By Sky Pinkett
Staff Writer
It’s that time of year again. The leaves are falling, the days are darker and the autumn aesthetic is perfect for sitting down to write that book you’ve had in mind for years.
However, with the downfall of the writing community’s much beloved NaNoWriMo last year, many are left wondering how to go about pursuing the November writing challenge this month.
NaNoWriMo, also known as National Novel Writing Month, was a platform that guided thousands of amateur and professional writers in drafting a 50,000 word manuscript in 30 days.
Of course, there’s no rule saying that a person can’t just pursue this challenge by themself. But as many writers would admit, writing a rough draft of any length can feel impossible without the proper support and encouragement. That’s why The Signal has compiled a number of NaNoWriMo alternatives to prepare for this November’s novel challenge.
One of the most popular and cosigned alternatives out there is ProWritingAid’s Novel November. Not only is this platform free to sign up and use, but it is also backed by other well known writing platforms such as Wattpad, Kickstarter and Scrivener.
In addition to providing daily sprints, tracking tools to measure word count, and community events, ProWritingAid also gives members access to writing workshops with some of the bestselling authors of our day including ‘The Song of Achilles’ author Madeline Miller, ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ author Tomi Adeyemi, YouTube writing coach Abbie Emmons and a multitude of other novelists at zero cost.
Another great NaNoWriMo alternative is reedsystudio’s Reedsy Novel Sprint. Similar to ProWritingAid, Reedsy provides tracking tools, daily sprints and live writing sprints with fellow writers. Just be aware that the platform does include a few costly premium options.
As if the stakes couldn’t be high enough, Reedsy ups the ante with its November writing contest where participants of the 30-day challenge have the option to submit their manuscript for a chance at a cash prize and a 30-minute meeting with a literary agent.
The Reedsy blog also wrote an article that includes a handful of other November challenge writing platforms, including some of the ones listed here, and provides a chart that highlights which platform suits which type of writer.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how you choose to participate in the November novel challenge. Whether you’re using a writing platform, joining a Discord or Reddit or making a pact with your friend, this challenge is all about letting those creative juices flow and having fun while doing it.
