In 2008, a year before my retirement and 10 days into the month of November, I decided to try this online exercise I’d discovered of writing 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. I’d lost 10 days because of work travel, and I’d lose a few more for the same reason, but on November 30 after 17 days of writing, I crossed that magical 50,000-word finish line. This was a test, you see, if I was ready to retire and write for myself, and I passed.

I have participated in National Novel Writing Month for every year since 2008–17 years–and I was gearing up for year 18. Last week, however, the NaNoWriMo staff announced that the non-profit was closing down. Contributions were way off in 2024, and any federal funding looked unlikely in this new reality of ours. Participation was off last year as well, and I had an inkling last year might literally be the last.

As with any organization, or government for that matter, transitions from a stable, involved management to one of decreasing efficiency and management ability, an end is inevitable. In a way, NaNoWriMo brought this on themselves.

Unlike the current trend, I applaud all the things NaNoWriMo did to promote inclusivity, equality, and providing a nonjudgemental space for diverse voices. The organization originally started to get disadvantaged kids in California interested in writing and then went, literally, global. The staff organized regions in every participating country and recruited volunteers to “manage” those regions–essentially to set up write-ins and other activities for other regional members. NaNoWriMo provided access to a main online forum and then established forums for each region.

And that began the downfall, IMHO.

In 2023, it came to NaNoWriMo’s attention that in some parts of the world, those regional forums were being used by sexual predators to groom children. I don’t know if any children ended up being human trafficked as a result. Indeed, NaNoWriMo shut down all the forums abruptly and without explanation. When something like that happens, rumors fly. NaNoWriMo staff were not allowed to provide any information, but it somehow leaked. Several months after November 2023, an email explained the issue–in very vague terms for people who are supposed to be writers.

They promised changes to address the situation along with preventative measures.

Then, the finger pointing began. Municipal liaisons pointed the finger at management: Why didn’t you have administrators of the forums? And so on.

NaNoWriMo responded that municipal liaisons had always been the administrators of the regional forums, so this unsightly business was the MLs’ fault.

There were some MLs who took on administering their regional forums, but many did not because, hello, we didn’t know that was part of our volunteer duties. I say “we” because I was assistant ML or co-ML of my region for close to a decade. Indeed, we rarely used our forum because we had a younger demographic who preferred things like Discord.

A few months before the 2024 NaNoWriMo came the “preventive” measures: no children under 18 could participate in forums or attend in-person events. If a participant had to bring children along–as several parents in our region did on numerous occasions–the ML was responsible for conducting background checks of employees at the venue. It was recommended that background checks be done on as many participants as possible, and that the MLs undergo criminal background checks.

Who would pay for all this?

The MLs, and when there were complaints about that, all MLs worldwide were removed and told they had to reapply and be subject to a background check. Plus, we would have to sign a “contract” that said essentially that we would be liable for any issues and problems in our region.

I had a problem with being considered the problem, especially when nothing untoward happened in our region, so I opted not to be an ML in 2024. As did many, many others. No problem, NaNoWriMo said, we’ll contact others in your region to see if they’re interested.

That didn’t happen in our region and many others.

MLs were “boosters” for NaNoWriMo. We spent our own money for NaNo merch for the region’s members, we encouraged members to contribute money and shop in the NaNo online store. We were happy to do it because we believed in spreading the love of writing.

But, now, if we had a Facebook page or other social media presence that used the name NaNoWriMo or its logo, which we had been able to use almost since its inception, we had to remove it. If we had in-person events, we couldn’t say it was related to NaNoWriMo. In my region, the MLs had established good relationships with a large university’s library and the public libraries in the immediate area. Coffee shops and a few restaurants had been happy to have our presence. But now, that was going to be expensive for MLs.

In 2024, with no ML in our region, we had far fewer in-person events than we’d had in the past, which was two or three events a week. The attendance at the few we had was down noticeably. On the NaNoWriMo web site, they always posted their fund-raising goal each year. In years past, they never had an issue meeting their goal. Last year, the goal was about $1.3 million. With only a few days left in November, they’d raised a bit more than $130,000–a big indicator that the end was near.

So, when the email arrived in my inbox, I was sad but not surprised. I’m also sure the management at NaNoWriMo meant well with their draconian reaction. I was upset, as well, that pedophiles had used a joyful, meaningful celebration of writing to do their dirty work. I’d like to hope NaNo management cooperated in bringing them to justice, but they didn’t share that either.

At the end of November 2024, I had written 973,168 words in NaNoWriMo, but that was for 2011 to 2024. When NaNo went to a new website several years ago, they didn’t bring over anything older than 2011. I wrote 50,000+ words in each of the years 2008, 2009, and 2010. So, using the low end of 50,000, I have 150,000 uncounted words for an overall total of 1.1 million words. Those years, 2008 – 2024, resulted in 17 manuscripts, of which 15 have either been published or are in the publishing process. I can only thank NaNoWriMo for that, and I do, because by making every November a bit of a competition, I was compelled to meet that goal. Yes, I own being an overachiever, and retirement hasn’t made that any different.

What will I do come November 2025?

I will honor that original spirit of NaNoWriMo and write 50,000 words while I say goodbye to an old and beloved friend.