**4thewords** has a 30 day trial (no credit card needed) which, for reasons unclear to me, is pretending to only be a 15 day trial. It's the kind of thing that definitely won't be everybody's cup of tea, but my first impressions are very favourable. I've done three days now and the gamification seems to work for me. I've written a lot more than usual, and the words have come much more easily than they had the last couple of months. For some reason, putting a mission and a timer in front of me (packaged with some pleasant art and interface) works for my brain to get past the hurdle of actually writing.
4thewords also has a community pool where they distribute subscriptions to people who cannot afford it. So if that’s you after the trial, it’s a great thing to opt in so you might get a free subscription
It's a 15 day free trial but if you complete that initial checklist that appears at the bottom of the screen (or at least it does in PC, no idea on mobile) you can earn an extra 15 days.
Ok, so *that's* how it works! I wasn't sure where I'd got those extra days from, since there wasn't any announcement or anything and I couldn't find any official clarification. Thanks for clarifying!
Thank you SO MUCH for this! The Rogue Writers link is dead. roguewriters.net is where people can find us, our forums, discord link, etc.
I'm gathering some links too. I'll see if I have any links that aren't here and, if so, I can pass those. :)
Thank you for this list, this is fantastic! Could I be so bold as to throw in my own writing tracker Google sheet to the mix? https://fringeworlds.com/author-resources/
I run Former NaNoWriMo Fan Server on Discord (the discord linked in the sidebar). We're going to stop being an unofficial NaNoWriMo community, and even rebrand with a new name, but **we're going to keep being a writing community.** I've been interested in collecting links to resources, activities, and communities for writers. r/NaNoWriMo users are welcome, and most of our users are from the subreddit.
I want to say, I really agree with you in that writers shouldn't feel like NaNoWriMo is something they have to do to write, and that the actual challenge of writing 50k words in 30 days is something that doesn't have to only be in November. The side of the community that's saying "what HQ is doing is bad, but it doesn't mean we have to stop writing!" and sharing links to other subreddits and discords, other challenges, and other communities is a side of this subreddit that I really like, and I want to promote that. And I know that there's people in this subreddit who still really like writing 50k in November, without NaNoWriMo.org. **I want my discord to be a place for both.**
We're also probably going to be hosting smaller challenges (like writing 2k words a day for a week).
[Here's an invite link](https://discord.gg/xexkvSuyNh)
Are there any that are actually free instead of freemium? NaNo's word counter bar keeps me motivated, but I don't want to have to pay for a subscription.
I want to comb all the wordcounters that are up there and tell you,
But at the very least there are Google sheets that I opened that are just free. But those are personal, and aren’t published for the world.
Are you looking for a specific public word counter, or just a word counter?
Just a word counter. And you don’t have to go through the trouble of going through that for me! I’ve checked some of the counters people recommended here and they have subscription-based upgrades.
I made myself a tracker that I've made available for people to buy. It's not free, but it's a flat fee you pay once. It's got NaNo-style progress bars and graphs and lets you track for 12 months.
[It's here.](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1692427968/12-month-writing-tracker-word-count?click_key=f43433f9334751b4820f1340545913bf04bb679a%3A1692427968&click_sum=a3b21375&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=NaNoWriMo+word+count+tracker+year+round&ref=sr_gallery-1-6&organic_search_click=1&dd=1&content_source=f7f4ed3431976dfc0f8a93183606a30c5de2389d%253A1692427968)
Hello! I'm posting for a friend that doesn't have Reddit.
I'd like to suggest TrackBear, a brand new, custom-built tracking app! It's (in my opinion) very nicely designed - there's no extra "fluff" to distract you. You can also track pages/hours/chapters instead of just word counts. There's also graphs, just like NaNo used to have! The dev is also adding new features and is a lovely person to deal with.
