I deleted my NaNoWriMo account, today

[capri0mni]

Thanks to the entity now embracing A.I. as a "Tool."

(After looking back at my stats).

There were a couple years where I tried to do multiple challenges in a year, burning out, not participating, and then coming back.

According to my profile, there, I started 19 distinct projects, between the November marathon proper and "Camp NaNoWriMo," with a total of 605K-and-a-bit words typed out. My last registered project was in 2020. I did not reach 50K that year; I think it was about that time that I realized simply typing 50k words at breakneck speed did not lead to crafting a story I actually still wanted to tell, come December (what really kept me coming back, over and over in spite of that, was the social permission to make a pillow fort out of an imaginary world, where I could retreat from seasonal attitudinal depression, and other pressures; Pillow forts aren't meant to be permanent).

Back when I started, in 2005, NaNoWriMo was a much different beast than it is now... There were no corporate sponsors, and the only prize you could claim was a winner's T-shirt. And the social vibe was a lot more like the spontaneous writers' communities that sprung up on old school Bulletin Board Systems, IRC chat rooms (remember those?), and Usenet forums.

(All of which I miss, BTW)

Comments

[spiralsheep]

I rly miss one of my previous in-person poetry groups. For some reason there were four people in that group who sparked my creativity in useful ways. OTOH there's one poetry writing group, the only "professionally" led group I ever tried, that still makes me feel negative just vaguely remembering it.

I hope you find communities again that spark your brain in good ways.

[capri0mni]

Thank you...

(There was also The Art Garden, but that ended in 2012)

[spiralsheep]

I remember you enthusing about The Art Garden, old friend. :D

[vilakins]

I didn't realise there were sponsors and prizes now, but I've never done NaNoWriMo, only PicoWriMo (https://picowrimo.livejournal.com/) which is is still like you describe NaNo as having been. It's still running though I haven't taken part for ages.

[capri0mni]

Hm.

...I also deleted my LiveJournal account, way back (in whatever year it was when they sold the last American based server to a Russian company), in solidarity with Queer folk who were getting their journals banned (before I realized I was queer myself). so I won't be signing up for the LiveJournal group either.

Though there are other writing communities here on Dreamwidth. And there's some talk on Tumblr about doing a writing challenge month sometime other than November (The one suggestion that makes the most sense to me, as a North American, is January, to take advantage of New Year's Resolutions, and the general cultural encouragement to develop new habits).

[vilakins]

Yeah, I only go there to read a couple of comms and haven't done picowrimo since then. They did copy posts to DW a while back but that's it.