The Purpose of This Post
I’ve been looking for a summary of the story of NaNoWriMo, and not finding one that would be useful to share with people asking “What the hell happened? Is NaNo okay or not?” And people are asking.
So this will be my attempt. I’m open to corrections, but I will not be considerably expanding on it, because that would defeat the purpose.
The History of NaNoWriMo
In 1999, writer Chris Baty started National Novel Writing Month, a challenge to write 50,000 words of a new novel in 30 days. There were 21 participants.
Then it got bigger.
Then he made a website.
Then it got bigger.
Then it was too big for one person, and it became an organization. They improved the website, adding forums and other features.
Then it got bigger.
Then Chris Baty stepped down from leadership in 2011 to write full-time.
Then it got bigger.
Then they redesigned the website. When it launched in 2019, it was very broken. People in the forums revolted.
Still, it got bigger.
Then, starting in 2022, NaNoWriMo the organization partnered with problematic sponsors including vanity presses, AI tools, and at least one outright scam. They doubled down on AI, referring to “the categorical condemnation of Artificial Intelligence” as “classist and ableist.” Broke and disabled writers strongly disagreed.
In a parallel disaster, participants alleged that racism, sexism, and abuse were going ignored in the forums, and that some moderators were engaging in unacceptable behavior. There was a lot of hearsay, but one thing became clear: People did not feel safe using the forums.
Then it got smaller.
And then, in 2025, the organization—with sponsors bailing, the website glitching, and the forums rioting—shut down.
The Current State of Things
In 2026, there are dozens of fledgling attempts at creating a successor to NaNoWriMo. This list will attempt to collect the major ones with organizations attached.
- #NaNoWriMo and #NaNo2: Now that the old NaNo is dead, many people are reclaiming the hashtag. The original founder, Chris Baty, and a team of volunteers are running NaNo2.org, which is free and simple. It has a word tracker. You can earn badges. It is, effectively, NaNoWriMo rising from the ashes, without the forums, bloat, or problematic admins.
- #NovelNovember and #NovNov: This is, as far as I can tell, a marketing gimmick for ProWritingAid. ProWritingAid sells AI tools to “help” writers compose and edit work. If you dig deep on their website, even they admit that using their services may prevent your work from being published. If you don’t care about any of that, they do have a fancy dashboard you can use.
- #FirstDraftFall: Hosted by Weeknight Writers, this one has some events, but no tools. It does have an expanded scope and satisfying hashtag, though. Some participants are using sites like Trackbear for word counts.
This list will be updated if more major players appear.
As for myself, I’m reclaiming #NaNoWriMo. The org is dead. They ruined it for a few years, but they don’t get to ruin it forever. It belongs to us now.
Also, it’s just a hashtag. The challenge, the community, the frenzy, the excuse to set aside 30 days of our lives for a story to live in, and the resulting manuscripts are at the core of it.
Call those whatever you want.