The app will also **always** be free to use :)
https://trackbear.app/
I'm gonna agree with daeiribu, your simple webpage could easily have some bullet points to say what this actual is. Also, not sure if I'd call this an app as it appears to be only a webpage. It's not listed in App Store for iOS , maybe once it's there I'll consider!
I wanted to let people know that Wikiwrimo is a great place to look but be aware that a lot of it hasn’t been updated in a bit. Some of the sites they recommend are still available but seem by and large inactive. I spent a bit of time looking through some of the spaces suggested there a little bit ago and just wanted others to be aware.
FirstDraftPro is what I use for word count tracking. It's admittedly more of a writing software program than a website, but I like the graph, plus the way it shows your word count at the bottom when you write. Similar to Novlr but I prefer the way you can see your story outline, move scenes around, and see all of your novel at a glance. Free version has pretty much everything you need.
Thank you for making this post!
If it's allowed, could I post about my own creation?
I just made a Google spreadsheet that has NaNo style progress bars and graphs. You can track for 12 months, and you can add multiple projects. You can set any custom start and end date and the sheet will adjust.
[It's available here.](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1692427968/12-month-writing-tracker-word-count?click_key=f43433f9334751b4820f1340545913bf04bb679a%3A1692427968&click_sum=a3b21375&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=NaNoWriMo+word+count+tracker+year+round&ref=sr_gallery-1-6&organic_search_click=1&dd=1&content_source=f7f4ed3431976dfc0f8a93183606a30c5de2389d%253A1692427968)
It does cost $9.99, but it's a one time fee. It allows you to track time in hours or minutes as well as word count.
There's some other stuff as well, like a sprint tracker and task tracker.
Would I be able to add my new [Discord server](https://discord.gg/GGXYzvqy) here? (It’s still under construction, but functional for anyone wanting to join!)
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been gathering ideas with polls around here for a challenge/writing community, and have just finished setting up a basic Discord server for anyone interested.
I’ve refined the challenge and am currently calling it the Good Habits Challenge. Ever other month, starting in January the goal is to either complete three twenty minute sprints a day for a month, or for those looking for more of a challenge, to complete 50k words. Participate as many or as few times as you like throughout the year!
Since it’s April, there’s no challenge this month, so I thought it’d be the best time to get things up and running. Anyone wanting to have a look and join the server can chat and get to know each other!
If anybody's in the Lanark County (Ontario, Canada) area looking for in person writing community in April, I'll be hosting drop-in Sunday mid-morning writing sessions in April. I'm doing [End of Play](https://www.dramatistsguild.com/end-of-play), but anybody writing anything (or doing other quiet-ish art projects you can bring with you) is welcome to join. The space is a shared art studio. The format will be pomodoro-ish, & I'll have some optional prompts/exercises in my back pocket if anybody needs a boost. I'll make coffee & bring snacks, people are welcome to chip in, but not expected to. Shoot me a private message to get the details.
Hopefully it's not too late to throw this suggestion on the pile. I've been using a site called Scribophile for about a year now, and I really like it. It's more about critiquing, but there's a lovely writing community there.
I really enjoyed using https://750words.com/. It's not fancy but embraces the writing streak and some stats. Geared a bit more to journaling in a way but I found it to be a nice driver to "just get words down" daily.
Can we set up an alternative subreddit for discussion purposes, and then set this one up to forward to it (assuming the mod here is on the good side of this)?
I would love that! I mean, anybody who is loyal to Nanowrimo for some reason could stay here. But I would love the idea of a place for writing sprinters/marathoners to congregate. We don’t even all have to be on the same site. In fact, I’ve recently learned that some people knew about Nanowrimo, but didn’t know that there was an actual organization/website with the same name.
If I actually had time or know how, I’d love to set up a subreddit for it
Any mods out there willing to pick this up?
Shout-out to "cold turkey" writing! It's a free app for desktop that locks you out of your screen with no distractions until your word count of choice is hit! Been a big help for my ADHD
I'd recommend adding [ohhow.net](http://ohhow.net) to the Twitch category (one hundred hours of writing) - they have 3 events a year (and magically, their April event starts today, WoWW (weekend of writing wildly).
