Guest Post: NaNo NoWay

November is almost here and you know what that means: NaNoWritMo. Writers everywhere are getting ready to hunker down and crank out 50k words in a month and hope it produces a story worth editing. But what about writers who don't do NaNoWritMo? Are they left in the dust for reasons outside of our control? Missing out on a great time? What if a writer chooses not to do it?

What about me?

I heard about NaNoWritMo last year. I had just gotten onto the writing scene in November so I really didn't know what it was until November was almost over. Next year, I thought. Then I started figuring out how I write best and that setting a schedule or deadline really doesn't work for me. In fact, it turns my brain right off, sends my muse running for the hills and causes my characters to cower. I am not a writer who excels under stress. A friend, tried to get me to do a novel in three days competition with her and I completely blanked out. Couldn't even think of how the current stories I was working on went. All I could think was, You want me to do what? In how much time?

So now, as everyone talks NaNoWritMo, psyching themselves up, I'm trotting along on my own path, not preparing, plotting or planning. I do feel a little left out. I hear it's a great community to be part of. I could try too, dust off an older idea. I have plenty. But I just can't. I can't even think, it's too intimidating, too much for a panster like me. I write when I want and when I feel like it. When someone asks me about setting deadlines, schedules or doing something like timed word sprints, or am I doing NaNoWritMo? I say, Noooooo way. Not for me. And I swear, I must be the only one saying that.

 

Today's post is brought to you by the lovely, the talented, the sparkly vamp hater: Patricia Lynne!

Patricia Lynne is a young adult author. She recently self published her first novel, Being Human. It is available in ebook or paperback on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads, usually when she's supposed to be writing. When she's not running away in terror of deadlines, she's switching from one story to the next, wondering if she can ever finish a story before starting the next. It does happen though… Sometimes. She lives in Michigan with her husband, likes to dye her hair the color of the rainbow and glomps anyone who agrees that Green Day is the best band ever!

 

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