Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop!

It’s official. The NaNoWriMo organisation (National Novel Writing Month) is shutting down. What’s your reaction?

Remember to visit my fellow writers to see what they have created. You can find their works here!

If it wasn’t for NaNoWriMo, I may not have written Chasing Shadows. I’d attempted writing a novel multiple times with limited success. Then the idea for Chasing Shadows struck somewhere around 2019/2020. I started dabbling in writing it during 2020 (after all, there wasn’t a huge amount else to do that year…). I became aware of NaNoWriMo and decided to really sit down and work on Chasing Shadows using it for motivation. I’d started the book, and didn’t complete it in the month, but it set me fully on my way to completing a novel.

However, in the last few years, there have been more and more concerning stories coming out about the organisation. Accusations of grooming and bullying and coverups of these started to come out. Accusations that members of the NaNo team were involved in it made it seem worse. I think the worst bit of it all is the seeming inaction on the part of the group to actually address these issues.

The principle of NaNo is a fantastic idea. A supportive community of people all working towards the aim of completing a novel. Concepts like writing sprints and community chats all seem brilliant. But the utter mismanagement and apathy at the top level allowed it to become a cesspool of toxicity. It’s a shame to see it go the way it has, but it seems it outgrew its humble beginnings. When something went so very wrong they didn’t deal with it promptly, if at all, it leaves a sour taste. Their inability to clean up the problems meant really the only viable route was to close it down.