I left NaNoWriMo for another reason. My ADHD writing quirks are not compatible with the 30-day challenge. Instead, I took my 88 novel scene cards to a secluded location and wrote 49K words in a week.
@@LadyDragoncat It was on my sister's Ohio farm. In a little garage-sized barn they remodeled. Quiet countryside, peaceful days and nights. Yes, I want to repeat this experience.
It was a real bummer to read their stance, for sure. I don't mind using AI in terms of like autocorrecting spelling, because that's fixing an error based on something that was organically created, but generating something from someone else's work and calling it your own is a level of audacity I just can't wrap my head around.
@@Jmcpeekwrites Yeah, using it for some editing of your own work I think is okay. Or even using it for research or brainstorming. But just straight up letting it do the writing for you? Nah.
It is so frustrating that these corporations are jumping on the AI creative train. Why can’t AI take boring or dangerous jobs! Why does it have to go after one of the few fields where we examine what is human and the meaning of being? It’s frustrating!
Exactly! AI was supposed to free up our working times so we can use them for leisure, but it's being used to take our leisure activities instead. So frustrating!
@Jmcpeekwrites I'm glad someone said that, because I like using AI for grammar, because let's face it editing is expensive. So it's rather have development editing 5o help solidify my loose ends. But I felt bad using AI for grammar. I wondered if it was acceptable and your was considered original. I feel better using AI for grammar. Thank you.
I hate to admit, but I used NanNoWrimo to write my Christmas fan fiction. I unsubscribed from the emails in the summer and unfollowed them on all my socials, the AI was kind of the final straw but it was a long time coming. This year I'm just going to write without the pressure of NaNoWrimo, and giving up on my story and getting depressing writer's block and putting pressure on myself for a hobby.
Writing is supposed to be fun, which is one of the issues I was having with NaNo, too. It was feeling like too much of a competition instead of a fun place to be creative. And Christmas fanfiction sounds adorable!
I think I signed up for website with my friends and then two of us promptly used it to write and publish at least one chapter of our fanfic and other friend worked on her novel at her own pace without touching website😅. Now it’s just a month to make ourselves write
I didn't even know about the last few years of NaNo Stuff until I saw someone include it in this year's write up of NaNo Stuff! That's a lot of Stuff, Nano! Anyway, it's a bummer because I used to really enjoy that challenge. I have really liked seeing how many people have been working up alternatives that are more community-focused and fun than the Corporate Zombie Nano we've had more recently. Writing community pulls through!
Yeah, NaNo has changed a lot, and it sucks, but I'm glad there are still crazy passionate people that are creating communities out od this so we can recreate some of the magic that once was.
NaNo was fun the first few years I did it. I'm hoping this one will rekindle the community that NaNo kind of lost. I'm all for any writing challenges that brings people together. Good luck with novella november!
I've recently thought about doing NaNo again (my last one was a few years ago), but I would really only be using it for the stats tool, like you said. So Pathfinders Writing Collective sounds like a nice alternative to look into, thanks a lot!!
Winter technically starts at the end of December, but I do believe that the unspoken societal agreement is December, January and February are the “Winter Months,” at least in America.
not all states operate that way. February feels like spring in SoCal, and December feels like fall. Our ideas of seasons are pretty Eurocentric, specifically English.
My friend Jess Owens and I started our own challenge for October before NaNo is now a dumpster fire. Its casual and fun, just friends having weekly sprints and helping each other hit our goal.
NNRM is a good tool to help push me to finish a project. I wrote my first novel last year. Not a great novel, but a novel. I wrote another project over the spring and I'm prepping for another NNRM next month. The structure and deadline keep me moving. I figure in a few years I'll have a system built and NaNoWriMo will start to be a distraction, but for mow I'm still getting some benefit. But I did like the forums. I think they've wildly overcompensated.
Anything that helps create routines and provides the structure for you to achieve your goals is good, and I absolutely think a lot of people still can gain benefit from NaNo, like yourself. I just don't like the path the organization as a whole has taken, and feel like they're not so much interested in fostering creativity as community as much as they are focused on accumulating sponsorships, which is a shame.
I'm so glad I just found your channel! No more nanowrimo guilt/shame/feelings of inadequacy because life continues to throw its monkey wrenches even when I try to "clear" a month for just writing.
