What Happened to NaNoWriMo?
Were you gearing up for NaNoWriMo, only to find out that it’s gone? You’re not the only one. Hundreds of thousands of writers are looking for a new home for their novel writing month.
The TLDR of it all is that NaNoWriMo was riddled with problems, many of which it kept quiet from its users. They had money problems that made it difficult to keep the organization above water. They had scandals in their forums that made the site unsafe for minors. They made statements about AI that made a lot of people really upset. And they didn’t take accountability for any of their mistakes.
So in early 2025, the NaNoWriMo organization officially closed its doors.
That’s why we created thirty30, a new November writing challenge.
The Origins of NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo began back in July 1999 when a group of friends challenged each other to write 50,000 words in a single month. The year after that, they officially dubbed November as National Novel Writing Month, and over the years, it turned into global phenomenon, with nearly half a million writers participating at its peak.
Many people turned to NaNoWriMo as a place for community. Writing a novel is isolating, and many of us writers are introverts. Finding people online who shared the same goal as us was motivating. It gave us purpose, a place to belong, a place to challenge our own expectations of ourselves and write that novel we always dreamed of writing.
The Many Problems of NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo had a lot of issues, but they can be boiled down to three main categories:’
Money issues and questionable sponsors
A scandal in their online forums
Tone-deaf AI statements
NaNoWriMo’s Money Problems
As the organization grew bigger, so too did their costs. Luckily, they were able to rely on their users every year, who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the organization. And big-time sponsors joined in over time as well, each spending tens of thousands of dollars to be there.
Unfortunately, their costs began to out-pace their earning capacity. As far back as 2018, they began suffering financially, but kept it largely quiet from the people who funded them. It seems strange that an organization built on people’s enthusiasm for a yearly event would keep this quiet from their users. Surely people would have donated more if they knew the situation was dire?
Instead, they turned to their sponsors for help, and opened the door to some bad actors (mainly Inkitt, a publishing business known for its questionable practices). And because NaNoWriMo wasn’t up front with its users about their money problems, users saw this as a greedy partnership, with NaNoWriMo being willing to do business with companies that were hurting authors.
The Grooming Scandal
If it wasn’t enough that they were facing money problems, NaNoWriMo faced serious backlash in 2023 when a scandal in their online forums came to light. It turns out, one of their moderators was accused of grooming minors in their Young Writers Program.
Instead of quickly and firmly handling the issue, NaNoWriMo leadership was slow to act, and quiet about their investigation into the allegations. Many saw this response as too slow or not effective enough, and eventually, the public backlash led to the shutdown of their online forums altogether.
The AI Statements that Sealed the Coffin
On top of everything else, NaNoWriMo, just like the rest of the world, was figuring out how to handle the rise of AI generated content. And while most of the publishing industry held firm that assistance from AI in creative work was not only uncreative, it was theft of copyright from thousands of authors whose works were infringed upon, NaNoWriMo came out in defense of AI. Even after public backlash, the executive director of NaNoWriMo made a further misstep by claiming that anyone who was against the use of AI in creative work was classist and ableist.
There were calls for cancellation, for shutdown. But ultimately, there was a pause. Many people who loved and used NaNoWriMo were hoping for some sort of course correction. For the organization to walk back its statements, and for restitution to be made.
Ultimately, that didn’t come. And NaNoWriMo shut down.
What Comes Next For NaNoWriMo Users
And that leads us here. What do we do now that NaNoWriMo is gone?
It’s important to remember that NaNoWriMo existed as a movement before it became a phenomenon. And many of us still want to push ourselves to write a whole lot of words in November.
That’s why we created thirty30, a new November writing challenge. The goal is to write 30,000 words in 30 days. And the best part is that the challenge happens four times every year—once per season—and if you win each challenge, you’ll have 120,000 words. More than enough for a full novel in today’s market.
Ultimately, we don’t want to stop this movement just because the organization that ran it is gone. So if you, like us, want to keep writing those words, and push yourself to write something incredible, come join us over at thirty30. We can’t wait to write a novel with you this year.
