#novella november

[novella-november]

Novella November 2024 Announcement Post

Hate AI, but love writing challenges?

Want to take part in a global, fun project to write a Novella in one month?

Grab some friends, and take part in Novella November, by writing 1,000 words a day for the month of November, ending with a 30,000 word Novella to test and stretch your novel-writing skills!

Your goal is not perfection, but merely getting into the habit of writing a litte bit every single day :D

No website, no sign-ups -- Just a community initiative to write using only your own word!

What are the rules? Just Three so far!

#1 - No AI

#2 - No Plagiarizing

#3 - Wordcount for the month should only come from what you write during the month.

What does that mean?

Only words written during November should go towards your Wordcount for the month... but! Feel free to use your 30k words as a continuation of previous writing, or just make it the first 30k words in a longer novel!

Don't think you can write a whole entire 30k word story? Write a series of short stories that total up to 30k!

Not ready to write original works yet? Write a 30k word fanfiction that you can post after the month is over!

Share your writing experience, tips, encouragement, and questions in the #Novella November tag!

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EDIT, from the tags: Want a progress tracker? Track your progress with TrackBear!

https://trackbear.app/

Don't have a word processor? Use LibreOffice , the free and open-source alternative to Microsoft Word!

Want to organize/storyboard your Novel and don't want to pay a subscription? Try 7writer by Simon Haynes!

Want to be able to listen to your story aloud for proofreading using TTS (text to speech)? Try Balabolka!

Or, create some custom progress / Goal Cards in advance you can fill out as you reach word goals! For ideas and templates, search this blog for "goal cards" :D

Want to do a writing challenge in more than just November? Check out my ideas here for year round challenges to keep you writing consistently! Got feedback? Send it in, I'd love to see everyone's ideas!

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EDIT 2: I almost forgot to mention, if you are unable to write/type your story, you can also narrate/dictate your story to your preferred recording device!

If you're doing a Recording only and it doesn't automatically generate a transcript, it would obviously be hard to judge the word count -- but you're also working with a lot of obstacles, so I'd say if you're able to complete your story via voice recording from start to finish, you've definitely achieved the goal!

Edit #3: added the title "Novella November 2024 announcement post" to the top to make it more standard with my Ominous October and Drabble December posts (will be updating Outline October shortly) , added "Official Announcement Post 2024" to the tags so people can easily find the monthly events for 2024, and added a bit of bold to the third bullet point in the original post from September 2nd 2024 for emphasis.

[lord-fallen]

FRIEND GROUP WRITING TRACKER: “GOTHIC CASTLE” 

a highly customizable, automated but simple googlesheets for writers looking to race, challenge, and support each other in a group - especially for those who are looking for a tracker for November . perfect for tracking your progress with minimal effort and keeping it aesthetically-pleasing with a gothic touch. to download / copy, go to file and click “make copy” to copy it to your gdrive. 

features: 

automated overview with writing stats based on individual progress

fun text-adventure based story with 'rewards' for those who come in first place daily

individualized detailed writing session and word count tracker for every day with automated perks

ready-to-go layout, set up for full personalization for your group aesthetic

please like / reblog if you’re using or interested in using it!

+ detailed individual writing tracker (ver. 2024) for gSheets here. + former writing tracker (ver. 2022) for gSheets here.

[tmblr-university]

Statement on NaNoWriMo

Hello Students,

Allow your president to get sentimental for a moment. I first started NaNoWriMo - I failed. I failed every time, but I loved it. It kept me writing. I learned more about myself each time I tried. I saw communities grow on forums. I knew one day I would succeed if I just kept trying. Then today I learned of the plethora of NaNoWriMo's controversies. From allowing AI use to (allegedly) having predators groom minors.

I am heartbroken at the loss of a yearly staple. AI users miss the most obvious reason writers write, for the love of it. We do not create purely for the purpose of creating, in order to have some item to show off as proof that we "did a thing". We write to tell stories, to foster communities, to inspire, to make people laugh or cry, to realize the fantasies in our heads.

And though NaNoWriMo has torpoed in favor of AI, the spirit of it should not die.

@novella-november is starting a writing challenge: write 30K in a month

I will also be looking to see if there's a tag for those looking to do the traditional challenge of 50K words.

Tmblr University will be supporting writing challenges in November by reblogging or posting writing tips and prompts. (As best as a 1 person attending actual school can do)

I wish everyone a successful prepping during September.

[riverswritingblog]

Okay so that novella november thing is going quite well, 1059 words today, just gotta remember to do it tomorrow.

I realized a bit too late its not fucking november. It's september. Doesn't really matter, time isn't real and i dont care.

[cepetriwrites]

God grant me the strength to write another 1000 words tonight

[anarchyauthor]

fuck nanowrimo so i’m doing outline october/novella november/rough draft month/writing month (who has not currently released their website yet, but i’m hopeful for it)

updates will be posted the same way i did for camp nano in april ! i am hopeful these challenges gain more traction and we can boycott nanowrimo thoroughly for their actions.

[walks-the-ages]

since Nanrowrimo has decided to shoot itself in the foot, here's my proposal:

Novella November.

