So, apparently NaNoWriMo is shutting down. Yep. The site. The support. The whole infrastructure that turned November into a word party for writers around the world…it’s closing up shop..
And hey, listen, before we dive in, I have a confession:
I never did NaNoWriMo. Not personally.
Never even tried. Every year, I’d watch the clock tick toward November like someone standing outside a marathon, holding a coffee and a donut, cheering with my whole heart but fully unwilling to put on running shoes.
Goodbye, NaNoWriMo: I Never Knew You, But I Loved You Anyway
It’s not that I didn’t want to write a novel in 30 short days. It’s that I… well, I like sleep. And not failing my college classes. And knowing I won’t collapse into a spiral of self-loathing by Day 12 when I realize I’m 15,000 words behind and my main character still doesn’t have a name.
But even from the sidelines, I loved NaNoWriMo. I loved the wild ambition of the whole event! I loved that it made writing feel less like a lonely, tortured pursuit and more like a chaotic group project that anyone could get in on. I loved that it dared people of all sorts, busy people, tired people, discouraged people alike, to show up and write stuff.
NaNoWriMo wasn’t just about writing a novel. It was about making writing a habit that you consistently stick with. Just so you could see what you could do if you actually gave it your all.
So when I heard it was shutting down, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad and taken aback. Not because I’m going to miss my annual November guilt trip (okay, maybe a little), but because it truly felt like the end of an era. NaNoWriMo was one of the few internet relics that survived the Great Attention Span Collapse™ as audiences moved towards short form content as a whole. It got people excited about writing, which is no small feat in a world of TikToks, inboxes with 472 unread emails and a new attention suck right around the corner. I think this legacy dying is what I’m most sad about.
I’m sad to say goodbye to what it used to be.
From what I’ve seen, NaNoWriMo in recent years has been tangled up in some complicated and concerning controversies. I’m not going to pretend I fully understand all of it, but it’s enough to make me step back and say, maybe this shutdown isn’t entirely a bad thing. Maybe the version of NaNoWriMo that existed at the end wasn’t the one I admired all those years ago. Maybe it had run its course.
Either way, it’s coming to a close (justified or not). It is taking a final bow and putting away the word count tracker for good.
To the people who did NaNoWriMo every year, who started and sometimes even finished their 50,000 words: I salute you. To the folks who got halfway through and still learned something about themselves in the process: I see you. And to the dreamers like me, cheering from the sidelines with our untouched WIP’s and a vague hope of “maybe next year”: we mattered too.
But, even though the organization is shutting down, the spirit of NaNoWriMo isn’t going anywhere. The stories will still get written. The writers will still find each other. November will still come, and some wild souls will still decide, “Yep, I’m gonna write a whole dang book this month.”
And maybe one of these years, I’ll finally join in. Maybe. Probably not. But maybe.
NaNoWriMo reminded us that writing doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be written. And honestly? I think that’s a legacy worth honoring.
RIP NaNoWriMo. I never joined your chaos, but I’m thankful you existed. 💻💔
Farest and fondest of wells.
By the Brooke 