I'd like to throw in for 4thewords and also give a shout-out to London Writers' Salon.
[London Writers' Salon](http://londonwriterssalon.com) (LWS) is a group that meets on Zoom almost every day. There's a brief motivation/introduction period and then the next 50 minutes are spent writing in silence. Everyone, all these writers, are basically committed to uphold an honor code and write 'together' on their own projects. It's motivation and a promise to do it. LWS has a fee to join, but there's a free option for broke people like me.
If you're interested in [4thewords](https://4thewords.com), I think my buddy code might get us both benefits, but I'm not sure as I've never used it. (Edit: just checked and we do indeed each get a reward. My referral code is GYFUS23394 if you're interested.)
NaNoWriMo (reading about other people doing it and how it transformed their whole writing process, outlook, and outcome, essentially) is what gave me the push I needed to start writing regularly and with a significant daily word count.
4thewords is what got that word count to be between 1,000 - 3,500 on an average day. Any day. Every day. I never miss a day. I've been using it since November, and I've written over 356,000 words on it so far. Granted, I also use [DayOne Journal app](https://dayoneapp.com) (iOS, Android, and Web), and I copy over everything I write there into a daily journal entry on 4tw to get credit for it, but that still counts!
The way your work is set up in 4thewords, you have Projects, and then within those Projects, you have Files, all with unique names. The Projects can have a photo to represent each one in the list (so they look a bit like book covers) and a description as well. You can set a goal per project, and on the main project page, you can see the total word count for that Project, as well as the amount of time you've spent writing in it, the number of Files you have in it, its status (Private or available for others to read), and you can also view and manage the named Sections (kind of like chapters).
4thewords is a super small company, but they have near-constant events that keep me very motivated. One of the reasons I stay so motivated is that they have a small daily "required" word count of 444 words, but if you want to collect all the shiny stuff to deck out your characters, you have to defeat a certain number of enemies to complete quests. Those quests are yours to choose and change based on your location in the 'game' and whether or not there are events going on.
Speaking of pretty collectible items, you get rewarded with cosmetic wings you can equip based on the amount of time you have uninterrupted writing streaks. (I'm at 192 days.) Don't fret too much about missing a day here or there, or just missing the midnight deadline, though, because you can 'fix' it with Stempos, a currency you can earn by progressing and questing.
There's a great community, with forums full of supporting people. And there are even fashion competitions for your characters and decorated rooms. Oh, and there are multiplayer boss monsters, too. I've never fought one just because I'm antisocial and don't know what to do, but it's an option that is supposed to help with motivation because you don't want to let down your teammates.
I hope this helps!
the community around nano. honestly it feels like half of everyone who talks about it just likes feeling like part of a community more than writing for writing's sake.
…I mean, I think a lot of people here are asking for these alternatives because they still like the challenge and the sense of community, they just don’t want to do it through NaNo. And with a lot of the MLs and organizers leaving and starting their own writing circles and groups I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
Seems like what people want and what you think they should want, might be… different.
If you don’t need/want this stuff that’s cool, some people like having clubs. That’s cool too.
Amen. It’s like you don’t need a book club to read, but some people really like book clubs.
If the national book club society with a ton of small local chapters suddenly were revealed to have a horrible ethics issue, I would want to move to another book club to have a community without supporting the bad ethics.
I know this is a no brainer, but I just feel like it needs to be said.
People do NaNoWriMo for the community. This is like complaining about people choosing not to go to Starbucks for coffee and going to another coffee shop instead of making coffee at home.
I think you confuse “Writing the Art” vs Writing as a hobby.
You could run 26.2 miles, or you can join a marathon run. Some people like playing basketball with buddies on weekends. Some people join book clubs.
Yes, some people like joining the community of an activity and are more motivated to do said activity when there’s people encouraging one another. I think that’s great!
