Email notifications: a daily roundup in your inbox, and writing reminders by email.
Daily roundup by email
Turn it on in Account, under "Email notifications", and pick the hour it comes after (your time).
It covers your own writing (the day's words by project, your streak, your month and year so far), every challenge you're in (how far along you are, your pace and what a day it takes to finish, plus a heads-up for ones starting within a week and the result of ones that just ended), and each of your cohorts (what you wrote together and who wrote).
It's only for you, so your secret projects are named in it. Writers who keep themselves off a cohort's board aren't listed.
Days with nothing to tell you are skipped. "Email me today's roundup now" sends one straight away.
Writing reminders by email
Tick "Also email it" on any writing reminder. You don't need a Discord channel for this.
You'll get at most one reminder email a day: the first one due. Later reminders that day still post to Discord.
Each reminder email has your words so far today, your streak, and what each running challenge needs from you today.
Good to know
Everything is off until you turn it on, and it all goes to your confirmed email address. Add one in Account, under "Email", if you haven't.
Every email has a link to change or stop them.
Patch 0.16.1 · Sep 27, 2026
A small one: NaNoWriJoe's posts on Discord now look like NaNoWriJoe.
Discord
Every post the site makes to Discord (your cohort's channel and your own channel) shows the NaNoWriJoe logo as its picture, the book and pen from the top of every page. If you gave your webhook its own picture in Discord, the logo takes its place, just like the posts already went out under the name NaNoWriJoe.
Patch 0.16 · Sep 25, 2026
Bringing your people in: invites from every writer, lots more to share, and a public page for cohorts that want one.
Invites
Everyone in a cohort can invite friends now, not just the admin. Look for "Invite a friend" on the cohort page. Your copy of the link lets the site know you brought them in. A cohort's admin can turn this off in Manage.
You have your own invite link too: Account, then "Invite a friend" (there's also a link on your home page). It comes with its own picture, and you can replace it any time.
Anyone invited by a writer skips the sign-up code.
Each writer's links bring in up to 10 new writers a day, and a cohort link shared without a member's tag up to 20. After that the sign-up code is needed until the next day, so a link that gets out of hand can't flood the site.
Write along with me
Your own challenges have a write-along link on their page while they're running or coming up.
Anyone who opens it can start their own copy of the challenge, with the same name, dates and goal, in one click. New people sign up first, no code needed.
They never see your numbers. It's their own challenge from then on.
Sharing
Sharing is one tap: each picture is its own button on your home page, challenge pages and cohort pages.
New pictures: a countdown before a challenge starts, your milestones (a quarter, halfway, three quarters, goal reached, finished), a final recap of what a cohort wrote together, and a cohort's day together.
Your home page offers to share when you pass a milestone or a cohort challenge ends. "Share it" or "Not now", once each.
Anyone who opens something you shared and isn't on NaNoWriJoe yet gets a way to join: the cohort it's from, your write-along or your own invite. Turn it off for any one link on its share page.
Cohorts
A cohort's admin can turn on a public page in Manage. People who aren't logged in see its cover photo, bio, challenges' progress together, today's total, the writers with public profiles and a button to join. Nobody else's name or numbers show, and search engines are asked not to list it.
Cohorts without a cover photo show ruled notebook paper instead, so their cards line up with the rest.
Around the site
"My writing" in the menu is now "Writing", and the notification bell sits next to the light/dark switch.
Patch notes are newest first, and each release now lists every change.
"This week" on cohort cards now says "in the last 7 days", which is what it always counted. The weekly chart on the Writing page notes its weeks run Monday to Sunday.
Cards in a row on the Challenges and Cohorts pages are the same height.
For site admins
The Writers table shows who invited each writer and how (a cohort link, their invite link, a write-along, the sign-up code or made by an admin), and how many people each writer has invited. Filter by "Invited by a writer" or "Has invited someone", or search a username.
System notices can start from a release's announcement.
Patch 0.15 · Sep 25, 2026
Patch notes got a page, starting a cohort got a walkthrough, and invite links got a picture.
Patch notes
This page. There's a link at the bottom of every page, and the version number next to it jumps to the latest release.
Starting a cohort
"Start a cohort" walks you through five short steps: a name and timezone, a cover photo, a bio, a first challenge (filled in with next November's NaNoWriMo) and inviting people.
Only the name is required. Every other step can be skipped and changed later on Manage.
Inviting people
Cohort admins get an invite page: the invite link, a picture, share buttons for Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, Reddit, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pinterest and email, your phone's own share menu, a download button and some suggested words.
The picture shows the cohort's name, its running or next challenge and how many writers are in it. It names nobody and keeps itself up to date.
Wherever the invite link is pasted, the picture shows up as its preview.
Get back to it any time from "Invite people" on the cohort page, or from Manage.
People you invite to a cohort don't need the sign-up code anymore. The link is enough.
Discord
If your profile is public, posts to your own Discord channel (your daily summary and milestones) link to it.
For site admins
An emergency "Stop all sign-ups" switch on the Admin page closes every way to make an account until you turn sign-ups back on. The daily site report mentions it while it's on.
Leave the sign-up code blank and only invite links can sign people up.
Fixes
Dates and other side-by-side fields no longer run off the edge of the screen on phones.
Patch 0.14 · Sep 24, 2026
Featured projects, one project per challenge, longer challenges, and some sensible limits.
Projects
Pick a featured project for each cohort: the one you're working on with that group. Joining a cohort asks which one you're bringing, and cohorts you were already in ask once.
