There’s Something Rotten with the State of NaNoWriMo

I’ve been putting off writing this post. I don’t want to have to talk about a lot of the stuff we do need to talk about. Some of you won’t have heard of any of it, and I don’t like having to deliver such crappy information. But, since it did happen, it is serious, and it does affect plenty of writers (including yours truly), I have to go there.

So, there are Reddit threads and Discord groups discussing this intensely (and, yes, we do need to); however, many of us in the #writingcommunity won’t be aware of this. A couple of weeks ago, it came to my attention, via a social media post that was shared by someone who is involved in this matter, that the head mods at National Novel Writing Month had ignored reports of inappropriate behavior between one of their mods and underage participants. And, yes, I do mean inappropriate in a not legal, really gross, very bad way.

Of course we were all shocked, disgusted, and frightened as we realized that the organization knew about this but did nothing until people aware of the reports started publicly sharing details. That isn’t just unacceptable; it’s enraging. This whole situation has created a powder keg of reactions and backlash. And while my immediate response is wanting justice for the victims, underneath layers of thoughts regarding the ripple effect of such an incident have been forming.

People are speaking out against the actions of the head mods (as, duh, they should be); but I’ve already seen comments from former or current participants in NaNo, stating they feel guilty or that they should’ve somehow known not to refer writers — especially adolescent writers — to this program. There are those of us, like me, who have taken part in the past (sometimes for several years), and are now either deleting our accounts with the NaNoWriMo website, or seriously, seriously considering it. (I haven’t logged in since I believe 2019, so my account may not even exist nowadays, anyway.)

I decided a while ago to no longer officially join the madness of trying to get down 2000 words a day (in the same month as the start of the holiday season?! whhyyyy did we do this to ourselves, again?!). For me, the pressure of pretty unrealistic deadlines (amid a declining home environment), only to suffer for garbage “prizes” that “winners” actually had to buy with their own money (are you fricking kidding me, folks?) had become not worth my time and effort.

But I still cheered on those who did choose to participate. I tweeted encouraging messages, reminding everyone to hydrate and not stress about making their draft perfect, and I was proud of their achievements. Hell, I remained proud of myself, for the 3 times I did hit more than 49,999 words before November 30th.

The major difference this year, with these terrible revelations, is that I know I can’t, in good conscience, be associated with this organization in any way anymore.

I keep waiting for there to be a huge outcry from the bestselling, famous authors who have backed NaNo. I want to see a public apology — no, groveling — from those who aided and abetted this heinous crime. I ache for the victims and their families.

Selfishly, I feel betrayed, although no one’s directly broken my trust.

I feel embarrassed that I ever boasted about winning NaNo.

I feel lucky that nothing bad happened to me while on the website.

Above all, I feel it’s tragic that an event that built such strong community and brought so many people such treasured experiences has turned out like this.

And it’s tragic that we the community need to be the ones to bring about its downfall. We need to warn others about the possible dangers of interacting with the NaNoWriMo forums; to stand with the victims; to make it clear we don’t condone the actions of the head mods.

And I’m doing it.

But it doesn’t sit well.