No More NaNoWriMo, But Yes To NoWriMo

      It should come as no surprise that I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo for a very long time. But if you are new here or have never heard of NaNoWriMo, let me introduce you to what November used to be: National Novel Writing Month. From 12:00am on the 1st of November until 11:59pm on the 30th, participants are challenged to write with the goal of completing a 50,000 word novel. The novel does not need to be good, or edited, or even make sense. The challenge is to get out there and write those 50k words; editing comes later! Wiki has a great explanation as well as the “rules” if you are interested in participating (link here).

      But wait, you may say. Why … used to be? Well, after a bit of unsavory corporate mismanagement, some allegations of child grooming and endangerment, predatory promotional partners, and the promotion of AI in what should be a personal writing challenge, NaNoWriMo as an organization has decided to pull it’s own plug. You can read more about all this here because boy is it a lot to cover and I just don’t have the mental capacity at the moment (it makes total sense that I’d get a migraine just before a writing challenge…) I knew about all the drama and chaos during 2023 and 2024’s NaNo, but I was also in the middle of far too many college classes to pay it much attention (though I DID attempt NaNo those years… boy did that hurt.)

      November starts in a few days, and as usual I will be participating organization or not, because when it comes down to it NaNoWriMo is a personal challenge. Sure, there are copycat challenges and a rumored nano2 or some such started by the original creator, but you don’t need a website if you want to challenge yourself. Writing communities have existed before the internet and will continue to exist after the death of the official NaNoWriMo because writers are creative people and needing to write is in the blood for many of us.

      Since the NaNoWriMo org website is dead, you can’t rely on them for tracking or community, but there is an active Reddit, a Discord, and other places (check your preferred writer community!) If you are looking for a place/way to track your writing now that the NaNoWriMo site is gone, there are many options. I’ve listed a few I’ve used below.

• Paper – I create a spread in my journal every year. They are very simple to do. You can see a sample if mine for this year here (link will be updated once I actually finish making it…)
• Google Doc Spreadsheets – This is the one I personally use. I don’t know who originally created this, but I have been using it since 2015! Copy it to your own drive, edit the dates (it is set for 2015 after all) and get to tracking! If you are motivated you can even update the image.
• TrackBear – Digital tracking. Not very fancy but gets the job done. (EDIT: someone created a group tracker for NaNo2025! Join it here.)
• PaceMaker – Digital tracking. Pretty much exactly like TrackBear, but I like that they let you adjust your schedule. I like that I can exclude days, adjust my flow, or change my view. I’ve included a screenshot of my personal schedule below. I chose the “mountain bike” distribution (heavy in the middle) with a few days of “just in case” time at the end.

      When it comes down to it, November is ingrained in me as a month to challenge myself into writing and thinking on my toes. It’s about letting go of my inhibitions or the worries and concerns that prevent me from completing a novel or even starting a new one. I look at my work from this challenge as a rough draft for future work; if I like the concept I have an outline that I can work through and make better. If I don’t like it, I’ve only spent 30 days out of 356 but given it my all!

      I will be keeping track as best I can with daily check ins on my twitter and bluesky accounts. I’ll also periodically check in here under the #NoWriMo2025 tag.

      If you are participating, let me know! Good luck and happy writing.