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Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Weekly Goals, Week 37: Recovery and Recovery and Recovery

This week has been difficult so far, which is why I'm writing down my goals for the week on a Wednesday instead of a Monday.

Last week was all about gearing up for the museum's Fall Show, which was over the weekend.  I had a lot to do to get ready for that, and it was complicated by the drama surrounding the other nonprofit I volunteer with, NaNoWriMo.  As I wrote about in my post last week, NaNoWriMo endorsed AI in a rather wishy-washy statement, infuriated creatives all over the world, and sent participants and regions into a tailspin.  As one of my region's leaders, there were things I had to do to address it, plus I was rather obsessed with checking for more news for a couple of days.

After a couple of days of that, I kicked myself back into gear, but I'd already lost a lot of time and it was difficult to recover from.  So it felt like much of my preparation for the Fall Show was done by the seat of my pants.

On paper, I achieved all the goals I planned for the week, except for writing every day.  (I didn't write Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, my big Fall Show days, as I was either busy or exhausted for most of that time.)  I worked on dolls (though didn't get one done that I'd planned to), I prepped my exhibits and got them set up (late), and I prepped for my workshop on Sunday (at the least minute, and we had a snafu during the workshop that could have been prevented if I'd prepared better).

Everything went well, but some things felt a little too rushed and last-minute that didn't have to be.  You can read my post on my doll blog about my American Girl doll restringing workshop here.

This week started out with a recovery day.  I was expecting not to want to do much on Monday, and I was right.  Then, on Tuesday, we ended up spending 2.5 hours at the vet with our younger cat, and I had a hard time focusing for the rest of the day.

Which brings us to today.  After the last 8 or 9 days, it's probably no surprise that I'm still having a hard time focusing, but it's getting better.  In the hopes of the rest of the week being more normal, I'll make some goals:

  1. Write every day
  2. Work on dolls
  3. Work on organization

After the scramble to gather dolls for my exhibit, and especially after the restringing workshop on Sunday, I came home from the show feeling energized.  I wanted to keep working on dolls, and focus on getting my doll room in order so I can enjoy that space a little better.  The workshop reminded me that I love doll stuff and want to make more time for it.

I also have a fairly free weekend ahead of me, which I'm hoping to use to work on organization and time-consuming tasks like mounting some new shelves.  Getting the shelves up will help me get more things organized and put away.

As for writing, I had to take three days off over the weekend, but this week I've managed to write every day.  I need a couple of really big word count days in order to really make up lost ground, but for now, I'm happy to be writing every day again.  I want to make sure I keep it up.

We'll see how the rest of this week plays out, but I am hoping to get back on track.

Thursday, September 05, 2024

NaNoWriMo's AI-Fueled Downfall

It's been a rough few days in NaNo-land.

For those who haven't seen the news yet, NaNoWriMo shot themselves in the foot a few days ago by endorsing (or at least refusing to condemn) using AI tools to write your NaNoWriMo novel (original statement).  A lot of us feel like this defeats the purpose of the challenge to write 50,000 words in a month, because if you can just have AI do it, what's the point of challenging yourself?

I think the key words here are challenging yourself.

NaNoWriMo's official statement is vague, and you might note that it doesn't say generative AI.  In fact, it doesn't really specify any type of AI tool, of which there are many valid ones, such as grammar checkers, speech-to-text, editing software, and name generators.  But I think it's important to note what the statement does not say: It never says you can't use generative AI, and since NaNoWriMo's entire challenge is to write your novel, I think that's important.

It's also noteworthy that while HQ has revised the statement once already, they have not revised it to specify the types of AI they mean, even though they pointed out in an email to author Cass Morris that they didn't say generative AI.  Interesting that while they told her that in an email, they didn't bother revising the original statement accordingly, isn't it?