Your card on a cohort's board names your featured project, with anything else you wrote as "+N on other writing". It also shows on the Cohorts page, your profile and your share pictures.
Change it any time on that cohort's "My settings here" page. Each cohort can have a different one.
Tie a challenge to one project and only that project's words count toward it. Pick it when you start the challenge or on the challenge's page. Your cohort still sees everything you write.
Secret projects show as "a secret project" everywhere else.
Challenges
Challenges can run up to five years, for the long haul. Long ones chart by week or by month.
Limits
You can be in up to 10 cohorts.
You can have up to 20 challenges of your own running or coming up, and a cohort up to 10. Finished ones don't count.
Up to 20 new challenges a day.
Account page
Log out moved from the menu to the bottom of the Account page.
For site admins
The Cohorts and Writers tables can be searched, filtered and sorted.
Each writer's buttons sit under a small "Actions" menu.
Patch 0.13 · Sep 24, 2026
Cohorts and challenges split: a cohort is your group, and challenges are the goals you chase.
Challenges
A challenge is a stretch of days and a word goal, either a total or a daily target. The Challenges page lists yours: running now, coming up and finished.
Start one just for you, or do your cohort's. Its admin starts cohort challenges, and every member is in them automatically.
Sit a cohort challenge out from its page, and rejoin any time before it ends.
Challenges can overlap, and the same words count toward every one that's running.
"Run it again" sets up the next one with new dates.
You're notified when a challenge starts and when it ends, with your final total.
When a cohort challenge ends, the cohort's Discord gets the final standings.
Joining a cohort puts you in its running and upcoming challenges, but not the finished ones.
Cohort pages
A cohort's page is now a daily board: what everyone wrote that day, their streaks and what they're working on.
The arrows and the date box step back through earlier days, up to a year.
Cheers happen on today's board.
Account page
An "On this page" menu jumps to each section.
Moving over
Each cohort's dates and goal became its first challenge, with the same dates and goal.
Patch 0.12 · Sep 24, 2026
Profiles and bios, cohort share pictures, and writing reminders.
Profiles
Every writer has a profile page: picture, bio, message of the day, projects (never secret ones), numbers and cohorts.
Profiles are private unless you make yours public on the Account page. Private means only writers in your cohorts see it, and only cohorts where you're on the board.
Write a bio of a few lines on the Account page.
Sharing a cohort
Share your cohort's leaderboard (or its list of writers), the group's total, a graph of the group's progress, or your own progress with your rank.
Other writers are named on these pictures only while their profile is public. Everyone else shows as an initial, and anyone writing privately is left out.
Writing reminders
Get a nudge on your own Discord channel at the times and on the days you pick, with your own message or the default one.
Add your Discord user ID and the reminder can tag you.
Discord help
A help page walks you through making a webhook and finding your Discord user ID. Every webhook box links to it.
For site admins
A daily site report on Discord: what needs an admin, the day's numbers and trends, with a weekly summary on Sundays.
The site keeps track of Discord channels that keep failing and of server errors, for the report.
Fixes
Names are kept to one line, and names and messages post to Discord exactly as typed.
A Discord channel that keeps refusing posts is paused instead of retried forever.
Patch 0.11 · Sep 24, 2026
Cohorts became optional, and the site got notifications and a message of the day.
Cohorts are optional
You don't need a cohort to use NaNoWriJoe. Signing up lands you on your home page, ready to log words, and everything you write counts in your own stats.
You can leave any cohort, even your last one. Your words stay yours.
Cohorts has its own spot in the menu. It lists every cohort you're in with today's words, and quick links to open it, see your progress, change your settings or leave. Admins also get Manage and the invite link.
Notifications
A bell in the menu shows a count when something's new, and the notifications page lists them.
You're notified when someone cheers you on, and when a cohort starts or wraps up.
Message of the day
Set your own on your home page. It shows under your name on your cohorts' boards, in your Discord daily summary and on share pictures you make.
Fixes
Emoji on share pictures showed up as tiny empty boxes. They're left off for now.
Words you fill in for a cohort's last day the next morning now count toward its final totals.
Writers who write privately in a cohort can't be cheered there.
Deleting a cohort takes its notifications with it.
The first builds (0.1 to 0.10) · Sep 23, 2026
Everything NaNoWriJoe could do before patch notes had a page of their own, built over its first two days.
Accounts
Sign up with the site's sign-up code. Once email was switched on, new accounts confirm their address before their first log-in.
Reset a forgotten password by email, or have a site admin give you a temporary one.
Add a profile picture on the Account page.
Logging your words
Log the words you wrote today, or fill in any day from the past year.
Your own stats page: totals, streaks, averages, your best days and charts, whether or not you're in a cohort.
Projects: give each thing you're writing a working title and a genre, log words to it, and see the words per project. Mark one secret and its title is never shown to anyone else.
Cohorts
Cohorts are writing groups you join with an invite link from the cohort's admin.
A cohort page shows everyone's words, streaks and projects, with the group's totals and progress toward its goal.
A cohort's admin can add a banner picture across the top of its page.
Connect a cohort to a Discord channel for milestone cheers and a nightly roundup.
Sharing
Turn today's count, your last 30 days or your last 12 weeks into a picture with a public link, ready to post.
Connect your own Discord channel for a daily summary and personal milestones.
Around the site
Site notices at the top of the home page, and "Report a bug or suggest an idea" at the bottom of every page.
Nightly backups, with an encrypted copy kept off the server.