novella-november - Tumblr blog

[novella-november]

(source on pexels)

(source on pexels)

(source on pexels)

(source on pexels)

(source on pexels)

(source on pexels)

Here's some more Ominous October goal cards, now for 2024! Please free free to make your own and share them in the tags! This only includes the weekly prompts, but if someone wants to make one for every single daily prompt, feel free to check the list here

Template for 2024:

[novella-november]

The poll about Ominous October prompts has now wrapped up, and the results are in!

51% voted to used the narrowed list of polls, while 25% wanted to vote to narrow down the prompts, and the other % had no opinion.

So! We've got two (three?) options for those participating in Ominous October 2024 :)

Ominous October 2024 *Weekly Short Stories* - Writing 714 words each day, complete one short story each week totaling 5k (or more) based on the following prompts:

Week One: Undead / Strange Town

Week Two: Changeling / Curse

Week Three: Parasitism / Revenge

Week Four: Transformation / Eternity

[You can choose between either prompt for the week, or combine them both in your story!]

Ominous October 2024 *Daily Short Stories OR Poetry*- each day, write a drabble/short story or poem based on the following prompts:

Raised from the dead

Ghost stories

“I put a spell on you”

Replacement and parasitism (changelings, cuckoos, All About Eve)

Victim turns the tables on their bully

Playing pretend or acting out on stage turns real

Medical abuse and sadistic doctors

Phantom limb

A single candle

Costume

Under the bed

What lurks in the cellar

The weird small-town

A knock at the door

The witching hour

It will never end

Graveyard ghost hunting

Misty road

Potions

Harvesting

Banshee's lullaby

Crooked reflection

"Do not speak its name"

The eleventh hour

It's too late

Bones itching

Poisoned coffee

Bloody hands

Since October is right before November, and a lot of people are going for the 30,000 words in a month goal, there are three catch-up/rest days from the 29th through the 31st!

On the 31st, Everyone picks one (or more!) spooky stories to post to celebrate!

Here is a template for Ominous October:

Please feel free to make your own custom decorated goal cards and post them in the Ominous October tags!

And don't forget to reblog for more reach! Everyone participating has around two weeks to do any prep they'd like for the weekly short stories with the prompts :D

[novella-november]

two hours left, but I think we have our answer lol

Okay, so the Ominous October Poll (found here) has a little under 90 votes currently and just a few hours left with a

68% "Yes",

15% "no"

and 16% "no opinion"

And from my request last night, I've had 3 people submit prompts!

Original Submitted Prompts -- thank you to Anon, @Axel-mania, and @Kiaramagi for submitting!

Raised from the dead

Ghost stories

“I put a spell on you”

Replacement and parasitism (changelings, cuckoos, All About Eve)

Victim turns the tables on their bully

Playing pretend or acting out on stage turns real

Medical abuse and sadistic doctors

Phantom limb

A single candle

Costume

Under the bed

What lurks in the cellar

The weird small-town

A knock at the door

The witching hour

It will never end

Graveyard ghost hunting

Misty road

Potions

Harvesting

Banshee's lullaby

Crooked reflection

"Do not speak its name"

The eleventh hour

It's too late

Bones itching

Poisoned coffee

Bloody hands

I've also narrowed down the list above to these 8:

Week One: Undead / Strange Town Week Two: Changeling / Curse Week Three: Parasitism / Revenge Week Four: Transformation / Eternity

So, would you all prefer to have a series of 24 hour polls to narrow down the results, or use the narrowed list I've made?

Please reblog for more reach if you are participating :)

[novella-november]

Since a few people have requested a writing challenge involving poetry, what month would you like that to be in?

A poetry challenge would probably constitute writing one poem a day, since there's so many format and style options for poetry it would be difficult to make it based on word or page count, since poems can convey an extremely broad range of emotions based on formatting alone...

[novella-november]

Okay, so the Ominous October Poll (found here) has a little under 90 votes currently and just a few hours left with a

68% "Yes",

15% "no"

and 16% "no opinion"

And from my request last night, I've had 3 people submit prompts!

Original Submitted Prompts -- thank you to Anon, @Axel-mania, and @Kiaramagi for submitting!

