Is NaNoWriMo's Countdown Tone Deaf?

A week or so ago, many of us (now former) Municipal Liaisons noticed that NaNoWriMo had a countdown to November up on their website.  I screencapped this a couple of days ago, so the countdown is not up to date for today.

Is it just me, or is this completely tone deaf?  There has been a massive outcry in the community against NaNoWriMo's AI statements, and many of us have been exploring alternatives to NaNoWriMo in the weeks since.  And yet, with no mention of any of that, they throw a countdown up on the website.

Today, finally, NaNo HQ addressed the issue with an email blast to the entire community.  It was, as all the statements posted online have been, a bunch of pandering and gaslighting.

This ignores completely that the major difference between this statement and last year's statement is that last year's statement on AI clearly (and accurately) points out that using generative AI to write your entire novel "would defeat the purpose of the challenge."

Then there was the claim that they've overhauled the volunteer system to bring it into compliance:

I guess technically cutting loose your ~800 volunteers does bring the program into compliance, because now there are no volunteers to comply with any legal restrictions.  But at that point you don't actually have ~800 volunteers anymore.

As far as I know, not a single ML has actually been restored as of yet, and it's unlikely to happen in the next month.  There's significant speculation within the community that NaNoWriMo is trying things out without the MLs this year to see if they can make it work without the local community representatives and the expense we represent (mainly in the form of free stickers for our region's participants, and ML goodies such as annual pins recognizing our contributions).

The staffing changes claim is a hoot, because the impression I got was that the staff actually unanimously quit, rather than being let go for their involvement.  If that's not the case, there was significant gaslighting coming from the Interim Executive Director at the time of the "staffing changes," who told the MLs that our usual point of contact was "on leave," and only informed us that she had quit after she was supposed to have returned from leave.

Also, "staffing changes" is misleading because it implies that staff has been replaced.  As far as I know, HQ consists right now of the Interim Executive Director and maybe a programmer or two.  And the staff page is also down, which certainly implies that they don't want us to know this.

The email ends with a bunch more gaslighting and a call for donations.

The numbers read like resume bullet points or executive summaries, and are clearly designed to make it sound like NaNoWriMo has been communicating better than they have been.  Unfortunately, just because an email has been sent out doesn't mean it has communicated anything it should have.  Additionally, the part about it being possible to participate "if" your region doesn't have an ML is noteworthy for a couple of reasons: One, as I said above, I don't believe any region has had an ML reinstated, and two, it seems to support the theory that HQ is seeing if perhaps the community organizers aren't needed after all.

Finally, the call for donations in the signature is, just like the countdown on the website appearing before any communications went out to the community, tone deaf.  What exactly are we donating for?  I've seen posts indicating that educators may not even have access to the resources of the Young Writers Program anymore, and that program was always a significant part of what we were funding when we donated.  With that and the community outreach program in limbo, what exactly is left to support?  Right now NaNoWriMo is little more than a word count tracking website run by a backyard nonprofit with a skeleton crew, and as I mentioned in my post regarding NaNoWriMo alternatives, there are other ways to track word count in November.

I will be writing a novel this November as always, but this year my volunteer efforts will be better spent picking up the shattered pieces of our community that HQ left us with when they dismantled the ML program.

Time Management and the Importance of Down Time

I mentioned in my weekly goals post that last week was a really busy, rough week, and that at the end of it I canceled my plans for Sunday so I could just stay home and write.

I'm not always good at balancing that need, but I try.  In this case, I had a super busy, in-my-face Friday and Saturday, and desperately needed that break on Sunday.  It took me a couple of hours to realize Sunday, basically until I realized I was going to procrastinate getting going until it was too late and then feel bad about it.  Instead, I recognized what was happening, canceled my plans so that I would feel less bad about it, 

And yes, sitting on the couch writing for four hours is a break.  A lovely one, in fact!  I made tremendous progress on my novel, catching up from a decided slump.  And I ended the day feeling much less stressed and overwhelmed, despite the general busyness of the week.

It's so difficult to recognize when we need to slow down and give ourselves a break, yet it's so important to make sure we're doing this when it's needed.  everyone needs a break periodically!

When I'm not writing for a break, reading is another big contender.  We also like to go to movies occasionally, since we have A-List subscriptions with AMC.

What about you?  Are you able to recognize when you need a break, and how do you handle it when you realize?

Weekly Goals, Week 40: A Small Reprieve

Last week was another rough week, but this week should be better.

Sound familiar?

I think it's true this time though.  I do have a few things scheduled this week, but it's considerably less demanding-looking on my calendar than last week was.

