by Zenia deHaven
It’s that time of year again. The leaves are turning red and gold, stores are bulldozing over Thanksgiving and shoveling out the Christmas decorations, and I can finally don my massive cozy sweaters without judgment. November, while boasting the ever-esteemed holidays of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, is also the month of NaNoWriMo.
What is NaNoWriMo?
If you are new to the writing community, you may not know that National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) is a nonprofit organization that encourages writing and offers resources to help writers and educators achieve their goals. Their most famous “challenge” takes place in November, where they encourage writers to jot down 50,000 new words for their novel. In theory, this is great. Writing is a solitary activity that can be isolating. The prospect of tackling massive projects like novels is daunting to many writers, and how can it not be? Even if you have an entire book living in your mind, the moment you open that blank Word doc, you realize how far you have to go to get to the finished product. NaNoWriMo created a space for writers to come together and pursue that 50,000-word goal.
If NaNoWriMo is so amazing, why are many writers boycotting it this year?
In the summer of 2024, NaNoWriMo released a statement that they would permit the use of AI in writing. While they acknowledge that AI has wreaked havoc on creative communities, they determined that “AI is simply too big and too varied to categorically support or condemn.” This incited outrage from the writing community. Authors Daniel José Older and Maureen Johnson stepped down from the nonprofit’s board. Writers who enjoyed participating in NaNoWriMo in the past, including Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Erin Morgenstern, publicly asserted their disdain for the organization’s stance on AI. Large language models like Chat GPT are “trained” from preexisting text, like books, articles, and scripts. The controversy arises because these language models often “train” from materials that were taken without the artist’s consent, and many times without their knowledge. As such, many writers are choosing to opt out of NaNoWriMo this year due to their endorsement of AI.
Are there alternatives to NaNoWriMo?
Yes! NaNoWriMo might have popularized dedicating November to a month of writing, but they don’t own it. Many word trackers can help writers meet their 50,000-word goal. My suggestion is to keep an eye out for word counters that try to sneak in a subscription fee, typically offering a free trial and then quietly billing you with the hope that you won’t notice. My preferred tool is Word Tracker, which is available for free on iOS. Word Tracker asks you to provide a word count goal with an end date, so for example, you could list 50,000 words as your goal by November 30th. It will then provide you with an estimated word count per day to help you meet your goal. For my goals, this meant 1,666 words per day. My favorite part is that it adjusts the word count if you miss a day or write a little extra during another session. The UI is simple, but I enjoy having a clutter-free space.
While NaNoWriMo’s stance on AI is disappointing, to say the least, that shouldn’t stop writers from continuing the tradition of writing in November. It’s the perfect month for it. The chill in the air is still an enjoyable reprieve from the sweltering summer heat. The relatives don’t arrive with all of their chaos until next month. November is the time to confront the blank page staring back at you, and conquer it once and for all.
So slip on your cozy socks, grab a steaming mug of tea, and get writing!
