Old Habits...

It's November and I miss NaNoWriMo.

I miss the idea of NaNoWriMo.

I miss what NaNoWriMo used to be.

I miss the kick in the ass that NaNoWriMo used to give me. There. That's the one.

As some of you (probably most of you) know I deleted my NaNo account last year, and then the whole organization collapsed on itself. Not because my account was the cornerstone holding it all together, but because I wasn't the only one pissed at them. Pissed for two reasons. The one that I deleted my account over and the one that I heard about when people (rightly) were raging that a lot of us deleted our accounts when we did and not before when the first scandal broke. But the first scandal didn't get as much attention as the second though it should have.

Confused? Let me backup.

The reason I deleted my account: they decided it was okay to use AI to write your novel during Novel Writing Month. I'll link last year's blog to this post and you can see my take on it then. The reason I would have deleted my account if I had known about the first problem was poor moderation on their chat boards. Poor is a huge understatement there. A moderator for their young writers boards was accused of grooming kids there and luring them to adults only spaces. He had been doing it for YEARS. It had been reported to NaNo for YEARS. It wasn't until someone said, fuck this we're going public and to the FBI that he was removed. And they removed him for something unrelated. And never went public with what happened. So if you, like me, didn't use the chat boards and weren't plugged into that part of NaNo you never heard about it.

So yeah...I'm not a fan of the organization and I'm content with deleting my account and perfectly at peace with the fact that they went out of business. But...I miss the kick in the ass.

This year, watching how LLMs have taken over so many spaces I still cannot believe that a company that was supposed to be all about encouraging creative work was okay with AI written pieces. Theft of work.

It's hard to explain to some people how AI is theft. Believe me I've tried. And it's not just AI, it's hard to explain to people how angry theft of your creative work can make you.

For me, there is a difference in theft and using as well. Like many of you used to follow me on Facebook. I wrote LONG status updates on there about current events and often people would copy and paste them. I was fine with that. Either with specific credit (OP by Denise), or with vague credit (a friend said), or even without credit. I wrote the things to share an opinion. Just like the reason why I write this blog. But where I'd get a little pissy is when someone would share it, not credit me, and then when someone would complement the piece they'd take credit for writing. Theft vs. using.

I used to be friends with a stand up comic. He added me to a group of other stand ups. My favorite part of the group was seeing everyone try to top each other with a joke. More than once he called me out saying something along the lines of "why are you funnier than these people who do this for a living?" And I will say, first off, it was flattery. Flattery in the right amount is always nice But secondly the reason why I really was funnier was because I think differently.

When Twitter was brand new in the way back, I was on it. Not many other people were. Stephen Colbert was and he followed me. One night in his opening monologue he used one of my jokes. Seriously. Or funnily? But honestly. Brent was with me and he agreed it was definitely my joke. Now, hearing similar jokes on shows happens all the time. If you watch more than one late night comic you are going to hear the same joke over and over. When that happens Brent says to me, "They need to look other places than Harvard to fill their writers' rooms."

And that's why I knew it was my joke, and Brent knew it was my joke. And why I was funnier than a lot of the standups in that group. Because my perspective is different so the jokes are fresher, so funnier.

I wasn't mad at all that Colbert used my joke. I was really pleased. I wish I still had my old Twitter account and a recording of him doing it so I could relive the moment with receipts. I wasn't mad when my friend who was a stand up used my jokes. I don't make a living making jokes so for someone who does to think my stuff is good enough to use? That's fabulous.

But...

One time I reposted a joke I had made years before that my friend had lifted and used and he accused me of stealing his joke. Umm, what? Me being me I found my original post which included a comment from him, and then when he first used the joke online. My joke. I didn't have a problem with him using it, but once you accuse me of stealing then your use becomes theft.

I've had blogs, statuses, and pictures taken. Sometimes they are used, sometimes they are stolen. Sometimes it really bugs me, sometimes it doesn't at all. And it's not just me, it's the nature of the internet. I have a friend who took a picture of a leaf shadow that I've seen turned into multiple memes. No credit to her. (If you google leaf shadow looks like a dragon it will probably be your first hit) I have other friends who are really careful about making sure every picture they post has a watermark because photography is how they make a living.

I'm creative. I've worked for years to hone my writing style so everything is in my voice. So much so that I've had friends tag me in posts saying how much it sounded like me only to have it have been me, just copied and passed through so many hands that any credit was long gone. But I'm distinctive. If you are talking to me, or reading my words, it "sounds" the same. But I don't make a living at it.

Even so, the LLMs make me so mad. I read a lot of different authors whose works have been stolen to feed the beast so it can regurgitate "creative writing" that is nothing other than plagiarism. Theft. So I don't regret my choice to delete my NaNo account.

And look at that 1200 words today, that's a good total, right on track for November...

Old habits die hard.