October Theme: NaNoWriMo Nostalgia
A major event in my life is the yearly coming of National Novel Writing Month. Each year, in November, NaNoWriMo challenges participants to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. I’ve been participating for close to a decade now, and so have a backlog of some 8-odd novels, some of which I [...]
October 1: Cole Keenan
The main character of my first successful NaNo attempt, a 90,000 word monstrosity that I wrote in 11th grade, when I had that kind of time on my hands. (I participated the previous year, but didn’t even find out about it until partway through the month, and so failed rather epically.) It was [...]
October 2: Holly LaCrue
Main female character from the aforementioned first-successful-NaNo. (You may notice I’m taking great pains not to name the title. That is because it was dumb.) I always thought of Holly as a girl with very pretty individual features, put together in a very slightly unsettling, disproportionate way.
October 3: Rupert Reuben
12 years old, looks a bit younger and acts a whole lot older. Creepy as hell.
I am so embarrassed of that name. It’s a pretty ridiculous name for a kid.
October 4: Imp
Look, I was 16 when I wrote this story. Don’t judge me. (Okay, you can judge me a little for the fact that this was a character originally created for the times when I didn’t feel like drawing eyes.)
To this day, I love drawing those horns. They’re adorable.
October 5: Calgary Harris
And now we move on to the next year, 12th grade, when I wrote about some teenagers going on a cross-Canada trip – and yes, Calgary is a strange name for a girl. It all made some sort of sense at the time.
Cal’s 18, not particularly pretty, with a slightly mannish face, a hawkish [...]
October 6: Ann Bauer
Ann is Cal’s best friend, and the brains of the operation. Chubby, pretty, and deeply insecure. That’s not her natural hair colour.
October 7: Alan Kowalski
The third main character from NaNoWriMo 2004, Alan is… well, he’s interesting, I’ll say that. A compulsive liar, kind of a jerk, trying his hardest to be a decent person. Meets the girls on a bus and hangs out with them and that’s pretty much the entire story. I was too busy [...]
October 8: David Finnegan
On to 2005, a.k.a. The Year That Everything Went Off The Rails. (The first of two…) I planned a story for all of October, wrote it for the first three days of November, then scrapped it entirely and came out with this rambling, senseless thing. 2008 was worse, but that’s a story [...]
October 9: Ivy Young
A traumatized 9-year-old. I don’t think I got her looking her age. I need to practice drawing kids at various ages…
October 10: James Canton
When it REALLY started to take a sharp turn for the “Huh?” NaNo 2005 started attracting characters from other stories altogether. Canton here made very little sense in the novel, but was not the dumbest thing I did that year in my push to 50k.
October 11: Deacon Patrick
Even worse than Canton, there was no legitimate reason for Deacon to show up in my 2005 NaNo novel, except for the fact that I was bored out of my skull at that point in the month and had no idea where to go with it next. Dee’s an old character of mine from [...]
October 12: Victor Young
If the colours look way nicer than usual, that’s because I referenced them from a Leyendecker painting. I did it in the hopes of learning something – and boy, did I learn something – but I’m still a cheating cheater who cheats.
October 13: Landon Mason
On to 2006. Landon was the main character, and not really a great guy, but fun to write. I love drawing his skeezy facial hair.
October 14: Lucy Quinn
Lucy, Landon’s friend. I love drawing her, with her dreads and enormous, hawkish nose. (To be honest, I think it came out much smaller than I normally draw it. I have failed.) Artists spend so much time drawing average pretty people that a face with real character is often much more [...]
October 15: Mary Eacott
Lucy’s half-sister, though there’s very little family resemblance. Also, Landon’s ex – to say they didn’t part on good terms would be an understatement.
October 17: Andy Byfield
While most of the characters from NaNo 2006 were sort of jerks to one degree or another (well, maybe not Lucy) Andy was the jerkiest. I feel bad, too – he was physically based pretty heavily off a real person, who is probably not a jerk.
Andy thinks that his stubble is manly enough to [...]
October 18: Cassie Choi
Andy’s girlfriend. They’re a rather unlikely couple, but despite having little in common, being five years apart at an age where that still ought to matter (he’s 18, she’s 23), and both being generally terrible people, they do seem to genuinely love each other. Much to the bafflement of those around them.
October 19: Joanne Nixon
Nixon was a very minor character. I really just wanted to paint her freckles.
October 20: Simon Gable
In 2007, for the first time, I tried to write a fantasy novel – or more specifically, a fantasy-mystery-political-thriller, which makes for three genres which I know basically nothing about. Despite that, it’s one of the few NaNo novels I keep meaning to go back to someday, and I’ve made cursory attempts to finish [...]
October 21: Farewell Green
The other main character of NaNo 2007. To the approximately three people who will get the reference: yes, I seriously did name her that. People called her Fare, mostly.
October 23: Simon Maxwell
Gable’s not too fond of sharing a first name with this little ray of sunshine. In another story, he might’ve been the main character. In this one, things don’t work out so well for him…
October 24: Erwin Carter
Erwin Carter. Politician, diplomat, not particularly trustworthy.
There is a distinct possibility I’m stealing skintones from Leyendecker paintings again. IT’S EDUCATIONAL, OKAY. (I still feel like a cheater.)
October 25: Allie
2008 was by far my absolute worst NaNoWriMo disaster. Yes, I reached 50,000 words. But like 2005, I’d planned a story all October, then ditched it a couple of days into November. And while 2005 was a fairly awful story, at least it had some characters I cared about, even if I [...]
October 27: Jo Swift
And finally, here’s last year’s NaNo, a.k.a. The Year I Tried To Write Utter Crack But Then It Turned Sort Of Serious For Some Reason. I can’t fault the premise, tho. Basically: Jo’s not having a good day. She wakes up to find a dead guy on her porch and an alien [...]
October 28: Lee Joiner
Jo’s boyfriend. Normally a pretty zen guy. Not sure what to make of all the extreme weirdness that suddenly descends upon his life.
October 29: G
This is by far the stupidest character I’ve ever created, but who cares, I love him so bad. He was so much fun to write. G’s from an alien species capable of changing form, and he concluded that nobody would believe he was actually an alien if he showed up looking like some [...]
October 30: Nolan Lessing
Nolan’s a university professor and, incidentally, dead. This hasn’t stopped him from wandering around, zombie style, trying to figure out precisely WHY and HOW he’s still wandering around, zombie style.
Obviously a little behind here, due to a big deadline eating up a couple of days of my life, and an all-nighter messing with my [...]
October 31: John Gideon
And so the month comes to a close with 2009’s… villain, I suppose; more of an antagonist, really. Gideon’s not a bad guy, just a little too charismatic and utterly insane.
On to NaNoWriMo 2010! Let’s see how I do this year!
Fellow Illustrators
My Artblog
- Art Test! April 29, 2012
- Lifedrawing Painting March 29, 2012
- Further Crowcatchers February 28, 2012
- Lyssa & Levi February 16, 2012
- Rain January 31, 2012