I Created a Road Trip-themed Word Crawl Game on Dorian to Help You Write a Novel

I feel so lucky for so many reasons. One of them is that I was born during autumn, my favorite time of year. Even better, I was born in November, which is National Novel Writing Month.

And this year, I want to give my fellow writers a gift: a unique path to winning NaNoWriMo!

First, What is NaNoWriMo?

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is a challenge to write 50,000 words of a brand-new novel during the 30 days of November. The idea is to help creatives stop procrastinating and start writing while cheering each other on through the massive online community that’s grown up around it.

There’s just one teensy problem I kept running into: I will procrastinate on the daily during NaNoWriMo, and until last year when I won for the first time, I couldn’t manage to get the average 1,667 words I needed to get written every day to “win.”

What is Dorian?

Dorian is an app available on iOS and Android where you can play through interactive stories, and your choices affect the narrative! If you’ve played apps like Episode or Choices, than you will already be familiar with how Dorian works.

What makes Dorian unique is that anyone can make games! I’ve had an account for some time now, and I’ve already completed writing two games: a contemporary romantic suspense story spun-off of a Kandi Steiner prompt, and an LGBTQ+ contemporary romance with a Greek goddess twist.

What is This Road Trip-themed Word Crawl Game Megan Made?

If you haven’t heard of word crawls before, they’re a collection of mini writing challenges wrapped up in a thematic bow. They’ve been around on the NaNo forums for years, encouraging writers to sprint for a few minutes or add a certain number of words to their word count as they progress through a story.

What I’ve created is an expansion on this idea. There are thirty word crawls—one added every day in November—with an overarching storyline. You’ll play as yourself and tap through choices while being prompted with mini writing challenges to get you to your daily 1,667 words!

The game has an overarching story centering around a road trip, and you can look forward to a new stop every day! Here are a few examples of the episode titles to intrigue you:

• The Big Question
• An Unusual Manor
• Ready Writer One
• Saving the Queen
• Couldn’t Catch It

Sound confusing? Don’t worry—I made a YouTube video that walks you through the concept. You can also follow along in the video as I complete a sample episode I made!

How Do I Get to Play?

You can play for free on the Dorian app!

This is a passion project I made because I wanted something my younger self would’ve been able to enjoy, so there are no paywalls blocking off content within the game. However, my character does pop up to ask for tips on my birthday, November 4th, then on the 10th and every five days thereafter. Tipping is completely optional, though appreciated!