When I first started writing, I was introduced to this idea of NaNoWriMo. It was presented to me as a writing challenge, where writers aim to write 50,000 words in a span of a month. The idea was that short novels are roughly 50,000 words, so writing those 50,000 words in one month would mean that you wrote a novel in a month.

Novels for me are much longer than 50,000 words, with most of my drafts clocking in at upwards of 98,000 words. The novel I'll be releasing next year is just under 140,000 words. However, I saw NaNoWriMo as an opportunity to get my butt in the chair and just write. It was about turning off the internal editor—which is not easy for me, especially these days.

So, in 2014, I joined NaNoWriMo… and wrote just shy of 70,000 words during that November. And those 70,000 words turned out to be the skeletal bones of two (2) different novels in my high fantasy series, along with some additional scenes that happen in later books.

In 2015, I became the municipal liaison (ML) for the Christchurch, New Zealand region. In 2020 (in the middle of the pandemic), the New Zealand Elsewhere region was added to my portfolio.

But there were seeds of discontent that had been brewing… and in 2023, it all came to a head. The demise of NaNoWriMo as an organization was on the horizon, and I refused to go down with it. So, I, like many other MLs around the world, jumped ship at the end of the 2023 season.

But the idea of NaNoWriMo was still important. So, I was hoping that things would turn around. I was secretly hoping that someone would be willing to step up and take my place—though I knew no one would. Still, as we head into the 2024 NaNoWriMo season, I'm saddened to see that there are zero MLs in New Zealand. It's seven (7) NaNoWriMo regions in New Zealand, and no representatives of the organization in this country.

I'm not surprised, but I'm still saddened.

This particular post is an extremely long post, but I felt it was needed to get everything out into the public so my readers could understand the full gravity of the situation.

My NaNoWriMo history

So, I was a member of NaNoWriMo for ten (10) seasons. An ML for nine (9). And in that time, I saw quite a few changes—both good and bad.

When I first joined, there were separate websites for the main event in November and for the CampNaNoWriMo events in April and July. I had accounts on both sites. And I was taking part in all of it.

I liked the online community feel of the CampNaNoWriMo site, finding it a good source of inspiration and motivation. So, when the two sites became one in 2016 (I think it was 2016), I had combined forces with an ML in the US to recreate some of the community feel from the CampNaNoWriMo site on a site that we owned and operated.

That year, I was proud to be able to offer both online and in-person write-ins for my region. Little did we know that our efforts to build the online component for our activities would become our saving grace a few years later.

In 2020, when the world was at the height of the pandemic, NaNoWriMo (the organization) made the decision to ban all in-person events globally. At the time the decision was announced, New Zealanders were able to roam freely within our country's borders. Covid had been all but irradiated from the community, being stopped at the border. So, while I could roam freely and feel safe with in-person events, I welcomed the idea of having an online-only NaNoWriMo. I publicly supported NaNoWriMo in making the decision they had. I knew that some MLs would dislike the idea (and consider rebelling), but I believed that if I (from New Zealand) publicly supported NaNoWriMo's decision, it would get more MLs on board with the idea. It was a small gesture, but it was just one way that I could help fight the spread of a nasty disease that was killing so many people worldwide. And I offered to take on board the New Zealand Elsewhere region, which had always been an online region. Because of my efforts that started back in 2016, I was already in a strong position to support a purely online region.

Well, it turned out that New Zealand went back into nationwide lockdowns just before NaNoWriMo started that year, so…

In 2021, one of my co-MLs created a Discord server that was to be owned and operated by the writing organization that I and a few others were building, called Canterbury Writers. And because NaNoWriMo made the decision that 2021 would be another year of online-only events, we saw it as an opportunity to continue to grow our local online activities—including hosting discussion panels and webinars for our members.

Then it all started to go bad

I don't quite remember exactly when I noticed the changes, but slowly (but surely) statements from NaNoWriMo (the organization) had started to become political. Random statements were being made in their emails and on their social media feeds that clearly showed a slanted political view.

During the 2016 presidential election, developers added to the NaNoWriMo website an "I voted" badge… that was blue. Some years later, a statement went out to all members about the escalating conflict in Israel, complete with comments about the historical context… citing Palestinian sources only. A random image appeared on their Instagram account that was equating writing to having the freedom to have an abortion. And the list goes on.

And as NaNoWriMo's representative, I felt uncomfortable.

It doesn't matter what my personal political views are. As a representative of any organization, I am obligated to toe the party line of whatever that organization says. But when such polarizing statements are released, it puts me in an incredibly awkward position—because I'm the one that has to fight the fires that such statements create within my local region.

Taking multiple deep breaths, I persevered in my role as ML, because I believed in the idea beyond NaNoWriMo—getting your butt in the chair and just writing.

