NANOWRIMO NOOOOOOOOOOOO

[setsuntamew]

NANOWRIMO IS SHUTTING DOWN D: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
okay. okay. OKAY. So the writing was kinda on the wall, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I knew they weren't doing well...and then last year they had all those fucking AI sponsors + doubled down on it, causing a bunch of their other sponsors to pull out.

BUT STILL.

It was my trash fire!!!!!! ;w;

If I had known last year was gonna be the last, maybe I wouldn't have boycotted it? But also.......I didn't approve of their support of AI, and I didn't want to be part of it.

sobs.

SOBS!!!!!

idk what I'm even trying to accomplish here besides crying...I'll miss you NaNoWriMo, for all your good and bad ;w;

Comments

[dragonofeternal]

I'm full of so many different emotions. I already *had* so many emotions today! Part of me is a sardonic sense of "Well, you reap what you sow!" Part of me is depressed. Another part of me yet still, though-perhaps the biggest one- is just so, so tired. Tired of seeing things I love EOS, tired of watching institutions shoot themselves in the foot, tired of all this fucking nonsense.

SOBS.

[setsuntamew]

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!! It's really fucking complicated because I do think this is their own damn fault but also I hate it??? I wish it hadn't ended up this way!!!!!!!!!! I was still rooting for them to turn it all around, and instead... ;w;

between joanns and big lots and party city closing this year + your knaifu waifus last year and the still raw wound of love live...I would like things to stop FUCKING IT UP THX

[scissorsevered]

I never participated in nanowrimo but I know just how important it was to a lot of people here on DW. But I know what its like to have a beloved website/service shut down, and it sucks really bad.

I was looking at forum posts about it and a lot of people are saying that NNWM was already having a lot of problems before the AI controversy, and them trying to appeal to AI "writers" was their final move in trying to garner support from the technobro crowd, which backfired massively as AI fans generally don't care about those sorts of things to begin with, and actual writers saw it rightfully as a massive insult to the people NNWM was claiming to help get their work out into the world.

[setsuntamew]

I'd participated since 2006, so it's heartbreaking to see how it's fallen apart. 2024 wasn't the first year they had issues - the past few have honestly been riddled with controversies - but I was still hoping they'd turn their shit around instead of sinking further into crap :C My wife and I usually give money to NaNo every year, but we didn't last year because of the AI shit + other things, and I know we weren't the only ones who pulled out of donating. It just sucks that they were too far gone for that to be a wake up call and instead...well, they're shutting down D:

[ai]

Is there another writing challenge you're thinking of giving your support to and engaging in? I saw a few copy cats popped up during 2023, but I'm not sure if they actually continued to expand.

[setsuntamew]

I haven't found any that have stuck for me? I participate in getyourwordsout every year, but it doesn't hit in quite the same spot- I think it's the ADHD that makes maintaining a year long challenge a lot less feasible + satisfying. A month is apparently the sweet spot for me D: The few other month long ones I saw pop up all had a weird kinda attitude of like..."oh and everyone knows that writing 50k words in a month is impossible if you're actually writing" that felt too judgy for my tastes. If something else pops up that's more similar, I'd be delighted!!!

[ai]

I am of the same that it is easier to work on it for a month rather than a year long challenge. I thought there were groups coordinating to make other November writing challenges similar to NaNoWriMo just with a whole other name.

And that is so weird like... There's just SOMETHING about the younger generations in which they are struggling to write more. Maybe it's because they were raised on a lot more video and audio content than text based, who can say. I've never thought it particularly difficult to be verbose (if you can't tell from the fact I write long ass comments sometimes) and to devote it into writing isn't that much more of a challenge than every day conversation. I do think that probably puts a divide between the generations when it comes to challenges like this, but it's not... really impossible.

I'll keep an eye out. We're a few months out so surely there will be plenty of communities the closer it gets to November.

[setsuntamew]

There might be and I've just missed them- stopped looking after seeing too many people complaining about how NaNo's always been "too long" and shit like that. Honestly it wasn't even just the younger generation...it was a lot of writers who were at least in their 30s-40s talking about it, with the very "better than you" attitude that if you can write quickly, you're just writing garbage. I've seen this arguments against NaNo over the years, but like...idk it felt very much like "good, now that NaNoWriMo's gone, only """real""" writing challenges can exist" and I did NOT like that attitude.

tbh I'm not a very fast writer, I just know how to manage my time? I love writing, both fiction and conversationally, so it just comes down to prioritizing it over other things for a chunk of time. Which is true of any hobby, but I guess a lot of people don't see the value in it or don't wanna. Who knows! It's not easy to write 50k words in a month, not by any means, but like you said- it's definitely not impossible, either.

If you do see something, plz lemme know! I'd love if something popped up :D