Past years of NaNoWriMo

And now for a post that has nothing to do with the picture above:

Maybe you're curious about what the bookkeeper wrote about in past years of NaNoWriMo, or maybe you're just bored are skimming blog posts for something to do.

Either way, the bookkeeper is glad you're here! Virtual candy and confetti for everyone!

The first year Bookkeeper did NaNoWriMo she dove right into writing without the slightest idea of what she was doing. The result was a story with hundreds of characters and no real plot. The first main character is a thin girl with long, jet-black hair who lives by herself in the forest. She is super strong and can run faster than an eagle can fly. She also can talk to animals using her powers of telepathy. And she never ages.

It goes downhill from there. Whenever Bookkeeper got bored of saving the world with one Mary Sue she'd invent a new one and keep going.

Here are some cringe-worthy snippets from this story:

Sylvia screamed again, but she knew that no one was listening. No one ever listened to her. But she was afraid that her life was in danger, so she screamed.

A girl with shining black hair and eyes stepped out form behind a peeling, green pine tree. Even though the way the girl walked seemed strangely serious and adult like, her face was brimming with smiles, excitement, and fun.

This one brings to mind a strange mental image:

Kyna and Quinn jumped out of the car and bounced across their new yard to the pale blue house.

Star landed and his head rung with a thought.

Of course, a lot of the story is bizarrely wordy, but that's what you get for doing NaNoWriMo.

Bookkeeper's second NaNoWriMo attempt was a story called Written and Illustrated, a title which doesn't have anything to do with the story. It was a story about a time traveler named Brisk who learns about the dangers of messing with time when she splits her consciousness and physical senses over two realities.

Brisk grabbed again and again for the scroll, but each time her hands went straight through it. Brisk began to panic. This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

The third NaNoWriMo was a collection of stories about a wolf pack. It started out all right, if cliched (in the bookkeeper's opinion) with the wolves trying to avoid being captured by hunters.

Nearer to the end of the month Bookkeeper was writing this:

Sache was going to put that idea out of his mind when several squirrels began tap dancing on his head. So with a wildlife parade following him the whole way, Sache left the forest headed for the Mountain wolf tribe.

This was written in complete earnest.

The fourth NaNoWriMo was called Working Title and was about a girl who wakes up in the middle of nowhere. Literally. She then learns that any object she describes out loud comes into existence and spends some creating ice cream and fancy castles. The trouble begins when she creates humans who start to plot her downfall.

I woke up.

My head was ringing and I could hear soft music playing. Couldn’t make out the tune.

I couldn’t see anything. It was all white around me. I felt the oddest sensation of nothingness beneath me. Like I was falling and lying still at the same time. There were no walls around me; no floor. I felt my face and to my relief found it still there.

It was then that I started to wonder just where I was.

Last year's NaNoWriMo was the least complete. The computer crashed partway through November and the file was lost. The story was about a band of misfits who took control of a space ship, and... that's about all Bookkeeper can remember.

That's all the Bookkeeper has to write about today, next post will probably have more pictures (if you read this whole post hoping for more pictures... sorry!). She has to work more on preparing for this year's NaNoWriMo novel!

Bookkeeper is Writing. Novelishly.

Bookkeeper was browsing YouTube when she came across a video that she now declares to be the theme song of her life: JULIAN SMITH - I'm Reading a Book. You should watch it! Then read a book.

Moving on. Have any of y'all heard of NaNoWriMo? (Well, duh... most of the people who read this blog know Bookkeeper personally and the rest of you seem to have found your way here because of NaNoWriMo. Except for you, Charissa.)

Bookkeeper's username on NaNoWriMo is SeahorsePond, if you want to look her up.

Like the past five years, Bookkeeper's gonna try writing a 50,000 word novel during November. Since she's been focused on her OYAN (One Year Adventure Novel) story for several months, it was pretty hard to think of something new to write about. Finally she gave in and asked some random generators from http://springhole.net/ what she should write.

Stay tuned for more information on Curse of the Cursed Land, an epic Comedy/Horror about Hildegard, a depressed, odd-looking young woman with a strange sense of humor who is from outer space and lives with mom and dad in a converted refrigerator. During the course of NaNoWriMo, she will become a mysterious artifact with the help of m4d l337 $k1llz and decide to help a city with a toothpick, razor, and hammer.

Or maybe not, but the bookkeeper loves a challenge! At the very least, the idea of a comedy/horror sounds like fun.

