For more than twenty-five years, authors, aspiring authors, and writers from all walks of life participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a monthly competition that challenged participants to complete a fifty-thousand-word novel in a month. In 1999, the event started with just twenty-one participants. At its peak, more than four hundred thousand people participated worldwide.
In April 2025, the nonprofit organization closed its doors. But after hearing the demand for something to replace NaNoWriMo, ProWritingAid, one of the leading tools for writers, has stepped up to the plate. NovNov—Novel November—is a writing challenge launching this year with a similar goal in mind: As the company's website sums it up, "50,000 words, 30 days, 1 novel. Go from blank page to first draft with Novel November."
"In the wake of NaNoWriMo closing, we've had hundreds of different users reach out to us and ask us if we would be interested, or able, to step into this void and provide a suitable alternative," says Hayley Milliman, ProWritingAid's director of community. "As we looked at what we have the capacity to do and what we can kind of bring together, we decided this would be a great opportunity to utilize the existing infrastructure to host a challenge that's big and ambitious but also really safe and supportive and accessible for writers."
With Novel November, or NovNov, she hopes new authors will have the opportunity to feel the same sense of accomplishment.
Developing NovNov has been a labor of love for Milliman and the rest of ProWritingAid's staff. They've been hosting free training events for the writing community since 2020, including Fantasy Writers Week, Romance Writers Week, and more. During those sessions, the platform brought in authors and experts to offer education and advice to participants.
The staff has now merged the training sessions and the infrastructure NaNoWriMo created to develop NovNov. Milliman sees NovNov as an opportunity to give back and celebrate the writing community that inspires them every single day.
How It Will Work
NovNov will follow a similar structure to NaNoWriMo, encouraging writers to write 50,000 words in November, but ProWritingAid is set to provide additional support features to participants.
Interested authors can sign up for a free account now at the ProWritingAid website: https://prowritingaid.link/JoinNovNov. Starting this month, ProWritingAid will also host more than 150 prep sessions to help authors get ready for NovNov. These sessions will help authors learn how to plot their novels and will include advice from experts in the writing field, including number one New York Times best-selling authors:
- Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles;
- Tomi Adeyemi, author of Children of Blood and Bone;
- Rufi Thorpe, author of Margot's Got Money Troubles.
Participants will be able to sit in on the three sessions hosted by each author and ask questions. "We'll act as mentors and guides throughout this experience," Milliman says. "As of October 1, you'll be able to log into the dashboard, commit to your novel, and start attending these sessions."
Beginning November 1, participants will be able to log word counts for the challenge on their accounts. Those with ProWritingAid accounts integrated with their preferred writing app will be able to log words as they type rather than manually updating their word counts on the site. ProWritingAid can integrate with several writing programs, including Scrivener, Google Docs, and Word. Learn more at https://prowritingaid.com/integrations.
Similar to NaNoWriMo, as they write, participants will earn badges and achievements and see how their progress stacks up to other participants. There will be prizes and items to unlock along the way.
"We're partnering with many different organizations who will be providing free gifts, discounts on products, or other things they will be offering to participants," Milliman says. "Some will be offered to anyone who participates; others will be for those who have won."
Starting in December, ProWritingAid will shift the focus to "what to do next," with a focus on editing content. They will also be developing future challenges for writers throughout the year.
Tracking Word Count
With the NaNoWriMo platform, authors who participated in the challenge had to keep track of their word counts manually. But ProWritingAid has developed a widget for participants of NovNov that can track an author's word count automatically. The platform's widget allows users to add their word count for a specific session, and those with ProWritingAid integrated with their writing platform will even be able to unlock achievements directly in the app.
Participants will also be able to edit their word counts if needed—for example, if they wrote something in their document that didn't apply to the project.
You are not required to have ProWritingAid or the widget to participate. Similar to NaNoWriMo, participants will be able to log in to the main dashboard and manually add word counts. There will also be a dashboard on the website, where users will be able to view achievements they've already unlocked and see upcoming events hosted by the platform.
And though the primary goal is to write a fifty-thousand-word novel in a month, if authors are working on multiple novels in the month, the words will still count.
"As long as it's fifty thousand words in a month, you still win," Milliman says. "This is your challenge. The goal is to write fifty thousand words in November. Some people write one novel. Some people jump around. At the end of the day, you're the one putting the word count in."
ProWritingAid will also have a way for users to download images showing their progress to share on social media or on their website. Authors will not be required to verify their word count to win; everyone who adds their word counts into the system and achieves fifty thousand words will receive a badge they can share to show they won NovNov.
A Community of Writers for Writers
Of course, ProWritingAid hasn't forgotten about the community-building aspect of NaNoWriMo. NovNov will aim to connect the writing community in the same way as its predecessor.
"We're going to be hosting multiple writing sprints every single day," Milliman says. "We will also have some community features for you to connect with other writers."
Anyone who takes part in NovNov will have access to a free community where all events will take place. Users will have a place to chat and connect with fellow participants in chat spaces hosted within the ProWritingAid community, as well as with the groups ProWritingAid has partnered with for NovNov. Participants can share details about their projects, check in daily, and join writing circles to chat with other writers in the same genre, affinity groups, and more.
There will also be in-person writing sprints at Author Nation in Las Vegas in November.
"If you haven't participated in any [events] as part of NaNoWriMo or attended any of ProWritingAid's training sessions, you will be surprised how fun it is," Milliman says. "It's great to be able to talk to writing book coaches, story coaches, editors, and agents we've brought on board."
Networking is also important, acknowledges ProWritingAid staff, and the company plans to host networking events. These events will be an opportunity for writers to connect with each other, with focuses such as sharing writing tips, speed "friend"-ing, talking about books, and genre focuses.
Looking to the Future
ProWritingAid isn't just focusing on NovNov this year; the company is planning for the future. They're partnering with other organizations, such as Scrivener and Kickstarter, to develop the writing challenge further, as well as using the challenge as an opportunity to give back.
Similar to NaNoWriMo, which raised funds to support The Young Writers Program and provide resources to incarcerated and low-income Title I schools, ProWritingAid will donate two dollars for every person who wins the challenge to Room to Read, a charity dedicated to bringing literacy and equality to children living in poverty and conflict-stricken communities.
"We hope to have a nice, big donation for Room to Read at the end," Milliman says. "And then, in the future, I hope it gets bigger and better every year."
Milliman hopes to work with more organizations and mentors as ProWritingAid brings more writers on board. And though she is excited for NovNov in November, she hopes the challenge will also be replicated throughout the year. "I'm excited to see how NovNov turns out this year, and I look forward to helping it expand in the future," she says.
Sign-ups for ProWritingAid's NovNov are free and open now. Create an account and announce your project at https://prowritingaid.link/JoinNovNov.
Grace Snoke