I used to best myself up HARD about the wrenches in my plans. I'm hoping PaWriCo will provide me the structure I crave without the guilt attached, while also allowing me to make some friends.
I'm thinking of / planning to start a community for a writing challenge on Dreamwidth (and maybe Tumblr; not sure how their new community feature works) for the six weeks between January 2 and February 13, with a focus on "plot modules"✳ instead of word counts, with "breather days" scheduled in for review, sharing writing with a "buddy" (think fire drill buddy in grade school), or just resting. I don't have / do Instagram, and I can't do Discord, but the Pathfinder challenge sounds like a good one. ✳Situation, Disruption, Reaction, Consequence (which leads to a New Situation) [Edited to add: My first NaNo was in 2005; I quit in the middle of 2020. I "won" several times, in that I reached 50K, but I never actually liked what I ended up with by November 30th, and I realized I just wasn't having any fun with it, any more.
Sounds like a big but worthy undertaking! I haven't been on Tumblr in ages but I wish you great success! And I 'won' a lot, too, but there was only one of them I felt was really worth anything when I finished. Most of them, the story wasn't even done by the time I hit 50 but it was all such a garbled mess I stopped working once I hit the 50.
I attempted to do it for several years after it stopped being fun for me. It's only in recent years I've finally accepted I don't have to keep doing things when the system isn't set up for me anymore.
Don't feel too bad, I once forgot the middle A in karate in a spelling bee and that still haunts me as well. I was annoyed to be pulled out from art class so I was kinda glad that I only made it to the second round at the time. XD Subscribed and looking forward to seeing your publishing journey!
I don't remember any other word I spelled wrong, just that one, and I remember spelling pyromania correctly at state because when I finally did get out my dad said he figured I'd be a goner on that one. It's weird the things you remember. And thanks for deciding to follow! Hope it's a fun journey for us all :)
Solid plan. I've just been craving community, and since NaNo hasn't felt like the most welcoming place for awhile, I figured I'd seek out something else. Good luck!
I did hear some schools did that, and I always thought it was cool. Maybe they'll still do something like it, but reframe it without having to utilize the name
My current WIP is last years nanowrimo. (I failed miserably but it got me started on something i have a good chance of finishing) I won't be participating anymore. I am against generative AI. It steals from people who are actually creatives.
I feel you there. It worked a lot better when I had more free time, but I need something more flexible and less pressure. And somrtjing that actually wants to support creativity, rather than steal it
I’m still going to use November as a kind of story-rejuvenation month, but not with NaNoWriMo any more. Just like November Novel Writing Month. NoNoWriMo if you will. Or as another commenter said, Novel November 😊 That works for me haha
Whatever works for you, and best of luck! I just like how Pathfinders has the discord and it's super active right now, so I have people I can chat with and feel more like I've got a writing group.
That may be true. Most of the people I know have either moved on to something else, or they do NaNo without using the website. It's just not servicing the writing community needs like it used to.
They bowed to their sponsors and killed their own community, for sure. I don't think they can ever kill the writing communities at large, but they definitely slapped them in the face.
I'm not gonna judge people for using NaNo even though I've decided I can't keep using it. It works for a lot of people, like the badges and the trackers. Pathfinders uses Trackbear, but I haven't had a chance to check it out and see what all it does. I've heard good things, though.
So - having never actually participated, my understanding of Nanowrimo was that it was a _challenge_ and that people could (or not) do it - and while I know some people who were in a group, I always thought they had formed the group themselves. That there were forums, an organization, an app... All of that feels contrary to the whole point of it, and more like some way of monetizing people's passion and less getting people to do something creative. So - in finding that out, their comments about AI and the news about the forums is not really surprising, but an immediate side effect of making money the more important part. As for my writing - I have little scraps that I want to one day put-together/expand into a novel (or at least a novella). But I think I will do it on my own schedule. Best wishes to all who want to produce their own work!
Best of luck to you, too! And NaNoWriMo as an organization is technically a nonprofit, but after the founder stepped down and handed the reigns over to the other guy, it quickly stopped being a fun place for all and more of a clique-y place.
I love that im not the only one with a haunted misspelling story. Knowing that is a core memory for others makes the memory sting a little less...just a little lol
Nanowrimo was just unrealistic to my real life and I never finished anything so I just stopped trying but I remember those emails they were so slimy indeed. But this whole mess they caused themselves makes me feel vindicated in my decision.
