A NaNoWriMo alternative for November

What happened to NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month, the nonprofit, announced on 31 March 2025 that it was shutting down. Literary Hub reported it on 1 April 2025 and Publishers Weekly on 2 April 2025. The organization was founded in 1999.

The challenge was to write 50,000 words in 30 days, in November. That works out to about 1,667 words a day. You do not need the organization to attempt it. You can set the same target and write it on your own.

Sources, read on 29 September 2026:

Publishers Weekly, 2 April 2025, "NaNoWriMo Nonprofit Shutters".
Literary Hub, 1 April 2025, "NaNoWriMo is shutting down."

The accounts and word counts that lived on the nonprofit's site went with it, so if you tracked past Novembers there, those totals are gone. The challenge itself did not need the organization and has carried on without it: people set the same 50,000 words, start on 1 November, and count for themselves or in whatever group they already write with.

This page covers only the closure and the challenge.

Using Inka for your own 50,000 words

Inka is a writing room in the browser. It does not generate, rewrite or suggest sentences. Every word is yours. Your draft is saved in the browser as you type; sign in and it follows you to another device.

A daily word goal. Free. A thin line along the bottom edge grows as you get closer, and the streak counts the days you met it. The default is 500 words; you can set your own number.
A word target for one piece. Pro. For a chapter or a whole draft.
A timer. Blocks up to 25 minutes, or open-ended, are free, with a break between them. Longer blocks, up to three hours, are Pro.
Rooms and sound. 30 rooms, 10 of them free. Mixable ambient sounds, 8 of them free.
Stats. Words written, time spent and streaks. Free shows the last 7 days in full; Pro shows the rest.
Pieces and export. Free keeps 3 pieces. Copy, .txt and .docx export are free.

Free Inka keeps three pieces, so a novel written in chapters will reach that limit. Pro removes it.

Work out your number

50,000 words by 30 November 2026, starting on 1 November, is 1,667 words a day. The words-per-day calculator opens on exactly that: 50,000 words over 30 days. Set the deadline to 30 November 2026 and put in what you have already written, and it gives you your own number for the days that are left.

The writing sprint timer runs short blocks in the browser, and saves nothing.

What else writers use in November

Inka is one option and not the right one for everyone. What people have moved to since the nonprofit closed:

A spreadsheet. A column of dates and a running total. Free, and it is what most of the tracker sites were doing anyway.
Regional and online groups. Many of the local groups and Discord servers that grew up around NaNoWriMo kept going on their own and still run write-ins through November.
A full novel-writing app such as Scrivener or Ellipsus, if you want chapters, a corkboard and a manuscript outline rather than a room to write in.
Plain Google Docs or Word, with the word count at the bottom of the window.
Inka, if the problem is starting rather than organising: a room, sound, a timer and a daily goal, with nothing that writes for you.

Do not use free Inka for the whole 50,000 words. Free keeps three pieces, so a draft written one chapter at a time runs out of room on the fourth. Either write the draft as one long piece, or take Pro, or use something built for manuscripts.

What it costs

Inka is free to use. Pro is optional: $7 a month, $49 a year, or $99 once. See pricing for what Pro adds.

Not affiliated

Inka is not affiliated with NaNoWriMo. The name is used here only to describe the November challenge.

More on doing it in Inka: the November novel challenge.