(London) – After 25 years of fueling millions of writers with the encouragement needed to finally finish their novel, in early 2025, NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month shut down. That left half a million writers around the world without a home.

But now a new organization, alongside bestselling authors like Madeline Miller, has stepped in to fill the voice. UK-based ProWritingAid, considered by many to be one of the best writing software providers in the world, is relaunching the event in 2025, alongside partners that include Scrivener and Kickstarter.

“Novel November” builds on the legacy of NaNoWriMo and adds a host of in-person sessions and the support of bestselling authors.

“Since NaNoWriMo shut down, we have had hundreds of users reach out to us and ask if there is a solution that we can provide to support them on their novel writing journey. We believe that our infrastructure will allow us to host a challenge that’s not only big and ambitious, but also safe, supportive, and accessible. We see this as a way to give back and celebrate the writing community that inspires us every day,” said Hayley Milliman, ProWritingAid’s Director of Community. 

Novel November will be a month-long writing challenge designed to help writers complete the first draft of a novel in a short 30 days with the assistance of the tools offered by ProWritingAid, community connection and the support of bestselling authors.

Writers can use ProWritingAid’s free tools to track their word count, measure their progress towards goals and earn badges to celebrate their achievements. The software integrates with numerous popular writing platforms including Word, Google Docs and Scrivener.

“Throughout the challenge, writers will have access to several free tools to track their progress wherever they write. In addition to easily tracking word count and badges that celebrate milestones they have achieved, they will also be able to see the pace they are on track for so they can speed up or slow down as appropriate,” said Milliman, who added they will have support along the way as well. 

“Writing can be lonely when you do it alone. We are working to make the process more fun by adding support and resources and creating a sense of community. There will be expert workshops, daily writing sprints and access to a supportive global economy leading up to, during and after the Novel November event,” said Milliman.

Beginning in October, the workshops offered will be centered around the prep work that needs to be done before writing a novel begins, such as generating story ideas and outlining. “Throughout November, we plan six co-writing sprints hosted every day. People will be able to hop on a ZOOM call and write in real time with people around the world. 

“We’ve found these writing sprints to be super effective for keeping people feeling like they are writing in community and making connections,” said Milliman. 

For the past five years, ProWritingAid has offered a free program of writing events to more than 100,000 writers around the world, including Fantasy Writers Week and Romance Writers Week. “When considering the structure for Novel November, we decided to bring on bestselling authors. This will offer a unique opportunity for participants to write alongside their writing heroes,” said Milliman.

Among the writer/mentor partners who have signed on to participate in the project: Madeline Miller, author, “The Song of Achilles,” Tomi Adeyemi, author, “Children of Blood and Bone,” and Rufi Thorpe, author of “Margo’s Got Money Troubles.” They will be available throughout October and November to help writers prep for the challenge and answer questions that come up as they work on their novels.

“We want people to have a place to turn if they get stuck,” said Milliman. 

The event won’t just be happening online. In November, there will be live in-person writing sprints and a story ideation workshop happening during Author Nation 25 in Las Vegas. They will be offered on November 4, 5 and 6.

In December, attention will turn toward what to do once your manuscript is complete. The focus of the December workshops will be on proofreading, editing and publishing. 
“I participated in NaNoWriMo for over ten years. I’m so excited to have the opportunity to bring an even bigger and better challenge to writers with Novel November,” said Milliman. 

ProWritingAid has a long history of running free, large scale, successful educational events for hundreds of thousands of people, including Fantasy Writers’ Week, Crime Writers’ Week and Core Writers’ Week. At each, the company had bestselling authors come in and teach people for free about the craft of writing. The same tactics will be followed during Novel November.

Registration for Novel November is open now. Sign up to participate for free at Prowritingaid.com/novel-november

About ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is considered by many to be one of the best writing software providers in the world. Since its founding in 2014, the company has been providing writers with tools that help with editing and style improvements.

The platform was built by Chris Banks, who originally designed it for himself as a tool that would help him stay motivated to write during his downtime after he broke a leg skiing. He wanted to write a novel about his experience traveling around South America.
When he shared the software he had developed with friends, they urged him to make it commercially available. 

ProWritingAid offers monthly, yearly and lifetime subscriptions. There is also a free version available. Learn more at ProWritingAid.com

Source: Writer Beware

Copyright is a complex subject about which there are many misconceptions.
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I was reminded of that this week, thanks to an email from an author who discovered that several of their books were included in one of the databases of pirated works used by the AI company Anthropic for AI training. The author wanted to know whether they were eligible to be part of the gigantic $1.5 billion settlement Anthropic has agreed to pay to compensate writers for its misuse of their intellectual property. (You can read more about the lawsuit, and the settlement, here.)

Once a month, Diane Hatz hosts a popup somewhere in the Santa Fe/Northern New Mexico area where women have 3 - 5 minutes to read their original work, whether it be from a book, journal entry, short story, poem, etc. The only requirement is that the person has to have written it themselves.

September's will be in Abiquiu somewhere.

Anyone who identifies as female who's interested needs to sign up for the email list below for more details on when, where, etc. The location changes monthly and isn't known until Diane contacts everyone. 

​This contest is open to unpublished fiction and memoir writers across the U.S. who have completed manuscripts of 95,000 words or less. The winner will receive a full-service professional publishing and national launch package valued at over $11,000, completely free. The winner will also be announced live on stage at the 2026 San Diego Writers Festival.

Submissions are now open and close November 15, 2025, so time is limited.