Since 1999, National Novel Writing Month has inspired aspiring authors to write a novel in a month. I started participating in the event in 2006, and did it every year until 2023. I did not participate in 2024, for reasons I discussed in my blog post of that year. In March 2025, the non-profit that ran the event shut down.
Which meant folks who relied on the seat-of-your-pants, self-motivated challenge were left in the lurch for November 2025. What to do? Well, there are alternatives, some good, some bad.
NaNo 2.0
NaNo 2.0 is a group of former NaNo staff, longtime Municipal Liaisons, volunteers, participants, Young Writers Program educators, plus founder Chris Baty. One reason this new group was formed was to be able to provide educators with the resources originally provided through the Young Writers Program.
It’s definitely not the original NaNoWriMo. And, as this is their first year, there are limited activities for participants. November word sprints will be carried out via Bluesky. Regional NaNoWriMo groups will be running their own events. But, do not fear, there are badges!
NaNo 2.0 also suggests other writing communities to explore should you want a supportive group around you all year and not just in November.
Novel November
I just heard about Novel November! It seems the founder of that site is trying to recreate an experience very much like NaNoWriMo with goal setting, word trackers, and earned awards. The best part is that there is a community forum. One of the magical aspects of NaNoWriMo was the community forum.
On Your Own or With Friends
NaNoWriMo started a movement of noveling that simply cannot be stopped! Just look to your own author groups (virtual or in-person), your social media friends (the #NaNoWriMo hashtag is still very much in use), strangers (potential noveling friends) with laptops in cafes!
If accountability is something you need, use a progress tracker or find a noveling buddy!
What Not To Do
Well, ProWritingAid used to offer a program that was a simple grammar checker for writers. That simple grammar checker exploded to be a full-fledged artificial intelligence machine with writing assistance, virtual beta reader, and possibly scraping for generative AI.
This for-profit company was a sponsor of NaNoWriMo in the last years of the event (with their involvement being one of the reasons WriMos became disenchanted). They seemed to think this sponsorship made them the heir and successor to NaNoWriMo. They have started an event they call “Novel November” (not to be confused with Novel November mentioned above!), abbreviated as NovNov. Participants use the ProWritingAid site for an experience that tries to approximate the old NaNoWriMo look-and-feel.
If you are opposed to AI companies having any access to any of your words, I would steer very clear of this.
What Will I Do?
I won’t be participating in NaNoWriMo in any form in 2025. I’ve got a Steampunk series I’ve been trying to release for far too long! I’ll be concentrating on that.
Whatever you do, I wish you luck and happy National Novel Writing Month noveling!