In 2022, NaNoWriMo decided to bring in diversity training for all MLs, which put my co-MLs and me in another awkward situation. The diversity training we were required to do was heavily slanted towards demographics that are specific to the US and had little relevance to New Zealand. In addition, the training seemed to consider only racial differences—more specifically African American vs Caucasian—and excluded physical disabilities. In response to this, one of my co-MLs decided to coordinate diversity training for those of us in New Zealand.

"If I was to organize diversity training that was New Zealand-specific, would you take part?"

Of course, I said, "Yes," but at the same time, I put together some bullshit answer for my NaNoWriMo ML application, just to get the paperwork through the system. However, my co-ML decided to be honest and told them about the alternative training.

They rejected her application, because she wasn't taking the prescribe NaNoWriMo diversity training, even though the application hinted that alternative training was a possibility if we felt that we needed something more specific to our region.

That same year, NaNoWriMo wanted to appoint multi-region coordinators. These were meant to be more senior MLs who would oversee the operations of a group of MLs in their global vicinity, providing assistance to newer MLs in our global region when needed. Of course, I put my hand up for this.

As we approached the NaNoWriMo season, I got word that a fellow ML in the US had been given the role for her area. So, I sent an email to the ML coordinator asking when we would hear about these additional roles. The response: "We have decided to not roll this out to the rest of the world, because we do not understand the demographics outside of the US."

I was livid.

Here was proof that the head office of NaNoWriMo recognized that they didn't understand the demographics of regions outside of the US, yet they rejected the application of my co-ML because she wasn't going to take the diversity training that was specific to the US. They refused to accept the diversity training specific to our region.

I put out a public statement about what had happened. I didn't want anyone in my region to be disparaging towards my co-ML, who, as far as I was concerned, was still an ML, even if her position wasn't official.

Meanwhile, there were additional politically charged statements being released from the main organization.

I have always been of the view that a writing organization that professes to be inclusive of all has zero business in saying anything that could be political on public channels. Participants and members are either writers or they aren't, regardless of their political views. And I had finally reached the end of my tether.

During the 2022 season, I was working with others, putting a succession plan in place so I could stand down at the end of the 2022 season. Before any of our plans could be actioned, I received an email from the Christchurch City (CCC) Libraries, saying that they wanted to come on board for the 2023 season. Any succession plans were put on hold, so I could ensure that there was a good working relationship with the CCC Libraries.

Preparations for the 2023 season started in March because the CCC Libraries had their deadlines for funding applications. And the program we put together included multiple libraries throughout the city, providing writers in Christchurch with an awesome in-person write-in schedule. It was all about rebooting the writing community with in-person events in a spectacular way.

One week into November 2023, and the NaNoWriMo site was suddenly locked down, with forum access being restricted to administration only. The only way that participants within my regions could reliably communicate with me was via channels that were operated outside of the NaNoWriMo organization. And the community at large had no clue why this was all happening.

A statement was released to the MLs regarding the sudden closure of the forums. It turns out that someone in a position of power had been using the forums for child grooming. But in the statement, we MLs were told to keep it all quiet—that we weren't to tell participants in our regions what was going on.

Because of the volatile nature of the situation, I made the choice to pass on the information that I had been told to the CCC Libraries. I knew they couldn't be seen associating with an event that had been connected with child grooming, and I wanted to give them the opportunity to decide how they wanted to manage the situation before everything went public.

As more and more information was coming to the foreground… and with the rumors already circulating globally on how the person at fault was the main moderator for the forums—and how the head office had known about the issue for some time—I elected to tell my region the truth in a carefully worded public statement that went out via channels that were outside of NaNoWriMo's control.

And I got told off for it.

Apparently, I was in breach of contract, and my statement about how it was staff involved was incorrect. The message to me made a deliberate point of saying that it was a volunteer at fault. Sorry peeps, but a volunteer who is integral in the operation of a core component of your operations is by definition staff. They might be unpaid staff, but they are still staff.

At that point, I decided that I was done with NaNoWriMo (the organization) and was going to be severing ties. In no way could I support an organization that insisted on being political when it was meant to be inclusive, and at the same time was associated with child grooming. Sorry, not happening.

Those in my regions knew that I was standing down before the 2023 season even finished. But I saw it through to the end, then put out a public statement saying that I would support anyone who chose to take my place.

And in came the 2024 farce

As we moved into 2024, things at NaNoWriMo head offices got worse.

At the beginning of March 2024, there were rumors circulating through the community that the bulk of the NaNoWriMo staff had all quit, walking away from the main organization. Whether the rumors were true or not didn't matter. The seeds had been sewn. Something wasn't right with the operations of the main organization.