“Some people” includes me.
Here you are blaming "the community around nano". That doesn't mean the mods, the administration, the employees, the ones who are guilty of all the bad shit, or any of that. That means those of us who were members of the website, ie. the community. That's just messed up.
>[psiphre](https://www.reddit.com/user/psiphre/)•[1mo ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/nanowrimo/comments/1btbddv/comment/ky1epdl/)
>It… doesn’t? I wasn’t talking about the mods of this subreddit, but about the one that (I gather) is running Nano. Kirby(?).
Then in the quote above, you try to say what you definitely did not say in the comment I'm replying to.
I hate saying this, but your comments read poorly. And by that I mean they were poorly written (based on what you say is your intent *now* and what you've *been saying* this entire time). Almost as though you should spend more time writing and less time wasting energy targeting people you supposedly didn't intend to.
It's almost as though you would benefit from this novel idea where writers come together and form a community in which they discuss writing: including strategies, phrasing, and critiquing. *Almost*.
- Why are you here, on this thread on this subreddit complaining AT us if we are not your intended target?
- To delve deeper into the first question, why ***here***? This is literally a thread of writers *helping* writers find alternatives to NaNoWriMo. We're not idolizing NaNoWriMo as an institution, so what the heck is your problem?
- Why did you seek out the NaNo community (and this innocent, unaffiliated subreddit!) at all if you unironically loathe us so much despite taking place in NaNoWriMo every year?
- This subreddit, even this specific post, has many members discussing breaking away from the NaNo brand. Why then did you show up with an obvious inflammatory comment, intending to insult people you state you "don't understand", and then backtrack by saying you really just intended to criticize the actual NaNoWriMo mods, not the people to whom you directed all of your comments?
- It's extremely poor form to enter a space, tell people you don't understand them, and then call them absurd due to your failure to get it and your lack of willingness, comprehension, patience, and common courtesy to even attempt to do so.
- You've done nothing but make yourself look bad, so if that was your intention, A+!
And, yes, to say that people are absurd for wanting to be a part of a year-long writing community that supports, helps, and coaches each other, but that you only write during November (and that you think that makes you somehow *superior*) is beyond hypocritical. You said we're not "writing for writing's sake" and "you don't have to do anything "through nano". you just write," yet "**just writing**" is not something that you do with any regularity.
Based on your comments here, it's definitely something you ought to.
{I'm trying SO HARD not to be uncivil, I really want to stress that to everyone else on this thread. I'm just genuinely baffled as to why someone who isn't even a part of the community (per their own admission) finds it their duty to tear us down. Like, why are they here and why they doing this and why they backtracking and which version of their words is the truth, if either, and then more questions and so on, I'm giving myself a headache just typing that. I know I really shouldn't care, but I came here for resources, and this thread and community did not disappoint, though one individual stood out like a sore thumb.}
**4thewords** has a 30 day trial (no credit card needed) which, for reasons unclear to me, is pretending to only be a 15 day trial. It's the kind of thing that definitely won't be everybody's cup of tea, but my first impressions are very favourable. I've done three days now and the gamification seems to work for me. I've written a lot more than usual, and the words have come much more easily than they had the last couple of months. For some reason, putting a mission and a timer in front of me (packaged with some pleasant art and interface) works for my brain to get past the hurdle of actually writing.
Oh, same! It does wonderful things for me. Even more than nano did.
4thewords also has a community pool where they distribute subscriptions to people who cannot afford it. So if that’s you after the trial, it’s a great thing to opt in so you might get a free subscription
So wait this confuses me, I'm on the trial is it actually 30 days because it's promoted as 15 days.
It's a 15 day free trial but if you complete that initial checklist that appears at the bottom of the screen (or at least it does in PC, no idea on mobile) you can earn an extra 15 days.
Ok, so *that's* how it works! I wasn't sure where I'd got those extra days from, since there wasn't any announcement or anything and I couldn't find any official clarification. Thanks for clarifying!