The answer may be found in their sponsorship.  As many other sources have already noted, NaNoWriMo is sponsored by ProWritingAid, an AI-based service for writers.  I think it's clear HQ didn't want to offend their sponsor with their answer.  Unfortunately, they've lost other sponsors since making their statement.  Ellipsus stepped down as a NaNoWriMo sponsor, and while Freewrite hasn't made a similar announcement, The Mary Sue noted that Freewrite was no longer a NaNoWriMo sponsor either.  And I noticed today that Ninja Writers has dropped off the list of NaNoWriMo's sponsors since last night, too.  (For reference, this was the list of sponsors just before the story broke.)

Incidentally, the statement from ProWritingAid in this article makes it sound like they're not too pleased with NaNoWriMo's stance on AI.

As you can imagine from a community of creatives, people are infuriated with NaNoWriMo's stance.  As the Literary Hub rightly noted, NaNoWriMo pissed off the whole internet.  Several authors have stepped down from NaNoWriMo's writers board in fury.  The disability community is furious at the implications that they couldn't write a novel without help.  And rumors, possibly driven by a comment from Maureen Johnson, are circulating that NaNoWriMo novels could be stolen for AI training.

To make things worse, this is all following a particularly rough couple of years for NaNoWriMo.  A couple of years ago, users realized that one of their sponsors was a predatory self-publishing service.  And last year, HQ came under fire for not handling well (or at all) accusations of predatory behavior towards underaged writers on the forums.  The latter scandal resulted in the board getting involved.

Whew, I thought.  At least that will be handled.

Unfortunately, "handling" it ended up with nearly the entire staff leaving or being let go (no idea which), the former board president stepping down to fill the position of Interim Executive Director, and a complete restructure of the volunteer system that puts 900 local volunteers in charge of their local regions.  I understand the need for better checks and balances in the volunteer system, but that felt mishandled too, to the point that we've all been cut loose and are still waiting to be reinstated, less than two months before the start of NaNoWriMo.

In other words, it's pretty safe to say that NaNoWriMo will be run without the help of their Municipal Liaisons this year.  And as far as I can tell, HQ is currently a one-woman show, or at least nearly so.  The staff page from the website is gone, and to my knowledge we have yet to see any evidence that anyone other than their Interim Executive Director is answering communications.

I've tried to remain optimistic throughout all of this, standing up for HQ even when most other MLs were raging against them.  But this last thing, endorsing AI to write your novel, is too much for me.  My heart is broken.  I've put 9 years of volunteer work and 18 years of writing into NaNoWriMo, and I've always believed in their goals of promoting literacy and encouraging amateur writers.  Endorsing AI feels like they've betrayed their non-profit's mission statement and the goals behind their 25-year history.

Their Young Writers Program mission statement reads (emphasis added):

National Novel Writing Month believes in the transformational power of creativity. We provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page.

That stings, don't it? 

It's not true that our NaNo novels will be used to train AI (NaNoWriMo hasn't required a word count validation in years, and even when they did, it was easy to use a lorem ipsum generator to upload instead).  Even ProWritingAid states that their users' work is safe:

For grammar checking, once checking has been completed, all submitted texts and their improvements will be deleted. When using ProWritingAid, your texts will not be used to improve the quality of our services.

Even so, many wrimos (as we tend to call ourselves) no longer feel comfortable aligning ourselves with NaNoWriMo.   A lot of participants have already publicly stated that they've deleted their NaNoWriMo accounts.  And while I'm hoping the Interim Executive Director will recognize that she's destroyed the organization's credibility and step down as Interim Director before she does any more damage, my fear is that she will instead dig in and try to maintain her untenable position.  If she does so, I have no doubt that NaNoWriMo will go down with her.

While NaNoWriMo's future hangs in the balance, many of us are looking for alternatives.  I don't want to give up the writing community or the challenge, so I will be looking for ways to continue in an unofficial capacity.  More information on that to come!

Update 9/6/2024:

Today NaNoWriMo issued a letter to the community, and revised their statement on AI.

