WYN's November Novel Writing Challenge!

Not taking part in NaNoWriMo this year? Still want to write thousands of words of your novel? Join this challenge and give it a go!

Hello Writers!

Welcome to the November Novel Writing Challenge.

Many have discarded NaNoWriMo’s challenge after their recent AI controversy, in which they claimed that it was classist and ableist to suggest writers should not use AI as part of their writing.

It let to widespread condemnation from writers and stakeholders. Board members at NaNoWriMo stood down in protest. Sponsors pulled out. It means that this year there is little hype for the event, with many former participants refusing to take part.

That’s where Write Your Novel! comes in.

I’m running the November Novel Writing Challenge in its place. While I don’t expect the same volume of participants, this community-focused challenge works in the same way to encourage you to finish that damn novel!

While NaNoWriMo aims for 50,000 words, you’ll be able to set your own target for as many words as you like. I’m going for 50,000 though as the ultimate aim!

I’ve created this challenge in response to writers who are seeking a new community to complete an intense novel writing challenge - and here there’s no AI allowed in writing your story! It’s about your voice and ideas, not those of a computer.

Here’s how to join & what you can expect from joining this (free) challenge.

How will it work?

The November Novel Writing Challenge runs over 30-days in November to help motivate you to write your novel. It’ll also help hold you accountable, with encouragement and reminders to help you write as well as access to a collaborative community of other participants.

Personalise Your Goal: You decide your own word count goal. You can choose 50,000, 30,000 or something else! The aim is that you push yourself to work towards a completed draft, with as many words a day that you feel you can commit to.

Regular Prompts: You’ll receive prompts, reminders and other writing support from me to help guide you through the process and encourage you to keep writing.

Collaborative Tracking: With a shared Google Sheet, you’ll be able to record how it’s going alongside everyone else who takes part. You’ll be able to see how others are doing and celebrate your milestones within the community.

Substack Chat Access: I’ll be creating special chat spaces each week for you to ask questions and chat to others about how the challenge is going. Here you can support others and enjoy the writing process together!

And the best bit, it’s completely free for everyone to enter. You just need to stay signed up to the Write Your Novel! newsletter to get access to the chat, prompts and writing reminders!

How do you join?

Sign up on the Google Sheet to access the shared progress tracker, where you can set your daily and monthly target. The sheet will be open to everyone, so I kindly ask you to respect the space and only edit your own row.

Feel free to highlight your corresponding row to make it easier to find/stand out when you come back to it each day!

Access the Substack chat where I’ll be posting regularly throughout the month with a space for writers to discuss, ask questions (I’ll be on hand to answer these too!) and encourage each other.

Not writing a full novel?

No problem, you’re still welcome to join in your own way! Whether it’s short stories, a poetry collection or some other creative writing project, you can still join and take part in tracking your progress.

Key dates

Challenge Starts: November 1st
Challenge Ends: November 30th
Weekly Check-ins: Every Friday via the Substack Chat

Ready to get started?

Hop on the Google link, prepare your word count, and get ready to get started!

November 1st is on Friday, so I’ll be be posting again in the chat ahead of then with another reminder, as well as the regular Write Your Novel! posts.

Any questions, please refer to the Subsack chat thread or you can comment on this post and I’ll get back to you soon.

Thanks for reading & I hope you can join us!

Let’s get that novel written, eh?