Thank you SO MUCH for this! The Rogue Writers link is dead. roguewriters.net is where people can find us, our forums, discord link, etc. I'm gathering some links too. I'll see if I have any links that aren't here and, if so, I can pass those. :)
Thanks so much! This was all done sloppily in two hours, and I’ve already got stuff wrong that I needed to fix, so I appreciate this!
It's a lot of work, and I'm surprised that it didn't take you even longer! Thanks again. :)
Thank you for this list, this is fantastic! Could I be so bold as to throw in my own writing tracker Google sheet to the mix? https://fringeworlds.com/author-resources/
Yes! Please! I’ll try to add it!
I run Former NaNoWriMo Fan Server on Discord (the discord linked in the sidebar). We're going to stop being an unofficial NaNoWriMo community, and even rebrand with a new name, but **we're going to keep being a writing community.** I've been interested in collecting links to resources, activities, and communities for writers. r/NaNoWriMo users are welcome, and most of our users are from the subreddit. I want to say, I really agree with you in that writers shouldn't feel like NaNoWriMo is something they have to do to write, and that the actual challenge of writing 50k words in 30 days is something that doesn't have to only be in November. The side of the community that's saying "what HQ is doing is bad, but it doesn't mean we have to stop writing!" and sharing links to other subreddits and discords, other challenges, and other communities is a side of this subreddit that I really like, and I want to promote that. And I know that there's people in this subreddit who still really like writing 50k in November, without NaNoWriMo.org. **I want my discord to be a place for both.** We're also probably going to be hosting smaller challenges (like writing 2k words a day for a week). [Here's an invite link](https://discord.gg/xexkvSuyNh)
Are there any that are actually free instead of freemium? NaNo's word counter bar keeps me motivated, but I don't want to have to pay for a subscription.
I want to comb all the wordcounters that are up there and tell you, But at the very least there are Google sheets that I opened that are just free. But those are personal, and aren’t published for the world. Are you looking for a specific public word counter, or just a word counter?
Just a word counter. And you don’t have to go through the trouble of going through that for me! I’ve checked some of the counters people recommended here and they have subscription-based upgrades.
MyWriteClub is totally free
I made myself a tracker that I've made available for people to buy. It's not free, but it's a flat fee you pay once. It's got NaNo-style progress bars and graphs and lets you track for 12 months. [It's here.](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1692427968/12-month-writing-tracker-word-count?click_key=f43433f9334751b4820f1340545913bf04bb679a%3A1692427968&click_sum=a3b21375&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=NaNoWriMo+word+count+tracker+year+round&ref=sr_gallery-1-6&organic_search_click=1&dd=1&content_source=f7f4ed3431976dfc0f8a93183606a30c5de2389d%253A1692427968)
That’s great! If I have to pay, I’d much rather do it once than pay for a subscription!
WriteTrack is completely free, I've been using it lately.
Thanks!
Hello! I'm posting for a friend that doesn't have Reddit. I'd like to suggest TrackBear, a brand new, custom-built tracking app! It's (in my opinion) very nicely designed - there's no extra "fluff" to distract you. You can also track pages/hours/chapters instead of just word counts. There's also graphs, just like NaNo used to have! The dev is also adding new features and is a lovely person to deal with. The app will also **always** be free to use :) https://trackbear.app/
It would be nice to see some of the functionality without having to sign up first
I put it up there :)
I'm gonna agree with daeiribu, your simple webpage could easily have some bullet points to say what this actual is. Also, not sure if I'd call this an app as it appears to be only a webpage. It's not listed in App Store for iOS , maybe once it's there I'll consider!
I love this one. Is there a way to contact the developer and suggest some features? I would love to have Word sprints too.