It doesn't change that this was handled badly and that I've lost faith in the organization.  The statement actually feels a little condescending, like it's saying, "We didn't know we had to tell you the full story behind our decision."  And ultimately, it is not a strong enough retraction to heal the harm done to our community.  I think it would have needed to take a position such as "using AI to generate your novel would not be in keeping with the original challenge," even if it only relegated generative AI users to "rebels" instead of followers of the traditional challenge.

Overall, this response from NaNoWriMo feels like too little, too late, and with lots of condescension thrown in.

Weekly Goals, Week 36: Deadlines and Crises

This post was supposed to go up Tuesday (since Monday was a holiday), but Tuesday had a hole blown right through it when NaNoWriMo pissed off the entire internet by endorsing the use of AI in their writing challenge.  I didn't get anything done yesterday, and today I only got anything done because I worked on my novel and got set up with a new word count tracking site I found.

Throughout everything, I've managed to maintain a daily writing habit.  I succeeded in writing every day last week, which was my number one goal.  I also kept up with posting on social media about the show for the first few days, but then fell behind.  I didn't get any work done on dolls or on prepping for the show, beyond the many emails and messages I've sent and the logistics I've figured out.

With so much to do still, I really need to buckle down tomorrow, since there are only a couple days left before the show.  It feels a bit silly to write about my goals so late in the week, but I'm hoping writing this post will help me focus on my priorities.

  1. Keep writing every day
  2. Work on dolls
  3. Get together my exhibits for the show
  4. Prep for my workshop on Sunday

It's a lot still to do and it'll be a struggle to get it all done, but I have no choice.  I lost a lot of time yesterday and today to fretting about the current NaNoWriMo controversy.

Once I get through this and have time to sit down and write a blog post about it, I have many thoughts to share about what's going on with NaNoWriMo and their statement on AI right now.

Monday, August 26, 2024

Weekly Goals, Week 35: Two Weeks Until the Fall Show

Last week was a crazy week.  We were house sitting for my husband's parents, which meant a lot of back and forth to take care of our cats every day.  Thankfully the diabetic cat went into remission just before we started house sitting, so this time we didn't have to time our visits to give her insulin injections.

In addition to the house sitting, I had a pretty productive week.  I had some big writing days, got a bunch done to prep for and promote the museum's Fall Show, and kept up on social media.

I also had an idea for a new, fun YA novel.  I didn't want to lose the idea, so I started working on it right away.  I wrote nearly 8,000 words for it on Thursday!  Right now I'm trying to maintain both the new novel and the sequel to Amnesia at the same time, which is tough as they are very different novels.  Some days I've only worked on one or the other, and other days I've managed to do a little on each.  I figure what matters most is writing every day, regardless of which one.

All in all, I feel pretty good about last week.  I had three goals, and I feel like I accomplished what I set out to do.  I got an effective system set up for Todoist and Google Calendar, I wrote every day except for Monday, and I got a bunch of stuff done for the Fall Show.

This week will be more of the same, except that the Fall Show is coming up quickly, so I'll be focusing heavily on getting ready for it.

  1. Keep writing every day
  2. Stay on top of social media and communications for the Fall Show in 2 weeks
  3. Work on dolls and restringing kits for my workshop at the show

I will need to maintain a decent level of productivity this week.  The Fall Show is just under two weeks away, and I need to keep promoting it on social media, keep in touch with others who are working on it, and get everything ready for my workshop.  There are other things I'd like to start working on soon, but I'll put them off until after the show, to ensure I get the most time sensitive things done.

Monday, August 19, 2024

Weekly Goals, Week 34: Trying a New System

Last week wasn't as productive as I had hoped, but I'm hoping the next week will be better.  I have a new tool and a plan!

A month and a half ago, I read a book that had a significant impact on how I view time managementFour Thousand Weeks is all about how our time is limited, and the time management tends to make us feel like we can do it all if we just organize our time well enough, rather than encouraging us to focus on doing the important stuff and not feeling bad if we don't get the other things done.

For a little while after reading that book, I struggled in the face of trying to restructure my priorities.

Now I think I may be figuring out something that might work better for me.

