#'nanowrimo'. :

[meluiloth]

Since the whole thing with NaNoWriMo has gone down, I've noticed that one of their former sponsors, Ellipsus, has cut contact with NaNoWriMo because they do not support their stance on AI; I didn't know what Ellipsus was, but upon further research I've found that they are a writing platform that works a lot like Google Docs and Microsoft Word, only with a heavier leaning on the story-writing aspect and connecting with other writers - and they also completely denounce any use of AI, both in the writing process itself and in the use of their platform. I really appreciate that.

Since this is the case (and since I've noticed Google has begun implementing more AI into their software), I've decided to give Ellipsus a try to see if it's a good alternative to Google Docs (my main writing platform). It's completely free and so far, I've found it simple to use (although it is pretty minimal in its features), and I really like the look of it.

I figured I'd spread the word about this platform in case any of you writers would want to give it a try, and if you do, let me know how you like it!

[the-pen-pot]

So it looks like NaNoWriMo are happy to have AI as part of their community. Miss me with that bullshit. Generative artificial intelligence is an active threat to creativity and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in creative fields.

Please signal boost this so writers can make an informed choice about whether to continue to take part in such a community.

[damienthepious]

watching @nanowrimo within a single hour:

make an awful, ill-conceived, sponsored post about "responsible"/"ethical" uses of ai in writing

immediately get ratio'd in a way i've never seen on tumblr with a small swarm of chastising-to-negative replies and no reblogs

start deleting replies

reply to their own post being like 'agree to disagree!!!' while saying that ai can TOTALLY be ethical because spellcheck exists!! (???) while in NO WAY responding to the criticisms of ai for its environmental impact OR the building of databases on material without author consent, ie, stolen material, OR the money laundering rampant in the industry

when called out on deleting replies, literally messaged me people who called them out to say "We don't have a problem with folks disagreeing with AI. It's the tone of the discourse." So. overtly stated tone policing.

get even MORE replies saying this is a Bad Look, and some reblogs now that people's replies are being deleted

DISABLE REBLOGS when people aren't saying what nano would prefer they say

im juust in literal awe of this fucking mess.

[ellipsus-writes]

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.

The Ellipsus team xo

[eric-bogosian]

Re-sharing this post I found on Twitter for people looking for alternatives to NaNo. I haven't tried any of these sites but they might be worth looking into.

[novella-november]

Hate AI, but love writing challenges?

Want to take part in a global, fun project to write a Novella in one month?

Grab some friends, and take part in Novella November, by writing 1,000 words a day for the month of November, ending with a 30,000 word Novella to test and stretch your novel-writing skills!

Your goal is not perfection, but merely getting into the habit of writing a litte bit every single day :D

No website, no sign-ups -- Just a community initiative to write using only your own word!

What are the rules? Just Three so far!

#1 - No AI

#2 - No Plagiarizing

#3 - Wordcount for the month should only come from what you write during the month.

What does that mean?

Only words written during November should go towards your Wordcount for the month... but! Feel free to use your 30k words as a continuation of previous writing, or just make it the first 30k words in a longer novel!

Don't think you can write a whole entire 30k word story? Write a series of short stories that total up to 30k!

Not ready to write original works yet? Write a 30k word fanfiction that you can post after the month is over!

Share your writing experience, tips, encouragement, and questions in the #Novella November tag!

---

EDIT, from the tags: Want a progress tracker? Track your progress with TrackBear!

https://trackbear.app/

Don't have a word processor? Use LibreOffice , the free and open-source alternative to Microsoft Word!

Want to organize/storyboard your Novel and don't want to pay a subscription? Try 7writer by Simon Haynes!

Want to be able to listen to your story aloud for proofreading using TTS (text to speech)? Try Balabolka!

Or, create some custom progress / Goal Cards in advance you can fill out as you reach word goals! For ideas and templates, search this blog for "goal cards" :D

Want to do a writing challenge in more than just November? Check out my ideas here for year round challenges to keep you writing consistently! Got feedback? Send it in, I'd love to see everyone's ideas!

