MeSoWriMo

In October of 2019, my buddy Rebecca asked me if I had ever participated in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, and would I be interested in giving it a go. Looking back, I do regret not joining the challenge before the organisation's fall from grace in 2025. As I've heard it, the instigating moment for the founder was looking at a copy of The Great Gatsby and thinking that, with dedicated effort and time, a book of roughly that length could be written in a month; a first draft at the very least. The first run of the challenge kicked off in July of 1999 with 21 participants, the following year moving to November and swelling to 120 participants. Over the years, the numbers increased and so did the problems. In 2006, with interest skyrocketing year over year, NaNoWriMo registered as a nonprofit. As time went on, forums and groups were added, moderators appointed, the website was updated and executive directors changed, but the core challenge stayed the same. I like external pressure because the problem with motivating and rewarding myself is I can simply choose to have the cookie without doing anything to earn it. It was an appealing suggestion, but ultimately I passed up on joining in 2019, telling myself that between the Master's program I was in at the time and working I wouldn't have time and that I could always join up after graduating in October 2020. As I am sure you can imagine, for a myriad of reasons, November 2020 came and went without me writing 50k words.

Since 2019, NaNoWriMo has been on my radar, every year considering that maybe this is the year but ultimately deciding I didn't have the time, inspiration, motivation or a cocktail of the three. Then, after more than one tumultuous year and more than a few hiccups, came 2024. Quote, from a now inaccessible statement from the dead NaNoWriMo website:

"NaNoWriMo does not explicitly support any specific approach to writing, nor does it explicitly condemn any approach, including the use of AI. NaNoWriMo's mission is to 'provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people use their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page.' We fulfill our mission by supporting the humans doing the writing."

The post goes on to compare critique of AI use in writing as "ableist" and "classist", and while I have roughly 1000 thoughts on AI, I am sure it comes as no surprise that none of them are positive. Any previous interest I had in engaging with NaNoWriMo immediately evaporated. In March 2025, then director Kilby Blades posted a video announcing the closure of the nonprofit, citing "community vitriol" as one of the reasons behind the decision. Yeah, no shit.

So here I am, kicking up the inaugural Meghan's Solo Writing Month. Will I publish every day? Almost certainly not. Am I going to publish more frequently than I have all year? Yes, I simply must. I am not going to expound on my distaste for LLMs and AI in general here, that's for another piece but I am here to say in November, I want to write more. Now, to be fair to myself, I have been writing quite a bit. I run a homebrew DND campaign for friends that requires a lot of planning, writing and world building and I've been working on a story on the side, though it in no way exists in a state to share. There is some part of me saying I need to publish every day to "fulfil" this challenge I am setting myself to, but if I am being honest about the fact that I am staring down the barrel of intense burn out when my massive project at work is done, I am not sure punishing myself to write poorly and exhausted is beneficial. Perhaps the best I can aim for now is writing more than I have been while making space for some rest so that said writing can be better when I do find the time.

While NaNoWriMo was pretty explicitly for writing fiction, and I am certainly writing a lot of fiction lately, I don't want that to be the sole focus of MeSoWriMo. I intend to approach this with the ethos that any writing is good writing, and at least part of that is redirecting my attention and what energy I can find to writing and publishing here. I have plenty of drafts and half formed thoughts that I could work through, maybe I'll engage with some writing prompts or challenges that can be found growing up out of the ruins of NaNoWriMo. What have you been thinking about lately? Is there anything floating around your mind, your heart, the world you've been trying to make sense of? I'll take all the inspiration I can get. So, I am not making any specific promises, but I do intend on being in your inbox much more. Thanks for being here, friends. I will see you soon, that's a promise.