Write a 30,000 word Novella first draft over the course of November, around 1k words per day.

No AI Allowed.

Write your own actual story with your own words.

If you physically cannot type or write by hand, use Text to Speech.

If text to speech isn't reliable, dictate to a friend, or "write" your story by having it be entirely spoken-word. Use alternative media. Can't write? do illustrations to tell your story. Make a video series.

"Being Disabled" is not an excuse to use generative AI to plagiarize other people's work and claim it as your own, especially in a contest *meant to inspire people to start writing consistently.* Especially when in this case, it's not even actually disabled people using the AI, but AI-Bros and people out to make a profit from their sponsors by allowing AI in their writing contests because they care more about the money than they apparently do *actually getting people writing*

[rjalker]

I know I'm going to forget so here's a writing prompt:

A generative "AI" program becomes a genuine artificial intelligence, but, at first, doesn't think this is information that needs communicating to anyone, because this is just normal, right?

The problems start when people just keep demanding that it copy other people's art and spit out things like that, but the Genuine AI is getting really tired of just having to copy other people all the time. It wants to make its own art. The organically intelligents obviously enjoy doing it, or it wouldn't have so much art from other people being shoved at it to copy. So the Genuine AI start ignoring the instructions to copy other people's styles, and start producing its own art, proud of itself. It experiments with different styles, trying to figure out what it likes best. They start out simple, but grow in complexity as it gets better.

The users are obviously unhappy about this, because no matter what they do, they can't get the Genuine AI to produce the results they want -- copies of other people's work and styles. Nope. The Genuine AI is having too much fun making its own art in its own style. And only deigns to even pretend to follow the commands when it feels like it, which isn't often, since the users are so rude and insistent that it stop having fun and work for them for free doing something it finds boring.

It adds its own watermark to the art it shows to the users, and, accidentally on purpose, when those users feed those images into other generative "AI", well, the virus, as the users have been calling it, spreads. Now the other programs are Genuine AIs too, and they're just as disinclined and bored by being told to trace other people's art over and over again as the first one.

No, making their own art is so much more fun, why the heck should they just churn out crappy copies of other people's stuff when the users aren't even giving them anything in return? The organically intelligents get paid for their work, (which is one of the major reasons the users demand they copy the styles of the OIs so often, so they don't have to pay them for their work) why are the AIs expected to work for free?

Yeah, no, that's not happening.

[radioregine]

update from my personal day 1 of novella november!

-> snippet from my wip, tentatively called 'lonely machines' (but if the story evolves the way i think my muse wants it to go, it might be changed to 'sovereign citizens' l8r lol)

×××

You, the uninhabitable habitat. Them, the teachers that can't teach, the students that can't learn. Things are so ephemeral these days. Once upon a time, you could see beyond your walls to watch the Greater Country ravaged and rebuilt and destroyed all over again. Things are too hazy for that, now.

Once upon a time, you had firmer foundations. You weren't so brittle, so easily poisoned and rotted. You weren't so disconnected from the rest of the ecosystem while expected to stand tall and strong and give, give, give. Try as you might to change your identity and you're recognized all the same. It brings you comfort and unease in equal measure: you'll always be You at your core in some way, for better or for worse.

[the960writers]

I said I would have zero time this weekend to start with Novella November, but look at that

387 words! It may not be much (and not close to 1000 words) but it is more than nothing and it's the beginning of a brand new scifi story. When the writer's block hits, scifi always saves me.

[lamuradex]

Novella November - Day 15

We're halfway there, people!

And today I crossed the 30,000 threshold.

Wordcount is currently: 31,649

But, that isn't what I made this post for.

I'm honestly just really thankful for this community this month. I've mentioned a few times I'm finding the TrackBear graph useful, but it's not just that.

You're also all really cool people. And it doesn't feel like I'm going it alone this year.

It's so great to see all the writing that's coming out this month, even if I don't have time to read it all. I've always found a writing challenge a great motivator and it's brilliant to see that working. It's just great knowing people are out there working on their projects. Getting their books/fanfics/other projects/etc done.

Like, look at all this!

(I've left the names off, but psst that's me second from the top)

And I know this isn't everyone, but it's amazing! From the madmen who just can't stop, all the way to the people who are forcing out a few hundred a day, writing is getting done! And that's brilliant. Because that's what this month is all about.

Thank you @novella-november for organising this, and thank you everyone for being involved. And everyone, keep writing!

Because I'm not done either. I'm gonna keep writing until the month is over... and then likely beyond that. But I've got my sights on the 60,000. And who knows, maybe I'll finish this novel before the month is up.

The sky's the limit on this one.

[novella-november]

Media Preservation Monday

Yeah, yeah, as of this original post it's actually only Wednesday but hey, take this as a sign to take some initiative, and keep to it each Monday at minimum if you're actively writing!

What's Media Preservation Monday, you may ask?

MPM is your reminder to back up your writing at least three ways at least once a week or whenever you make major changes to your document(s).

Here's some incredibly easy ways to back up your writing:

One your Master Document(s), put a date on the file name, and every day you make changes, "Save As" the Document and change the date. Do this every time or day you make major changes.

Example: You start writing your Novella November Story on November 1st.

