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Weeknight Writers banner featuring the Weeknight Writers logo of a bird and the words "Weeknight Writers - Helping Writers Grow" above logos for the three main event series: Storycrafting Sessions, Writing Roundtables, and First Draft Fall

Happening NOW: First Draft Fall

Do you miss NaNoWriMo? Do you need the power of a community challenge to get you to finally finish your book, script, or other writing project this fall?

#FirstDraftFall is here to help! Created to fill the empty space left by NaNoWriMo’s collapse, #FirstDraftFall is a community challenge to finish a first draft in the fall—with a full ten weeks of programming to carry you from the planning process to a complete story. The best part? You don’t have to hit 50,000 words or write a full novel: you can set a goal to finish a novella, script, or even a short story—whatever goal best fits your capacity.

Learn more about First Draft Fall

Our community

The Weeknight Writers Pro Community is a premium Discord server built to provide three pillars of support for writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror:

  • Community: Providing discussion spaces to chat about every aspect of writing and publishing, plus monthly virtual socials where we chat about anything and everything.
  • Accountability: Keeping writers on track through nightly, weekly, and monthly check-ins.
  • Education: Monthly worksheets to help our writers develop skills related to writing, editing, publishing, and marketing, rooted in our founders’ 30 years of writing experience and 20 years in the publishing industry. Advanced members also gain access to monthly workshops.

Check out the full details of what we offer on our Pro Community page.

Our events

Banner made to look like a sewn-on patch with thread forming the words "Storycrafting Sessions"

Storycrafting Sessions are free-first virtual conferences diving deep into specific aspects of the writing life. We’ve done deep dives on everything from genres like science fiction and fantasy to parts of the writing process like drafting and editing. Our 2026 event, Storycrafting Sessions: Disability in Writing, is happening on May 30th, 2026.

Image of colourful silhouettes in a circle beside the words "Writing Roundtables"

Writing Roundtables are two-hour panels where we explore subjects like writing trans characters, the administrative side of running an author business, and how to revise a novel. These are paid events (and our panelists are also paid), with Weeknight Writers Pro Community members receiving automatic entry for free.

Open book with a leaf on it above the words "First Draft Fall"

First Draft Fall is our answer to NaNoWriMo, challenging people to write the first draft of a fiction project during the fall. While the focus is on novellas and novels, participants are also welcome to draft short stories, scripts, or even poetry collections. First Draft Fall takes place throughout October, November, and the first half of December, with a mix of free content and paid members-only content for the Weeknight Writers Pro Community.

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