Nonprofit Shuts Down Due to Controversy, Financial Struggle

On April 1, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) announced that they are shutting down for good — and unfortunately for authors and casual writers alike, it was not an April Fools’ Day prank. After controversy involving AI and years of financial struggle, NaNoWriMo finally failed to keep its head above water and announced via an email to community members and a 27-minute long YouTube video that the nonprofit organization has had to close down.

NaNoWriMo gained international attention since its founding in 1999 thanks to its simple and inviting concept. With the support of thousands of other participants, members dedicated themselves to writing until they met a chosen “word-count goal” within the month of November. Some writers were even challenged to write an entire 50,000 word novel by contributing about 1,600 words per day. The website offered forums for chatting with other participants, an easy way to measure total counts, and online “badges” as rewards for progress — all for free, which was part of what led the program to its demise.

NaNoWriMo ultimately failed due to lacking finances, but they had also lost significant support due to controversy involving AI last year. In September 2024, the nonprofit stated that “…condemnation of artificial intelligence has classist and ableist undertones,” giving writers the green light to utilize AI to reach their word-count goals. Authors were immediately outraged by this. Two New York Times bestselling authors, Maureen Johnson and Daniel José Older, resigned from the NaNoWriMo board in response. 

“NaNo is basically asserting that disabled people don’t have what it takes to create art,” C.L. Polk, author of the World Fantasy Award winning book Witchmark, said on a BlueSky post.

Many writers believe that AI generation is a form of plagiarism and should not be permitted in any artistic scene.

Johnson stated on an Instagram post that, “I would encourage writers to beware [that] your work on [NaNoWriMo’s] platform is almost certainly going to be used to train AI.”

Although the AI controversy is the most public detail of NaNoWriMo’s shutdown, the YouTube video announcing their bankruptcy also brought attention to issues involving the moderation of the website’s forums. For example, there was no true verification for users that attempted to create an “educator” account to share chat messages, meaning that any adult could gain access to forums intended solely for youth and create online classrooms for children to join. 

This was only one problem from a list of child endangerment accusations that NaNoWriMo had faced. Of the 800 volunteers who maintained and moderated the nonprofit’s website, none had ever been background checked and were not required to fill out applications to record their identity. This issue had direct consequences in 2023, when the FBI was contacted to respond to accusations against a moderator who had been making inappropriate comments to minors on a separate website — and NaNoWriMo personnel were unable to provide any information about the moderator due to having collected no records about the volunteer.

Although NaNoWriMo has officially closed its doors, there is already a forum on Reddit dedicated to reviving the nonprofit in a brand new form. Hopefully, in spite of the woes that National Novel Writing Month has endured, the experience will still be available for the next generation of young authors.

Article by Rainier Cem