September 3, 2024

My first NaNoWriMo?

Writing about National Novel Writing Month, some of its recent events, and working through if I'm going to participate

National Novel Writing Month—NaNoWriMo—is coming up in November. I’ve watched from the sidelines as people posted progress updates for well over a decade.

It’s atop of mind because they announced that they’ve announced they’ll accept submissions that used generative AI in their writing process. Specifically saying that it’s ableist and classist not to support AI in writing.

I’ve been reading the tweeterings of many disabled writers I follow that are up in rage about it—and I believe rightfully so.

Let’s get into it, and break things down.

What is NaNoWriMo?

It’s one of those internet events that hundreds of thousands of people all around the world gather and participate in together. It first started in 1999, growing exponentially year over year. Around 413,000 people participated in 2022.1

The goal is simple: write a 50,000 words of a novel in a single month.

There are some ground rules:

1. It must be a new project, not previously started;

2. It has to be written by a single person; and

3. It has to be finished by midnight on November 30th.2

Defining ableist and classist

Apart from wordnik and wordhippo, another of my favorite word gathering places is Self Defined. It’s a “modern dictionary about us. We define our words, but they don’t define us.”

Self-Defined seeks to provide more inclusive, holistic, and fluid definitions to reflect the diverse perspectives of the modern world.

With the foundation of vocabulary, we can begin to understand lived experiences of people different than us. Words can provide us with a sense of identity and allow us to find kinship through common experiences.

It’s a beautiful project by Tatiana Mac, “an independent Việt-American software engineer and open source maintainer and creator of Self-Defined.”3

• Ableism (noun): a system that places value on people’s bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, intelligence, excellence, and productivity. These constructed ideas are deeply rooted in anti-Blackness, eugenics, colonialism, and capitalism.4

• Classism (noun): Discrimination or prejudice that is based on social class. 5

Writer’s note: I wrote the intro to Self Defined before I had looked if it had also defined classism. It hadn’t…so also used wordnik.

So, what’s the deal?

My relationship with generative AI is convoluted. I understand its potential and what it can mean regarding getting things done. But, I’ve also worked with Big Data long enough to understand…there’re some very big issues with it.

One of the biggest things: they’re trained using stolen data from people around the world just because “it was on the internet.” It’s touted as the replacement for the humans that do the hard, creative work that is practiced and honed throughout our lives.

For the past year, I’ve used it to adapt resumes, write cover letters, etc. I thought it’d help make me sound more “normal” to people in the job writing process. But, if something’s not working after doing something for so long, you need to switch it up.

Writing the past month has been far more fulfilling and helpful than anything I ever really came out with Generative AI…but I still see a need to understand and how to use it. I’m even working on a presentation and talk for a Gen AI conference at the end of October.

But…I see, understand, and resonate with the points others are making:

Am I going to participate?

I don’t know yet. Writing a book is one of those things I’ve wanted to do for the longest time…I think I started my first one when I was around 10 or 11 years old. Suffice to say, it did not get very far.

As I’ve aged in years, experience, knowledge, and wisdom, the impetus feels even stronger. I even have a list of books that I want to write about:

• The Metaphoric Method, introduced in August 15th’s post

• Move slow and bake things, an antithesis to the Tech Industry philosophy “Move fast and break things”

• Wired for Design, a memoir or novel about the relationship of neurodivergence, Design, and how they’re intertwined

• An introduction to Works Councils, a graphic novel aimed to introduce Americans to alternative ways of labor by breaking down Dutch Works Council Act in a fun way

• I can’t poop for you, a children’s book on feeling feelings

• A planet of dumplings, a photo-journalistic-recipe-story-art book of the many ways dumplings are made around the world

• Nightsoil Robbin’, a historical-fiction novel about a gang of robbers stealing “nightsoil” from the tanners & gatherers of human excrement based in Nottingham, England

I do know, that if I do, I won’t be using the official NaNoWriMo organization’s tools. All those writers are sharing tools that do the same thing for tracking and helping writing.

What would participating look like, words per day?

It maths out to around 1,667 words a day to get to 50,000 word novel.

Over the course of this writing practice, 41 days as of yesterday, I’ve written 25,607 words, averaging around 625 words/day so far. Only one post was written using AI.

I think it could be doable!

Would love to hear your thoughts!