Honestly, kinda same. I'm not always the best judge of character, but something about them hadn't been sitting well with me for a long time, so it almost felt good to know I wasn't just becoming jaded about them
When the thing with the forums took the turn of victim-blaming and no accountability I deleted my Nano account in entirety and encouraged all writers I knew to do the same. The AI thing would have been another one. Beyond the obvious issues, calling everything classist and ableist takes away the gravitas from the things that actually are, and this was not one of them. Good video. Happy writing.
Exactly, and you could tell they were throwing those terms around in a desperate attempt to stop the conversation, which was just more of the we-don't-want-to-.be-accountable' crap that was so awful the last time they did it. They showed they care more about their sponsors than the people actually participating in the event. I'm all for people doing a writing challenge in November, but NaNo is not the organization they try to pretend they are.
I'm really annoyed and upset by what's happened to NaNo. I haven't participated since like 2015 or so, simply because of a lack of motivation and well-developed ideas -- but this year I made a plotline breakthrough on one of my old story ideas and wanted to revisit it, and I was already looking for a way to get more structured IRL social interaction, so I thought revisiting NaNo would be perfect... and then I find out about the AI bs. It's probably just as well I didn't end up putting that extra pressure on myself this month, but I'm still really disappointed to find out how much NaNo has changed, and the embrace of generative AI is just a kick in the teeth. Maybe one of the alternatives will end up working for me, but I'm not sure how well the self-determined goals will work for me; the problem with being your own boss is, I know the lady in charge, and she's a real pushover. Ah well, so it goes.
Maybe it's just me, but I never saw the point of NaNoWriMo; any time of the year is a good time to write a novel. Still, sorry to hear about how a fun event went wrong for so many people who previously enjoyed it.
Fair enough. Any time of the year IS a good time to write a novel, but in November nobody bats an eye when I go on about writing, since so many other people are doing it, lol
I bought his first book. I did the challenge years ago in two thousand 6. Actually, once or twice, I did it and I really liked it but I didn't put any money into it.Besides buying the book initially. I don't like it when they try to monetize things that are art. Especially with poor people who are trying to get ahead.
It was fun when Chris Baty was in charge. Those were the years I enjoyed it, and I donated once or twice back then because they put it into community projects. Grant made it more like a business and I hated that.
I do not understand the point of using AI for things like this. It's like students who use it to pass classes. Why even take part if you're not going to actually DO what's involved?
Mostly boils down to "I found an easy way to get what I want that requires minimal effort on my end, and I value the end product more than the journey or the knowledge retention I will acquire along the way." Instant gratification is a creativity killer.
@@Jmcpeekwrites Yep. It's completely pointless because yeah, you've got a novel, but you DIDN'T WRITE IT. Which is supposed to be the whole point of the exercise! Like I said, it's like kids who use it in college. Do they not understand that they're shooting themselves in the foot with this nonsense? They're going to graduate not knowing the first thing about whatever they're setting out to do for a living.
I avoid AI content whenever possible, similarly to the way that, as a musician, I steer clear of auto-tune. Show me what your mind can do and where it goes. Show me *your* experiential perspective. AI is a poor-quality tea bag, with fannings of the worst bits of tea, et al, swept into dusty, cobwebby corners. I drink high-quality loose-leaf tea, and prefer reading that pairs well with that. AI does not and cannot. As such, and not being much of a joiner of things, I empathize with your position.
I don't know if I've ever had occasion to need to spell "bookkeeper", somewhere in the great distance of my past. But, I can guaran-g*dam-tee'ya I would not have i intuitively trusted that it could *possibly* have three-sets of double-letters doin a concurrencie. Even typing it out just now for the purposes of this comment was werkin mah nerves... Struggle. So. Real.
I was going back and forth HARD on it, and the worst thing is maybe 3 years later, the PBS show Zoom mentioned it and retraumatized me all over again lol
The hoodie I was wearing? Nah, that's a hoodie I got for doing Gourdy's Pumpkin Run virtual 5k thing last year. I usually repurpose a Ren Faire costume for Halloween
Glad you liked the video, but I'm not going to quantify what makes someone a writer. People need what they need. One of my concerns is that their tacit approval of AI makes their 'you need to put your document into our calculator to make your win official' policy incredibly uncomfortable, even if they say they don’t record what you put into it. A lot of people I know just do the 50k guidelines and track themselves, but for those that still use the website, it's something to seriously consider.