Raised from the dead

Ghost stories

“I put a spell on you”

Replacement and parasitism (changelings, cuckoos, All About Eve)

Victim turns the tables on their bully

Playing pretend or acting out on stage turns real

Medical abuse and sadistic doctors

Phantom limb

A single candle

Costume

Under the bed

What lurks in the cellar

The weird small-town

A knock at the door

The witching hour

It will never end

Graveyard ghost hunting

Misty road

Potions

Harvesting

Banshee's lullaby

Crooked reflection

"Do not speak its name"

The eleventh hour

It's too late

Bones itching

Poisoned coffee

Bloody hands

I've also narrowed down the list above to these 8:

Week One: Undead / Strange Town Week Two: Changeling / Curse Week Three: Parasitism / Revenge Week Four: Transformation / Eternity

So, would you all prefer to have a series of 24 hour polls to narrow down the results, or use the narrowed list I've made?

Please reblog for more reach if you are participating :)

[novella-november]

This looks great! Much more professional-looking than my homemade MS Paint one, lol! Love it! 💙

I made a goal card for Novella November! This is my first time making something like this and I thought that this would be able to maybe help people! If people really like this template, then I'll share the ones I make for future months as well! I made it through Canva so I'll share the link for anyone who wants to use it :)

@novella-november

Let me know what you think! I'll make another one at some point for November (probably) and will post it once it's done

[novella-november]

some Ominous October goal cards awhile :)

(source on pexels)

(Source on pexels)

(source on Pexels)

template:

Ominous October: Each week, write a 5k word spooky short story based on a choice of two prompts (to be decided), then post a spooky story on October 31st!

[novella-november]

Honestly, that ask really just shows just how easy it would have been for certain companies to respond properly to AI questions -- that is, to say, in a shorter post:

While I can't stop you, not only do I disprove, but I have *explicitly banned AI from this challenge.* If you acknowledge the rules of no plagiarism and no AI, and use AI to generate your 30,000 words regardless, you will at least be forced to admit to *yourself* that even if you didn't consider it as such before, you are, in fact, *cheating*. And, in doing so you are not only defeating the point of the community challenge, but also harming your fellow writers and artists every time you put more info in and get more info out of the Plagiarism Machine. If you decide not only to *cheat* in the challenge, but also then go on to proudly brag about how you used AI to generate your work, or post content like images that are clearly AI generated..... well, that's on you when you find yourself blocked by a few thousand writers and artists at once, isn't it? This community event has no formal submissions, so it is based on the honor system -- and that, of course means that when you choose to break the rules.... you'll feel it when you *break that code of honor.* Maybe you won't notice it at first, but you definitely will when you find yourself suddenly unable to interact with a few hundred accounts from cool authors and writers, who are all happily chatting and exchanging ideas -- all while your posts in the tags receive 0 notes because you don't realize it but everyone's blocked you....

[novella-november]

Oh, and if anyone designs Goal Cards for November and posts them, please feel free to @ me, I would love to boost your designs :)

Templates:

[novella-november]

👋 Hi there! You may be interested in my pinned post, then feel free to look through my blog :D

I am aiming to make this new November (and other monthly events, next closest is Ominous October) to be a warm, friendly community initiative built on supporting others and encouragement, without all the pressures of nano!

fall is in the air. And usually that kicks off remembrances of NaNoWriMo.

With their handling of the child predator, the child-centric programs with no safety features, and now their support of AI...

I can't NaNo anymore in any good faith.

There was a program called "Book or Bust" in the middle of the year--write a book over June and July, at about 650 words per day. I think people everywhere are suggesting alternatives of similar types. And honestly?

It's a great thing, writing altogether. I don't doubt we'll make another big group to write in. But also? NaNoWriMo didn't have to be a company. It started as a group of friends. There's no reason we can't just make it highly personal and find friends to write with.

I know all this.

And yet I'm so damn sad. NaNo was a source of such happiness for me. And now... sigh.

just sigh.

I don't believe I'm the world's special victim or anything, but it is wild how and when my supports have been stripped from me. NaNoWriMo was always so important. It will always be an important part of my past. Honestly, that hurts. It's like I had a special holiday and now that holiday is just POOF! Gone.

