Note: The following is the viewpoint of the author, who was a long-time ML, as she perceived events as they unfolded.

Several months ago, I published a blog post about the demise of National Novel Writing Month. After many years of success and growth and a couple of years of problems and lack of donations, the management of the non-profit decided 2024 was the last year for a formal NaNoWriMo. The non-profit was disbanded.

After these months of reflection, I saw a familiar pattern. A great idea (encourage underprivileged students to write) grew into a business with rapid and exponential growth, literally becoming a world-wide phenomenon. Great. Writers from one part of the world wanted to be able to communicate with fellow writers anywhere, so a system of online forums cropped up. Then, the founder of NaNoWriMo, feeling the phenomenon was established, moved onto other interests. That’s the point of doing a good job after all.

As with many ideas, once the spark had moved on, the replacement didn’t quite share the same vision or wanted the idea to move in another direction. Again, the privilege of being “in charge.” As the number of regions grew and as more and more people participated, NaNoWriMo needed local individuals to assist with the grassroots management of the program. Hence, municipal liaisons, of whom I and a friend were.

It was unwieldy to have continent or even country regions, and the regions kept splitting off to specific areas within a country. As the regions grew in number, so did the forums. And that became THE problem. Monitoring and administering those forums became almost impossible, and the national management “assumed” the municipal liaisons were monitoring and administering them. But we weren’t. That wasn’t initially spelled out in our duties.

Now, being a municipal liaison was a voluntary position. If you wanted extra “goodies” beyond your annual ML Kit, it came from your pocket. My co-ML and I often split the costs of stickers, pens, small notebooks, etc. Even doughnuts and candy for writer fuel. We scoured our region for libraries and coffee shops and restaurants who’d host a write-in for free because no budget. I’m not complaining. I did this willingly because I love writing and writers and writers coming together to write. I met and made great writer friends, relationships that will last a lifetime.

Back to the forums. Because NaNoWriMo had begun as a creative exercise for kids, a lot of kids participated in the annual event and in the forums. And as it often is with things that are good, the bad moves in to subvert it. Several years ago, the national organization received complaints from parents about online predators grooming underage writers, trying to set up face-to-face meetings, posting inappropriate content, etc. I suspect that the management thought this was a few isolated incidents, but the inappropriate behavior and use of the forums increased. For one year, the forums were completely shut down until management could come up with rules and procedures for monitoring them. In-person write-ins were discouraged for the same reason.

What came out was a set of draconian procedures that essentially placed the blame for the misuse on the MLs and imposing requirements for background checks of anyone and everyone who came to in-person events. Background checks are not free, and these were deemed to be the responsibility of the ML.

In my region in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, some of our events would have a couple dozen attendees. No way would the two of us co-MLs be able to afford that many background checks. Plus, we would have to sign a contract saying that we would follow these rules and would be held responsible for any infractions.

That policy was put in place last year in 2024, and my co-ML and I agreed we didn’t want the liability. We held in-person events, but we couldn’t mention NaNoWriMo had any connection to them. Many, many MLs did the same, but the killer of NaNoWriMo was more likely the precipitous drop in donations. In 2023, participants and MLs donated over a million dollars to NaNoWriMo to support the administrative expenses of the non-profit. In 2024, the donations were barely over $100,000.

After the first of the year (2025), the national organization emailed all MLs and participants and indicated that the good idea was over.

I first did NaNoWriMo in 2008 and have every year since–17 years. Seventeen rough drafts, most of which have eventually–after MUCH revision and editing–been published. Needless to say, I felt a loss; I grieved over something that had been inspiring, creative, and fun.

A couple of weeks ago, my co-ML (former) and I met for lunch and talked about no NaNoWriMo this year. We decided we’d do it anyway–write 50,000 words in 30 days–and that we’d meet up on occasion and invite other writers to join us.

So, that’s what I’ll be doing this November without NaNoWriMo.

Writing.

Which was always the point.