The NaNoWriMo and The AI Controversy

National Novel Writing Month is due to commence in November, and this week I heard about the controversy with AI and NaNoWriMo. 

It appears that recently NaNoWriMo made a statement saying they are pro AI. The organisers, when queried about AI, stated that NaNoWriMo “does not explicitly support any specific approach to writing, nor does it explicitly condemn any approach, including the use of AI.”

And if that wasn’t bad enough, they also went on to say, “We also want to be clear in our belief that the categorical condemnation of Artificial Intelligence has classist and ableist undertones, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege.” 

https://www.404media.co/nanowrimo-ai-policy-classist-ableist/ 

This infuriated many of their participants and thousands walked away and unsubscribed from NaNoWriMo. Then they tried to undo the damage they’d done to their reputation with their pro AI stance, but it was too late. 

They also lost several of their sponsors including, Ninja Writers, and Ellipsus. They didn’t, however, lose their main sponsor, ProWritingAid, who are also pro AI.

One of their board members, Daniel José Older, a lead story architect for Star Wars: The High Republic, posted his resignation from the writers board, and publicly posted on Twitter, “Hello @NaNoWriMo this is me DJO officially stepping down from your Writers Board and urging every writer I know to do the same. Never use my name in your promo again in fact never say my name at all and never email me again. Thanks!”

Another board member, Rebecca Kim Wells also stepped down and posted “I resigned from the NaNoWriMo Writers Board. If you're on it, I encourage you to do the same.”

Several other board members also resigned.

You can make up your own mind where you stand about AI being used in writing. But the reason so many use NaNoWriMo is to help them set aside a time to write every day, to push through all the barriers of self-doubt, fear and other frustrations, and become the best and most productive writer they can be. Using AI takes away these most important parts of NaNoWriMo.

While the use of AI has some worthy benefits in some cases for writers, on the whole I think it does more harm than good and only helps to spread misinformation and does not benefit writers who want to write.

I’m happy to sit down and write one human-written word at a time. It’s the way I’ve always worked and it’s the way that has always worked.

I used to promote NaNoWriMo as a great tool for writers who want to sit down and write a novel in a month. I even participated myself when I first became a writer.

But I won’t be promoting it any more.

7 Day eBook Writing and Publishing System

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/7day.html

Writing Markets For September 2024

Today I have a list of 7 (lucky 7) writing markets for you. One is a free writing competition with a $100 prize for only a short (max 100) word story. 

There's also a chance to write a romance book for Harlequin and receive an advance payment plus royalties, and other markets paying up to $1,000.

Take a look:

Harlequin Seeking Amish Romance Novels
Looking for riveting Amish romantic suspense of with a Christian worldview. Faith element is mandatory but shows rather than tells, avoiding didactic, preachy or doctrinal language.
Popular hooks and themes include: Amish characters investigating a crime/evading a threat in their community; non-Amish characters hiding out/taking refuge from the bad guys in Amish country; non-Amish law enforcement agents investigating in Amish country and protecting/falling for Amish characters.
Word count: 55,000 words
Payment: Author advance + royalties
Deadline: Open
https://www.writeforharlequin.com/love-inspired-books-is-seeking-amish-romance

Copyhackers
Always looking for guest aricles about copywriting, including educational articles, courses, and resources that focus on helping new writings learn how to craft good copy.
Pitch your idea in the first instance. All articles must be well researched.
Word count: over 2,000 words
Payment: $300 - $1,000
They have extensive, and straight to the point ("If your post is boring as sh*t, we won't publish it") guidelines and rules so you can be sure of exactly what they're looking for which is why they pay such high rates.
https://copyhackers.com/write-for-us-2/

FFW Short Articles About Making a Living as a Writer
Funds For Writers, a respected website for writers is looking for articles for their newsletter which has over 28,000 subscribers. Articles should be short and sweet and to the point. Give it a beginning, middle, and ending. Give strong takeaway value with real examples, preferably of your own. Why are YOU the one to write this article? All article submissions MUST be about making a living as a writer and not about how to write.
Word count: between 550 and 650 words
Payment: $100 for unpublished original articles; $25 for reprints over 90 days old.
Complete guidelines online.
https://fundsforwriters.com/submissions/

Flame Tree Fiction - Two Themes
Looking for short pieces on one or both of two themes. Achilles (Greek mythology) and Morgana le Fay (King Arthur).
Stories submitted for consideration need to explore new or expanded angles to the character: have them follow alternative paths, present different viewpoints, give deeper background, or perhaps pursue story lines that are hinted at in the original tales and poetry. Pays Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) rates.
Word count: 3,000-4,000 words.
Payment: 8 cents/word for original stories and 6 cents/word for reprints
Deadline: 22 September 2024
https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/achilles-submissions-call-0
https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/morgana-le-fay-submissions-0 

Christmas Chaos Holiday Terror Stories 
Think evil elf on the shelve, killing candy canes, and reindeer game. This is a horror anthology, but please no violence to animals (unless its important to the story like Pet cemetery) no sexual abuse or abuse to kids.
Looking for 14 stories for an anthology.
Word count: 4,500 to 7,000 words
Payment: $20 USD and a copy of the paperback.(on FB they say the payment has been increased to $40)
Deadline 1st October 2024
Send completed manuscript.
https://outsiderpublishingcompany.com/submission 

