Before we begin, I just want to state that everything I’m going to say today is my opinion and my opinion alone. It does not represent any organizations I belong to or write for.

I don’t want to write this. It irritates me that I feel like I have to.

I’m heartsick that I feel like I have to.

In case you’ve missed the news, the NaNoWriMo organization, apropos of nothing, decided to put out a statement that has everyone in the writing community hot under the collar.

Including me.

Now, they’ve since updated this statement. But I think it’s important to share the original one to see why everyone is so upset. Here is a link.

So, if you read this and you don’t understand why everyone’s so up in arms, let me explain. Nanowrimo is not encouraging people to use AI tools to write their novels. They are simply not opposed to this.

Now, let me tell you why I’m furious.

In April of last year, I wrote about the fears of AI writing and how I thought it would hurt the writing community. Specifically, I was worried less about creative writing and more technical writing, like mass-produced blog posts and pithy product descriptions. That was before I found out that the AI generators have been scraping the internet and stealing any work published online.

At this point, it’s safe to say that the primary AI chatbots have my books. They have every post I’ve ever written here. And if you publish your work online, they have yours too. Visual art is taken as well, of course. The online artists were the first ones to sound the alarm.

That is not fucking okay. Artists like us work for years. We practice our work, finding our individual voices and honing our crafts. It isn’t easy, what we do. It takes talent, yes, but it also takes a shit ton of work. I am infuriated that the people who control these chatbots and AI tools feel entitled to the work that we pour into our art. They don’t have the right.

I know that legal protections are coming. At this time I’m unsure how much good it will do. But I am looking into ways to be a part of that.

I am sad to say that the Nanowrimo organization is not. And based on their updated statement, they have no intention to. Their response to the well-deserved fury and vitriol online was to remain as wishy-washy as they were to start with. Though at least they apologized for calling all of us abalist and classist.

It would have been one thing if they’d come out and said that some AI tools are beneficial for writers. I don’t know what those tools might be, but I am open to there being some tools that help people. I am not myself disabled and my mental illnesses don’t impact my writing. At least not in such a way that would be helped by any AI tool I’ve ever heard of.

But that isn’t what they did. They did not say that they were supportive of tools that help people with disabilities. They didn’t list examples of AI tools that help people with disabilities. They instead gave blanket approval to tools that steal our creative work and allow people to take it whenever they please and call it their own. And I cannot abide that. So for the first time in a decade, I will not be participating in Nanowrimo. I deleted my account. I’ll be removing my Preptober planner from my Ko-fi shop, and restructuring it as a novel planner instead. I hope that the board at Nanowrimo reverse their decision. But I’m not holding my breath.

In the end, I am not going to judge anyone, personally or privately, who continues to participate. Nanowrimo is still a great inspiration, especially for young and new writers.

But I cannot in good faith associate myself with any organization that does not fiercely defend writers and artists from the creative cannibalism that is generative AI. So for now, as much as it pains me, I’m stepping away.