You may remember that I schedule my tasks in Google Calendar.  It works fairly well for me, as I have to think about how long tasks will take and block out the time for them.  It helps to keep me from overscheduling myself, although I still do, of course.

Unfortunately, when I don't get to tasks, that means rolling over the calendar events to the next day and, eventually, the next week.  Since I still tend to overschedule myself and procrastinate, I have amassed a number of events that get rolled over week after week.

Four Thousand Weeks addressed this, in a way.  That book talks about having a master list of to-do items, with the understanding that you'll never be able to get to all of them, and a short list of active to-do items that is no more than 10 items long.  Then, as you finish one item, you can put another on the list.  The result is a rotating list that isn't dependent on day and allows you to keep a master list of items that you can choose between when selecting your priorities for the day.

Google Calendar doesn't allow an efficient way to do this, since moving all my undone tasks to the next day or week is quite inefficient (not to mention demoralizing).  So I revived my old Todoist account, which allows me to keep a "master" list and easily move things to my active list by having different ranks of priority.  The projects and tags also offer myriad ways to organize and view my tasks, which I also like.  It'll give me a way to do things like note down photography or content ideas, for example, that I'm not going to get to any time soon but don't want to forget to do eventually.

So this week, my goals are as follows:

  1. Get a good system going in Todoist
  2. Get back to writing every day
  3. Prep for the Fall Show in just under 3 weeks

As I get going in Todoist, one of the things I need to decide is whether to spring for their paid subscription, which might allow me to manage both my to-do list and my task scheduling in Google Calendar without having to duplicate work.

I do want to get back to writing every day, as well.  I've done better in the past week, as I worked on my novel about every other day, so I'm making progress there at least.

And the Fall Show for the museum is coming up quickly!  I have a workshop at the show, two speakers that I've organized, and a variety of things I still need to recruit doll people for (exhibits, volunteering, etc.), so I have a bunch to do in regards to that.

Lots to do!  It'll be a busy week for sure!

Monday, August 12, 2024

Weekly Goals, Week 33: Catching Up

The theme of this week will be catching up from being sick.  The very end of last week didn't really offer enough time to do all the catchup I needed to do.

It'll also be a chance to get back into a routine after several weeks of disruption.

I've let myself fall out of my daily writing habit, which is one of the first and most important routines I need to reinstate.  The pressure to get back to organizing has been building again, so I also want to get to work on that.

I also have a doll restringing workshop coming up at the museum's Fall Show in less than four weeks, so I need to finish getting everything together for that.

My goals for the week may be overly ambitious, but I have a lot I want to get done.  We'll see how I do:

  1. Get back into a routine of writing every day
  2. Work on dolls and doll stuff
  3. Work on organizing and cleaning
It looks like a simple list, but actually there's quite a lot I need to do.  It'll be a full week.

Thursday, August 08, 2024

Weekly Goals, Week 32: Recovery Time

Well, last week didn't go as planned.  It started out fine, and then took a dive as first my husband, and then I came down with covid.

I was hoping to recover faster, but I was on the couch full-time through Tuesday.  I got a lot of reading done, which was at least enjoyable and a benefit to being sick.  I'd hoped to get a little writing done too but I had too much of a brain fog for that.

Yesterday was my first day without cold medicine and I was feeling a lot better, but I also wasn't fully back to 100 percent yet, as I found when I crashed in the evening.  Today I have a more normal day planned, most catching up on some tidying and organization that didn't get done while I was sick.  Tomorrow will be my big cleaning day, as I want to do laundry and clean the house properly to get rid of all traces of being sick.

I'm not going to make much of my goals this week, since the week is almost over and I fully expect cleanup and recovery from being sick to take up the rest of it.  I do have one goal, though:

  1. Get back to work on my novel

I didn't work on it when I was sick, but I do want to get back into the habit of writing daily again, as that has fell by the wayside lately, between getting sick and other various reasons.

I also have some projects I want to accomplish this weekend around the house, but those are more flexible, as I don't know yet how I'll be feeling physically.

Hopefully everything will be back to normal next week!

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