Write your novel this November.

50,000 words in 30 days is 1,667 a day. Novella keeps count, keeps your plot in view, and keeps your book on your own computer, so you can just write.

Free for Mac and Windows, with no account. A few tools below are part of Premium, a one-time purchase, and they’re tagged Premium.

Download Novella

Windows 10 or later or macOS 13 or later

Week 1

Start.

Set a goal and write the first words, whether that’s on the 1st or the 5th.

Goals that count every word

Free

Set a daily, weekly, or monthly goal and Novella counts every word you write, so you always know where you stand and can get back to the story.

Starting late is fine

Premium

Tell Novella your target and your deadline, and it works out what you need to write each day to finish on time.

Nothing but your story

Free

A calm, distraction-free page to write your novel chapter by chapter, in light or dark mode.

Week 2

Keep going.

This is when life gets in the way. Take the day off and keep your goal.

Rest days never count against you

Free

Choose your writing days. Days off never break your daily goal, so one day away doesn’t undo a good month.

Goal streaks Premium

Watch the month fill in

Free

Every day you write becomes a square on your calendar, darker the more you wrote. It’s very satisfying to watch them fill in.

Week 3

Get through the middle.

Plots tangle and the finish line looks far away. See where the story goes next, and when you’ll get there.

Untangle the plot

Free

The plot grid lays out every character and subplot across your chapters, so you can see the gaps and what happens next.

Know when you’ll finish

Premium

Novella compares your pace with your deadline and tells you where you stand every day of the month, and the day you’ll finish if you keep it up.

Write anywhere, even offline

Free

Your novel lives on your computer, not in the cloud. No account and no Wi-Fi needed, so you can write on the flight home for Thanksgiving and pick up where you left off.

Week 4

Finish.

The last stretch, and then the best part: reading your own book for the first time.

Hold your book

Premium

When the draft is done, export it as an EPUB for any e-reader, a typeset PDF to print and share, or a Word file.

Before you start

Do I need Premium for Novel November?

No. Daily, weekly, and monthly goals, writing days, the plot grid, the writing calendar, and writing offline are all free, and you can write a whole novel without paying. Premium adds a goal for each manuscript with a deadline and pace tracking, goal streaks, and export to Word, PDF, and EPUB.

What does Premium cost?

See pricing

$60, once. There is no subscription, and you buy it inside the app whenever you want it. Pricing has the details.

Where is my novel saved?

On your own computer. You don’t need an account or an internet connection to write. If you want sync and backup between computers, Novella Cloud is an optional, end-to-end encrypted add-on.

Will Novella write any of it for me?

No. Novella has no AI features, now or ever. Every one of your 50,000 words is one you wrote.

Download Novella.

Free to download and use. Writing and managing your projects on your own computer will always be free.

macOS macOS 13 or later

Version 1.4.1, 268 MB Open the .dmg and drag Novella into your Applications folder.

Download for macOS

Windows Windows 10 or later

Version 1.4.1, 147 MB Open the .exe and follow the installer.

Download for Windows

On a phone or tablet?

Novella is a desktop app for Windows and macOS. Open novella.app on your computer to download it, and get release notes by email in the meantime.

Once it’s installed, Novella checks for new versions when you open it and offers to install them. Your manuscripts are saved on your own computer, and you can export them to plain text or Markdown at any time. Trouble installing? Open an issue on GitHub.