 Noticing Newbies: October 15, 2025 Issue [#13405] |
This week: NaNoWriMo No More Edited by: Jeff  
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You never know what you can do until you try,
and very few try unless they have to."
— C.S. Lewis
About The Editor: Greetings! My name is Jeff and I'm one of the regular editors of the official Noticing Newbies Newsletter! I've been a member of Writing.com since 2003, and have edited more than 400 newsletters across the site in that time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me directly or submit feedback in the comment box at the bottom of this newsletter. |
NaNoWriMo No More
Up until last year, this would have been the perennial newsletter editorial where I talk about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) coming up next month, and the importance of planning things out in advance if you're undertaking a challenge as daunting as this one. But if you kept up on the news earlier this year, NaNoWriMo shuttered its website in March 2025 and will not be operating this year. It's not really worth going into the "why" of it all — there are plenty of places online where you can read all about the drama if you're so inclined — but what I'm most interested in talking about this year is the "what's next" of it all.
Ever since the nonprofit that runs the activity shut down, there has been a lot of talk about what people should do from here. Should they still compete in NaNoWriMo unofficially? Should they give up on the practice? Should they take this opportunity to change some things around and improve it? Should someone else take it over?
I'd argue that the answer to that question is the same as it ever was, even when the official activity was running... what you do is a personal choice.
Back in the day, NaNoWriMo used to be pretty uncompromising about the fact that the activity was a challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in November. And, to be fair, that's still by and large what most NaNoWriMo participants did when they took part in the activity. But there was a growing contingent of writers who wanted to use the structure of the challenge for something else: 50,000 words' worth of short stories, a screenplay, a poetry collection, etc. For many of them, "NaNoWriMo" was just a convenient communal structure for whatever it is they hoped to personally accomplish.
And I'd argue that should always be the priority. Whether or not you participate in something should be a matter of whether it's beneficial to you and your creative goals or not. For me personally, there have been times where the challenge of writing a novel in November is the one time a year I focus on long-form fiction, so it's a great chance to do that. Other years, there have been times where I would have rather written anything else, and I've given myself alternative writing goals like writing 50,000 words' worth of screenplays (about two full feature-length scripts), or a collection of detailed blog posts just to get the creative juices flowing again.
From my personal experience, it seems like a lot of the NaNoWriMo (and NaNo-adjacent) activities are going to continue to run as planned. Brandiwynš¶Sprinting  is well underway with "October Novel Prep Challenge" , and my "The Write-A-Thon" will also be coming back around in November again. Both were never intended to specifically be wedded to the organization known as NaNoWriMo, but rather a challenge to help people plan and stay on track with their writing goals, respectively.
Those things can still happen without NaNoWriMo.
I would encourage you to continue to check out all of the available resources to help you achieve your writing goals. Whether it's for the month of November or any other time of the year, you should find activities that help motivate you and encourage you to achieve your goals.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"New & Noteworthy Things" | "Blogocentric Formulations"
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Feedback from "Noticing Newbies Newsletter (September 17, 2025)" about taking risks:
I am definitely a rule follower. It's to the point where even my mom teases me about how I follow all the rules. Though h guess with powerlifting there was some risk taking. I prefer my risks to be typed for characters and not so much me taking them. That said, I still am open minded to trying some things as long as it isn't breaking laws most of the time. hehe
— Dawn Embers 
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