You shouldn't let the website and organization kill the fun of 50k November. A 50k marathon is a tradition. I still do the 50k, I just don't use the website anymore because they banned me for a forum post I made about ZERO DRAFTS. I must be too edgy for all the creeps on there for pointing out the flaws of such an insufficient, inefficient drafting method.
I still appreciate the spirit of a 50k November as a concept, but there's nothing about NaNo as an organization that works for me anymore, which is why I'm switching to Pathfinders this November. They have been welcoming and supportive, and you can bounce ideas off people without the vitriol the NaNo forums produced. It was made by people who love writing and want to share that, which is something NaNo feels like it lost a long time ago.
I left NaNoWriMo for another reason. My ADHD writing quirks are not compatible with the 30-day challenge. Instead, I took my 88 novel scene cards to a secluded location and wrote 49K words in a week.
That's pretty impressive, and I can absolutely see why NaNo is not ADHD friendly.
I am so jealous of you right now.
@@LadyDragoncat It was on my sister's Ohio farm. In a little garage-sized barn they remodeled. Quiet countryside, peaceful days and nights. Yes, I want to repeat this experience.
W00t! Well done!
That's 7000 words a day! Very impressive. How did you do it? Did you not sleep for a week?
AI is ruining art and writing. I'm really disappointed to hear this about Nanowrimo. Thank you for sharing!
It was a real bummer to read their stance, for sure. I don't mind using AI in terms of like autocorrecting spelling, because that's fixing an error based on something that was organically created, but generating something from someone else's work and calling it your own is a level of audacity I just can't wrap my head around.
@@Jmcpeekwrites Yeah, using it for some editing of your own work I think is okay. Or even using it for research or brainstorming. But just straight up letting it do the writing for you? Nah.
It is so frustrating that these corporations are jumping on the AI creative train. Why can’t AI take boring or dangerous jobs! Why does it have to go after one of the few fields where we examine what is human and the meaning of being? It’s frustrating!
Exactly! AI was supposed to free up our working times so we can use them for leisure, but it's being used to take our leisure activities instead. So frustrating!
@Jmcpeekwrites I'm glad someone said that, because I like using AI for grammar, because let's face it editing is expensive. So it's rather have development editing 5o help solidify my loose ends. But I felt bad using AI for grammar. I wondered if it was acceptable and your was considered original. I feel better using AI for grammar. Thank you.
It’s just so sad, honestly, that it’s come down to this.
NaNo used to be so much fun.
It is :(
I hate to admit, but I used NanNoWrimo to write my Christmas fan fiction. I unsubscribed from the emails in the summer and unfollowed them on all my socials, the AI was kind of the final straw but it was a long time coming. This year I'm just going to write without the pressure of NaNoWrimo, and giving up on my story and getting depressing writer's block and putting pressure on myself for a hobby.
Writing is supposed to be fun, which is one of the issues I was having with NaNo, too. It was feeling like too much of a competition instead of a fun place to be creative.
And Christmas fanfiction sounds adorable!
I think I signed up for website with my friends and then two of us promptly used it to write and publish at least one chapter of our fanfic and other friend worked on her novel at her own pace without touching website😅. Now it’s just a month to make ourselves write
I didn't even know about the last few years of NaNo Stuff until I saw someone include it in this year's write up of NaNo Stuff! That's a lot of Stuff, Nano! Anyway, it's a bummer because I used to really enjoy that challenge.
I have really liked seeing how many people have been working up alternatives that are more community-focused and fun than the Corporate Zombie Nano we've had more recently. Writing community pulls through!
Yeah, NaNo has changed a lot, and it sucks, but I'm glad there are still crazy passionate people that are creating communities out od this so we can recreate some of the magic that once was.
I’m sad I never found nanowrimo in its heyday but I’m hype to do one of the others that’s popped up (Think I’m doing novella november?)
NaNo was fun the first few years I did it. I'm hoping this one will rekindle the community that NaNo kind of lost. I'm all for any writing challenges that brings people together. Good luck with novella november!
I've recently thought about doing NaNo again (my last one was a few years ago), but I would really only be using it for the stats tool, like you said. So Pathfinders Writing Collective sounds like a nice alternative to look into, thanks a lot!!
