least common denominator

Writing with a Purple Pen
Credit: Amanda Truscott via Pixabay

I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month off and on since about 2001, albeit at different levels of involvement. I’ve always enjoyed it and have come to look forward to November when I can work on a fiction project. This year, though, I won’t be participating; and I don’t expect I’ll be doing so ever again.

Don’t misunderstand: I’m still going to do a November challenge every year, including this year. I’m just not going to formally affiliate with NaNoWriMo. When it first began, NaNo — and the now-defunct Office of Letters and Light — had many admirable goals, all related to writing. I was particularly supportive of the Young Writers Program, as well as associated the laptop loan program for classrooms.

But their recent foray into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has left me out in the cold; and their explicit support of on-demand abortion has turned my opinion from ambiguous to negative. These forays into non-writing issues suggest a corporatization that detracts from the original intent and purpose of the project, in addition to (at least in one case) explicitly discriminating against me. At this point, after a lot of thought and prayer and not without some pain and regret, it’s time for me to bow out.

Wait a minute, you might be asking. What’s so awful about DEI, corporatization, and politics? Don’t you realize that everything is political? ( Keep Reading... )