I participated in National Novel Writing Month from 2014 all the way through 2020 or so, and I think the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days is a great tool to get people writing and foster community among writers and just overall encourage authors. Toward the end of that run, however, the NaNoWriMo organization began making a lot of decisions based on politics, decisions that I personally found detrimental to the encouragement of community that is central to what NaNoWriMo has to offer–and since then, they’ve only continued to make more and more controversial and outright unhealthy decisions. If you’ve had a deal-breaker experience with NaNoWriMo, or you’re looking for additional resources for a separate word count tracker or more targeted community, here’s a gathering of resources–both those that have been around for a while and now are particularly relevant as well as those that have popped up since NaNoWriMo began to decline.
As a note, I do update this list periodically with new resources! If you have suggestions of your own, feel free to drop them in the comments as well. Continue reading “NaNoWriMo Alternatives – Word Count Tracker Options & Community”