33 Novels Written During NaNoWriMo

Posted by Cybil on October 29, 2020
November is the time for aspiring writers to get serious about writing that book! It's National Novel Writing Month, the annual event designed to help you go from dreaming about being an author to becoming an author

The goal? Buckle down and pen a full-length novel during the month. The NaNoWriMo nonprofit group has a plan to help you, breaking up that daunting task into 1,667 words per day, 11,669 words per week, with the grand total of 50,000 words due by November 30.

Before you begin, get inspired by these 33 books that can trace their roots back to NaNoWriMo projects. Not only did books including The Night CircusWith the Fire on High, and Trail of Lightning reach the finish line, they reached the pinnacle: publication.

Who knows? Maybe your NaNoWriMo book could wind up on this list someday. Which ones do you recommend? Let us know in the comments!



Which of these NaNoWriMo books would you recommend to your fellow readers? Let us know in the comments!

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Comments Showing 1-23 of 23 (23 new)

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message 1: by Jeanne (new)

Jeanne Highly recommend Water For Elephants and The Night Circus.


message 2: by Sayali (new)

Sayali I would definitely recommend "Fangirl" and "Cinder"


Extinction (Quasar) Wow, I am amazed that so many of these highly acclaimed books were written in such a short amount of time.


message 4: by Laura (new)

Laura Bogart "Fangirl" is wonderful, and I highly recommend the Simon Snow books that followed it.


Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods* Extinction wrote: "Wow, I am amazed that so many of these highly acclaimed books were written in such a short amount of time."

I doubt any of them were ready to go out into the world after just one month and 50,000 words. The effort put into NaNoWriMo is at best simply to produce a first draft. All of these books would have then gone through multiple rounds of editing and revisions. I think talk of NaNoWriMo does aspiring authors a disservice by not pointing out that this is just the first step in producing a novel. A vitally important step, but only the first one.


Extinction (Quasar) Marc *Dark Reader of the Woods* wrote: "Extinction wrote: "Wow, I am amazed that so many of these highly acclaimed books were written in such a short amount of time."

I doubt any of them were ready to go out into the world after just on..."


That's fair I guess.


message 7: by Katsuro (new)

Katsuro To the headline, I'd like to add the words "and then polished and rewritten in a second draft after Nanowrimo." :)


message 8: by Savannah (new)

Savannah Hart Wow, I'm surprised at how many books were written in such a short amount of time. But I'm sure that they were polished and re-written a couple times before it was published.


message 9: by Alex (new)

Alex Morrall Wow! I did write the first draft of my novel in 6 weeks, but I could never work on demand liked this. Well done novelists!


message 10: by FantasyBookNerd (new)

FantasyBookNerd Wow, never knew The Calculating Stars was written in this. Currently reading it and would recommend.


message 11: by Ellen (new)

Ellen "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern and "Wool" by Hugh Howey are two of the best books I have ever read!


message 12: by Bon Tom (new)

Bon Tom Wool, definitely the Wool.


message 13: by Marla (new)

Marla Wool was amazing, made me a Howey fan for life.


message 14: by Dustin (new)

Dustin I have not read any of these (a couple, like Wool,) have long-since been on my TBR. However, seeing what came of so many success stories that came from NaNoWriMo is definitely inspiring.


message 15: by Ashwati (new)

Ashwati Totally recommend "Fangirl" "Night Circus" "Cinder" and "Water For Elephants"


message 16: by Ariii ☾ (new)

Ariii ☾ Are you kidding me? These aMAZING books were written in such a small time? Even if they were drafts,
I AM UNWORTHY


message 17: by Ariii ☾ (new)

Ariii ☾ Are you kidding me? These AMAZING books were written in such a small time? Even if they were drafts,
I AM UNWORTHY


message 18: by GRey (new)

GRey This is amazing to know as I start my 8th NANOWRIMO!!!


message 19: by Katsuro (new)

Katsuro To quote Erin Morgenstern herself, the author of one book listed here:

"It's that time of year when people like to say that The Night Circus was 'written during NaNoWriMo' which is not technically true. It was messily drafted over the course of two NaNos and overhauled multiple times afterward, almost every word was changed post-NaNo."


message 20: by Dustin (new)

Dustin Katsuro wrote: "To quote Erin Morgenstern herself, the author of one book listed here:

"It's that time of year when people like to say that The Night Circus was 'written during NaNoWriMo' which is not technically..."



☺ Exactly. Nevertheless, churning out the bare bones of a 50k novel in a month is incredible impressive. It is not easy, but worth all the sacrifices.


message 22: by Kelly (new)

Kelly Santana-Banks WOW! I had no idea that some of these were from NaNoWriMo!


message 23: by Betsy (new)

Betsy Ellor Fantastic! I'm sure it took a lot of editing after NaNoWriMo but so inspiring to see where the month can take you.


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