Remember how in last week's goals post I mentioned I usually only track 25-35 hours throughout the week, and the previous week I'd tracked 45?  Well, last week I tracked 38, which is a little less but still more than my usual.  No wonder it felt so busy!  Saturday was especially busy, straight from one thing to another all day long, so on Sunday I ended up canceling everything and staying home to WRITE.

This week should be better, though.  No, truly!  I have much less scheduled.

My goals for the week are:

1. Write every day
2. Work on dolls
3. Take doll photos & post content
4. Work on organization

These are the same goals I had last week.  I managed to write nearly every day, worked a little on dolls, took doll photos, and posted content.  I did not get around to organization (I had some shelves to put up and didn't), and I did not do as much of the second and third items as I had intended.  The collab I filmed on Friday and the Q&A for NaNoWriMo my region held on Saturday took up much more of my time during the week than I had anticipated.

This week's goals are more or less the same.  Writing every day will probably always be a goal, and the rest of these goals will probably be pretty static as well, for the near future anyway.

As much as I would love to hope that my weeks will keep getting easier, the truth is that they are about to ramp up in a major way.  NaNoWriMo starts November 1st, and although my co-organizers and I are planning on distancing ourselves from HQ starting this year, we're still doing the challenge and all of the same events we always do.  So my life is about to get quite a bit more chaotic!

Let Freedom Read Day

Do you want to do more about book banning than celebrate Banned Books Week?  While exercising your right to read challenged books is important, today is about doing something about book banning.  Today is Let Freedom Read Day!

Let Freedom Read Day is all about taking an action - any action - that will help to fight the fight against book banning.

Ready to join the fray?  Here are my favorite suggestions from the Banned Books Week website on how you can help.

• Register to vote.  Voting is important in any election, but especially in this election.  The availability of books in the education system is only one of the many things at stake this November.
• Pledge to support the freedom to read when you vote.  Make a commitment to fight back against book banning at the ballot box!
• Quiz your candidates.  Do you know where your local candidates stand on book banning?  If not, you should!  Research their positions, write to the campaign, or attend a town hall or campaign event to ask your questions.  This goes for elected officials, too: Just because they've been elected doesn't mean they can ignore the people's concerns, so make yours heard!
• Talk openly about the dangers of book banning.  A lot of people don't understand the ramifications of censorship.  If you know someone like that in your life, this is your chance to educate them!  
• Write a letter to the editor.  Getting a letter to the editor published in your local paper or community website can be a great tool for raising awareness and educating others on the impact of book banning.
• Donate banned books to libraries, schools, and Little Free Libraries.  Give the gift of knowledge by donating banned books to places where they'll be read, spread, and enjoyed.

If these things feel like too much, rest assured, there are still ways you can help.

How Does Reading Banned Books Help?

This post is about things you can do to fight back against censorship, but in truth, reading is something you can do.  When you read banned books, you:

• Support the author, publisher, and countless other people.  Buying books is obviously money in both the publisher's and the author's pockets, but reading from the library also helps to support them.  Libraries pay good money for books and demand will keep them buying!  Plus if you're reading a book, you're likely talking or posting about it, and word of mouth helps support authors and publishers too.
• Maintain demand.  As noted above, libraries have to make decisions about what books to buy.  When a book is challenged, they may also need to fight the challenge with data on the book's demand.  It's easier to fight back against a challenge on a popular book in the library's collection.
• Add to the discourse.  Assuming you talk or post about what you read, or even simply update your Goodreads account, you're adding to the overall conversation about the book.  Word of mouth helps generate support by getting other people interested in books and selling more copies, to both individuals and libraries.

Ultimately, the best way to combat book banning is to ensure that it never goes unacknowledged.  The best way to fight back against a ban on information is, after all, with more information.

I've signed the pledge, put several challenged books on my TBR list this week, and I will, as always, vote liberally this November.  What about you?  What actions are you taking for Let Freedom Read Day?

Happy Banned Books Week!

Every year I try to celebrate Banned Books Week with a blog post and by adding a banned or challenged book to my TBR list.  Often I find out it's Banned Books Week toward the end of the week, but this week I actually saw a post about it on Sunday!  Banned Books Week is this week, September 22-28.

The list of top challenged books of 2023 has a lot of repeats on it from last year's list:

1. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
2. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
3. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
5. Flamer by Mike Curato
6. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
7. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins (tied)
8. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (tied)
9. Let’s Talk About It by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan
10. Sold by Patricia McCormick

If you compare this to the list published during Banned Books Week in 2023, you'll see a lot of repeats.  In fact, the only books on this list that weren't on last year's list are Tricks (by the same author as Crank, which was on last year's list); Let's Talk About It, which is just basically sex ed in graphic novel format; and Sold, which has been on top-10 lists of challenged books in the past.