No problem! And they're using something called Trackbear for their stuff if you wanted to still track stuff. I think it's on ko-fi
Winter technically starts at the end of December, but I do believe that the unspoken societal agreement is December, January and February are the “Winter Months,” at least in America.
I live in the South, so temp-wise there's no such thing as winter months. I feel the seasons in my heart
not all states operate that way. February feels like spring in SoCal, and December feels like fall. Our ideas of seasons are pretty Eurocentric, specifically English.
I've come to the conclusion that seasons are just trippy.
where i am november pretty much is winter already
In Norway, december, january and february are wintermonths.
That makes sense. My brain says winter means snow, but we don't really get that in the American South, so I don't really keep track of seasons.
My friend Jess Owens and I started our own challenge for October before NaNo is now a dumpster fire. Its casual and fun, just friends having weekly sprints and helping each other hit our goal.
That's awesome! Always awesome to see friends to build one another up.
October and November are in autumn. Winter starts in December, just before Christmas.
Yeah, we were there for the golden age.... DONE
We lived long enough to see it become the villain
NNRM is a good tool to help push me to finish a project. I wrote my first novel last year.
Not a great novel, but a novel. I wrote another project over the spring and I'm prepping for another NNRM next month. The structure and deadline keep me moving.
I figure in a few years I'll have a system built and NaNoWriMo will start to be a distraction, but for mow I'm still getting some benefit.
But I did like the forums. I think they've wildly overcompensated.
Anything that helps create routines and provides the structure for you to achieve your goals is good, and I absolutely think a lot of people still can gain benefit from NaNo, like yourself.
I just don't like the path the organization as a whole has taken, and feel like they're not so much interested in fostering creativity as community as much as they are focused on accumulating sponsorships, which is a shame.
I'm so glad I just found your channel! No more nanowrimo guilt/shame/feelings of inadequacy because life continues to throw its monkey wrenches even when I try to "clear" a month for just writing.
I used to best myself up HARD about the wrenches in my plans. I'm hoping PaWriCo will provide me the structure I crave without the guilt attached, while also allowing me to make some friends.
I'm thinking of / planning to start a community for a writing challenge on Dreamwidth (and maybe Tumblr; not sure how their new community feature works) for the six weeks between January 2 and February 13, with a focus on "plot modules"✳ instead of word counts, with "breather days" scheduled in for review, sharing writing with a "buddy" (think fire drill buddy in grade school), or just resting. I don't have / do Instagram, and I can't do Discord, but the Pathfinder challenge sounds like a good one.
✳Situation, Disruption, Reaction, Consequence (which leads to a New Situation)
[Edited to add: My first NaNo was in 2005; I quit in the middle of 2020. I "won" several times, in that I reached 50K, but I never actually liked what I ended up with by November 30th, and I realized I just wasn't having any fun with it, any more.
Sounds like a big but worthy undertaking! I haven't been on Tumblr in ages but I wish you great success!
And I 'won' a lot, too, but there was only one of them I felt was really worth anything when I finished. Most of them, the story wasn't even done by the time I hit 50 but it was all such a garbled mess I stopped working once I hit the 50.
@@Jmcpeekwrites (nod). Going back and reading my old drafts is like trying to pick through a word salad with a toothpick.
Don't I know it, and figuring what can be salvaged from the pile is an exercise in itself.
That sounds really cool! Do you have a potential comm name for it so I can track it down?
Following exclusively for your theme song. It's everything!
My vocal stylings are pretty impressive, aren't they? 😂 Glad to have you here!
I hadn't done NaNoWrimo in years. I just didn't like having to write in a certain timeframe.
I attempted to do it for several years after it stopped being fun for me. It's only in recent years I've finally accepted I don't have to keep doing things when the system isn't set up for me anymore.
@@Jmcpeekwrites I completely agree with you. We only have one lifetime so we should do things that bring us joy whenever we can.
Don't feel too bad, I once forgot the middle A in karate in a spelling bee and that still haunts me as well. I was annoyed to be pulled out from art class so I was kinda glad that I only made it to the second round at the time. XD Subscribed and looking forward to seeing your publishing journey!
I don't remember any other word I spelled wrong, just that one, and I remember spelling pyromania correctly at state because when I finally did get out my dad said he figured I'd be a goner on that one.
It's weird the things you remember.