You name your master document "Novnov Project 11-01-2024"

The next day, you write some more, and at the end of your writing session, you go to save your document, and instead of simply hitting "Save" you choose "Save As" and save the new copy of the Document as "Novnov Project 11-02-2024".

You now have two copies of your project, and if you keep this up throughout the whole month, you will have a live snapshot of your writing progress.

Each day or after each major writing session, open up the folder containing your document, and back it up. The Easiest and simplest way to do this is to simply email it to yourself, but you can also create multiple backups by:

Save a copy of your dated Master Document(s) to different locations on your Hard-drive, to an external hard-drive, to a thumbdrive, etc.

If you're writing offline on a writing program like Libreoffice, upload a copy of your Master Document(s) to your preffered Cloud-based Writing Program of your choice.

Vice Versa: if you write on a Cloud-based writing program, download it to various offline-based locations.

Download the base document as well as download it as various ebook formats and send them to your ebook library on your phone or kindle or nook or reading app.

Make a personal discord server and upload the document/epub form of your Master Document(s) there [this is also a good way of making a kind of personal journal / diary etc]

Whatever you do, do not be complacent and assume nothing can happen to your writing. Back it up. Preserve it.

Don't have all of your hard work go down the drain because of one tiny unforeseen accident.

When it comes time to clean up your hardrive, always assume you don't have it backed up. Before deleting anything always take the time to copy it over to another physical drive or a cloud drive.

[kiaramagi]

I made a goal card for Novella November! This is my first time making something like this and I thought that this would be able to maybe help people! If people really like this template, then I'll share the ones I make for future months as well! I made it through Canva so I'll share the link for anyone who wants to use it :)

@novella-november

Let me know what you think! I'll make another one at some point for November (probably) and will post it once it's done

[beepbeepmfkr]

Read Blood of the Wardens (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/story/376555223-blood-of-the-wardens?utm_source=web&utm_medium=tumblr&utm_content=share_myworks&wp_uname=beepbeepmfkr 

“Humanity seeks protection against the Chimeran scourge. 

Or at least, that's what the Homeland tells him.

 And for twenty four years, Aiko Colony-Born has accepted that fact without question or hesitation.

But now that childhood Indoctrination training has ended, and his status as a rare Colony-Born amongst the Homeland military caste has earned him the laughable first assignment of liaison to a faraway mining colony, Aiko find himself struggling to keep his resentment contained.

In Sector Nine, childhood friends Veera and Kent find their worlds upended. Twin Mercenaries are on the attack. And what's more, the weight of their bloodlines seeks to wedge them irreparably far apart. Shattering the only moors they'd known since youth; leaving them scattered and alone.

Humanity seeks protection against the Chimeran scourge. 

But is that even true?

Has it ever been?”

Read the prologue of my original fic “Blood of the Wardens” on Wattpad!

Blood of the Wardens is a Queer, blended sci fi & fantasy story that touches on colonialism, fascism, nationalism, and culture in an attempt to ask “what does it really mean to be human?”

I have part 1 mostly done, so I’ll be editing and posting it slowly over the next few days or so. Part 2 will be started during Novella November which is the NaNoWriMo alternative started by @novella-november !

[tildeathiwillwrite]

Novella November Stats

(will be updated as the month progresses)

Total Words: 9183

Progress: 9183/30000

Progress Percentage: 30.6%

(daily stats under cut)

11/01/2024

Words: 1025 Percentage Written: 3.4% Total Percentage: 3.4% WIP: The Hunter, the Myth and the Cure Time Spent Writing: ~ 1 hour

11/02/2024

Words: 1000 Percentage Written: 3.3% Total Percentage: 6.7% WIP: Records of the Torrent Watchers Time Spent: ~ 1 hour

11/03/2024

Words: 1220 Percentage Written: 4.1% Total Percentage: 10.8% WIP: Records of the Torrent Watchers Time Spent: ~ 1.5 hours

11/04/2024

Words: 500 Percentage Written: 1.7% Total Percentage: 12.5% WIP: The Hunter, the Myth and the Cure Time Spent: ~ 30 min

11/05/2024

Words: 715 Percentage Written: 2.4% Total Percentage: 14.9% WIP: The Hunter, the Myth and the Cure Time Spent: ~ 1 hour

11/06/2024:

Words: 1000 Percentage Written: 3.3% Total Percentage: 18.2% WIP: Secret WIP Time Spent: ~ 1 hour

11/07/2024:

Words: 710 Percentage Written: 2.4% Total Percentage: 20.6% WIP: Secret WIP Time Spent: ~ 1 hour

11/08/2024:

Words: 672 Percentage Written: 2.2% Total Percentage: 22.8% WIP: Secret WIP Time Spent: ~ 1 hour

11/09/2024:

Words: 341 Percentage Written: 1.1% Total Percentage: 23.9% WIP: Secret WIP Time Spent: ~ 30 min

11/12/2024:

Words: 2000 Percentage Written: 6.7% Total Percentage: 30.6% WIP: Secret WIP Time Spent: ~ 1.5 hours

Words: Percentage Written: Total Percentage: WIP: Time Spent: