as a literary agent while taking well above the standard share of what an agent would take by locking riders into exploitative distribution contracts with Galatea. Victoria Strauss, a Rider Beware, has written a pretty in depth history of the company and it is worth reading. By the way, if you are not familiar with Rider Beware, you should be. It is a fantastic blog to keep up with. Just beware, dear Rider, that if you read Rider Beware, your blood will probably boil at some point. There are some pretty shady scams that happen, there are some pretty unethical people that target riders, and Victoria does a really great job cataloging a lot of the bullshit in the industry.
So again, that is Rider Beware. The person who runs Rider Beware is Victoria Strauss and she has written about inkit and Galatea. Now the justification for companies like inkit is typically that they can be a way for writers to generate at least a little bit of income from their writing, or that they can start building a platform that way. Basically Proponents say platforms like Ink it can help writers get their foot in the door.
And while few and far between, there have been a few success stories of writers making money through the Ink at Galatea partnership. But it's kind of like a network marketing scheme, right? Like a pyramid scheme is what I'm saying. They dangle their success stories and the promise of making money in front of aspiring writers, while the reality is that most writers on their platform, at least anecdotally, don't make much money, certainly not enough to live off of. And the transition from Inca Galatea to traditional publishing channels seems to seldom ever actually materialize.
One thing that I'll call out here is I say the reality that most writers don't profit off their platform. I believe I said, like, at least anecdotally, they don't publish any kind of income reports. Like, it is virtually impossible to find out how much writers are actually able to make off of their app. What you can find are, like, three or four people who claim to make, you know, several thousand per month. And typically, what that indicates is a red flag.
Like, you might think, oh, if someone is saying they're making 4,000, 5,000 a month, that means I can, too. The problem is when you see an app that claims to have, you know, several hundred, or I think for them, it's like, several thousand authors, and only four people claim to be making over a couple thousand dollars per month generally means that the rest make nowhere close to that, or that those claiming to make that money either are employed by the company or they have an affiliate relationship with the company and are compensated when new people sign up.
So when you see a company like Galatea or inqit that says, like, yeah, you can be an author and get paid. Look, we have three people who have written about making $5,000 a month through Galatea. But then you look up, like, how much does the average writer make on Galatea? Like, how much can you realistically make on Galatea? And it's crickets. It's a red flag. It does not mean that every writer who signs up has the opportunity to make 5,000 a month, 4,000 a month, whatever.
That is a problem because when an organization like this partners with NaNoWriMo, which is, again, an event that primarily caters to new and amateur writers who don't know the industry well, who don't know to look for these red flags, who aren't yet reading Writer beware. People who don't know better will see offers like, you know, this is a chance to win a publishing contract and they think that they found their chance at fame or at achieving their dreams and instead of getting what they think they're getting, they end up discouraged and locked in an exploitative contract.
Again, I think what is particularly frustrating about the situation is NaNoWriMo as an organization really, like, I know they have limited budget, but God damn it, they need to hire a PR person, right? Because when pressed on why they would partner with Ink it, which again, like this, happened on Twitter, on Reddit, there have been several pieces of people saying, hey, Ink it not good. Why do the nano team just consistently gave a really non conclusive answer, opting to state that they neither endorsed nor disproved of Ink Its practices and that the relationship was nothing more than a sponsorship. Which, you know, to put it another way, they took the money.
That was the extent of the critical analysis that went into their dynamic with inkit. And like I said, I get it, non profits are hard. They need revenue, they need sponsorships. But the fact that there were no guardrails around how inkit could advertise with nano is a problem. The really just milquetoast response to follow up questions is a problem. The complete lack of accountability in the follow up, that's a problem.
Someone at nano ideally early on should have said, hey, if we're going to accept this sponsorship, there should be like some kind of guidelines around how they can advertise. There should be some kind of boundaries around what they can say or, you know, some kind of disclaimer around how Ink IT operates or at the very least, when pressed for an answer about why they would partner with an organization like Ink it, they should have just doubled down or said they were wrong.
Right. They keep trying to play both sides and not really give an answer. And I think that that is one of the things that is so frustrating about how they operate is it's like no one is taking an opinionated stance. And if they would have come out and said, you know what, we did our due diligence and we do think that this is an app that has potential, that it gives authors the opportunity to find a platform while they are in the early stages of their career, that's why we're proud to partner with them, hell, they would be wrong. But it's an answer. Or if they would have come out and said, you know what, we were wrong, we needed the money, we didn't do our due diligence, that was a mistake. We're going to learn from it going forward. That's also a valid Answer.
