Novella November -- And Other Monthly Writing Challenges! 💙 An Anti-AI writing initiative to inspire people all over the world to write 30,000 words in November! Currently Planning other Monthly Writing Events to keep everyone in the habit of writing, and having fun with it! 💙 Run by 1 person with autism who loves writing, inspiring others, and hates generative AI.
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Novella-november - Novella-November - Tumblr Blog
You said we could share writing accomplishments, so I am!
I've been doing a ton of writing these past few weeks, getting to a total of almost forty thousand, with an average of about 2000 a day. My record was 6000 in one day.
ADHD hit hard 😅
ooh, congrats! 6k in one day is a big accomplishment!
2k per day is a really good, steady number, too!
I think the most I've done in one day was a bit over 2k words but it was definitely not a streak of doing that consistently, but I'm hoping I'll be able to do so in Novella November!
by the way, please feel free to send asks with your mini or large accomplishments during these writing events!
How many words did you write today, even if you didn't reach the daily goal?
Did you start designing your main characters, or start outlining your plot?
On or off anon, please feel free to share your accomplishments!
The problem w writing fiction is that you'll be like tee-hee I'm going to write a story about a fucked up little scenario that's got nothing to do with anything in real life, just some pure messed up nonsense, and then you finish it and take a step back and go aw rats I made a metaphor again
With 4thewords, I have written 1,651 words today for the second day of Ominous October!
in the spirit of not editing in pursuit of continuous writing to actually get things done , I have not only switched perspective from third to first perspective but also changed the pronouns of the two-so-far characters twice, without editing because that can come after its done :P
"undead / strange town" I've already got a pretty solid concept for whats happening, now its just time to get the ball rolling!
current mantra
Today's countdown:
29 days, 18 hours til Novella November!
We're currently on day two of Ominous / Outline October!
Ominous October - Undead
I just posted my first short story for the @novella-november Ominous October writing challenge to AO3!
You can check it out right here
Summary:
Hurricane PD forensics officer Hayleigh Courtman analyzes footage found at Fazbear's Pizza, where several kids have just gone missing.
Wordcount:
6054
I didn't expect this one to be done so quickly, but it does give me some breathing room, as I am now five days ahead of schedule!
I’m partaking in @novella-november’s Ominous October, weekly 5k story version, and I knocked out over 900 words today hooray!!
Made a little planner page and everything. I’m trying out the free level of 4TheWords but am copying it over to @ellipsus-writes because that’s my cloud service of choice.
A solid start!
the obvious.
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.
571 words done in about 20 minutes for Ominous October day one "Undead / Strange Town" :P
I'm "fighting" Mawt on 4TheWords as my motivation to keep writing consistently instead of getting distracted lol
Last night I also started doing an outline for my story and have an outline for the first two chapters of my story, along with the first three bullet points of "opening scene" "plot starts" and "climax" filled in :P
Ominous / Outline October 2024 Day 1
Happy Ominous / Outline October!
For Ominous October, your challenge it to write at least 714 words (or more) per day, to write a 5k word short story each week! There's also an option to just write daily drabbles of 714 or more words as well.
This first week's prompt is "Undead / Strange Town"
Alternatively, today's Daily Prompt is "Raised from the Dead"
If you are participating in Outline October instead, now is your sign to start outlining and planning your story for Novella November!
If you don't have a concrete idea of who your main character is yet, now is the time to start brainstorming and designing :)
A good first step for outlining is figuring out what you want the opening pages of your story to be, how you want the main plot to start, and what happens between those two points, and work your way outward from there :)
While I'm talking about writing I do want to rec two INCREDIBLE writing apps that have helped me immensely as a writer with ADHD
Stimuwrite is a little program that you can customize with all sorts of really rewarding instant tactile feedback, for example sound effects every time you hit a key, emoji notifications and balloons when you hit your custom goal (which can be as low as you want for low energy days), and neat animated backgrounds.
4thewords turns writing into an RPG and you can kill monsters via word count in order to complete quests and progress through what I personally find to be an interesting and fun storyline. It comes with all the RPG trappings like loot, gear, even custom housing (win more stuff for your house by writing).
I cannot stress ENOUGH how amazing both of these have been in terms of my writing productivity as someone with pretty severe executive dysfunction issues. Usually I use Stimuwrite for the instant feedback and then copy and paste those over into 4thewords for the gamification.
