Official Announcement Post 2024 - Tumblr Posts
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.
Ominous / Outline October 2024 Announcement Post:
The poll about Ominous October prompts has now wrapped up, and the results are in!
51% voted to used the narrowed list of polls, while 25% wanted to vote to narrow down the prompts, and the other % had no opinion.
So! We've got two (three?) options for those participating in Ominous October 2024 :)
Ominous October 2024 *Weekly Short Stories* - Writing 714 words each day, complete one short story each week totaling 5k (or more) based on the following prompts:
Week One: Undead / Strange Town
Week Two: Changeling / Curse
Week Three: Parasitism / Revenge
Week Four: Transformation / Eternity
[You can choose between either prompt for the week, or combine them both in your story!]
Ominous October 2024 *Daily Short Stories OR Poetry*- each day, write a drabble/short story or poem based on the following prompts:
Raised from the dead
Ghost stories
“I put a spell on you”
Replacement and parasitism (changelings, cuckoos, All About Eve)
Victim turns the tables on their bully
Playing pretend or acting out on stage turns real
Medical abuse and sadistic doctors
Phantom limb
A single candle
Costume
Under the bed
What lurks in the cellar
The weird small-town
A knock at the door
The witching hour
It will never end
Graveyard ghost hunting
Misty road
Potions
Harvesting
Banshee's lullaby
Crooked reflection
"Do not speak its name"
The eleventh hour
It's too late
Bones itching
Poisoned coffee
Bloody hands
Since October is right before November, and a lot of people are going for the 30,000 words in a month goal, there are three catch-up/rest days from the 29th through the 31st!
On the 31st, Everyone picks one (or more!) spooky stories to post to celebrate!
Here is a template for Ominous October:
Please feel free to make your own custom decorated goal cards and post them in the Ominous October tags!
And don't forget to reblog for more reach! Everyone participating has around two weeks to do any prep they'd like for the weekly short stories with the prompts :D
If you would prefer to focus on Novella November Prep, there's also:
Outline October 2024
Where you spend the month outlining, doing research, making character designs, world-building, etc!
Drabble December 2024 Announcement Post
Welcome to Drabble December, where your goal is to write a minimum of 100 words per day!
Whether that is part of a standalone "drabble" (as in the name), or 100 words of a larger project, December is meant to keep up the habit of daily writing, while being a nice little "cooldown" from the 1,000 words per day from November!
As always, the goal here is to create, so any kind of writing works, from original fiction, fanfiction, technical writing, school work, cooking recipes, etc!
Here is a MS Paint calendar template, if you want to check your writing off each day, which can also be customized with different backgrounds and art to share as custom Goal Cards:
and here is the full prompt list, which is entirely optional, but great if you're planning on just doing random daily drabbles without working on a longer established work:
1) tattoo 2) the 4th wall breaks, and characters speak directly to their creator 3) High places 4) arch enemies talk about the weather 5) Gifts 6) Snow 7) Platonic bedsharing 8) late nights 9) early morning 10) tea/coffee break 11) Going on a walk 12) too comfy to move 13) cookies 14) dreaming 15) meteor shower 16) a rose 17) bestow protection 18) indulge balance 19) depart opposition 20) ferociously comforting 21) yieldingly strong 22) aggressively mysterious 23) bird-watching 24) more than meets the eye 25) Bees 26) soda and Fries 27) Gentleman Burgler 28) photograph 29) eclipse 30) old life 31) New beginning