100-Word Horror Contest - no fee
Story Street Writers is proud to announce our first annual Hundred Word Horror fiction contest. The winner will be announced on October 31.
Word Count: 100 words maximum (no exceptions)
1st Prize: $100 and publication
Runners up (3): $25 and publication
Deadline: Submissions open from September 15 – 30, 2024.
Contest open to first 1000 submissions only.
https://storystreetwriters.com/word-on-the-street/first-annual-hundred-word-horror-contest 

Speculative Fiction: APPARITION LIT
Every month Apparition Lit holds a flash fiction contest and buys a story based on their prompt.
September's prompt is Noodles, Noodles, Noodles…inspired by the many shapes noodles take around the world, including Ramen, Spaghetti, Pad Thai…
Speculative fiction is weird, almost unclassifiable. It’s fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and literary.
Send us stories with enough emotional heft to break a heart, with prose that’s as clear and delicious as broth. We love proactive characters and settings that feel lived in and real enough to touch. Stories with style, stories with emotion, stories with character.
Word count: under 1,000 words
Payment: 5 cents per word
Deadline: Submission window open Sept 1 -14
https://apparitionlit.com/submissions/ 

Beyond the Page: Monetising Your Writing Skills

Being a writer is a fickle yet interesting way to earn money.

Why?

Because there are so many ways to earn money as a writer and it changes all the time. You can do copywriting, write books and ebooks, do blog writing, do freelance writing, become an affiliate marketer, and much more. And you can earn an impressive income as a writer from these ways too.

For example, writer and author Ben Settle has worked as a copywriter for years. At first he wrote copy of other people to help them sell their products online. But after seeing how much money his writing was making for his clients he began to write his own books and courses and used his copywriting skills to sell them. And it worked. He also sells subscriptions to his highly-priced monthly newsletter that teaches others how to write money-making copy.

Another good example is Dean Wesley Smith. He’s been a writer for most of  his life and works as a ghost writer as well as a freelance writer and was commissioned to write some of the Star Trek novels and both Men In Black novels. He also has a blog that he regularly writes for and he’s written hundreds of books. For years he wrote his Smith’s Monthly series which was an ongoing monthly subscription for which he wrote a novel a month plus several short stories a month for his subscribers. He loves to write and knows what his audience wants to read.

And the late, great Yuwanda Black was a freelance writer who sold her writing services on her blog, and wrote books about how she did it, plus she wrote dozens of romance stories. I was also lucky enough to co-author a book with her.

All these writers earned money from their writing in multiple ways, and there are others who prefer to specialise.

But even if you want to only write books, there’s still the decision of different genres and subjects.

One person who was determined to write novels for a living was author, John Locke, who opened an Amazon author account, uploaded his novels and made a fortune. He then wrote a book about how he did it, called, “How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months” which unsurprisingly, outsold all his other books. amzn.to/3E6ulER. To date, he’s written 55 novels.

What John Locke has in common with all the other writers, is hard work. To make it as a writer you don’t have to be better than everyone else, you just have to outwork them.

Just write what you know and write what you love writing about.

In the beginning, I tried it all. Back then I had 2 jobs, 2 kids, 2 dogs, I was doing writing courses and other online courses, gardening, and, because I thought I didn’t have enough to do, I began an upholstery course as well.

And during that time, I worked hard at my writing career and became a professional writer.

Over the years, I’ve written extensively about writing and earning money and you can use my books to help you do the same.

You can also download my free ebooks too.

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/free-ebooks.html

The Pure Magic of Having a Writing Place and How I Use It

Relaxing in the living room 

A few months ago I got rid of my writing desk. It was old and small and I figured that I often write in different places, so I probably didn’t need a desk anyway. But was I right?

Well, it’s true that I didn’t always use my desk to write, but it turned out I still needed a space that was mine to use just for writing.

What I discovered is that when I’m in my writing place, my desk, my brain automatically switches into writing mode.

The same brain switch happens if I go out to write, either at the park or the local library, but at home, that automatic brain switch didn’t always happen unless I was already in writing mode.

So if I sat on the couch to write, I felt like watching TV instead. If I sat at the dining table, I wanted to eat or drink coffee and read a book. And sitting at the breakfast bar felt like I should be cooking or looking through recipe books.

I realised that working as a creative person is a fickle thing and sometimes my brain, or more correctly my muse, doesn’t turn up for work until I do, so when I sat at my desk my muse would arrive because it knew where I was.

And I only EVER use my writing place for writing. I never play computer games or surf online or check emails, because if I did, it would interfere with my ability to write, and distract my muse from showing up.

But I didn’t want to have another desk, partly because I’d already filled the window nook where it used to be, with a window seat. I also wanted something that was a piece of furniture for the home rather than something that looked like it belonged in an office.

So in the end I opted for a writing bureau and I found a really good one of FaceBook Market Place. It has some beautiful carvings all over it and when opened, it’s really sturdy to write on.

And when I’m finished writing, I can close it up and walk away so that I know I’m finished for the day. Unless of course, I feel like writing at night, in which case it’s a cosy place to sit and carry on.

So it turns out that not only is it important for me to have a place to write, but not to desecrate it by doing non-writing activities there, so that as soon as I sit down, my mind can switch to writing mode immediately and I can get straight down to work, which makes it even more enjoyable (and easy) to write.

My New Writing Bureau