NaNoWriMo Alternatives for November 2026

NaNoWriMo — National Novel Writing Month — is gone as an organisation, but the challenge it made famous is not. The nonprofit announced its shutdown at the end of March 2025 after years of financial trouble. The idea underneath it — write 50,000 words of a novel between 1 and 30 November — never needed the nonprofit to work, and in 2026 there are several ways to do it.

This is a short, practical list of what's actually running this November, what each one asks of you, and how to run the challenge yourself if you'd rather not sign up for anything. Details below were checked against each organiser's own pages in late October 2026; rules change, so confirm before you commit.

The quick answer

• Want the closest thing to old NaNo? → ProWritingAid's Novel November. Free, 50k, write in any app.
• Want prizes and don't mind a required editor? → Reedsy's Novel Sprint. Free, 50k, must be written in Reedsy Studio.
• Want a longer window than 30 days? → AutoCrit's Novel 90, which is already under way and runs to the end of December.
• Want no accounts and no rules but your own? → Run it yourself with a tracker. Instructions below.

The November 2026 challenges

ProWritingAid Novel November

The biggest organised replacement. Novel November runs 1–30 November 2026, with prep material from 1 October, and the goal is the familiar 50,000 words (about 1,667 a day).

• Cost: free.
• Account: you need a free ProWritingAid account to join.
• Where you write: anywhere. ProWritingAid says you can write in Word, Scrivener, Google Docs or any other app, and log your word count on the Novel November dashboard — manual logging works too, so it doesn't matter what you draft in.
• Community: badges and milestones, plus the organiser's claim of around 100,000 participants.

This is the one to pick if what you miss is the shared start date and the sense that thousands of other people are suffering through day 12 alongside you.

Reedsy Novel Sprint

Reedsy's Novel Sprint 2026 runs from 00:00 EST on 1 November to 23:59 EST on 30 November, with the same 50,000-word target — and actual prizes: $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000 for the top three, each with a 30-minute consultation with a literary agent.

The rules are stricter than anything NaNo ever had, and worth reading before you start:

• You must write in Reedsy Studio, Reedsy's free browser editor.
• No pasting from another word processor.
• No AI-generated text — disqualification if you're caught.
• You can bring in an existing draft, but the 50,000 words must be new words written in November.

Everyone who reaches 50,000 words gets three months of Reedsy's premium Studio add-ons. If you're happy drafting in their editor, the prize pool makes this the most interesting option on the list. If you already have a writing tool you like, it's the least flexible.

AutoCrit Novel 90

A different shape: instead of a 30-day sprint, Novel 90 gives you 90 days. The 2026 fall edition started on 1 October, so it runs until the end of December. It's free, and you don't need to be an AutoCrit member. Writers join one of three coached teams — Planners, Plantsers or Pantsers — and get hosted writing sprints and live group sessions.

Joining in November means starting a month in (check the sign-up page is still open), but you'd still have about two months left, which is a far saner pace for a full draft than 30 days. If 50,000 words in November has broken you before, this is the one to look at.

Smaller and community-run events

Plenty of other November events exist — from software companies, writing communities and individual organisers — but many of them haven't confirmed 2026 dates yet, and several third-party roundups list rules that don't match the organisers' own pages. If you're considering one, go straight to its official page rather than trusting a list (including this one).

Running the challenge yourself

Most of what NaNoWriMo offered was three things: a fixed deadline, a visible word count against that deadline, and other people doing it at the same time. You can recreate all three in about ten minutes.

1. Pick your writing days before 1 November. 1,667 words a day assumes you write every single day. If you know weekends are impossible, plan for it now: November 2026 has 21 weekdays, so 50,000 words written only on weekdays is roughly 2,400 per writing day. Deciding this up front is the difference between "behind on day 3" and "on plan".

2. Make the November count unambiguous. If your tool only shows a project's total, start a fresh project or file so nothing from before the 1st gets mixed in.