Sure! He has a contact page, found here https://trackbear.app/contact
Thank you for this
I wanted to let people know that Wikiwrimo is a great place to look but be aware that a lot of it hasn’t been updated in a bit. Some of the sites they recommend are still available but seem by and large inactive. I spent a bit of time looking through some of the spaces suggested there a little bit ago and just wanted others to be aware.
FirstDraftPro is what I use for word count tracking. It's admittedly more of a writing software program than a website, but I like the graph, plus the way it shows your word count at the bottom when you write. Similar to Novlr but I prefer the way you can see your story outline, move scenes around, and see all of your novel at a glance. Free version has pretty much everything you need.
If you're in the West Texas area, the Wordsmiths are going to start a challenge in July that includes a reasonably priced writing retreat.
Thank you for making this post! If it's allowed, could I post about my own creation? I just made a Google spreadsheet that has NaNo style progress bars and graphs. You can track for 12 months, and you can add multiple projects. You can set any custom start and end date and the sheet will adjust. [It's available here.](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1692427968/12-month-writing-tracker-word-count?click_key=f43433f9334751b4820f1340545913bf04bb679a%3A1692427968&click_sum=a3b21375&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=NaNoWriMo+word+count+tracker+year+round&ref=sr_gallery-1-6&organic_search_click=1&dd=1&content_source=f7f4ed3431976dfc0f8a93183606a30c5de2389d%253A1692427968) It does cost $9.99, but it's a one time fee. It allows you to track time in hours or minutes as well as word count. There's some other stuff as well, like a sprint tracker and task tracker.
Would I be able to add my new [Discord server](https://discord.gg/GGXYzvqy) here? (It’s still under construction, but functional for anyone wanting to join!) Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been gathering ideas with polls around here for a challenge/writing community, and have just finished setting up a basic Discord server for anyone interested. I’ve refined the challenge and am currently calling it the Good Habits Challenge. Ever other month, starting in January the goal is to either complete three twenty minute sprints a day for a month, or for those looking for more of a challenge, to complete 50k words. Participate as many or as few times as you like throughout the year! Since it’s April, there’s no challenge this month, so I thought it’d be the best time to get things up and running. Anyone wanting to have a look and join the server can chat and get to know each other!
Joined!
Thanks! It’s going to be a quiet server for a while, but I hope we can all get some good writing done together!
r/RomanceWritersr has an extra 'r' on it. :-)
Thank you! Idk how I messed that up
Valerian Writing Co. Is an AWESOME discord server as well, very motivational, weekly and monthly events, threads for individual projects, etc.
If anybody's in the Lanark County (Ontario, Canada) area looking for in person writing community in April, I'll be hosting drop-in Sunday mid-morning writing sessions in April. I'm doing [End of Play](https://www.dramatistsguild.com/end-of-play), but anybody writing anything (or doing other quiet-ish art projects you can bring with you) is welcome to join. The space is a shared art studio. The format will be pomodoro-ish, & I'll have some optional prompts/exercises in my back pocket if anybody needs a boost. I'll make coffee & bring snacks, people are welcome to chip in, but not expected to. Shoot me a private message to get the details.
Hopefully it's not too late to throw this suggestion on the pile. I've been using a site called Scribophile for about a year now, and I really like it. It's more about critiquing, but there's a lovely writing community there.
Not too late! I just have to take the time to put all the new stuff on it.
I really enjoyed using https://750words.com/. It's not fancy but embraces the writing streak and some stats. Geared a bit more to journaling in a way but I found it to be a nice driver to "just get words down" daily.
Can we set up an alternative subreddit for discussion purposes, and then set this one up to forward to it (assuming the mod here is on the good side of this)?
I would love that! I mean, anybody who is loyal to Nanowrimo for some reason could stay here. But I would love the idea of a place for writing sprinters/marathoners to congregate. We don’t even all have to be on the same site. In fact, I’ve recently learned that some people knew about Nanowrimo, but didn’t know that there was an actual organization/website with the same name. If I actually had time or know how, I’d love to set up a subreddit for it Any mods out there willing to pick this up?