Right? But this, this inability to consistently take a stance is frustrating. Speaking of taking stances, one of my other gripes, and I think probably the third gripe that I'll get into because I do want to talk about like the actual craft of writing and its association with NaNoWriMo. But my third gripe with the organization of NaNoWriMo itself is with regards to their really confusing, like fake woke AI stance that they came out with recently.
It is baffling. And hey, maybe I'm a hypocrite because I did just say that I would be less frustrated with, with NaNoWriMo if they would just take a stance. And now I'm going to talk about something where they took a stance and I'm just like, what the hell? But hear me out. Okay, I will own up. I am a hypocrite and at this point I am just being critical. Cool, let me own that.
You know, as a globally recognized writing organization, it is absolutely no surprise that NaNoWriMo would weigh in on modern industry trends, including artificial intelligence. I recently, I think it was actually the episode before this one or two episodes ago. I think it was the one right before this one. I talked a lot about AI and the just frustrating aspects, the confusing aspects, the ambiguous aspects of how AI could potentially fit into our industry, why I think writers should steer clear of AI for their craft and how its applications within writing are really only applicable in the post writing process.
But you know, AI, the use of LLMs like that is on everyone's tongue right now. So it's again, not a surprise that NaNoWriMo would talk about it. And this year, 2024, coming into the NaNoWriMo season, NaNoWriMo organization published a help desk article titled "what is NaNoWriMo's position on artificial Intelligence?"
And it was confusing. So they state in that help desk article that they do not discourage the use of AI tools because to do so would be, quote, classist and ableist and fail to acknowledge, quote, general access issues. The help desk article reads like, and I say this with love because I was like you at one point in time. It reads like a college freshman who has taken a single sociology course and feels really passionate about social equity, but hasn't quite grasped all of the concepts or really lived much in the real world.
There are a lot of buzzwords that would do really well on Twitter or the glory days of 2012 Tumblr, but there's no actual depth of the topic. It's an attempt to justify having no stance via moral grandstanding. And when I read their help desk article. It reminded me a lot of the like Twitter main character of the day back in 2022 who rose to prominence or perhaps infamy by posting about how they were the only person trans enough and disabled enough to be white but not benefit from white supremacy.
You know, very much. They, they lived on their moral high horse and love to make posts where like if you made one tiny misstep, you were committing every kind of ism and were awful and were, you know, contributing to every kind of oppression because you did not fold your socks correctly. And then that person was actually revealed to work for Lockheed Martin. And yes, if this sounds familiar to you, this was also the "expecting writers to read is ableist" person.
But I bring this up not to like rehash old Twitter main characters of the day, but because when I was reading this help desk article about AI, it really felt like there was just a lot of moral grandstanding being used as a deflection from having a lack of any substance underneath, right? When it comes to AI, the fact of the matter is that writing is hard and people have different levels of access to resources, opportunities, ability that make it harder for some people than others. And that isn't fair. It sucks, right?
It is not equitable in publishing. It is not equitable in our school system. People do face challenges. People do face limitations and being able to access books, access literacy materials, access computers, right? I completely agree that there are systemic challenges. And what was the language that they used in their their article? General access issues. There are general access issues that make writing and publishing unfair. That is not up for debate.
But using AI to write and to draft doesn't make inequality less, doesn't make inequality suck less because it does not bridge access to opportunities. It is not a solution for the systemic problems that hold people back. If anything, it can create greater inequity. You know, AI can do some stuff really well, can't do creative stuff really well. It can't do unique personable voice as a writer, well.
But if their recommendation is that people with fewer opportunities and fewer, you know, options for accessing the publishing industry or writing education just, you know, use AI tools as a means of free labor to train large language models so that someone else can profit, which is essentially what you're advocating for when you're advocating for the use of low income individuals or individuals with limited access to use AI as part of their writing process. Process that what? That's not the solution.
Plus, if the entire goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in one month. If a machine is writing 50,000 words in one month, you have not written 50,000 words. And if the problem is that 50,000 words is inaccessible to people due to some of these general access issues, then why not just acknowledge that a one month sprint is also not the most accessible form of writing and that there are other ways to make writing and creativity more accessible?
