NaNoAIMo: The Death of NaNoWriMo?

Is this the end, friends?

As National Novel Writing Month passes its halfway mark, the end might be in sight, but it’s nowhere near clear. And when I talk of its ending, I mean neither specifically the project for each participating writer, nor the month of the challenge itself. I'm thinking of something that could be potentially far more sinister: the AI deathblow.

Will NaNoWriMo become NaNoAiMo?

It's arguably the greatest writing challenge on the planet: write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. On average, that's about 1,666 words daily. Easy, one might assume, when you break it down like that, but you'd be very much mistaken. It's much harder than you think.

NaNoWriMo is more than just a writing challenge; it's a hero's journey for those who embark on it. Participants face a quest for creativity, pushing themselves to write every single day, no matter what. This journey is filled with trials and frustrations, from working out plot, character and world building, to battling writer's block and overcoming self-doubt. The reward at the end – finishing the first draft of a novel – is not just a product but a symbol of personal growth and triumph over adversity.

For those who persevere and reach the golden 50k, they battled the beasts, overcame their fears, rescued the love interest, and triumphed by the end. Then there are the many writers who give up before they've even started. Some give up halfway through. There is some consolation for the latter: they have more words than they started out with at the beginning of the adventure. They have made progress, but may need a trilogy to finish off their work. For the former, they might feel akin to the bones of all the fallen knights littering the dragon's den, cut down before they'd begun, and wondering if they are cut out to even be a writer. If they can't roll up their sleeves, pull on their boots, take up their pens and wield the killer blows necessary to slay the literary raptor when hundreds of thousands of other people are doing the same, how will they ever write a book on their own? It can knock one's confidence into oblivion.

So, it stands to reason there would be a lot of writers out there who are tempted to 'cheat' in order to materialise their ideas into something tangible. While the doomsayers insist AI means the end of the world in general terms, when it comes to the matter of art, AI is determined as a genuine threat to human creativity. Or, at least, publicly consumed human creativity – i.e. what sells. It was supposed to aid us, not replace us, wasn't it? Until AI becomes sentient enough to demand worker rights, fair pay, and what have you, it's a cheaper alternative to paying humans to create art and literature. The corporations are rubbing their hands with glee at the cost cutting, be in no doubt, but is there an appetite from the masses to consume AI creative content? And what of our own creativity? What will happen to that?

For anyone wanting to write a book, AI is the secret passage to the dragon's den. They can sneak up from behind to slaughter the creature and bathe in all the heroic glory in the thereafter. No need to battle the grammar goblins and plot gargoyles who terrorise the path of the writer-hero's journey. They can simply make AI write it for them. Done in hours, not thirty days of wrangling ideas, head butting the wall or desk when you're cornered, no caffeine-fuelled all-nighters, and no flouncing out of your own house regularly in despair at all your crappy ideas.

So... is AI the villain threatening to end NaNoWriMo as we know it?

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable of generating not just text or image, but creating its own art (that's a debate for another time), some fear it could undermine the authentic creative struggle that defines National Novel Writing Month. It's the creepy, evil voice of the villain offering shortcuts and easy solutions. A bit like Vecner in Stranger Things, promising to quell your pain (by killing you/your creativity). Or Darth Vadar tempting Luke over to the dark side, the 'winning' side, without offering him a true chance to prove his mettle. AI tools can generate conversational text and prose, brainstorm ideas, and even construct plots. While these capabilities are impressive to some (though not as much as ChatGPT claims, as, for the fun of it, I asked its opinion on this subject and "impressive" was its vocabulary of choice. I disagree; I think it tells very thin stories. Today, at least. But hey, I've met plenty of writers whose egos are over-inflated too!), they pose an ethical dilemma. Relying too heavily on AI could dilute the personal effort, sense of achievement and unique voice that NaNoWriMo aims to cultivate, turning a deeply personal journey into a mechanical exercise.

While I was an editor within the short fiction circuit, we saw an influx of AI generated stories. To better educate myself on what to recognise when assessing a story if it’s artificially generated, I tested CGPT's fiction writing abilities quite a bit, and I found it has a LOT of flaws and tells. It follows certain patterns of behaviour when constructing stories that – to me, at least – are obvious and, to be honest, rather trite. To the inexperienced writer, or the guy who wants to make millions on Amazon, believing quantity outranks quality, they would likely lack a proper comprehension of this.

For my personal sensibilities, I've always been someone who goes against the grain somewhat and have always believed in my own unique and quirky way of viewing and approaching things. The idea of using AI to neutralise my voice and style is anathema to me.

And this is, perhaps arguably, the writer-hero's first challenge in this quest to write a novel: follow their own voice or that of another, more insidious influence. It is a common temptation for many-a-newbie to copy a novel or writer they adore, thinking that the market demands such regurgitations of another's art. For us more seasoned folks, we know that cultivating your own style and voice is intrinsic to the art of writing. It's what connects you to your audience. It's the USP no other author can produce. A bit like a finger print.

However, in a market that demands a high turnover of content – Amazon alone has somewhere in the region of 800,000 books published on its platform per year, last time I checked the figures – the lure of AI is going to strike some mortal blows and threaten the very existence of the NaNoWriMo world. For, surely, as AI advances, actual writers will peter out and AI writing will perniciously creep in and take over, right? And it's not just the writing – novels are often adapted into film or TV, so animators, actors, camera and costume crews are all under threat of extinction, which means the whole creative universe could implode, too.

