Anyone doing the Novel November challenge (50,000 words in 30 days)?

[Beachtastic]

Apologies if there is already a thread on this, I couldn't find one.

I've never signed up for a writing challenge before, but fancy this one as a way of trying to combat my natural tendency to do ANYTHING other than get the words down. (I did once complete a 90,000-word book, thought it was great, then realised it was really just a first draft and would need a complete rework (but can't be arsed, as I have lost interest in it...).

The deadline is quite challenging, especially as I work full-time, but I do seem to operate best under pressure. Maybe it will help to circumvent my over-perfectionism!

prowritingaid.com/novel-november

Would love to do that. It would finish my book! 50k might be ambitious. That's probably 2-3 hours writing a day, every day. I'm freelance and November is often quieter so perhaps it's possible.

I'm freelance too and now is busier than ever! It works out at just over 1500 words per day. So guess three pages, single spaced. It seems daunting, but I'd think nothing of doing this as part of my job. Having a crazy deadline might be the only way to trick my brain into doing it for myself!

I've installed the Word add-in, which I haven't experimented with yet but at first glance does seem to have some useful features such as checking for repeated words ("Echo").

I'm happy to give it a go! Progress is progress and I have a vague idea to finish a trilogy before I'm 40 which is only 18months away which seems impossibly ambitious now 😭

Assuming this is a NaNoWriMo replacement…I’ve attempted it a few times and achieved it twice. Even when I ‘failed’ I still got more done than I would have done otherwise.

I need a couple of hours a day to meet the minimum target and not sure if I’ll get chance this year but I could really do with those words on a new novel!

I suppose it fills the gap left by NaNoWriMo! I've never tried that.

This one, I think, is a sort of global promotion for ProWritingAid, which is a writing tool designed for creative writing. I only added it to Word this week and haven't had a chance to experiment with it yet, but it offers some interesting data on e.g. sentence length variation, "sticky" sentences (cluttered with "glue" words), dialogue tags and pacing, repetition, alliteration and sensory detail, which are all potentially useful. There's an option to upgrade to a paid version that offers editorial feedback.

I watched a YouTube video where someone used it to analyse the opening sequence of some of the greatest novels of English literature, which was quite entertaining and just goes to show a tool is a tool is a tool, the author's voice is what counts.

The company was founded in the UK, like PerfectIt, and I like the look of their data handling policy (nothing used for AI training etc). I can't find anything about previous winning stories, so not sure if this is a new initiative (haven't Googled this to death yet, though!).

So, now it's not a work day I've had another look and the challenge is not a competition (hence no past "winners") -- just a sort of accountability initiative to prompt you to write 50,000 words in a month. I'm going to have a go!

I used PWA for a month editing my novel…useful for the features like repeated words and analysing sentence lengths etc. I think they’ve seen the gap after NaNo and are using it as a promotion. NaNo used to describe you as ‘winning’ if you hit the target. Anything that add accountability is good in my book but I did find it stressful the years I did it! The best approach I found is to get ahead in the early days, and start at midnight on the 1st so you effectively eek an extra day out of it!!

Yes. I have to have a first draft for my PhD ready by Christmas and am struggling to motivate myself atm. The Nov challenge might help get me over the line. Glad to see I may not be alone next month!

I had to disable the ProWritingAid add-in from Word, as documents kept crashing (possibly incompatible with other add-ins like EndNote?). But the "challenge" has an online version that I am going to try.

NaNo is no more?

I never did it. But it all ended in tears, apparently 🫢

https://www.avclub.com/nanowrimo-to-shut-down-a-year-after-ai-comments

Oh no - no nanowrimo! I do see there are alternatives but they all seem to be linked to writing software where you have to subscribe or do a trial? :(

ProWritingAid is free, and seems to have some useful features - there are some YouTube reviews, if you have time! 🌞

@Beachtastic will give it a look… always welcome a time gobbling procrastination activity…

I did it z few times. My favourite procrastinating activity was updating my (increasingly elaboutate) excel sheet tracking my word count

I’ve signed myself up. Querying a ms at the moment and trying to get going on the next one, so the timing is handy. But I’ve also got two kids under four, a job, and a Christmas to plan, so it’s probably setting myself up for failure!

As well as the AI controversy, there were safeguarding problems with the forums they ran for young writers. It seems that a few of the mods were putting in links which took users to some rather dubious websites.

I’m going to give it a go. I’m nearly at the end of my first draft so I won’t do 50k words. But if I can get this draft finished , I’ll consider that ‘winning’.

have decided to give it a go. Is this a support thread? or is there a separate one?

I'm currently unemployed so plenty of time to do my 1,667 words per day.

You can use this thread however you like! Having started it, I'm now involved in mum's end of life care, so I'm not going to be writing anything soon... But would like to write about this one day, for sure 😊

Good luck everyone!!!

sorry to hear about your mum, @Beachtastic
I did the first 2 days, so we'll see if i can keep up the interest/momentum

I loved doing NaNo, and completed I think 4 times.

I'm trying to write with a group but I find it much harder.

Today, I finished the first draft. It stinks but it’s done and I now have something to edit.

Next step for NaNo is to do the prep for the first edit (I’m using Janice Hardy’s Revising Your Novel to guide the process).

Wow! That's good. I'm nearly on 7k words and I feel like I'm rambling.

I reckon started it around 12 months ago and it feels like 90k words of rambling!