13 rebel ideas for Novelember (NaNoWriMo alternative)
In the writing community, many of us take part in a month-long writing marathon of writing a 50,000 word novel during November.
Since the collapse and abandonment of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), lots of other communities have opened up their doors to continue the tradition and host the challenge.
If you want to know the details, you can read the full overview of what happened in this extensive post on /r/HobbyDrama - please check the content warnings before reading (yes it's that bad).
📚 So, what is Novelember?
Novelember is simply "Novel-November". It's exactly the same concept: during November you write a 50k words towards a novel (or other big writing project)! It doesn't have to be finished, edited, or perfect - you can polish it up later.
You can write in any format you prefer, whether it's Google Docs, Scrivener, Obsidian, something else, or good ol' pen and paper.
World Anvil is hosting this event, and have really relaxed rules with an honour system to submit your wordcount and get a digital certificate for completion.
✊ What does being a rebel mean?
Not everyone enjoys writing novels, and when I tried the event in previous years I quickly learnt that it was not my cup of tea! 😅 (Also I'd never written a story before so I found it really hard!)
Thankfully, you can still take part as a rebel. Just write 50k words of whatever you like during November! Here are some ideas I've put together that you could try out this year:
💥 13 rebel ideas for Novelember:
Short stories instead of one big one
Non-fiction writing (such as a book, essays, or a research paper)
Just the planning bit for a novel
Editing and polishing up previous things you've written
Writing for a comic or graphic novel
Poetry, letters, or memoirs
Coding
Blogging
Script writing (for videos, TV, film, or theatre)
Course writing
Translation
Game design (planning, dialogue, TTRPG design, statblocks)
Worldbuilding
🧰 Useful tools for Novelember:
I made a wordcount tracker and planner in Google Sheets that's perfect for staying on track during marathon writing challenges like Novelember!
You can calculate your average writing speed, make time for days off, record your daily progress, and it will tell you how many words you need to write each day to reach your goal.
An example of writing in progress showing the projected finish date
This Google Sheets template has:
📈 A goal planner with a wordcount and progress tracker
🌍 A place to plan out what you want to create
⚡ Somewhere to keep track of your favourite prompts and challenges
📜 A bonus quest board that will help you decide what to do next!