You know, I don't get their AI stance. And again, it feels like they are using a lot of moral grandstanding to deflect having any stance of substance. And it seems like they are trying to take a stance that won't piss anybody off. Right? And they're using buzzwords to sound like they're making the like woke choice, but they're not. They're... It's stupid.
But again, I'm a hypocrite because I said they should take a stance. And then on the issue where they are taking a stance, I'm like, hey, you're dumb. But that's me taking a stance. So maybe I'm a hypocrite for saying I'm a hypocrite. It's hypocrites all the way down.
Let's catch our breath. Let's bring our blood pressure down. Take a moment. How are you all feeling? Feeling good? If you're feeling good, go ahead and leave this a five star rating or leave it a 50,000 word review. That can be your NaNoWriMo challenge for next year is write 50,000 words about this podcast as a review, but only if you're giving me five stars, please. I don't want to read 50,000 words if they are all negative. If you do write a 50,000 word positive review, I will read every single word. I promise you that.
Okay. Just thinking about your amazing reviews flooding in has brought my blood pressure down. And now I'm ready to talk about craft, talk about writing and how NaNoWriMo can kind of slot into that. So when it comes to NaNoWriMo as a practice and not as an organization, there are some silver linings worth calling out.
Okay. What I think NaNoWriMo gets right is it creates a sense of community and camaraderie. People come together to cheer each other on, to support each other in maintaining accountability throughout National Novel Writing Month. That is incredibly valuable. It is a really fantastic experience to have a group of like minded folks around you cheering you on. And sometimes you need that to prove that you can do it. To prove it to yourself, I should say.
Right. When you have that external force validating you and reinforcing your sense of momentum, it can help a ton. And that is really valuable for NaNoWriMo. That sense of community and not being creative purely in isolation is, I think, really novel for a lot of writers. Novel, double entendre. Let's roll with it.
Having that sense of community is really novel. It gives people a sense of connectedness, a sense of motivation, and a sense of accountability. Additionally, because NaNoWriMo gives you a finite goal, it helps people break their goal down into digestible chunks. Right? Like I said at the beginning of this episode, 50,000 words is 1667 words per day for one month.
Now, that 50,000 words is pretty arbitrary as far as the total word count goes. Most adult fiction novels are a bit longer than that. If you're writing something like fantasy, you know, you could be in like, the 100 to 120,000 word range. But the point is, you have a substantial goal. That goal can be broken down into small pieces, and you have a community of people who are aligned around a similar goal around you.
Additionally, one of the things that I will surprisingly give the NaNoWriMo organization itself some credit for is they do put on programming and that they do, you know, have events throughout the year that are aligned around giving writers access to resources, helping them plan out their creative projects, helping them think about how they're going to tackle NaNoWriMo. You know, connecting them with industry resources like that is also really valuable, in my opinion. I think folks like Writer's Digest and Writer's Digest University do some of those like workshops and online events a little bit better. They tend to be coming from a bit more established industry professionals. So that's what I would recommend checking out if that's a component that you're really looking for.
But, you know, like I said, I think the two things that NaNoWriMo, the event, not the organization, create a lot of value with are that sense of community and helping folks adopt that mindset of breaking down really big, nebulous projects into really small, tangible steps that they can take. And again, I don't begrudge anyone who participates in NaNoWriMo, right? If you're using the NaNoWriMo apps and website and forums and community groups and Facebook pages, like that is totally fine, right? As a member of the community, you are in no way responsible for the failures and shortcomings of the organization. Hell, even if you're a donor to NaNoWriMo, you are not responsible for the failures and shortcomings of the organization.
And I think there are a lot of people who still want to see NaNoWriMo as an organization grow and do better and learn from mistakes that they have made in the past, because there really aren't alternative organizations that host similar events or have communities of the same scale at this point in time. However, I do think that moving forward, folks will get a lot more benefit out of prioritizing small, personable and responsible writing groups.
More and more, I am convinced that getting offline and getting with people in person is just it's always going to be the best option. I say that as someone who has an online writing group. You can go to community.howdycuriosity.com to learn more about the online writing group that is community.howdycuriosity.Com but no, genuinely, I do think that being face to face with people is always going to be best. We spend too much time online. The Internet is in fact rotting our brains. Social media is in fact the devil. And that is coming from someone who does not particularly believe in the concept of the devil. If there is a devil, it is social media.
