Handwriting a NaNoWriMo Novel

Word count: 3,445

This is the third NaNo novel the bookkeeper has written by hand, and by now she's started to see a pattern in what people think of handwriters.

Bookkeeper: I'm going to write a fifty-thousand word novel in one month...

Friend: Wow, that's a great goal.

Bookkeeper: ...by hand.

Friend: By HAND? Are you crazy?

The consensus seems to be that people handwrite because they are old-fashioned, determined, and/or a bit pretentious. But is this true?

Not exactly. At least in Bookkeeper's case, it's more like this:

Now, the bookeeper knows that most (if not all) of the people reading this blog write on the computer, so now, just so you can appreciate the land of lead and eraser crumbs, here is a short summary of how Bookkeeper hand writes.

Because habitually draws on everything, she's designed her own NaNoWriMo paper with a space for the word count and extra-wide margins to doodle in.

Please, feel free to print these out and use them. Or not, but they're harder to draw on that way.

After they're printed out, the bookkeeper punches holes in the papers and puts 'em in a three ring binder. She doesn't actually write in the binder, the binder is just there to keep the pages together when she's not writing.

The binder usually sits next to Bookkeeper's drawing/writing desk, or on the floor.

Why the bookkeeper mostly updates with drawings - the photos are all grainy and blurry.

The actual writing is done on the writing desk with Bookkeeper's trusty favorite pencil.

Which needs it's own picture for some reason

Well, that's all for today, enjoy this picture of Sarah while the bookkeeper scans her writing for some NaNoisms to put in her next post.

Camp NaNoWriMo day 11

Today's Word Count: 15,224

Bookkeeper got a cold yesterday.

Today she sneezed on her work-in-progress novel, so now when people ask to read her novel, they'll have more to look at than doodles in the page margins!

Apparently this isn't an issue for people writing their novels in word processors.

Ah, the benefits of being old-fashioned.

But the bookkeeper has upgraded somewhat. Since she moved, she's been writing on a small tilting desk named Dave. Really, that's what the company named it.

A friend recently found a lovely desk for Bookkeeper at a thrift shop. It looks something like this:

Bookkeeper was going to put up a photo of it too, but she can't find her camera chip.

That's all that Bookkeeper can think of to talk about right now. Maybe when she can get all of the stuffing out of her head, she'll write more.

And now, a parting NaNoism.

Camp NaNoWriMo day 6

*Help! I seem to have lost my voice.* 

Today's Word Count: 7,818

Bookkeeper is still trying to catch up on her word count. This time her excuse is that relatives are visiting this week.

Not that these relatives are keeping her from writing, the bookkeeper just thinks she needs an excuse.

Today, just for you, the bookkeeper drew a picture of her boot.

It has nothing to do with her story, but she kept tripping on it and rather than put it away in her closet, she decided to draw it.

One trouble with handwriting a novel is that if you aren't careful, you can end up with odd spelling mistakes.

These are a bit different from the problems she has while typing. Namely Fingers-On-The-Wrong-Row and Hitting-Caps-Lock-Instead-Of-"A"

One mistake is the capital "G" that looks like the number six.

6riele told him that she was the king's daughter.

Also there's words that are written too closely together (and sometimes misspelled, too) that end up forming new words.

The man walked out with his headlowered.

Gabriele did not a thing but worry for the woletime.

But the bookkeeper's most persistant problem seems to be closing the top of the "u" so it looks like an "o".

"Yoo are not strong enoogh by yoorself."

Alas. The perils of hand writing are terrible. Another thing you typists out there are missing out on is how pencil lead constantly rubs off on your fingers and turns them silver.

It's true. In fact, to end this post, here's a smiley face Bookkeeper drew using this method.

NaNoWriMo day 8: Catching up on the Word Count

Huzzah! It's now day eight of NaNoWriMo and the bookkeeper is still behind on her word count! She's written 11,344 so far and is spending as much free time as she can writing.

She's also half asleep, which can cause some amusing moments in her writing.

Such as when she can't tell the difference between people talking to her and the words in her head.

Have a good day, y'all. In the time it took you to read this post, you could have written 86 words.

NaNoWriMo Day 4: An Example of the Common Filler

It's already day four of NaNoWriMo and the bookkeeper has written 6,932 words.

Today Bookkeeper thought she'd share this with ya'll:

She usually doesn't save the fortunes she gets from cookies, but she made an exception for this one.

As you should know by now, Bookkeeper is writing this year's NaNo by hand. Today she felt some nostalgia for the years she typed her stories up on the computer and she decided to recreate the typing experience by editing a page with colored pencils:


Yet another reason to hand write your novel, no digital editor underlining your words and sentence fragments! So far, Bookkeeper is loving handwriting her novel.

What she's not loving is the fact that the side of her hand turns silver after she writes with a pencil.

Here's a word of advice for everyone doing NaNo (not just the hand writers):


The bookkeeper knows this from experience, having jumped several inches when she heard the floor creak last night.

Bookkeeper tried drawing the guy with the mustache again.


He still doesn't look right. *sigh* When will Bookkeeper give up trying to draw this guy?

But as long as we're on the subject of characters, here's a picture of Hildegard:

Hildegard is referring to the whole 51 word paragraph describing the sound of a door slamming. Maybe if Bookkeeper didn't write so much filler, she'd actually get some plot done (Hildegard hasn't even appeared in the story yet)!