November is commonly known as National Novel Writing Month for writers, whether you participate or not. I’ve tried it off and on over the years, winning some, giving up some throughout the month. I’ve written a young adult book, a middle grade book, and a few story collections. But overall it’s hit or miss for me because I’m still not really sure I have a good novel in me.

When Thirty West Publishing House suggested a different approach to NaNoWriMo, I was all in. They called it #antiwrimo. Instead of one author writing a novel in a month, 30 authors would write one together.

Yes. A collaborative novel.

We had a Google doc for the book and a separate one for notes. On November 1st, the first author started the story. On the 2nd, the next author wrote their chapter. And so on. Some days had two authors because everyone wanted a part of this project. I wrote the 24th chapter and it was… wild. I was trying to keep up with the chapters as they were written so I’d have an idea of what to write myself. But then my day arrived and the story was in a totally different place. It was wild. And fun.

After some meetings for edits and consistency and a cover art contest, the final product came out at the end of May. And it’s amazing.

It was definitely a fun experience to work with other writers like this. As someone who has always seen writing as fairly solitary (with the exception of writing groups), it was nice to be a part of something so massive. You can get your own copy of the book here, along with other amazing titles—I especially recommend Little Feasts and Spells of the Apocalypse.