But if you are involved in an online community or if an online community is the best option for you, because, hey, I am a hypocrite. I am saying go in person, but also online's okay. If an online community is the best option for you, either due to living in a rural area like me, or, you know, having a disability that makes it harder to get out in person or, you know, for whatever reason, you know, I would recommend seeking out an online community that is smaller than nanowrimo and that is more tailored to what you are seeking as a writer.
By that I mean look for someone or some organization, I should say, that is either focusing on your genre or that is specifically focused on the parts of the writing process that you find you need the most support in. Right? For example, with Howdy Curiosity. What I'm working toward and what I hope to build there is having a group that's really focused on accountability and making writing part of your daily or weekly routine. So that's what I want the how do Curiosity community to be focused on is people who are looking for support in making writing part of their their recurring routine. And then further on down the road, I want to have smaller communities within that accountability umbrella by genre. So like, you know, I think I really want like a fantasy cohort, a queer writing cohort, a romance writing cohort, and so on.
So again, I'd say if you are going to go online for your writing community, look for small communities. Look for communities that are tailored around your needs and be willing to pay. I know that that is not perhaps the most popular thing to say, but you do get what you pay for, frankly. And I think that the reality of the world that we are in is that when you have large free online communities, you're frankly going to have a lot of folks coming in who you're not going to want to write with. I don't mean that in a discriminatory way. I mean that in a there are bad people on the Internet way. When you have large free communities, you're going to have a lot of spam, you're going to have people attempting phishing, you're going to have bots, you're going to have situations like we described earlier where people are going to have, you know, nefarious intents and might try and send you into other websites that are unhealthy or that are dangerous for you. So small, focused, personable, responsible, paid, probably going to get you the best results. When you're finding an online writing community. Again, if you have a local in person chapter, that's also going to be a really good bet as well.
Well, now I think one of the the final things that I want to say about NaNoWriMo and the craft of writing and where it intersects is like, I think it's good to start if you do write consistently one month out of the year. But I say to start because to me it feels incomplete. I think as a writer you're not going to really develop within your craft. You're not really going to be able to hone your skills, improve and make progress on your writing goals until that writing practice becomes much more consistent.
Additionally, NaNoWriMo often involves just like pantsing, right? Jumping in, riding by the seat of your pants, cranking out words as quickly as you possibly can. That's not going to set you up for success. If you haven't listened to the series on Story Genius and the interview with Lisa Cron, I recommend doing so. But I think for people who want to make writing something that they really invest in, something that you want to become proficient at and feel really proud in and nurture those skills over time, I recommend slowing down. It's very counterintuitive in today's culture. I know it feels weird, but learn in your writing to slow down, plan, develop your story, develop your plot, understand your characters and their arcs and their motivations and their goals and their internal struggles, map out your story, start drafting, and do it consistently.
I think what you can take away from NaNoWriMo is break your novel into small chunks. Do that process of mapping out your story kind of scene by scene so you have those small chunks to work with, and it's not just this big, nebulous concept. But show up consistently. Don't just show up for one month. It's harder. It feels uncomfortable to say, I'm going to make this something I do every week, and not just for the next four weeks. But show up consistently, and it will pay off so much more than if you do it for just one month.
Okay, I have no idea how long I've been talking about NaNoWriMo at this point. My throat is getting incredibly scratchy and incredibly dry. I am going to go ahead and wrap up. I hope that I have not been too critical or too discouraging. I hope that if you did NaNoWriMo again, you're proud of yourself. I'm not saying that facetiously. Oh, my God, that sounded so bitchy. I hope you're proud of yourself. I hope you are proud of yourself, genuinely. Like, if you wrote 50,000 words this month, like, that is amazing. I applaud you. You should be proud. You're wonderful.
If you didn't do NaNoWriMo and you've been feeling a sense of FOMO, like, it's. You're fine. Just write. Just write. Folks, that is the takeaway from however long this has been of me talking about NaNoWriMo. Your takeaway is just write and be nice to people and don't groom minors. My God. That shouldn't have to be the takeaway. But, hey, it is. I'm gonna get some fresh air. Have a wonderful afternoon. Bye!