I love writing with other people so I'd prefer another big event... if anyone has any writing projects or goals and wants someone to work with, just contact me ok <3

[novella-november]

It’s fascinating watching the difference in opinions on AI between people who simply want to consume content vs people who create said content. Like, I have yet to meet an artist or a writer who is happy with the growth of AI, particularly generative AI. Yet there are so many people online calling creators ableist and classist simply for wanting to protect their work! And there’s so many people who refuse to listen to the valid criticisms of AI!

Yes, AI can be an awesome tool but there’s a lot of ethical issues that haven’t been addressed yet. Creators aren’t in the wrong for wanting to have a conversation about this

[novella-november]

If you're interested in doing Ominous October this year, first, vote here asap, and then start sending in prompts!

Once the poll ends tomorrow, (as I type this its at 70% "yes") , I'll collect prompts until September 13th, then we can do some rapid-fire, 24-hour polls to narrow down the winners, assuming we get more than 8 prompts submitted lol.

On the 13th, I'll make the first post that just lists out all of the submitted prompts, then we can do a bunch of polls to narrow them down.

[novella-november]

If I want to participate this year through Tumblr then how do I do that? Do I simply use a hashtag? How do I see others who are participating and connect with them?

Yep! You can use the tags:

#Novella November

#NovellaNovember

#Novella November 2024

#NovellaNovember2024

If you want a quick way to use them on a post without typing them out by hand each time, you can copy them into a Notepad app, word document, etc and paste them in; as long as theres a space and a # or , in between them, Tumblr at least will interpret them as seperate tags; if you have Xkit on desktop, you can also add them to a tag bundle.

Especially as we get closer to November, you'll start to see a lot more people than this blog posting in the tag! In fact, there's already people posting in it, getting ready for November! :D

One fun way you can connect with others is by making and posting custom Goal Cards, which I encourage everyone to make a few to post :D

Templates:

I've also got a Sprint Room on Ohwrite already made that anyone can use either now and all through November, which you can also find on this post here.

(I only just signed up for Ohwrite to make that Sprint Room in the first place, but I am going to assume anyone can use the link at any time and that I don't need to be logged in currently for people to use it? Not 100% sure I'll have to experiment with it a bit)

Some other ways to connect would be making posts in the tag (or asking them here, or @ me on relevant posts) if you're looking for writing partners, need some help getting out of some writers block, etc !

[novella-november]

Is Ominous October going to happen this year or are we just jumping straight to Novella November?

that's a great question!

Dp you guys want to do Ominous October this year, or start it up next year so there's more prep time?

Recap on Ominous October: one of my ideas for year-round, monthly writing events, to keep everyone in the habit of writing a little bit every day, instead of only feeling like November is the only time to write lol.

October [20k total / 714 each day] -- Ominous October -- A choice of themes will be decided on before October, two options for each week, and everyone will write a 5k word short horror/spooky story each week, that all get posted on October 31st / Halloween.

I have a feeling a lot of people will want to do it this year, and if so we gotta work fast on getting prompts because we're already just 3 weeks away from October lol....

So! feel free to start sending in spooky/horror prompts, and we can have some rapid-fire show-down polls (each lasting 24 hours instead of a week) to quickly get 8 prompts/ themes, two for each week in October, and hopefully still have plenty of time for prep before October starts!

Prompts can be a mix of single words and short sentences.

[novella-november]

I don’t wanna trouble u but I saw u made a post about opening up a discord. Do u have any further plans about it? Just becauee I’m kinda interested in the project

Oh, I don't know if you saw, but I actually posted an update on this yesterday, here!

to sum it up, I'd originally got a whole little Discord server set up with channels and all, but decided not to actually open it up, just because I don't want it to become any kind of official "hub" or more explicitly, an exclusive club for the event.

I have it on Tumblr because Tumblr is what I mostly use, and its a wide-open social media platform that anyone can find and join, whereas Discord is more closed off and, importantly, can't really be archived, so it would be hard for people to find information in a search engine if its locked behind a discord, as well as how overwhelming it can be to try to find information on Discord once you do join a server, especially huge ones with a few hundred or thousand people in it, all talking at once.

If anyone wants to make their own:

Discord servers

Pillowfort communities

Reddit subreddits

etc

to organize their own small sections of the event, I encourage it, the more the merrier!

Just as long as no one is branding their server as any kind of "official" community of the event, because I want this to be something for the entire community to be a part of !