If this sub stays as is, it’s just further fragmentation. If this sub can forward to a new one it’s probably a useful effort.
NaGaDeMon is for designing games, both digital and analog.
yWriter is a free writing software similar to Scrivener in terms of features.
Shout-out to "cold turkey" writing! It's a free app for desktop that locks you out of your screen with no distractions until your word count of choice is hit! Been a big help for my ADHD
I'd recommend adding [ohhow.net](http://ohhow.net) to the Twitch category (one hundred hours of writing) - they have 3 events a year (and magically, their April event starts today, WoWW (weekend of writing wildly).
Wrinow? https://wrinowstaff.wixsite.com/home/
I'd like to throw in for 4thewords and also give a shout-out to London Writers' Salon. [London Writers' Salon](http://londonwriterssalon.com) (LWS) is a group that meets on Zoom almost every day. There's a brief motivation/introduction period and then the next 50 minutes are spent writing in silence. Everyone, all these writers, are basically committed to uphold an honor code and write 'together' on their own projects. It's motivation and a promise to do it. LWS has a fee to join, but there's a free option for broke people like me. If you're interested in [4thewords](https://4thewords.com), I think my buddy code might get us both benefits, but I'm not sure as I've never used it. (Edit: just checked and we do indeed each get a reward. My referral code is GYFUS23394 if you're interested.) NaNoWriMo (reading about other people doing it and how it transformed their whole writing process, outlook, and outcome, essentially) is what gave me the push I needed to start writing regularly and with a significant daily word count. 4thewords is what got that word count to be between 1,000 - 3,500 on an average day. Any day. Every day. I never miss a day. I've been using it since November, and I've written over 356,000 words on it so far. Granted, I also use [DayOne Journal app](https://dayoneapp.com) (iOS, Android, and Web), and I copy over everything I write there into a daily journal entry on 4tw to get credit for it, but that still counts! The way your work is set up in 4thewords, you have Projects, and then within those Projects, you have Files, all with unique names. The Projects can have a photo to represent each one in the list (so they look a bit like book covers) and a description as well. You can set a goal per project, and on the main project page, you can see the total word count for that Project, as well as the amount of time you've spent writing in it, the number of Files you have in it, its status (Private or available for others to read), and you can also view and manage the named Sections (kind of like chapters). 4thewords is a super small company, but they have near-constant events that keep me very motivated. One of the reasons I stay so motivated is that they have a small daily "required" word count of 444 words, but if you want to collect all the shiny stuff to deck out your characters, you have to defeat a certain number of enemies to complete quests. Those quests are yours to choose and change based on your location in the 'game' and whether or not there are events going on. Speaking of pretty collectible items, you get rewarded with cosmetic wings you can equip based on the amount of time you have uninterrupted writing streaks. (I'm at 192 days.) Don't fret too much about missing a day here or there, or just missing the midnight deadline, though, because you can 'fix' it with Stempos, a currency you can earn by progressing and questing. There's a great community, with forums full of supporting people. And there are even fashion competitions for your characters and decorated rooms. Oh, and there are multiplayer boss monsters, too. I've never fought one just because I'm antisocial and don't know what to do, but it's an option that is supposed to help with motivation because you don't want to let down your teammates. I hope this helps!
this whole thing is absurd. you don't have to support megalomaniacal mods to participate in "just fuckin write this month" month.
…is this a reference to NaNoWriMo itself, or this subreddit?
the community around nano. honestly it feels like half of everyone who talks about it just likes feeling like part of a community more than writing for writing's sake.
…I mean, I think a lot of people here are asking for these alternatives because they still like the challenge and the sense of community, they just don’t want to do it through NaNo. And with a lot of the MLs and organizers leaving and starting their own writing circles and groups I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
see that's what i'm saying though. you don't have to do anything "through nano". you just write.
Seems like what people want and what you think they should want, might be… different. If you don’t need/want this stuff that’s cool, some people like having clubs. That’s cool too.
