What is NaNoWriMo?
National Novel Writing Month (NaNOWriMo) is an annual event put on by a nonprofit organisation called the Office of Letters and Light (OLL). It is run online every November, and the game is to write a 50,000 word novel, start to finish, in 30 days. No previous or in progress work, no co-authors, no extensions. The idea is that if you can write a 50k word novel during the busiest month of the year, you can write any time.
The Office of Letters and Light also run a number of other events, including two Camp NaNo events in the summer (locally-organised and less strict with the rules) and the Young Writers Program (YWP). However, OLL is often referred to as the organisation, rather than just one event, and they often interact with the public as if the event were the organisation.
The Issue
Allegations of Child Endangerment
The first issue involves the Young Writers Program, though the accusations are launched at NaNoWriMo as an avatar of OLL. Allegedly, someone within the event leadership was caught redirecting underage participants toward adult websites. I will not link to these accusations, because every source I can find it random websites, Reddit threads, and X threads, and no legitimate new source has covered it, that I can find. However, NaNoWriMo has made the decision to close their all-ages spaces and increase the vetting process on volunteers.
Endorsement of AI
What is true and verifiable, is their full-throated support of Artificial Intelligence in not only writing spaces, but their events, specifically. Their assertion that the criticism of the use of AI is not only ridiculous, but transparently self-serving.
My Response
Totally Unacceptable
Ethical arguments aside, there is no way that the use of AI is anything but cheating in a beloved writing challenge event. NaNo is hard, it’s hard to type 50,000 coherent words in a month, that’s the point. It’s supposed to be hard, it’s a challenge. It’s an accomplishment.
And the fact that the grooming allegations happened at all are an egregious lapse in security. I realise that every year, the events get bigger, and that requires more personnel, but in under-18 spaces, the standard needs to be impeccable.
Betrayal of Writing Community
I don’t need to get into the ethics of AI, but I will. AI is not pure creation, it is not artificial intelligence in a literal way; it does not think. It scans the internet and takes bits and pieces from all over and puts them together, almost always without the creators’ knowledge or consent. In writing, we call theft plagiarism, and we don’t care for it. The OLL has always stood for and supported the creative writing community, and allowing work that steals from us is rank betrayal.
Greed
Make no mistake, this decision is not intended to make participating more accessible. There have always been systems and tools in place for people who have disadvantages to writing, and disabled people will always find a way to achieve their goals. The only stipulation was that text be entered into the word counter box.
The real reason is that in 2024, NaNoWriMo acquired a new sponsor, ProWritingAid, a generative AI program. In fact, in July and August of 2024, the majority of their Facebook posts were ads for ProWritingAid. It’s one thing to plug a sponsor like Scrivener or Scribophile, but to change your whole organisation’s stance on art for the sake of a sponsor whose function is to steal from us is, in the words of former board member Daniel Jose Older, ‘vile, craven, and unconscionable.’
Avon Van Hassel 