This post was originally going to be about “Why Not To Do NaNoWriMo” (National Novel Writing Month) with a focus on how to choose the challenges, events, and strategies that are right for you, but I suppose I’m glad I’m behind on everything because it’s giving me the opportunity to talk about something more important.
Which is: what to do when shit goes down in the writing world.
Every 3 to 6 months, something happens. Sometimes it’s huge: one giant publisher tries to buy another, and there’s a huge court case like Department of Justice vs Penguin Random House. Or sometimes it’s less huge, but still pretty big, like when the Romance Writers of America was sent into a tailspin due to accusations of racism. Or sometimes it’s absolutely absurd, like when one writer tries to trademark the word “cocky” and then submits takedown notices to Amazon on any other author’s book with the word “cocky” in the title and the whole thing goes to court. #Cockygate. (Read the court case transcript if you need a good laugh.)
Sometimes the controversies are much smaller: one writer plagiarizing another, one writer accusing another of inappropriate comments in private messages, one writer bulk buying their books to artificially inflate their rankings. A well-known cover designer going bankrupt and running of with their clients’ money. A brand-new scam publisher with a new and improved sales pitch that is extremely convincing.
Sometimes it’s social justice issues, politics, or AI dividing the writing community.
Sometimes the accusations are true. Sometimes they are not. Sometimes they are both.
Misunderstandings, communication challenges, different expectations always play a role in these situations. As do personalities. And if you’ve ever been part of any writing group ever, you’ll know that writers tend to have very strong, very unique, very complex personalities.
But one thing never changes: with every new controversy, we have to decide how to respond.
Currently, there is a big controversy taking place with the non-profit organization that runs National Novel Writing Month. I won’t go into detail because the specifics are a bit fuzzy and haphazard at the moment, but suffice it to say, it doesn’t look good. NaNoWriMo is a huge part of the writing community, and in particular, the indie writing community, so these types of accusations are a huge blow.
If you’re not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s an annual challenge for writers to write 1,667 words per day, and at the end of November, writers end up with 50k words and sometimes even a finished rough draft manuscript. It’s kind of like marathon running for writers.
For me personally, NaNo kicked off my writing career. A friend challenged me to do it, and I lost, quitting about halfway through that November. But then a month later, I realized I’d written 20k words, the most I’d ever written on one project in my life. It was like something clicked in my brain: I can do this. For real.
I did the challenge again the following year, and beat it, reaching 50k words just before midnight on the last day. And I’ve done it every year since, including most of the organization’s mid-year challenges.
This event has played a huge role in my writing life.
Do I want to give it up? No.
Will I? If I have to.
If you know me, you know I tend to be the type of person who hates bandwagons. I don’t believe in virtue signaling, and I don’t believe that taking action rashly based on an emotional reaction to a perceived wrong is wise, particularly when it’s a situation like this—where many people are involved, an investigation is ongoing, and the truth of the story is yet to be fully known.
At the same time, I believe it’s important to listen to and believe victims. And sometimes it absolutely is necessary to take action immediately.
I try to hold all of these things in my mind simultaneously. I try to support the people taking action, while giving myself time to calm down and understand the full story before taking action myself. I try to believe the victims, while also giving the accused time to defend themselves.
It’s a challenging balance to maintain. Especially in the age of social media.
The older I get (though perhaps this has less to do with age and more to do with experience), the more I want there to be easy answers to challenging questions. And, at the same time, the more I realize that those easy answers almost never exist.
Instead, I try to ask as many questions as I can. I try to truly understand what happened, what people are saying, and what complicated interactions and nuances exist. And then I make my decisions to the best of my ability with the information I have. Then I stand by that decision, unless I learn something new that changes my perspective.
And I give myself permission to change my mind.
I’ve written well over a million words during National Novel Writing Month events, and no matter the outcome of this situation, that will never change. The organization will always have played a significant and meaningful role in my writing life. I don’t want to have to end my connection to it, but once all the information is available, and it is clearly necessary, then I absolutely will.
I try to live my life in alignment with my morals and values. It’s not always easy. And sometimes, the consequences have a substantial impact on my life. And sometimes, the consequences make me really sad.
But life is change, for good reasons, bad reasons, and neutral. And all I can do is learn to respond the best way I know how.
So if you’ve quit NaNoWriMo for good, I support and laud you.
If you are withholding judgement until all the information has rolled in, I support and laud you too.
And if you’re the jackass who caused this whole mess, fuck you.
