NaNoWriMo Alternatives!

It’s coming up on November and oh so many writers both love and loathe that NaNoWriMo —National November Writing Month— is just around the corner! The time of the year where so many writers—be they amateur or seasoned or anywhere in between—attempt to write an entire novel or 50k words in 30 days.

It can be a bit . . . Stressful. That is if you get behind on your word count goals . Now you don’t HAVE to write 50kk or an entire novel, you can choose any goal you like. But traditionally it’s those two.

Now back up a few years and some veterans of this challenge might remember that the official NaNoWriMo went a bit . . . Liberal on us. Anything from supporting abortion to shoving their views down everyone’s throats in almost every email they sent.

So conservative Christians and others started to, sadly, leave NaNoWriMo. But where to go? It is a lovely tradition that pulls writers together and the vacuum of community was sorely missed.

Thankfully a group of wonderful Christians have banded together and created safe spaces for Christians to write together! I know of two and here they are! Both options are virtual “Camps” that take place over on the Slack app.

The “Write in Faith: Camp” is a brand new camp put together by a friend of mine, Andrea. It’s open to both men and women of faith and to all ages. Though if you’re under 18 you must have your guardian sign off on it. This will be my first time through this camp so I can’t say much about it other than I’m really excited! It’ll be nice to have both sisters and brothers in Christ writing together!

The other camp I know of and love is “The King’s Daughter’s Writing Camp” And, like the name suggests, it’s open only to girls. Women of all ages can sign up and write together for around 30 days at a time! This has been such a lovely community of like faith and I love them dearly. In this camp you are plucked into a “Tent” with around 10-15 other girls. This is your core support group for your writing adventure! Every tent has an Auntie—an older mature woman who is usually on staff—and she generally keeps us on track and helps us reach our goals as she strives to reach her own!

There are many channels on this slack group where we can hang out and chill. Lakeside is one of my favorites for that! If you wanna write with others, then there are two writing channels for you to sprint or crawl through! If you’ve got a prayer request there’s a channel for that too. Hymn Hilltop, Story Hollow—where we share snippets of our stories—, Mechanic shed, and others await you.

The sign ups for both end in a few days, so if you would like to join in on some crazy fun, go forth and prosper!

Personally I will be attending both this year! Here’s hoping I can get a book done .

I hope to see you on the camp grounds! Oh and if you know of any NaNoWriMo alternatives, please do share in the comments!

‘Till next we meet! ~Tiffany Michele.