National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is an organisation that hosts an annual challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in the thirty days of November. They also provide advice and forums, along with regional meet-ups, to help writers hit the target. Some of our members have participated, and even succeeded, in this challenge in the past.
It has recently been brought to our attention that, in the last twelve months, allegations of ableism and classism and child endangerment have been brought against NaNoWriMo.
Ely Writers is an inclusive group that does not condone ableism or endangering children.
As far as the allegations of child endangerment are concerned, NaNoWriMo issued this statement:
We are aware that NaNoWriMo have been working on improving child protection, putting a number of measures into place. You can read about it on their site:
Should these measures have been put into place as soon as they agreed to allow children to use the NaNoWriMo website or were the organisers right to trust that their users would use the site in good faith? Are their reparations enough?
We are also aware that NaNoWriMo has clarified their position on ableism and classism, which involved the use of generative AI:
- Does NaNoWriMo believe that differently-abled writers need Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
- A Note to Our Community About our Comments on AI – September 2024
We have discussed AI in a couple of our meetings before, but only in the context of using it for our own individual purposes, and not its application in general.
Until all our members are satisfied that they can trust NaNoWriMo fully, we will not officially endorse their site for novel-writing challenges or any other purpose. However, if you want to write a novel in thirty days, we can offer support on our socials and writing-together meet-ups if you need it – good luck!