Both are small indie projects, Stimuwrite is pay-what-you-can-afford and 4thewords is $4/month but they are very good about helping people who genuinely can't afford it.
and AS THE CHERRY ON TOP, Stimuwrite's programmer is a trans woman, and while I'm not sure about the 4thewords team in specific, the game is FILLED with really great rep, they are literally having a lesbian wedding global event going on right now as I type this. So like. I like giving money to them more than giving money to a lot of other projects lol.
Anyway no neither of these projects have told me to write about them or anything I just want to spread the love. Go check them out!!
Stimuwrite
4thwords
I was reminded of the writing advice I reblogged a week or two ago about "Don't just magically heal your characters to make them unbeatable badasses that ruins the tension instead of making them cool", here's a good video that also sums up the concept and explains it more a bit in video format with different examples and ways to branch off your story-telling from there:
1 day left til Ominous / Outline October !
If you need a basic framework to start outlining your novel, you can start with just a few bullet points and slowly expand it from there:
How does your story open, aka, what are the opening scenes?
...
Where does the main plot start is your novel aka What brings your main character into the main drama?
...
What is the climax of your story?
...
How does your story close out, aka, what are the last few scenes?
Now that you've decided on these four base points, you can now slowly but surely fill in the blanks in between each of these!
Decide how your story opens, and how your main character gets pulled into the main plot, then start deciding what happens in between those two points --
-- you're going to need to do some build up, and get your readers invested or interested in your character before they get pulled into the drama, but you also don't want to wait until halfway into your novel to actually start the plot; so, decide what you want your opening chapter to be, and sprinkle in some foreshadowing for the larger plot as you are introducing your characters and setting, then spring into the action in the next chapter or two!
If you need some help visualizing and don't want to draw by hand, I also recommend using a character creator, such as Hero Forge to design your characters and give you some kind of visual reference
we go through this every hurricane season but the way people will find any excuse to point the finger at the victims of natural disasters and say cruel shit like "fuck around and find out" like it's not horrifying having to leave behind your home and all your belongings and potentially your pets with the full knowledge that there might not be anything to come back to after... ignoring that there are people that don't have a car or the money to evacuate, ignoring disabled people who have no way to get out, ignoring people that can't find places for their pets to shelter, ignoring people that have medical equipment that can't be moved or replaced, etc... and even if someone stays behind solely because they want to, they still don't deserve to suffer.
as someone who worked extensively in disaster response previously, it is not easy to "just" evacuate, and the relief that comes afterwards is intentionally difficult to obtain. and already the forces that be are trying to spin this narrative that the victims are at fault, to put the blame on them so that if (probably when) people are forced to resort to looting (because the aid never comes) everyone will nod and agree that they're all bad people and deserved it... rather than acknowledging the fact that there was no attempt to make the evacuation accessible and safe for everyone, no guarantee that aid will be waiting for them when they return to a home that has been swept away... no empathy for the fact that these people's entire lives are potentially destroyed with no safety net to catch them.
Tiny Tip #2
So, you've decided to take up creative writing! You open up your preferred writing program and go to open up your last file, which is your 20,000 word first draft of a novel-- until, uh oh! An error message pops up, saying the file is corrupted, can't be retrieved, etc!
Or, say lightning strikes your house, and fries your computer--!
Or, a cat comes scampering across your computer desk, sending your computer crashing to the floor where it promptly explodes in a million prices --!
How to you avoid losing all your hard work in these scenarios?
✨By Backing up your work regularly✨
You should take steps right now with any important documents you have on your computer!
Here's some very simple ways you can back your work up, from completely free to paid services:
Each day that you make changes to your main writing document(s), make a brand new copy with the "Save-as" function, and label each one with that day's date, so you have a complete timeline of documents from day one to current day, instead of all being one single document.
Email the Docx / ODF file to yourself once a day, and if you have more than one email, or a trusted friend/family member, email it to them as well in case you somehow lose access to your account.
use Google Docs to back up your documents or for cross-platform writing, or if you use Google Docs as your main writing program, back up your writing locally to Libreoffice and all other methods mentioned above. It only takes 1 issue with logging into your account or a service outage to lose access to your work on google docs!