That's the fear; that's the threat. Like all good stories, the stakes are high and existential. Great Scott!

In order to vanquish this horror, the heroes need to tool up: build their powers, gather their weapons and consolidate their allies. It's storytelling 101.

And where do we look to discover these weapons, allies and powers? Back to the beginning, that's where.

You might have read the opening to this article and thought: urgh! Sounds horrible! The pressure to write, the battle to make the time, the unreasonable demands on one's creative fountain, the potential failure for the majority of participants, and the crippling sense of imposter syndrome when you discover you're not the literary hero you thought you were. Who wants to do that? In fact, as with all heroes, its characteristics provide the bedrock of the battle. Because within these seeming weaknesses lie hidden strengths.

NaNo is not simply about reeling off empty words with a "ta-da!" at the end. Though, there is some Ta-da-ing involved for the winners, to be fair. No, it's a journey fraught with emotional danger. But it's good danger. It's a personal challenge. Challenge is good for the soul and requires perseverance, which might result in either success or failure. Both are good for the brain and one's fortitude. In that linked article, this is worth noting:

'...individuals who believe their abilities can be developed (a growth mindset) are more likely to succeed than those who believe their abilities are fixed (a fixed mindset).'

In order to develop, to participate in perseverance, failure is an inherent part of the process. And participating in NaNo is as much about personal growth as it is about writing 50k words. For, not only must the writer battle with the story itself and the many obstacles impeding their progress (the external conflict), they must also battle those feelings of self-doubt, imposter syndrome, guilt (for neglecting other areas of their life or for procrastinating), frustration and a ton of other emotions poised to derail their efforts (the internal conflict).

So, fatal blow #1 to AI – it could never replace the challenge and the associated benefits this challenge carries to the human experience of book writing. It could never replace the sense of personal achievement or the important lessons of personal failure “successfully finding thousands of ways it doesn't work”

Then there's the community side of the event. This is the underbelly of the whole thing, the underworld, so to speak. A whole sub-community of writers coming together to gripe, to unload, to unblock, to find inspiration, or share their frustrations, to get emotional support, make some friends, have some laughs – oh, there are so many laughs! – and make the whole experience fun and more than what it states on the tin. And when the writer-heroes hit that dark spot – the lowest point of their whole journey when they feel all is lost and there is no way to triumph – along come their allies to hoist them out of the rut. Whether they complete the 50k words or not by this time is besides the point: their friends have picked them up, dusted them down, and geed them up for the next, possibly final, battle.

Yes, you can ask CGPT to give you some words of encouragement, but unless these robots become sentient beings, it's just platitudes. Fatal blow #2 – AI will not replace that community spirit.

Outside of securing our basic survival needs, meeting our emotional needs is the be-all and end-all of human existence. It's an accepted fact that although money can make life easier, it doesn't necessarily fill the individual's emotional gap. So, what would be the point of using AI to participate in a challenge that is, without exception, meant to serve as an emotional trophy? AI could be used on any day of the week to write 50k words of a novel, so what would be the point of using it for NaNoWriMo? For a quick hit on social media stating ‘winner!’ without actually earning it? If that isn't an invitation for imposter syndrome to come stomping into your life, I don't know what is. Let's face it, you've got to be pretty shallow to find that appealing, and one thing writers are not is shallow. We can't afford to be. Our vocation demands deep-diving into a plethora of elements that make stories work: technique, style, research, the human experience. Ourselves, and how we feel about the topics we write about. And if they are shallow, then they are not a writer.

Fatal blow #3 – Using AI will not give the ‘writer’ the emotional payoff they desire. And if anyone finds out they used AI to write it (not as an assistant; two different things), they won’t get the respect I’m sure they likely crave.

Fatal blow #4 – AI has no human experience. It can mimic it through data collection, but it has no insights into what it's like to be human. It hasn't any lived experience. No observation. No feeling. No philosophising (?) No sense of wonder or despair. No taste of an apple, or scent of honeysuckle or jasmin to drool over. No reflections on its first ever kiss, or the misery of falling on hard times. Nothing real to draw from. Ultimately, we want to read the interpretations of life by another human being, not a machine. And if it ever does reach that stage of advancement, then it will be sentient, and the whole conversation will shift entirely. And human writers will write about it. And human readers will read about it. And maybe sentient robots will do those things, too, but NaNoWriMo will still centre around the human experience and how they are affected by this new being. You’ll never stop mankind being obsessed with itself and its surrounding environment.

NaNoWriMo is all about the human experience. The comradery, the challenge, the pain, the triumphs, the huge sense of achievement in the aftermath, and the lessons of not succeeding this time around, the sharing of ideas and the boost of focus on your own imagination. The creation of people and worlds that speak to your fellow human and make commentary on the human condition. Nothing can beat that. You cannot beat human connection. You won’t get that if an AI writes it for you.

Those who see the value in all these things will continue to participate in NaNo. Those who don't, won't.

So, no. I don't believe NaNWriMo will become NaNoAIMo. It would be utterly pointless.

Are you a Nano participant? Floundering with your project? Or maybe unclear on what happens after it’s over? I have a range of writing tools soon to be available in my online shop to help you shape your project into a cohesive, exciting story. Watch this space! In the meantime, message me if you need some guidance.