This blog is the only ""official"" face of the event, and I encourage everyone taking part in the event to use the #Novella November and #NovellaNovember tags for anything relevant to help find and share in the community :)

[novella-november]

So uh, how are you planning to enforce the "no AI" rule? What do you plan to do if a participant is accused of using unacceptable software?

There's no submissions and no enforcement.

If someone is posting the in #Novella November & #NovellaNovember tags:

clearly-AI generated content (such as AI-generated book covers)

bragging about using AI

Talking about how they used x AI program to make X part of the book

etc

Then I can guarantee you they're going to simply be blocked by a few thousand writers en masse.

Probably they will get at least a few people trying to talk to them about the harm that AI does, and better alternatives that don't mass-steal from a few million unconsenting people--

alternatives like:

finding someone to partner with to discuss your ideas for brainstorming instead of asking an AI chatbot

.

Joining a "secret gift" group where everyone digitally "pulls a name out of a hat" or is randomly selected to make a cover for someone else's book idea

.

commissioning an actual artist for a cover

.

youtube tutorials on how to use GIMP as a free Photoshop alternative to make your own cover, with links to sites such as Pexels that have free stockphotos for anyone to use

.

Choosing a lower, more manageable daily word count goal if 1k or 500 is too out of line with your work schedule/ability to write on your own instead of resorting to AI generation to try to make up the difference out of anxiety

.

finding alternative medias to 'write' with, such as using an app on your phone or the in-built accessibility features on Windows that let you use your voice to type, so if you can't physically type or write with your hands or other limbs, you can instead dictate your novel outloud, which would also work if you are often away from home or can't actively use your phone but *can* record your voice passively as you work with your hands on another task :)

so...... yeah.

Literally the only things that would happen if someone tries to use AI in the #Novella November and #NovellaNovember tags would be the writing community collectively:

attempting some outreach; education is key to realizing the harm being done, after all! Maybe the person just doesn't know any better, and felt like that was their only option to reach their goal.

blocking the person, and if they're actively malicious in their AI use (such as fully knowing how much it harms writers/artists, how much of it is based on plagarism, or actively going out of their way to steal other people's work) people will probably start warning others about them as well so they can be blocked in advance, the same as other people who are harmful to communities.

This is a community initiative, spearheaded by this blog purely because I came up with the idea first and want to make sure that, at least to start out and as long as I can manage it, the community is the key part of being supporting and caring of each other, because billion dollar tech companies and those who are swayed by their money sure as heck aren't going to stand with us.

If someone is ""accused of using unacceptable software"" ..... they're just gonna get blocked if they're posting AI generated content, like everyone else who posts AI generated content get blocked by the community at large as they're encountered.

I'll repeat again: this is a community initiative, not an organization. There's no submissions people are sending anywhere to "confirm" word counts; --

Only:

people posting their celebrations and woes in the tag,

posting their frustrations and questions,

receiving answers and advice from the community,

sharing art and snippets, making covers, making decorative goal cards,

No AI is allowed in Novella November -- if people are posting or bragging about using AI generated content, they're simply going to be announcing themselves to thousands of writers (plus everyone who follows those writers) that they're a good person to block and never interact with 🤷

[novella-november]

💙

Okay, was gonna happily announce that the Tumblr Community "Novella November" was approved!

........ but apparently communities have a maximum member count of 500 people. Which. Considering my main post has a little over 9k notes, I've decided I'm going to let the Community sit for now until Tumblr has them more fully developed --

-- I do NOT want the community to turn into some kind of "exclusive club", and you also can't post from sideblogs at all, so the Community *does* exist, but it'll be empty for now until Tumblr gets the Community feature more up and running.

That's also the same reason I have a Discord all set up but haven't invited anyone -- other than this simple Tumblr Blog for posting information, resources, ideas, etc, I don't want ""Novella November"" to become something that has an "official community" or anything that would lead to it becoming insular or 'exclusive', where anyone is in a position of authority over anyone else.

So, as was the original and still best plan, if you want to be in the Novella November Community, please feel free to tag your posts both on and off Tumblr as "#Novella November" "#NovellaNovember" etc, and if you're on Tumblr and you've got questions to need advice, feel free to @ me on your post or ask here, and I'll reblog for more reach :)

Novella November is for all :D