Three days before the April 2024 CampNaNoWriMo season was due to start, all MLs globally were removed from the website, our access to certain systems—including those that would be needed to approve write-ins for the April event—had been stripped from us. Then rumors started circulating about the nature of the new ML contracts.

Not all MLs were included in the communications or sent the contracts. And not all MLs were even asked if we wanted to come back. (I hadn't… but I had made it public, even through NaNoWriMo channels, that I was standing down.) But there were a few MLs who were told to keep the contents of the contract confidential… So, of course, those contracts were leaked to the entire ML community (both old and new).

NaNoWriMo was going to insist on police checks on all volunteers globally, using an organization that NaNoWriMo admitted in a public statement had already been investigated for questionable actions when it came to privacy and security. In addition, the responsibilities of MLs suddenly grew in size, where MLs were expected to moderate all activities for their regions throughout the entire year (not just November, as had been the case until this year). And with the way the contracts were worded, if something went wrong within our regions, MLs were to bear 100% of the responsibility. And the icing on the cake… MLs were signing a document that stipulated that all communications with participants needed to be in English, and MLs were only allowed to release to their regions official statements from NaNoWriMo.

So… MLs had an increased workload but were also being silenced. And they had to shoulder 100% of the responsibility if things went topsy-turvy. The only support that MLs would get from the main organization was the use of the NaNoWriMo website (and the email system) and stickers to hand out. Everything else was their problem. And if your personal legal documents were somehow leaked to parties that weren't supposed to have access to it... Oops, but shit happens.

Just the contracts alone were enough to see a mass exodus from NaNoWriMo, but the chaos didn't stop there.

In August 2024, NaNoWriMo released a public statement regarding the usage of AI in writing. No one was complaining that they were okay with people using AI as a tool within their writing. What people were complaining about was that the statement said, and I quote: "We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege."

Yep, you read that correctly. Whoever wrote that statement decided that it was important to suggest that those who come from a low socioeconomic background, or those who happen to be physically disabled, were incapable of writing without the use of AI. Totally not true, but words matter.

The official statement has since been updated (and simplified) to state that "AI is simply too big and too varied to categorically support or condemn." Any mention of classism or ableism has been removed from the statement—as well it should be—but I believe that the damage of their initial statement has already been done.

My unsurprised sadness

When I made the statement to my regions that I was standing down, I had also made to offer of sending my ML kit to anyone taking on the position. The kit contained official NaNoWriMo stickers going all the way back to 2015, laminated signs, lapel pins, and other writing-related goodies. I even made the decision that I would pay for the postage to ship the box (the size of a shoe box that was packed full) to any ML in New Zealand.

On October 31st, 2024 (yesterday), I logged into the NaNoWriMo system and discovered that no regions in New Zealand had an official ML. There was no one to send this box of goodies to.

I'm not surprised by this, because anyone who read through that ML contract closely (and I saw the official one that was sent out, because I managed to get my hands on the link to the registration form and contract) would have balked at the information that NaNoWriMo wanted to collect… and the responsibilities that MLs would have been shouldering.

I've spoken to others who had been faithful to NaNoWriMo for many years like I had been, and we all feel the same. We're not surprised, but we're saddened by the situation.

NaNoWriMo was what got us into this habit of writing. NaNoWriMo was what brought us to the community at large. I've met so many writers in my local community and globally because of NaNoWriMo. Yet, a few bad apples made the entire barrel rotten.

My path forward

I still believe in the tenets that started NaNoWriMo in the first place. I still believe in the idea of encouraging writers to get their butts in the chair and just write.

I believe this so strongly that I was excited when the CCC Libraries took up the idea of creating our own event. We have just finished the inaugural Ōtautahi Author Fest, which was a writers' festival filled with write-in, workshops, critique groups, and other events just for writers. I lost count of how many libraries throughout the city were involved, but OMG, it was AWESOME! I'm looking forward to being involved in next year's program.

And I'm heavily involved in Canterbury Writers, continuing to foster our online activities and growing the community.

For those who still want to do the whole challenge thing, I've set up leaderboards in the TrackBear.app and shared those codes with the Canterbury Writers community. And we're gearing up for a month (and more) of writing!

Even though I won't be using the NaNoWriMo site in the future, I know that the community that came from it is still strong. And I will continue to support the writing community in my own unique way.

An invitation to Canterbury Writers

If you are a writer and would like to connect with other writers from around the world, you are more than welcome to join me at Canterbury Writers. While in-person events are typically associated with Christchurch, New Zealand (and other parts of New Zealand that have been with us since the pandemic), the online activities are open to all writers.

It's free to join, but you will need a Discord account prior to joining. (But it's free to join Discord, so…)

You will find an invitation link to the Discord server over on the Canterbury Writers website under the Online Communities tab.

I hope to see you around at one of our many events.