By: Xander Guidry, Associate Editor at Three Rooms Press

Whether you’re a full-time author, a weekend writer, or someone who’s just been active on Tumblr for a while, you’ve probably heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), a challenge to write 50,000 words in a month, taking place annually in the month of November. Three Rooms Press has embraced the ideals of NaNoWriMo in the past; in fact, several books we have published were hatched during this popular challenge.

But things have changed since the folks at NaNoWriMo released their official stance on Generative AI in authorship. NaNoWriMo not only supports the use of AI to reach your word count goal for the month, but initially claimed that not supporting AI for this use is “classist and ableist,” insinuating that disabled and disenfranchised writers need to rely on tools like Generative AI to be successful. They’ve since edited their statement, but not before their stance on AI caused incredible backlash, and many authors and affiliates stepped down from the platform.

If you, like us, found community in NaNoWriMo and are now wondering what to do, we list some (free) alternatives that we’ve found below.

Ellipsus

Ellipsus, a previous sponsor of NaNoWriMo, retracted their sponsorship after the AI statement was released, and they have also actively denounced the use of Generative AI in writing. Ellipsus, as a company, hopes that they’ve made their opinions on AI “very, very, very clear” in that “it has no place in Ellipsus.” Ellipsus is currently in its beta stage of development, but it already offers a detailed user experience from creating your document to publishing your finished work. While Ellipsus is currently free, the company does say that, “In order to grow the team and fund ongoing feature development, we will need to charge for a version of Ellipsus at some point […] But there will always be a free version of Ellipsus, and we want to be as generous as possible in what’s included on that free plan (e.g., unlimited docs and drafts, for starters).”

TrackBear

TrackBear is essentially a habit-builder for writers. Progress on a project can be tracked, interchangeably, by “words, chapters, pages, scenes, lines, or time.” You can even import your old projects from NaNoWriMo into TrackBear! The platform also explicitly states that “TrackBear is designed with privacy in mind and will always be free to use. TrackBear isn’t a social network, a chat platform, or AI-powered, and there is no premium tier or pay-to-play. There are no ads, no third-party tracking, and no data harvesting. It’s just a place for you to track your writing.”

Notion Pages / Excel Sheets / Browser Extensions

If you’re looking for something a little more independent, there are several Notion Templates and Excel Spreadsheets that allow you to track your writing progress. Consider using key words “word tracker,” “writing tracker,” and “nanowrimo” in your template search to find one that works for you.

If you aren’t in the market for a productivity tracker and are looking more for something to eliminate distractions around you, try Cold Turkey Writer – it turns your laptop into a typewriter! You can’t procrastinate with what you can’t see.

Inexpensive Paid Options

4theWords turns your writing goals into a game – keep writing to battle the monsters! There’s a free version, but also options for an $8/month and a $12/month subscription package, as well as a one-time lifetime payment.

Some creators also offer (inexpensive but paid) NaNoWriMo-esque Notion and Google Doc templates to help keep you on track to meet your goals.

Moral of the story? Write! No matter what inspires you, no matter what software you use to motivate you to, get out there and write. If you’re a writer, please send us your work! Three Rooms Press has specified submission guidelines that detail what kinds of things we’re currently looking for.

Keep creating!