However, the plot could use some work.

And Bookkeeper really wants to try using herself as a main character (Can you spell "Mary Sue?"). Maybe she sound change her name to Hildegard.

Anyway, Bookkeeper really wants to write her novel by hand this year, so she's printed off a gazillion of pages like this:

Notice the terminal-artist-friendly margin on the right? If this works, she's going to scan anything she draws there and upload it to this blog.

Bookkeeper isn't sure if writing 2,000 words per day by hand is even physically possible, so this coming she's going to try, then she'll decide if she wants to go that route.

And that's all the bookkeeper has for today. Except for this random guy which Bookkeeper doodled when she was brainstorming fairy creatures for her One Year Adventure Novel:

It doesn't really fit with this post, but she was sick of it glaring at her from her collection of Pictures To Put On The Blog.

This Post was Hijacked by Little Kids

Before explaining the bizarre title of this post, Bookkeeper would like to say hi to her FOURTH BLOG FOLLOWER!

"Hi."

Exciting, eh? By the way, you are awesome.

All of you are awesome.

So. This post has been hijacked by little kids. You see, the bookkeeper is quite a pushover for lil' kids, and they love it.

It started a few days ago at theatre when one girl mentioned how much she loves giraffes. So the bookkeeper doodled a giraffe wearing spectacles.

"Wow, that's really good! Can you draw an elephant? Please?"

"Draw a bow on her head!"

At this point the kiddies realized they had a captive artist. And guess what? She does tricks!

"Draw a cat!"

"I gonna draw the sun."

Yes, one of the girls drew the sun on the bookkeeper's picture.

Hmm. some reason the sunshine is what makes the drawing look really good. Really, cover the sun up with your hand... the picture looses something. (Dear little kid who's name the bookkeeper forgot: Can Bookkeeper be your apprentice?)

"Draw a tree!"

"Draw a PINK tree!"

"With a person in it!"

"Draw ME in the tree!"

"Make the leaves purple!"

Yeeeeah.

Bookkeeper has been informed (by these selfsame kids) that she should be an art teacher when she "grows up." Seeing as she's technically already "grown up," Bookkeeper can only assume they mean MENTALLY grown up. They're quite perceptive, those kids.

That's the end of today's post. 'Bye!

Saturday at last

Yessss! A Saturday update!

Albeit a short one.

Bookkeeper spent most of her art time this week coloring this little creature over and over:

She's currently come up with 105 color combinations. She's hoping it will help with coloring her future drawings, or at least with her fashion sense.

This is a MONDAY UPDATE

Behold: the fabled Monday update. This is because Bookkeeper missed her Saturday update again.

Hopefully this doesn't become a habit.

Anywho, the bookkeeper has had an interesting week. For example she's learned that human beings have a hive mind:

Day 1:

Person: How old are you?

Bookkeeper: Eighteen.

Person: Oh! have you thought about going to college?

Day 2:

Person 2: What grade are you in?

Bookkeeper: I dunno, I've never bothered to keep track 'cause I'm homeschooled.

Person 2: Well, how old are you, then?

Bookkeeper: I'm eighteen.

Person 2: Wow, you don't look eighteen! Are you going to college?

Later that day:

Person 2 (to her friend): This is my friend Bookkeeper! Can you believe she's eighteen?

Friend: Wow, is she going to go to college?

This reminds the bookkeeper of when she was sixteen and all conversations started with:

Person: How old are you?

Bookkeeper: Sixteen.

Person: Cool, can you drive?

Bookkeeper is sure there are manymanymany conversation starters out there that aren't related to your age.

For example-

"I love your hat!" Bookkeeper is particularly fond of this one.

Bookkeeper isn't obsessed with hats, she just thinks they're a nice accessory that can go with any and every outfit. Some people wear earrings all the time. Bookkeeper wears hats.

She also draws hats, like this one:

She really wanted to draw that hat, and she decided the might as well add a random kobold to wear it.

Here's another conversation starter-

"Get your feet off the table!"

Which leads to deeper discussions like "Stop tilting your chair up! If you want to be on two legs, we'll take the chair!"


"GNRH!"

And... that's all the bookkeeper has for today! Bookkeeper promises she'll update again on Saturday if she has to walk across coals to do it.

EDIT: What happened to Bookkeeper colored letters? She swears she used color effects on some of the text in this post but the color has vanished most mysteriously!