Every year, I try to read at least one banned book, preferably one from the list.  From last year's list, I had already read quite a few of the books, so I chose to read and review Me and Early and the Dying Girl and Lawn Boy.  I also read Crank, Flamer, and Out of Darkness, and This Book Is Gay, and I've had Gender Queer, The Bluest Eye, and A Court of Mist and Fury on my list ever since.

This year I'm going to bump up Gender Queer and The Bluest Eye on my TBR list, and add Tricks.

How do you celebrate Banned Books Week?  I think the right to read and explore our world, and for our children to do so too, is one of the most important rights to exercise.  My first response any time I see a book being talked about or challenged is to want to know why.

As Stephen King has said, "When books are banned from school libraries, run to your public library, or the nearest bookstore, and read what it is your elders don't want you to know."

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Weekly Goals, Week 39: EXHAUSTED

Last week was an exhausting week.  I knew it was going to be a busy one, but underestimated exactly how busy.  As it turned out, I had to pick and choose what got done and what was deferred.

The biggest win for last week was working on my novel nearly every day.  (I did miss Friday.)  I worked on dolls a little, but didn't accomplish as much as I had in mind when I set the goal.  Same for doll photos and content.  And for my organization goal, I had planned to put up shelves, but we were so busy I didn't get around to that.

That being said, I did get a lot done last week, and I both babysat and puppy-sat, so there was a reason it was so busy.  All in all, I clocked 45 hours of tracked time, whereas normally I only track 25-35 hours.

This week won't be quite as busy, but it'll still be fairly busy.  I have basically the same goals for the week this week as I did last week:

1. Write every day
2. Work on dolls
3. Take doll photos & post content
4. Work on organization

I did update one of those goals to posting content as well as taking the photos.  Sometimes getting the content posted is something I struggle with.  It's so weird, because it's easy to post content, right?  But sometimes I just don't want to do it.

Hopefully I don't struggle with productivity this week after how busy last week was.  That is a thing that happens to me sometimes.  Wish me luck!

Read an eBook Day!

Today is Read an eBook Day!  Well, technically for me, every day is Read an eBook Day, but today it's actually a national celebration.

I started reading ebooks close to 20 years ago at this point.  I started out reading them on my iPhone and eventually bought a Nook.  After several Nooks, I finally got a Kindle about 5 years ago, and I've been part of the Kindle family ever since.  I have a smaller, older Kindle that is always in my purse, but my favorite is the Kindle Scribe.

So I love that ebooks are celebrated with their very own holiday!  I still love physical books, and I even collect beautiful antique and vintage books, but ebooks have so many benefits that really speak to me as a reader.

• Easy to hold.  A Kindle is much lighter weight than a hardback, and it's easier to hold one-handed and turn the pages, which all makes it easy to read in bed.  I've read before bed nearly my entire life, and it's so much a part of my bedtime schedule that I find I go to sleep faster and easier when I read first.
• My entire library on one device.  Carrying my Kindle with me means that I have any book I want to read with me at all times.  I was that child who would bring two books to school when I knew I would finish one soon.  With a Kindle I don't have to worry about that anymore, as the next book is always there.
• Traveling!  I used to have to plan my suitcase around several books.  Now I just always have my Kindle in my purse, so it's a non-issue.
• Syncing between devices.  Sometimes I don't have my Kindle on me, just my phone.  No big deal because I have all my books on the Kindle app, too!
• Easy library loans.  Honestly, I don't buy all that many ebooks.  Most of what I read is checked out from the library.  Kindle makes it super easy to download library books onto your device, and when the loan is up, they just go away.  No commute back and forth to the library required!
• Easy on the eyes.  I prefer the black and white, "paperwhite" style devices because they simulate a page the best, and I love the fact that these devices are lit now so that you can read in low or no lighting environments.  I also really like being able to change the font and text size, margins, and other aspects of the text that customize the reading experience.  I'm getting older so this is becoming more important to me with time.
• Automatic Goodreads updating.  This is a Kindle feature, but I love that it updates Goodreads automatically for me.  I'm an avid reader and I'd never be able to track what I've read and haven't read without Goodreads.

So yeah, no matter how much I love the beauty and the tactile experience of holding a physical book, for everyday reading I much prefer ebooks!

What are you reading today to celebrate Read an eBook Day?  I'm working my way through Eyes of the Void, the sequel to a book my sci-fi/fantasy book club read a couple months ago.

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