---

EDIT 2: I almost forgot to mention, if you are unable to write/type your story, you can also narrate/dictate your story to your preferred recording device!

If you're doing a Recording only and it doesn't automatically generate a transcript, it would obviously be hard to judge the word count -- but you're also working with a lot of obstacles, so I'd say if you're able to complete your story via voice recording from start to finish, you've definitely achieved the goal!

[anneapocalypse]

Regardless of what you think about generative AI in general, NaNoWriMo allowing AI-generated works is beyond stupid because that completely defeats the purpose of the challenge, which is for you, a human being, to write 50,000 words in a month. Yeah, that's hard. That's why it's a challenge. Where is the challenge when you can ask a chatbot to spit out 50,000 words of whatthefuckever for you? Even if you think that is a legitimate way to produce fiction, even if you don't care about the ethics of training on stolen works... where's the challenge? What's left of NaNo at that point?

[lizardsfromspace]

NaNoWriMo, the competition whose raison d'etre is making people write actual words for a month, declaring that you can do writing with AI is a predictably inane choice. But coaching their statement in social justice language about how banning AI is classist and ableist, now that elevates it to the sublimely dopey

[so-many-ocs]

"why does writing take so long" because 60% of it is coming up with a sentence, realizing that sentence doesn't work the way you want it to, and staring at a wall

[taibhsearachd]

Hey guys... I met my wife through NaNoWriMo, I am as attached to the concept as a person could be, but if we're going to recreate it... I'm begging you to not put it in November. November is possibly the worst month for it if you live in the US. In school? You're probably studying for finals toward the end of that month. Adult? Some part of your family is going to want you to come visit them, which is a whole thing if you have to travel to see them.

We can break free of this. We can have a whole new novel writing month. I'm begging you. Even as someone whose life partner came to me through NaNoWriMo. Do not put this fucking month in November.

[vaspider]

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.

Just... go read the whole thing. It's not that long. Ugh.

[shyday-ao3]

really? "you're" account? from the writing website??

[oh-snapperss]

make sure to delete your nanowrimo accounts

(context: nanowrimo's statement on use of ai and calling the argument against ai "classist and ableist")

(additional context: nanowrimo is being sponsored by a ai company this year)

EDIT: someone in the comments has told me that apparently nano does not have you enter actual words-- regardless deleting is still the best course of action!

[duckprintspress]

How to Delete your NaNoWriMo Account

NaNo has done dubious things over the years that prompted me to stop using it, but this most recent dubious thing has tilted me from "not using it" to "deleting it." If you're like me, here's what to do:

Log in to your NaNo account

Go to settings

Select "delete account"

Go to the e-mail account associated with your NaNo account, find the e-mail they've sent, and click the "delete account" button in that e-mail

You're done

It's incredibly easy, and I'm hoping that if a lot of us delete - especially people like me, with long-time accounts who have won NaNo repeatedly, who have also supported them monetarily in the past - then perhaps they'll get some kind of message about what a shit idea this LLM stuff is.

They probably won't. But. I'm an optimist.

[gaywizardemporium]

*taps mic*

Fuck NaNoWriMo

It's always been a shit way to write a book. Slamming through fifty thousand words in a month leads to burnout and a garbage draft you'll spend more time unfucking than if you'd actually just paced yourself.

I'm proposing Novel Outline November

Start with your idea on November 1st.

Write something for your novel every day. The only unacceptable amount is 0.

Attempt to complete the plot in 50K words. Stick with that as a limiting factor so you focus on what's most important to your story.

When it's done it's done! Everyone is a winner!

You will

Develop good writing habits

Challenge yourself to write long form

Create a base that can be expanded into commercial fiction (70-100K) or genre fiction (100-110K)

Happy writing!

[writersflow]