When you read that question, your initial thought might be “editing,” since that’s what we typically do after completing a manuscript, and completing a manuscript in November is the whole point of NaNoWriMo.
But this time, I mean the question on a bigger scale. What will people do as they abandon what appears to be a sinking ship?
At this point, it’s no secret that as an organization, NaNoWriMo has had a few blunders. Both this year and last, some poorly-managed situations, statements, and stances have led to a considerable shrinkage of participating authors, and as they depart, donations to the organization shrink. 2022 was already a fiscal loss of six figures for the non-profit, and while the years before that have been up and down, the organization’s recent statements supporting already-controversial usage of generative AI in novel writing have resulted in a number of sponsors withdrawing support, and the trouble has been covered by news outlets like Wired and Washington Post.
I have my own thoughts on their choices and stances, and admit a measure of discomfort with AI being where the line is drawn, rather than issues that came to light in 2023, but those thoughts and feelings are not relevant to the original question, so I’ll get back to it.
Authors are abandoning the organization. A lot of them will be going elsewhere, but where?
A quick Google search for “NaNoWriMo alternatives” produces a near-endless list of new groups, start-ups, non-profits, game apps, and more, all seeking to be the “hot new thing” for writers seeking a new digital headquarters. At first, I wrote down some that looked promising, but the longer I looked, the more I became overwhelmed with the abundance of choices, and what was actually going to happen in the wake of people leaving NaNoWriMo became pretty clear.
Once you get past all the bells and whistles of the website–things that didn’t exist when I first participated, back when I was sixteen–the whole concept of NaNoWriMo is just a simple, organized challenge: Write 50,000 words in one month. The original concept, developed by Chris Baty, was something he did with his friends. Likely for accountability, as having someone to check in with can be highly motivating, and that’s part of what helped NaNo become so successful to begin with. A community grew around it, and the website grew as the community did.
Community is what remains, and as people slip away from the organization, the end result is they’ll find it elsewhere.
Small groups of writers will pull together in other places. There’s no shortage of sites ready to scoop them up, but most of them seem to be filtering into private spaces; I’ve already been invited to half a dozen independent novel writing group chats and Discord servers this month, and I’ve seen friends setting up their own spreadsheets and moving to word count trackers like Pacemaker instead of relying on NaNoWriMo’s official word count tracker. And really, there’s a big benefit to this. It gives groups the freedom to pursue group writing challenges at any time of year, letting them plan around their lives and activities and work it in where it fits. In the end, I believe being able to tailor a challenge to small groups will do a far better job of helping people grow closer as friends and writers, building and improving that sense of community that everyone is looking for.
As for me, I won’t be participating this year. I’ll be writing in November, of course, getting started on the last book in my epic fantasy series Spectrum Legacy, but it’ll be my normal pace and my normal schedule, and I probably won’t be checking in with people beyond my usual status updates when I’m writing. But NaNo was also never that special to me, so I don’t feel that much sense of loss knowing I won’t be participating this year, or participating in the website’s official event in the future. I almost always did the challenge alone or alongside friends I already knew. I never met anyone because of the organization or the challenge. Pacemaker is a better word tracker anyway, and is open all year; I lose nothing by logging out of my NaNo account and never going back.
But it is sort of sad, in a way. Baty’s first 50k-in-a-month push was in 1999, meaning 2024 is the event’s 25th year–although NaNoWriMo as a non-profit organization has only existed since 2006. 25 years should have been the event’s silver anniversary.
Instead, we’re breaking up.