And thanks for deciding to follow! Hope it's a fun journey for us all :)
I will be doing the writing challenge, I will not be having anything to do with the website.
Solid plan. I've just been craving community, and since NaNo hasn't felt like the most welcoming place for awhile, I figured I'd seek out something else. Good luck!
I remember writing for NaNoWriMo as a class project during elementary school.
Glad I'm not using that anymore.
I did hear some schools did that, and I always thought it was cool. Maybe they'll still do something like it, but reframe it without having to utilize the name
My current WIP is last years nanowrimo. (I failed miserably but it got me started on something i have a good chance of finishing) I won't be participating anymore. I am against generative AI. It steals from people who are actually creatives.
I feel you there. It worked a lot better when I had more free time, but I need something more flexible and less pressure. And somrtjing that actually wants to support creativity, rather than steal it
I also didn't realise about that second k, you're not alone!
It will haunt me forever. I will forget my own name, but I will never forget how to spell bookkeeper lol
I’m still going to use November as a kind of story-rejuvenation month, but not with NaNoWriMo any more. Just like November Novel Writing Month. NoNoWriMo if you will.
Or as another commenter said, Novel November 😊 That works for me haha
Whatever works for you, and best of luck! I just like how Pathfinders has the discord and it's super active right now, so I have people I can chat with and feel more like I've got a writing group.
I think a lot of writers have moved away from NaNo now
That may be true. Most of the people I know have either moved on to something else, or they do NaNo without using the website. It's just not servicing the writing community needs like it used to.
First they killed the community. Then they killed the value of writing.
They bowed to their sponsors and killed their own community, for sure. I don't think they can ever kill the writing communities at large, but they definitely slapped them in the face.
Def only use it for word tracking and badges I guess. I don’t even know.
I'm not gonna judge people for using NaNo even though I've decided I can't keep using it. It works for a lot of people, like the badges and the trackers. Pathfinders uses Trackbear, but I haven't had a chance to check it out and see what all it does. I've heard good things, though.
So - having never actually participated, my understanding of Nanowrimo was that it was a _challenge_ and that people could (or not) do it - and while I know some people who were in a group, I always thought they had formed the group themselves. That there were forums, an organization, an app... All of that feels contrary to the whole point of it, and more like some way of monetizing people's passion and less getting people to do something creative.
So - in finding that out, their comments about AI and the news about the forums is not really surprising, but an immediate side effect of making money the more important part.
As for my writing - I have little scraps that I want to one day put-together/expand into a novel (or at least a novella). But I think I will do it on my own schedule. Best wishes to all who want to produce their own work!
Best of luck to you, too!
And NaNoWriMo as an organization is technically a nonprofit, but after the founder stepped down and handed the reigns over to the other guy, it quickly stopped being a fun place for all and more of a clique-y place.
Bookkeeper is a compound word.
Obviously it would need the ending "k" and the beginning "k."
Well, it wasn't obvious to 3rd grade me.
Love your haunted misspelling story.
I love that im not the only one with a haunted misspelling story. Knowing that is a core memory for others makes the memory sting a little less...just a little lol
Nanowrimo was just unrealistic to my real life and I never finished anything so I just stopped trying but I remember those emails they were so slimy indeed. But this whole mess they caused themselves makes me feel vindicated in my decision.
Honestly, kinda same. I'm not always the best judge of character, but something about them hadn't been sitting well with me for a long time, so it almost felt good to know I wasn't just becoming jaded about them
When the thing with the forums took the turn of victim-blaming and no accountability I deleted my Nano account in entirety and encouraged all writers I knew to do the same. The AI thing would have been another one. Beyond the obvious issues, calling everything classist and ableist takes away the gravitas from the things that actually are, and this was not one of them. Good video. Happy writing.
Exactly, and you could tell they were throwing those terms around in a desperate attempt to stop the conversation, which was just more of the we-don't-want-to-.be-accountable' crap that was so awful the last time they did it. They showed they care more about their sponsors than the people actually participating in the event.
I'm all for people doing a writing challenge in November, but NaNo is not the organization they try to pretend they are.
The title page where it says and other stuff too make me crack up
I do enjoy making people laugh!
