NaNoWriMo is the challenge of writing 50,000 words of a novel in the 30 days of November, which works out to 1,667 words a day. The nonprofit that ran it announced in March 2025 that it was shutting down [1][2], but the challenge itself never belonged to one website. You can still do it in 2026, alone, with a new host or with friends.
This guide gives you the daily target, a day-by-day word count table for November 2026, how writing sprints work, and how to run them with your writing group online.
Roomie Cafe is a free focus timer you share with friends. We make it, so we mention it near the end, as one way among several to sprint together.
What happened to NaNoWriMo?
National Novel Writing Month started in July 1999, when Chris Baty and 20 friends in the San Francisco Bay Area tried to write a novel in a month. It moved to November in 2000, drew 5,000 sign-ups the following year and later became a nonprofit with an international community [3].
On 31 March 2025, the nonprofit emailed its community to say it would begin shutting down [1][2]. Interim executive director Kilby Blades pointed to money: the organisation had run a budget deficit in four of the previous six years and covered the gap from its reserves, while individual giving and participation had fallen [2]. The closure followed two difficult years, including criticism of how its forums for young writers were moderated and a September 2024 statement about AI after which authors left its advisory boards and at least one sponsor withdrew [1][3]. According to TechCrunch, NaNoWriMo said those controversies did not directly cause the closure [1].
So "NaNoWriMo 2026" no longer means signing up on nanowrimo.org. It means the same idea, 50,000 words in November, run by other people or by you.
Where to do the November challenge in 2026
Several organisations now run their own version. We checked these on 22 October 2026:
Rules and dates can change, so read the organiser's page before you start. You also do not need any official host at all. A shared spreadsheet and a group chat with three friends is a perfectly good NaNoWriMo alternative.
The math: 1,667 words a day
50,000 words divided by 30 days is 1,666.7, which everyone rounds up to 1,667. That is roughly three to four typed pages a day. It sounds like a lot until you break it into sprints: if you write 500 words in a 25-minute sprint, you need between three and four sprints a day.
The trap is not any single day. It is falling behind and having to make it up later. A table of where you should be keeps the number honest.
NaNoWriMo 2026 word count table
November 2026 starts on a Sunday. Here is the cumulative target for each day if you write the same amount every day:
If you are in the US, 26 November is Thanksgiving. Bank a few hundred extra words on the days before, or plan a lighter week and heavier weekends. Any split works as long as the running total keeps up.
What is a writing sprint?
A writing sprint is a short, timed block in which you write as much as you can and do nothing else: no editing, no research, no checking your phone. When the timer ends you count the words, take a short break and go again. It is the Pomodoro technique applied to a draft. Our guide to the Pomodoro timer with friends covers the common lengths.
A simple sprint routine:
- Pick a length. 15 to 25 minutes for a first sprint, 45 to 50 once you are warmed up.
- Decide what the sprint is for. "The scene where she finds the letter" is better than "chapter 4".
- Note your starting word count.
- Write without stopping. If you need a fact, type a placeholder like [CHECK] and keep going.
- Write down your new count and take five minutes away from the screen.
Why sprints help
The evidence is useful but not overwhelming, and it is mostly about academic writers rather than novelists.
- Short, regular sessions beat bingeing for many people. In a 1989 study, psychologist Robert Boice helped new faculty members who procrastinated on writing to schedule brief, daily writing sessions, and found the approach effective and fairly painless [7]. Helen Sword later surveyed more than a thousand academics and found that successful writers' habits vary a lot, and that daily writing is not the only route [8]. Take that as permission to find your own rhythm, not as a rule.
- A fixed start time makes starting easier. If-then plans ("At 7:00, at the kitchen table, I open the draft") had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals across 94 tests in a 2006 meta-analysis [9].
- Your phone costs you even when you ignore it. In a 2017 study, people whose phones were in another room did better on working memory tests than people whose phones were face down on the desk [10]. Put it in another room for the length of the sprint.
- The timer gives you permission to write badly. A NaNoWriMo draft is a first draft. Sprints remove the time you would otherwise spend rereading the last paragraph.
How to sprint with friends online
Writing is solitary, but sprinting does not have to be. Writing groups have run "word wars" and write-ins for years, and the reason is simple: it is harder to drift when you know someone else is writing at the same moment. We looked at why in study with friends online, and the same applies to novelists.
You can sprint with friends in several ways:
- A video call with cameras on and mics off. Simple, but long calls get tiring, and not everyone wants to be on camera at 6 a.m.