Use 4thewords as another online cloud service to back up your writing and write cross platform
Use A cloud drive service to back up your works once a day, such as Google Drive, Mega, One Drive, IDrive, Sync Drive, etc to back up your works once a day
Use Calibre to convert your document into an ebook format or PDF, and send it to your phone as an extra backup, and a handy way to reference your writing on the go.
use Google Docs to back up your documents or for cross-platform writing, or if you use Google Docs as your main writing program, back up your writing locally to Libreoffice and all other methods mentioned above. It only takes 1 issue with logging into your account or a service outage to lose access to your work on google docs!
had a cool horror dream and used 4thewords to write + time it , wrote 1,192 words in 36 minutes ✨
It only took that long because I was trying to remember the different parts that I had already started to forget as soon as I woke up.
I think I'll definitely post this dream on October 31st along with an actual Ominous October story if I have time to flesh it out a bit more between outlining, to really celebrate the spooky end of the month!
4thewords is really good for focusing on writing! I'm glad someone recommended it to this blog! :D
I might buy just one month subscription for $8 for November and see how I like it and to give me more motivation to use it (backing up all writing in Libreoffice + emailing it to myself, of course)!
appalachia is devastated. towns i loved, towns i visited all the time, are gone. not damaged, GONE. they are leveled to the ground. there is nothing left but rubble and ruin. people are dead. appalachia is poor to begin with and relies on tourism for a lot of its income, and multiple of those tourist locations are just...gone.
my town is okay, but it's flooded and wrecked. trees are blocking all but one way out of our neighborhood. power lines are hanging limp in the roads. we've been without power for over 24 hours and will continue to be without power for likely another 24+. disabled people and poor people are GOING to die from this. gods save appalachia.
the obvious.
I *think* my computer is working again so tomorrow I'll post the new countdown in the morning.
Only 2-ish days til Ominous/Outline October!
September 28th, 2024, and there's currently a 50% chance of *another* hurricane forming, and if it does, it's most likely going to be following the same destructive path as Helene!
If you were hit by Helene and you have electricity and money to spare, now is the time to get everything you didn't have but desperately needed during Helene, before the next one possibly hits!
Flashlights, batteries, stock up on drinking water, get yourself an emergency handheld radio, get a bunch of phone banks and make sure they're fully charged, make sure you have a waterproof bin to store valuables including important documents in, make sure you have a few days worth shelf-stable food that can be eaten at room temperature, a way to keep clean when there's no running water, deodorant to wear on hot days, clean clothes, etc!
If you have a generator, make sure you are reading and following manual instructions to the letter, and make sure you alert your power company about your generator as well, as certain setups can injure or kill linemen when they are working on power lines but a generator is feeding electricity back down it!
Just a PSA, Hurricane Helene is going to be passing through my area starting some time tomorrow, so I wanted to take a moment to remind anyone who is in this storm's path to make sure you have:
1) flashlights or other light sources that are not just your cell phone -- cheap solar lights work great in a pinch; to charge them, arrange them around indoor lamps to get the most light exposure, or put them in your sunniest window:
2) you should have food and drink that is stable at room temperature and does not require anything to prep, plus a can opener, in case of prolonged power outages.
3) keep important documents such as birth certificates, passports, etc all in a safe location that is preferably waterproof; a ziplock bag, or a locking food container will work in a pinch.
4) find which area of your house is the sturdiest, without windows, and make sure your household knows to go there in an emergency, which includes Tornadoes; for some, this is a basement, for others it is a bathroom located away from an exterior wall, and for us, its a small hallway in the center of the house. Try to put extra blankets, pillows, and other cushioning in this area in advance both for comfort of everyone crammed into a small area, and also for additional protection, since you can wrap yourself up in pillows and thick blankets in an emergency; if you've got small kids, try to make sure everyone has their favorite stuffed animal to hug.
5) make sure everyone's pajamas are clothes that are comfortable and good for wearing in public, and that everyone has closed toed shoes on hand that can be thrown on at a moments notice and that everyone knows to put them on ASAP when an emergency alert comes through.
6) make sure all phones are fully charged, and preferably that you have backup power banks; if possible, have an emergency handheld radio on hand to listen to broadcasts. If you need to use a phone to watch local news livestreams, have one member of the house use their phone to stream while everyone else preserves their battery.
7) make sure you have any essential medications on hand in a form that is easy to transport, and if you have pets, make sure you have food, pet carriers, and leashes/harnesses, etc!
Stay safe, everyone!