I'm really annoyed and upset by what's happened to NaNo. I haven't participated since like 2015 or so, simply because of a lack of motivation and well-developed ideas -- but this year I made a plotline breakthrough on one of my old story ideas and wanted to revisit it, and I was already looking for a way to get more structured IRL social interaction, so I thought revisiting NaNo would be perfect... and then I find out about the AI bs. It's probably just as well I didn't end up putting that extra pressure on myself this month, but I'm still really disappointed to find out how much NaNo has changed, and the embrace of generative AI is just a kick in the teeth. Maybe one of the alternatives will end up working for me, but I'm not sure how well the self-determined goals will work for me; the problem with being your own boss is, I know the lady in charge, and she's a real pushover. Ah well, so it goes.
Maybe it's just me, but I never saw the point of NaNoWriMo; any time of the year is a good time to write a novel.
Still, sorry to hear about how a fun event went wrong for so many people who previously enjoyed it.
Fair enough. Any time of the year IS a good time to write a novel, but in November nobody bats an eye when I go on about writing, since so many other people are doing it, lol
I'm not the only person haunted by spelling mistakes in school.
Nope, you're not alone!
I bought his first book. I did the challenge years ago in two thousand 6. Actually, once or twice, I did it and I really liked it but I didn't put any money into it.Besides buying the book initially. I don't like it when they try to monetize things that are art. Especially with poor people who are trying to get ahead.
It was fun when Chris Baty was in charge. Those were the years I enjoyed it, and I donated once or twice back then because they put it into community projects. Grant made it more like a business and I hated that.
I do not understand the point of using AI for things like this. It's like students who use it to pass classes. Why even take part if you're not going to actually DO what's involved?
Mostly boils down to "I found an easy way to get what I want that requires minimal effort on my end, and I value the end product more than the journey or the knowledge retention I will acquire along the way."
Instant gratification is a creativity killer.
@@Jmcpeekwrites Yep. It's completely pointless because yeah, you've got a novel, but you DIDN'T WRITE IT. Which is supposed to be the whole point of the exercise! Like I said, it's like kids who use it in college. Do they not understand that they're shooting themselves in the foot with this nonsense? They're going to graduate not knowing the first thing about whatever they're setting out to do for a living.
I avoid AI content whenever possible, similarly to the way that, as a musician, I steer clear of auto-tune. Show me what your mind can do and where it goes. Show me *your* experiential perspective. AI is a poor-quality tea bag, with fannings of the worst bits of tea, et al, swept into dusty, cobwebby corners. I drink high-quality loose-leaf tea, and prefer reading that pairs well with that. AI does not and cannot. As such, and not being much of a joiner of things, I empathize with your position.
I don't know if I've ever had occasion to need to spell "bookkeeper", somewhere in the great distance of my past.
But, I can guaran-g*dam-tee'ya I would not have i intuitively trusted that it could *possibly* have three-sets of double-letters doin a concurrencie.
Even typing it out just now for the purposes of this comment was werkin mah nerves...
Struggle. So. Real.
I was going back and forth HARD on it, and the worst thing is maybe 3 years later, the PBS show Zoom mentioned it and retraumatized me all over again lol
Is that your Ghostbusters Halloween costume?
The hoodie I was wearing? Nah, that's a hoodie I got for doing Gourdy's Pumpkin Run virtual 5k thing last year. I usually repurpose a Ren Faire costume for Halloween
If you need nanowrimo to write, you’re not a writer. Great video 🌟
Glad you liked the video, but I'm not going to quantify what makes someone a writer. People need what they need.
One of my concerns is that their tacit approval of AI makes their 'you need to put your document into our calculator to make your win official' policy incredibly uncomfortable, even if they say they don’t record what you put into it. A lot of people I know just do the 50k guidelines and track themselves, but for those that still use the website, it's something to seriously consider.
Smh...
Oh no, anyways
You shouldn't let the website and organization kill the fun of 50k November. A 50k marathon is a tradition. I still do the 50k, I just don't use the website anymore because they banned me for a forum post I made about ZERO DRAFTS. I must be too edgy for all the creeps on there for pointing out the flaws of such an insufficient, inefficient drafting method.
I still appreciate the spirit of a 50k November as a concept, but there's nothing about NaNo as an organization that works for me anymore, which is why I'm switching to Pathfinders this November.
They have been welcoming and supportive, and you can bounce ideas off people without the vitriol the NaNo forums produced. It was made by people who love writing and want to share that, which is something NaNo feels like it lost a long time ago.