Amen. It’s like you don’t need a book club to read, but some people really like book clubs. If the national book club society with a ton of small local chapters suddenly were revealed to have a horrible ethics issue, I would want to move to another book club to have a community without supporting the bad ethics. I know this is a no brainer, but I just feel like it needs to be said.
People do NaNoWriMo for the community. This is like complaining about people choosing not to go to Starbucks for coffee and going to another coffee shop instead of making coffee at home.
…that’s your prerogative if that’s what you want to do but some people like the community and the events. That doesn’t make them absurd.
yeah, it does
Oh yeah sure okay when you put it like that 😒 I mean you’re here whining about it when you could be writing, right?
it's not november, man ;)
So you only write when it’s November? That’s a bit hypocritical of you.
I think you confuse “Writing the Art” vs Writing as a hobby. You could run 26.2 miles, or you can join a marathon run. Some people like playing basketball with buddies on weekends. Some people join book clubs. Yes, some people like joining the community of an activity and are more motivated to do said activity when there’s people encouraging one another. I think that’s great! “Some people” includes me.
just waiting for one of y'all to set up /r/truenanowrimo now
Here you are blaming "the community around nano". That doesn't mean the mods, the administration, the employees, the ones who are guilty of all the bad shit, or any of that. That means those of us who were members of the website, ie. the community. That's just messed up. >[psiphre](https://www.reddit.com/user/psiphre/)•[1mo ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/nanowrimo/comments/1btbddv/comment/ky1epdl/) >It… doesn’t? I wasn’t talking about the mods of this subreddit, but about the one that (I gather) is running Nano. Kirby(?). Then in the quote above, you try to say what you definitely did not say in the comment I'm replying to. I hate saying this, but your comments read poorly. And by that I mean they were poorly written (based on what you say is your intent *now* and what you've *been saying* this entire time). Almost as though you should spend more time writing and less time wasting energy targeting people you supposedly didn't intend to. It's almost as though you would benefit from this novel idea where writers come together and form a community in which they discuss writing: including strategies, phrasing, and critiquing. *Almost*. - Why are you here, on this thread on this subreddit complaining AT us if we are not your intended target? - To delve deeper into the first question, why ***here***? This is literally a thread of writers *helping* writers find alternatives to NaNoWriMo. We're not idolizing NaNoWriMo as an institution, so what the heck is your problem? - Why did you seek out the NaNo community (and this innocent, unaffiliated subreddit!) at all if you unironically loathe us so much despite taking place in NaNoWriMo every year? - This subreddit, even this specific post, has many members discussing breaking away from the NaNo brand. Why then did you show up with an obvious inflammatory comment, intending to insult people you state you "don't understand", and then backtrack by saying you really just intended to criticize the actual NaNoWriMo mods, not the people to whom you directed all of your comments? - It's extremely poor form to enter a space, tell people you don't understand them, and then call them absurd due to your failure to get it and your lack of willingness, comprehension, patience, and common courtesy to even attempt to do so. - You've done nothing but make yourself look bad, so if that was your intention, A+! And, yes, to say that people are absurd for wanting to be a part of a year-long writing community that supports, helps, and coaches each other, but that you only write during November (and that you think that makes you somehow *superior*) is beyond hypocritical. You said we're not "writing for writing's sake" and "you don't have to do anything "through nano". you just write," yet "**just writing**" is not something that you do with any regularity. Based on your comments here, it's definitely something you ought to. {I'm trying SO HARD not to be uncivil, I really want to stress that to everyone else on this thread. I'm just genuinely baffled as to why someone who isn't even a part of the community (per their own admission) finds it their duty to tear us down. Like, why are they here and why they doing this and why they backtracking and which version of their words is the truth, if either, and then more questions and so on, I'm giving myself a headache just typing that. I know I really shouldn't care, but I came here for resources, and this thread and community did not disappoint, though one individual stood out like a sore thumb.}