The Associated Writers of London (AWOL) is a writing group based in London, UK. We arrange for people to meet up, in-person and online, to write together. We normally run silent writing sprints, and find that writing alongside others helps to spur people on to get words written.

We run regular events throughout the year. However, our main event is in November, where members take on a writing challenge. The most common challenge taken on is to write the first draft of a new novel of at least 50,000 words in the space of 30 days. However, participants are free to take on any writing challenge that they wish, such as editing a previous novel, or writing a script.

We also have online spaces where members are free to discuss any aspect of writing, from how to write a first draft to how to get published.

In November we will have extra events taking place, which we will publicise on this website.

Our History

AWOL was founded in 2024, but our history goes back further than that. We used to be the London region of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). NaNoWriMo was established by Chris Baty in San Francisco back in 1999. Over the years it spread throughout the world, including to London.

It is not known when the London region was first established, but it is believed to be in the mid-noughties. What is known is that it became one of the largest regions in the world for NaNoWriMo, and one of the most wordiest, often ending up in the top-five regions for the amount of words written during each November event. Published writers from the London region include Robin Stevens, Finn Longman, and Shannon Fay.

Special events were often run in London. These were:

• NanoRilla: This is a walking tour around London, with regular stops for writing sprints. (Due to a witch’s curse, rain is pretty much guaranteed!) Later, a summer version was introduced, called SummeRilla. (NanoRilla has now been renamed AWOLRilla and still continues to take place each year.)
• Train Trips: We ran train trips to other cities, namely Brighton, Cambridge, and Oxford. We did writing sprints on the train, and then toured the cities whilst doing further writing sprints.
• The All-Night Lock-In (ANLI): These started at the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green before moving on to various Scout huts. They were 12 hour events that took place overnight, with many writing sprints interspersed with games. Much strangeness would ensue. During the pandemic these events moved online, and were named the All-Night Log-On (ANLO).

We separated from NaNoWriMo in 2024, and NaNoWriMo itself came to an ignoble end in 2025. Further details as to what went wrong with NaNoWriMo can be read at: nanoscandal.com

Moving forward, we wish to see the writing spirit continue in London, and so AWOL will bring you much of the same experiences and encouragement that the London NaNoWriMo region provided, and we look forward to welcoming many new members.

Your Co-Ordinators

Sophie Green – Lead Co-Ordinator

Sophie first joined the region in 2007. She quickly made a name for herself as an “over achiever”, and in 2012 she managed to write 200,000 words in just 30 days! She has taken part every year in November, always managing to write at least 50,000 words each year, and has written a cumulative total of over 1.5 million words. In 2015 she became a Municipal Liaison (ML) for the London NaNoWriMo region, and she set up AWOL in 2024, leading the region into the post-NaNoWriMo era.

Outside of writing she’s a former Civil Servant, where she spent 15 years working for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She’s now partially retired, working part-time in a local secondary school.

She owns more books than she has time to read, more DVDs than she has time to watch, and more videogames than she has time to play. She likes Doctor Who, JRPGs, and board games.