3. Track against the calendar, not just the total. The number that keeps you going isn't your running total; it's words left divided by writing days left, worked out fresh each day. A spreadsheet will calculate it for you; with other tools, it's a ten-second sum. Options:

• TrackBear — a free word-count tracker with no premium tier. You log words (or pages, scenes, or time) against a goal, and you can create leaderboards and share a join code with friends — the nearest thing to NaNo's old buddy system. It can also import NaNoWriMo history if you exported yours before the site went down.
• A spreadsheet — date, words written, running total, words remaining. Crude, private, and entirely yours.
• Your writing app's own goal setting, if it has one — Asermu's is covered below.

4. Find two or three people. A shared leaderboard or a group chat where everyone posts their number each night does more for completion than any badge.

5. Prepare in the last week of October. Not a full outline unless you want one — but at minimum a premise, an ending, and a rough list of scenes so day one starts with words rather than a blank page. Our guide to outlining a novel and the goal–conflict–disaster scene template are both designed for exactly this week.

Tracking November in Asermu

Asermu is a novel-writing app that stores your manuscript on your own device, and it has a goal built for this month. In a project's settings, the Writing Goals section has a "NaNoWriMo (50k/month)" goal period. It counts only the words you write between 1 and 30 November, so you can use it in a project you've already started, and shows your progress as a running total in settings (and, on wider screens, as a bar in the manuscript editor's toolbar). When you switch to it, check the target reads 50,000.

You also choose which days of the week count as writing days, and set grace days — rest days that won't break your writing streak. On wider screens the editor shows a live session word count while you write, and the dashboard keeps a writing heatmap, so by the end of the month you can see the whole November at a glance.

All of that is on the free plan, alongside the manuscript editor, characters, locations and timeline. One honest gap: Asermu shows how far through the 50,000 you are, not a recalculated "words per day from here" figure. If that number is what keeps you going, pair it with TrackBear or a spreadsheet.

Asermu won't work for Reedsy's Novel Sprint, which requires Reedsy Studio. It works fine alongside Novel November — draft in Asermu, log your total on the Novel November dashboard.

Because your work is stored locally, a flaky café connection on day 19 doesn't cost you the session either — more on that in our look at offline writing apps.

After 30 November

Whatever you choose, the part people forget is December. A 50,000-word November draft is a first draft written at speed; it will be uneven, and that's the point. Give it a few weeks before you reread it, and when you do, start with structure, not sentences — our three-pass revision checklist is the order we'd recommend.

The organisation that started this is gone. The month is still there. Pick a challenge, or don't, and start on the 1st.

Frequently asked questions

Is NaNoWriMo still running in 2026?

No. The NaNoWriMo nonprofit announced at the end of March 2025 that it was shutting down, citing years of financial strain. There is no official NaNoWriMo event or website in 2026, but the 50,000-words-in-November format carries on through other organisers and through writers running it themselves.

What is the best NaNoWriMo alternative in 2026?

The closest like-for-like replacement is ProWritingAid's Novel November: free, 1–30 November, 50,000-word goal, and you can write in any app. Reedsy's Novel Sprint has cash prizes but requires drafting inside Reedsy Studio with no pasting. If you want no sign-up at all, track the goal yourself with a free tracker like TrackBear or a goal setting in your writing app.

Do I have to write in a specific app for a November novel challenge?

It depends on the challenge. Novel November lets you write anywhere and log your word count, including manually. Reedsy's Novel Sprint requires writing in Reedsy Studio and forbids pasting from other word processors. A self-run challenge has no rules beyond the ones you set.

How many words a day is 50,000 words in November?

50,000 words over November's 30 days is 1,667 words a day. If you only write five days a week, it is closer to 2,300 words per writing day, which is why it helps to decide your writing days before 1 November rather than during it.

Can I do NaNoWriMo on my own?

Yes. The format is just 50,000 words between 1 and 30 November. All you need is a start date, a word target, and a way to see your progress against the calendar — a spreadsheet, a free tracker, or a writing app with a word-count goal. Adding a few friends on a shared leaderboard replaces most of what the community side used to provide.