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I love NaNoWriMo. Been trying since 2008 on and off when time allows. I haven't won it yet but I just enjoy the exercise of writing new characters and settings. Had to get the notebook for the art and for sending some money to a cool organization. I'm debating some new ideas for NNWM this year...

This is beautiful and powerful and what it means to be a person in this world.

Let's keep going.

Ben, think about your daughter.

Think about her as a teenager. And she comes to you. "Daddy, I need your help. I'm pregnant. And it was an adult you know."

Or think about her as woman, happily married and she tells you that you will be a grandfather. But several months in, the fetus isn’t viable. "Daddy, I need your help, the doctors won't do anything until I'm the one dying." As she's left in pain for hours or days as her body rejects the fetus without medical support.

And the only response you have is, "I did this to you too."

Or like a hypocritical coward you run her to a state that protected her body autonomy because you made yourself rich bamboozling people into your toxic rhetoric. At the end, your daughter still suffered your actions.

By: dest0n

"He made my speakers vibrate" -mm

What an interesting artist and for what she did for the time. Her exhibit at the Seattle Art museum was really cool. I appreciated the letters she wrote looking for funding for her move and her work.

Yayoi Kusama: Walking Piece (1966)

Losing the centricity of the main community sucks. But there are other groups starting something. I follow the reddit as the next big community and from there people post discords or other sites. I was actually hoping to find some community on Tumblr too.

I think after participating on and off every year since 2008, I'm OK growing out of it. Then getting into my daily word count year round phase to really embrace writing as a hobby.

This month has been a little weird, because in the past it's been the point of time where me and a few others ramp up for NaNoWriMo event planning.

I decided not to be an ML this year - I'm one of the many breakaway regions forging ahead with an independent event for our writers - but several people had been hoping to work with HQ again, and seeing the chatter around that is sad because it looks like NaNo isn't letting it happen.

Last year at this point, everyone who had volunteered to be an ML had been given instructions for this year, and links to order ML kits (usually the annual stickers). We'd get instructions in Aug on how to update digital spaces for the new year, and were encouraged to start scheduling events.

But it's Aug 1st and HQ has never even asked if anyone wants to volunteer this year. It's looking more and more likely that they have canned the entire Municipal Liason program, and if you don't have MLs what's the point of regions? If the community aspect of NaNo is going away, is it just a website now?

What made NaNo awesome was the other writers I'd hang out with on zoom or coffee shops.

I thought i had already grieved my time with NaNo, it had headed down a path I didn't want to follow and I had put so much energy into it. I'm building something new now even! But it's still so, so sad to think that it's just not my participation that has ended, but an entire program. And soon, I suspect, an entire organization.

NaNo is running on fumes, spiraling down and alienating so much of its old user base due to poor management and communication. Will it even run in November, I'm not entirely sure. I don't know if the donations they've received coverage servers fees.

Writers might have to do NaNo, or just write a draft in November, solo and that sounds so sad. I've only ever won because of my community (my region had at least 20 events scheduled in November).

I'd encourage people to reach out to old regions if you can - see if there's a grassroots community it morphed into. Or just any writing community - mine is hybrid now and all our writing events in November will have zoom options.

I hoped maybe the new HQ would build something that would work for someone, but i have a sneaking suspicion that it won't. NaNoWriMo might just become something like NoShaveNovember or Dry January. A thing you do, but no official community.

Feeling real bummed about this, because i volunteered with NaNo for 5 years and wrote for 12.

Dead Poets Society (1989) dir. Peter Weir