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Saturday, 19 October 2024 16:57Okay. So I was working on a fic again (it's been so long, I swear), but I had a seizure earlier and apparently it's fried my ability to edit properly, and now I have all this desire to write stuff, but none of the ability to do like...the fiddly bits.
Does that make sense? Honestly I dunno. I guess it doesn't matter. The point is, rather than just feel endlessly annoyed that I can't write good fiction at the moment, I'm gonna sit and vent about NaNo Drama instead.
You know, late to the party as that is. But I guess at least I'm on-theme?
Anyway. So, I'm a former ML (Municipal Liaison, it basically meant 'volunteer regional organiser', for those unused to NaNoisms).
I haven't really talked publicly about that a lot I guess, because usually I was too busy doing stuff for my region and trying to write, as well as being a single parent. But I've been an ML since 2015, and a participant since 2008, so it's been a huge part of my life at this point. And now here we are in October, and this is the first year since my first child was born that I won't be creating a NaNo project. It feels weird - even though my region is among those whose MLs broke off early and went independent. At this point, I think we're more prepared for November than NaNo is. We just put in an order for stickers, so we'll even have freebies for our writers.
At the same time, it's...still weird though. Especially now that November is approaching, and all the suspicions we had - that this was being done in the off-season specifically so that most people would miss the drama and carry on regardless - seem to be proving true. And when I say "most people" I don't mean "most people who read up about NaNo", I mean...most of the people who did it each year, many of whom didn't even realise there was an official website, or that it was run by a dedicated organisation. Which, let me tell you, there are a LOT more people like that than NaNoHQ ever realised.
...Of course, at this point NaNoHQ is just Kilby Blades and the intern she hurriedly promoted, but I guess that's also half my point. How many people know that? I see lots of people referring to "NaNoWriMo" as if it's this big corporate entity, but...it's like, two people, and I'm really not exaggerating. Other former MLs have been keeping an eye on this, and while it's possible that more have been hired, there's no reason to believe that's the case right now, given how emphatically Kilby stressed that NaNo was struggling financially.
She didn't even arrange merch until someone was like: "Hey, where's the t-shirts?" It's generally assumed by the ex-MLs I've spoken to that Kilby has never once participated in NaNo herself. She doesn't seem to have any idea how the event actually functions, or what it was that MLs actually did. All she does is insult and besmirch us at any opportunity, and intentionally present misleading information about us as a group.
Which... I'm mostly past the grief now, but it's still insulting, you know? To have spent almost a decade of my life helping maintain my local region, and to keep it going through personal struggles and global catastrophes alike, only to be tossed out and accused of not caring/not doing enough by someone who prioritised attending her writers retreat over a massive disaster at a company she had become Interrim Executive Director of.
Anyway, this is all mostly because in a recent update she basically glossed over everything that MLs did, and described our regional updates as "email blasts". You know, totally different from the mass emails she sends out trying to shillAI the few corporate sponsors they still have left. Also, don't be too hard on those sponsors btw. Contractual obligations are binding, and many were signed long before all this blew up so publically. Unlike Kilby (trying to co-opt an unrelated interview to make it look supportive of NaNo, a really shitty bit of social media management and further evidence it's being done by a former intern who is in way over their head), some companies actually do take their responsibilities seriously.
...Okay, that's probably enough salt for now.
Does that make sense? Honestly I dunno. I guess it doesn't matter. The point is, rather than just feel endlessly annoyed that I can't write good fiction at the moment, I'm gonna sit and vent about NaNo Drama instead.
You know, late to the party as that is. But I guess at least I'm on-theme?
Anyway. So, I'm a former ML (Municipal Liaison, it basically meant 'volunteer regional organiser', for those unused to NaNoisms).
I haven't really talked publicly about that a lot I guess, because usually I was too busy doing stuff for my region and trying to write, as well as being a single parent. But I've been an ML since 2015, and a participant since 2008, so it's been a huge part of my life at this point. And now here we are in October, and this is the first year since my first child was born that I won't be creating a NaNo project. It feels weird - even though my region is among those whose MLs broke off early and went independent. At this point, I think we're more prepared for November than NaNo is. We just put in an order for stickers, so we'll even have freebies for our writers.
At the same time, it's...still weird though. Especially now that November is approaching, and all the suspicions we had - that this was being done in the off-season specifically so that most people would miss the drama and carry on regardless - seem to be proving true. And when I say "most people" I don't mean "most people who read up about NaNo", I mean...most of the people who did it each year, many of whom didn't even realise there was an official website, or that it was run by a dedicated organisation. Which, let me tell you, there are a LOT more people like that than NaNoHQ ever realised.
...Of course, at this point NaNoHQ is just Kilby Blades and the intern she hurriedly promoted, but I guess that's also half my point. How many people know that? I see lots of people referring to "NaNoWriMo" as if it's this big corporate entity, but...it's like, two people, and I'm really not exaggerating. Other former MLs have been keeping an eye on this, and while it's possible that more have been hired, there's no reason to believe that's the case right now, given how emphatically Kilby stressed that NaNo was struggling financially.
She didn't even arrange merch until someone was like: "Hey, where's the t-shirts?" It's generally assumed by the ex-MLs I've spoken to that Kilby has never once participated in NaNo herself. She doesn't seem to have any idea how the event actually functions, or what it was that MLs actually did. All she does is insult and besmirch us at any opportunity, and intentionally present misleading information about us as a group.
Which... I'm mostly past the grief now, but it's still insulting, you know? To have spent almost a decade of my life helping maintain my local region, and to keep it going through personal struggles and global catastrophes alike, only to be tossed out and accused of not caring/not doing enough by someone who prioritised attending her writers retreat over a massive disaster at a company she had become Interrim Executive Director of.
Anyway, this is all mostly because in a recent update she basically glossed over everything that MLs did, and described our regional updates as "email blasts". You know, totally different from the mass emails she sends out trying to shill
...Okay, that's probably enough salt for now.
