How to DIY a 50k word writing challenge in November

You have the technology!

There’s been an annual writing challenge to write 50,000 words in November for over 25 years. I took part way back in 2009, writing a fun YA romp called Of Rock and Earth. It wasn’t very good, but it was a critical step on my bumpy road towards being a writer, proving to me that I could finish a project and get the words down.

A couple of months back I heard that the official NaNoWriMo¹ organisation has had serious problems in recent years. Wired did a write-up on the convoluted debacle. Former member of the board

Daniel José Older

explained in his newsletter why he had stepped down.

That’s not what I want to focus on here. The mismanagement of the ‘official’ organisation is very sad, but it doesn’t really impact on writers who want to take part in the challenge itself. We have all the tools we need to run our own challenges!

How to roll your own 50k writing challenge

A vital element is the communal, we’re all in this together experience. It’s just enough social pressure to keep you coming back each day. Back when I did the challenge there were local meet-ups at the library, and write-ins, and the overall vibe was one of support and encouragement. Writing can be an isolating activity, and for one month you get to do it with hundreds — thousands! — of other people.

To be clear, I’m not doing it this year, due to being already snowed under with Triverse work. But here’s how I’d go about doing a NaNoWriMo-style challenge, on my own terms:

1. Create a new ‘section’ on my newsletter. I wouldn’t add my current subscribers. This would be a fresh section, no subscribers to start with. I wouldn’t want my regular subscribers all suddenly receiving my November Challenge ramblings.

2. This section would be my public notebook for the November Challenge. Anyone opting in would know that it was going to be rough as hell, a work-in-progress, and chaotic.

3. Every day I would aim to write an average of 1,666 words. I would post these out to the new section, regardless of their quality. Sharing the words on the section is my way of staying accountable and making sure I hit a daily target. Doesn’t matter whether anyone is actually reading at this point — simply having it out in the fresh air would be enough incentive. I should stress that this part is optional: if you’re not comfortable with sharing your work out loud, that’s fine — only do it if you think it’ll help!

4. I’d post progress updates over on Substack Notes, as an additional way to stay honest. Ideally this would also be a route to finding other writers also taking part in the November Challenge. This is where I could invite people to check out the chapters, with a very clear caveat that it’s going to be a hot mess, and share the experience more generally.

5. At the end of each week I’d use Chat to create an accountability thread, for myself and for anyone else who might find it useful.

6. It would also be fun to use those chat sessions as group ‘write-ins’, where everyone gets together at set times to plough through some words. I already do this most weeks anyway, and it’s always exciting to find out what everyone is up to.

7. I’d occasionally point to the Challenge section in the main newsletter, so that readers could choose to opt-in and check out what’s going on.

8. If I didn’t hit the daily word target, probably due to life getting in the way, I wouldn’t stress. I’ll have more words at the end of the month than I had at the start, regardless. And will probably have met some interesting people along the way. All good!

You don’t have to use Substack, of course. You could use a combination of Wordpress, Discord, WhatsApp or whatever you prefer. The main benefit for me was engaging with the wider community, which accelerates my writing process and makes the month-long challenge exciting.

Are you taking part in the November Challenge this year? If so, do leave a link down below to where you’ll be sharing updates.

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Meanwhile.

T K Hall

revealed the cover for the third book in his Blind Bowman trilogy. It is good:

Cover Reveal - Wildwood Rising

I’m reading the first book at the moment and it’s quite the thing. A retelling of the Robin Hood tales, it manages a magical tone that keeps its cards close to its chest, teetering on the edge of fantasy while clinging on to a more realistic normality: a genre juggling act that mirrors the journey of Robin Loxley, who for the first third of the book lives in a sort of half-awake dream state, before descending into nightmare. I suspect the story is about to plummet into a different space, and can’t wait.

It’s quite the thing. I’ve no idea really where it’s going to go, and, given that my main understanding of Robin Hood is from the movie Prince of Thieves, I’m being constantly surprised. Can’t wait to see where it goes, and I’ll certainly be picking up book 2 (which came out this month) and book 3 when it appears next year.

I do recommend Tim’s newsletter, where he writes very plainly about his struggles with writer’s block (and how he worked past it). Writing is hard, and Tim’s experience — and achievement — is a useful inspiration for all of us, when we’re facing down the pale, empty white page.

Earlier this year I had a chat with Tim about publishing which you can find here:

On another note, I’m currently trying to figure out whether to make a last-minute trip to Harrogate for the Thought Bubble convention. It looks amazing and I’ve never been.

This year has

Neill Cameron 🤖

(Mega Robo Bros genius), Kieron Gillen (multi-headed genius), Jamie McKelvie (comic fashion genius) and Simon Furman (formative 1980s Transformers genius) all in attendance, as well as a bunch of other extremely talented people. The only complications being that a) it’s over 4 hours away and b) it seems that all the affordable accommodation in Harrogate was booked months back.

Is anybody else going? Or have you gone in previous years? I’d love to know your thoughts on the con!

Right, it’s half-term here, which means an extended badminton session with the 11 year old this morning, some more Echoes of Wisdom and me trying not to think too much about turning 44 tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

This stock image perfectly captures the emotions one week into a 50k writing challenge. Photo by NEOM on Unsplash

1. National Novel Writing Month.