- A group chat. Someone posts "sprint at :00, 25 minutes", everyone writes, then people post their counts. Free and low effort, but easy to miss.
- A shared timer. Everyone starts a session and can see who else is writing right now, with no call to join.
Whatever you use, agree on a few things up front: when sprints start, how long they last, and that you share word counts, not paragraphs. Comparing words written is motivating; comparing prose in week one is not.
How to beat the week-2 slump
Many people who try NaNoWriMo describe the same pattern: the first few days fly, then somewhere in the second week the plot feels thin, the novelty is gone and the daily number starts to hurt. On the table above, that is the stretch between 13,000 and 25,000 words. A few things help:
- Lower the bar, not the target. Write a scene you are excited about, even if it belongs at the end. Order can be fixed in December.
- Shorten the sprints. Three 15-minute sprints are easier to start than one 50-minute block on a bad day.
- Stop mid-sentence. Ending a session in the middle of a sentence makes it much easier to start the next one.
- Use your group. Tell them you are behind. Most will happily schedule an extra sprint with you.
- Catch up in small amounts. If you are 3,000 words behind, add 300 a day for ten days instead of trying to write 4,667 on Saturday.
- Remember what "locking in" feels like. You do not need motivation for the whole novel, only for the next 25 minutes. More on that in what does locking in mean.
If you miss the 50,000, you still have more of a novel than you did on 31 October. Plenty of writers treat the number as a direction, not a pass or fail.
Where Roomie Cafe fits
Roomie Cafe is a focus timer you share with friends, and it works well as a quiet sprint room for a writing group. You press start, pick what you are working on and a length from 5 to 90 minutes, and you see who else is focusing right now. There is no webcam, no microphone and nothing to book.
For NaNoWriMo, create a focus area called Novel, invite your writing group into it, and run your sprints as timed sessions. You see each other focusing live, and your sessions add to one running total of time. When a sprint ends you write one line about what you got done, which is a natural place for "+612 words, finally reached the wedding", and friends can cheer you on.
Roomie counts minutes, not words, so keep your word count in your writing app or the challenge's dashboard. It is free with no limit on sessions and runs on the web and as an iPhone, iPad and Mac app. There is an optional Supporter plan on the pricing page.
FAQ
Is NaNoWriMo still happening in 2026?
The nonprofit that ran NaNoWriMo announced in March 2025 that it was shutting down [1][2], so there is no official NaNoWriMo event. The challenge of writing 50,000 words in November continues through other hosts, such as ProWritingAid's Novel November and the Reedsy Novel Sprint [4][6], and through writing groups that run it themselves.
How many words a day is NaNoWriMo?
1,667 words a day for 30 days gets you to 50,000. Use the table above to check whether you are ahead or behind on any given day.
What is a good NaNoWriMo alternative?
If you want a dashboard and a community, ProWritingAid's Novel November is free and follows the classic format [4]. If you want a contest with prizes and do not mind writing in one app, the Reedsy Novel Sprint is built around Reedsy Studio [6]. If you just want accountability, set up the challenge with a few friends and sprint together.
How long should a writing sprint be?
Most people use 15 to 25 minutes, then a five-minute break. Longer sprints of 45 to 50 minutes suit days when you already know what happens next.
What if I fall behind?
Spread the gap over the remaining days instead of trying to catch up in one go. Shorter sprints and a sprint partner help more than a heroic Saturday.
Does 50,000 words count as a novel?
It is short for a novel, and it is meant to be a first draft. The point of the month is to get a complete, messy draft you can revise, not a finished book.
References
- TechCrunch. NaNoWriMo shuts down after AI, content moderation scandals. 1 April 2025. Retrieved 22 October 2026.
- Friedman, J. NaNoWriMo is shutting down. Jane Friedman. Retrieved 22 October 2026.
- Wikipedia. National Novel Writing Month. Retrieved 22 October 2026.
- ProWritingAid. Novel November: the free writing challenge. Retrieved 22 October 2026.
- ProWritingAid Help Center. How to use the Novel November dashboard. Retrieved 22 October 2026.
- Reedsy. Reedsy Novel Sprint 2026. Retrieved 22 October 2026.
- Boice, R. (1989). Procrastination, busyness and bingeing. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 27(6), 605–611.
- Sword, H. (2016). "Write every day!": a mantra dismantled. International Journal for Academic Development, 21(4), 312–322.
- Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119.
- Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain drain: The mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 140–154.