#(nano

We know many of you have seen NaNoWriMo's recent statements on generative AI...

Well, we have too—and that's why we've made the decision to retract our sponsorship of NaNo.

Your support and belief in human creativity, transparency and collaboration mean everything to us, and we're committed to staying true to that. Thank you all! 💙

You can read our full statement here.

After 25 years of operation, Nanowrimo is shutting down.

An email came out in the hours approaching April Fools

A video was attached to the email, which can be viewed here:

The video is on Kilby’s channel and not the long dead Nanowrimo channel. The video is full of…

Kilby logic, but there is some relevant information contained within.

If have anything on Nanowrimo you need to get off the site, take it now. The site will likely not be around for too much longer.

Despite everything that the organisation has been through, the closure of a 25 year old nonprofit is still a tragedy, and my heart goes out to everyone that’s grieving from this. Nano has hurt a lot of people, but it meant a lot to so many, and I will be sorry to see that go.

Even if I don’t agree with many things in the recent video, I can agree with the sentiment of one slide.

So... apparently the NaNoWriMo organization has been gutted and the people at the top now are fully focused on Getting That AI Money.

I have no reason to say this other than Vibes™️ and the way that every other org who has pivoted to AI has behaved but I wouldn't trust anything shared with or stored on their servers not to be scraped for training LLMs. That includes pasting stuff into the site to verify your word count, if that's still a thing. (I haven't done Nano since 2015).

Also of note:

Age gating has been implemented. If you haven't added your date of birth to your profile or if you're under 18, it's supposed to lock you out of local region pages and the forums. ... It's worth noting that the privacy policy on the webpage doesn't specify how that data is stored and may not be GDPR compliant.

...

Camp events are being run solely by sponsors. Events for LGBTQIA+, disabled writers, and writers of color no longer appear to be a thing at NaNo.

It's available here for download - free if you want, any support is appreciated because it means I can keep making trackers and helps with my website costs, but I know times are tough for a lot of us. I've also put it up on Google Sheets here, but it looks a little different because the fancier chart effects aren't supported. You'll have to download it or make a copy to be able to use it. (Please don't ask me for edit access, that won't work. File > Make a copy, and you'll have it on your own Google Drive.)

I also made this in four other designs, available here. They all come with character and plot development sheets, and pages for novel info, chapters, timeline, etc. And there are versions for every month, so we're not confined to November!

And finally, because I always loved seeing everyone's word counts and accountability really helps me personally, I made a basic spreadsheet that you can use as a group to collectively track word counts or goals. This version's made for up to 8 people. Again you'll have to make a copy in your Drive to use it, and you'll need to give edit access to your whole group as well.