Why I Left the NaNoWriMo Community

Way back in 2006 or 2007, while working at a local bookstore, I came across a nifty little box of writer tools with the title “No Plot? No Problem!” by Chris Baty. I snagged that puppy up quicker than you can repeat the title, and as soon as my shift ended I popped that box open and pulled all the goodies out to take a look. The premise was to write and write and write within that 30-day timeframe, not to go back and edit but get words, even cruddy words*, on the page. It had a calendar, a button reading “Novelist” or “Ask Me About My Novel” or something I can’t remember now (and I’m too lazy to go get the box and take a look inside), inspirational cards, to be read one each day. Down-to-earth humorous inspiration, not that cream-puff, flighty-dream garbage. I think there are even “I-Owe-You” coupons exchanging chores with loved ones during the time period, but I never used any of them because at the time I was mostly on my own.

After buying that box, I whipped up my first novel in 30 days. It was sheer crap, but it was an honest-to-goodness complete novel that I had finished. I picked the entire thing apart, and while I have no clue where the original draft is (probably got lost in the myriad moves over the last few decades of my life), parts of its still live on in my novel Umbra:A Post-Apocalyptic Mystery, like some literary Frankenstein’s Monster (oh, wait, Frankenstein’s Monster IS literary…).

Chris Baty founded NaNoWriMo, and it follows the same course as the NPNP toolkit. I’m not exactly sure how I discovered it (mentioned in the booklet most likely) but I signed up right away and eagerly awaited November to roll around so I could start banging out the words on my keyboard.

I participated almost every year, with a few hiccups in there because of major life changes, either incomplete years or having tons of new responsibilities that sadly superseded my love of writing.

Now, I rarely participated in the forums or the Facebook groups, but I arrived in my new home and shiny, happy me thought it would be a fantastic fresh start to link up with other authors in the new region. At the time I was active on FB, so I joined the group there.

Eager to introduce myself and get my feet wet, I joined a discussion about which software people favored for their NaNoWriMo project. The software I used hadn’t yet been mentioned in the thread, so I brought it up and said something nice about why I liked it (I can’t even recall what it was at the time, but I use Scrivener now almost exclusively and love it. Free plug for you there, Literature & Latte). Within seconds, waiting to pounce like an angry cat-lady**, some screeching shrew jumped on my post about how much she hated that software, listing everything that was wrong with it (making up a lot or listing features I liked as bad) and called me an idiotic moron for even bringing it up, let alone liking that. Some “loving and tolerant” community for you right there. Needless to say, that was my last post. The last thing I needed was some angry beast taking out her frustrations on me when I was in the community for support. I didn’t even wait around to see if they dealt with Madame Poor-Life-Choices in light of her awful behavior***.

Welcome to 2021’s NaNo, and I eagerly awaited the revamped site and the go-ahead to get in there and list this year’s project. Getting the nod in an e-mail, I went to the site. Lo and behold, I caught the feed from the NaNoWriMo twitter account, and… they were posting NOT about writing, or getting more people to join, promoting literacy and all the good things that come with writing.

Nope. They were bitching about Texas’ abortion law. It became clear to me that a) they had NO idea what they were complaining about (too long to discuss here but I doubt anyone on the staff actually read the bill they squawking about), and b) that they were far more interested in pushing ideologies that have nothing to do with literacy and writing, turning a good site into a polarizing billboard. It was far from the only post like it.

Well, good for them. I thought they were all about writing but they showed their colors. They probably had before, but until that feed, I had not seen their true colors.

Maybe you can’t keep your mouth shut about politics, but I can keep my wallet shut from donations. At least they showed me their true colors before I spent my hard-earned money.

I deleted my account right away.

Luckily for me, I’m something of a spreadsheet nerd, so I set up my own and it’s eagerly awaiting its first daily word count, come NOV 2021. While it may be nice to have a community of… Wait. I was going to say “like-minded” individuals, however I know from many experiences since the FB one, in-person and virtual, that THAT so-called community of “welcoming and tolerant” individuals are anything but.

So, are there any other writers out there who abandoned the site but continue to write?

/rantoff

*I think it was Ernest Hemingway who said something to that effect first, but whoever said it, the truth is that all first drafts are shit.

**Don’t get me wrong, I love kittehs. It’s just a creepy coincidence that people who obsess over their collection of felines (like they’re Funko Pop dolls and not living creatures) do have the same angry, lonely personalities. Not to mention the same nasty smell in everything around them and the squalor in their homes. Clean your litterboxes, people!

**I’ve since come to discover this is the normal for a horrifying majority of people on the various social media sites, who turn there just to chase and troll and shriek at other people, the only way they know how to cope with the lack of a decent character traits. Genuine people with decent lives just live them; they don’t spend what little God-given life they have chasing others down to demean, berate, harass, harangue.