I'm sure that most of us in the indie author world have heard what the official Nation Novel Writing Month (NNWM) has been up to lately and I figured like many other indie authors, I will post my thoughts on the matter.
But first, I feel that I should explain what's going on with official NaNoWriMo and why everyone seems so angry with them.
Disclaimer: I want to be clear that this is all from my understanding of what happened, I wasn't there, I don't know exactly what happened, and most of what I know is second hand information. I have the official NNWM site and a few social media posts as reference. I was not able to participate in NNWM last year (2023), and found out about these accusations later on. Read the following with the word "allegedly" in mind.
From my understanding....
In 2022, there was an incident that involved a sponsor of NNWM named InkKitt that turned out to be scammers preying on people who were desperate to be published. When NNWM realized what they were doing the parted ways and promised to do better in the future.
In 2023, a group of people who were part of the NNWM Young Writers Program (YWP) came forward and went public with accusations of grooming from moderators and runners of the NNWM YWP. One person in particular ran an adult website and was directing teens to said site to interact with other predators. This guy is also accused of sharing the information so that predators could interact with them on the official NNWM forums.
From my understanding the young writers not only presented pages of screenshots and evidence to NNWM officials, and later authorities, NNWM did nothing and allowed the predator to continue his position working with teens and children.... for years.
That alone is enough to make me not want to participate.
Then NNWM came out with a statement about Artificial Intelligence (AI) originally stating that "that NaNoWriMo does not “explicitly support” or “condemn” any one approach to writing." as well as to “categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology.”
It's exactly how they mean, that if you don't use AI for you're writing and judge other people for doing so, then you are classist to those who can't afford to write on computers and ableist because disabled people need to have assistance to write.
They have since backtracked on their statement but yet not really apologized.
I of course strongly disagree with their position.
AI can be used to do wonderful and interesting things when used correctly. Like writing computer code or helping brainstorm and adjust business letters. I'm willing to bet that 90% of AI is used for silly stuff. If you ever argued with Alexa, Google Home, Siri, or the like I highly doubt that AI will take over the world and destroy it. I think that it can be a great tool, especially for historical photo or landmark recreations, and predictions. That being said, I do not think that someone should use all AI work (writing or art) and claim the whole thing as their own.
So we are all caught up on the NNWM controversy....what now?
I have thought about whats next for me as an indie author. I have seen other indie authors completely cut ties with NNWM (not a bad idea), and I have seen other indie authors decide that they will not participate in the official NNWM, but use the concept of writing 50k in 30 days and call it something else. Also not a bad idea. Some authors have just stopped the pressure of it all together and have decided to do their own thing year round. I agree with that too, writing should be fun, it shouldn't be filled with pressure to the point where it is not fun anymore.
For many of us, autumn/fall vibes (in the northern hemisphere) have included getting ready for and participating in 50k in 30 days. To the point even where the term "Preptober" would take over for October meaning that you slowly develop your writing vibe and space and plan out what you need to and grab things like coffee and candles and prepare for November.
Something I'm trying to propose (at the very least for myself) is 3 months of fall months and more time to enjoy the season for 30 days is too short for me. I do not feel the pressure that some people do with the 50k in a month but like I said, writing should be fun.
My idea so far is:
September - "Preptember"
Same as preptober only a month earlier. This is where you can take your time getting things together or planning out what you would like to write or where and what time you would like to write. For me I like to write on my balcony on a cloudy day with a coffee. And then if I'm writing at night, a nice candle and a drink at my desk.
October - "Draftober"
Here would be the same idea of writing 50k in 30 (ish days), only instead of a novel it's just a draft, the idea being that there will be less pressure to get it perfect, or reach the 50k word count. My plan will be to rewrite Book 2.
Will I still aim for it? Probably.
November - "Editvember"
I'm still working on the name for November but I could also use this month as another 50k goal (for book 3). OR just use it for editing Book 2. Decisions, decisions.
Of course this is all a work in progress and if something comes along, for example a different NNWM type of group I will look into it, but for now, while it won't be official NaNoWriMo I will still be tracking my word count progress and giving occasional updates accordingly.
Some sources if you would like to read more on the NNWM controversy:
Official NNWM statements:
side note - statements have been changed and updated since I last looked them up, and possible that they may have changed again.
Blogs:
Other Articles:
Keep one writing!
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