[3 words] strawberries/scarf/jellyfish

Her lips stained red from the strawberries she had been eating just moments before, Hana wrapped the gauzy scarf tighter around her neck and held it in place with one hand, her other hand keeping her sunhat on her head. It was a lot windier at the beach than she had remembered.

Still, she was determined to go for her walk along the water. She tied her scarf firmly around her neck to free up one hand to hold her sandals and wriggled her toes in the wet sand. She watched as the tide came in and pulled the sand away from her feet, leaving behind nothing but smooth sand.

As she walked along the shore, she stopped occasionally to pick up a smooth rock and inspect a piece of driftwood. She even saw the remains of a jellyfish that had washed up on the sand.

After all these months away from the ocean, it was good to be back.

(160 words)

Nanowrimo Day 19 update: 53,073 words! (I made it past 51K on the 17th, and I wrote another 2K at a write-in today :))

[3 words] cliff/sponge/monkey

Originally written Tuesday, November 6, 2012

The girl ran to the edge of the cliff after her pet monkey, Bubbles, sponge still in hand. She had been washing dishes when Bubbles got out. When she got to Bubbles, the monkey grabbed the sponge out of her hand.

The girl became unbalanced and lurched toward the monkey. The momentum of the girl pulled them both over the edge of the cliff. Flailing her arms, the girl tried to grab hold of something, but her hands met thin air. The girl shut her eyes and held onto Bubbles as tightly as she could, preparing herself for the worst.

At that moment, she felt a rush of wind as wings unfolded beneath her from out of her monkey’s back, and the two of them floated safely down to the ground.

(131 words)

A flying monkey in honor of Nano. 😉

Nanowrimo Day 16 update: 43,655 words, and I hope to hit 50K tomorrow (today)!

[Aria] アリアの旅 p3

(Scroll down for English. Continued from page 2. Start from page 1. Other pages can be found here.)

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行けって、どこへ？

子供の頃の夢は、
パパの会社を世界一にすることだった。

今でもそう思う。

パパは社長だったから、ある意味、
現代のお姫様みたいなように育てられたかな。

とりあえず、平凡の人生ではなかった。

でも、会社の受け継ぎのために、
毎日勉強で忙しくて、
「お金持ちのお嬢さん」でもなかったな。

パパに息子がいなかったから、
私に全部を託したって感じだった。

妹の方がお嬢さんっぽくて甘やかされたかも。。

羨ましいとかって思ってなかったけど、、

ひとりぼっちになってしまった今は

ムリだとわかってても

ちょっとでも甘やかされたい。。。

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Go? Go where?

As a child, I dreamed of making my father’s company the best in the world.

I still feel the same way now.

Since Daddy was the president of a large company, I guess in a way, I did grow up like a modern-day princess.

I didn’t lead a normal life, anyway.

But I was so busy studying every day to take over the company that I didn’t lead what you would call a “charmed life” either.

Daddy didn’t have any sons, so he entrusted me with everything.

I guess my little sister was the one who got to be spoiled.

Not that I was jealous or anything…

It’s just that now that I’m all alone,

even though I know it’s impossible,

I want to be spoiled a little, too…

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Nanowrimo Day 13 update: 35,053 (8 days ahead!)

[Aria] アリアの旅 p2

(Scroll down for English. Continued from page 1. Other pages can be found here.)

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そんなわけないでしょ？

だって、名前も違ったし、お姫様でもなかったし、
家族も全員生き生きしてたから。

双子の兄に覚えがないのはあってたけど、
最初からいなかったからだけでしょ。

代わりに、童話の中にまったく出てこなかった、
７歳年下の妹がいる。

いた。

そう。

この童話はヨゲンみたいで、

私が16歳になった日に、

家族を失った。

「行け、アリアーー」

母の最期の言葉だった。

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As if I could be the princess?

My name, my life, everything was different, and everyone in my family was alive and kicking.

I have no memory of a twin brother, so that part was the same as the story, but that was probably just because he didn’t exist in the first place.

Instead, I have a little sister seven years younger than me who doesn’t show up in the fairy tale at all.

I *had* a little sister.

Yeah.

The fairy tale was actually more like a prophecy.

On the day I turned 16,

I lost my entire family.

“Go, Aria–”

These were my mother’s last words.

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Nanowrimo Day 10 update: 27,545 (6.5 days ahead, but I have to write a little more outside of write-ins if I’m going to finish by my goal of Nov. 18…)

[Aria] アリアの旅 p1

Here’s the first page of the Japanese cell phone novel adaptation of my 2011 NaNovel. Enjoy!

(I originally wrote this in Japanese, but you can scroll down for the English translation. There should be a trackback at the bottom of each page linking to the next page in the novel. Other pages can be found here.)

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昔々、遠くの国で、お姫様がいました。

生まれた時から、天空のように輝いてて、
『アリア』と名付けられました。

そのお姫様に、双子の兄がいましたが、
幼い時に、二人は離れ離れになってしまいました。

お姫様は兄のことを忘れ、
立派に育てられました。

でも、ある日、悪い魔女が現れました。

お姫様の家族に恨みを持ち、
宮殿にいた人々を全員殺害しました。

生き残ったのは、アリア姫だけでした。。。

子供の頃から母によく聞いた童話の主人公が、

まさか、

ワタシのことだとわかった時に、

最初は冗談だと思っていた。。。

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Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a beautiful princess.

From the time she was born, she shone like the bright, blue skies, so they called her “Aria.”

The princess had an older twin brother, but when they were very young, the two became separated.

The princess grew into a beautiful young woman with no memory of her brother.

However, one day, an evil sorceress appeared.

She held a grudge against the royal family, and so she arranged for a massacre at the palace.

The only one to survive

was Princess Aria…

My mother often told me this fairy tale as I was growing up,

but I never thought

that the princess in the story

could be me.

When I first found out, I thought someone was playing a joke on me…

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Nanowrimo Day 9 update: 21,948 (4.2 days ahead, but I’ve been saving up for a six-hour write-a-thon and haven’t written much on my own…)

[3 words] News

Thanks to word wars at write-ins, I’m way ahead on Nano this year, but in the middle of switching documents at one of those said word wars yesterday, I managed to erase the document I had with all my [3 words] stories and writing prompts in them… In the panic of getting ready for November, I didn’t get a chance to back up the document or schedule any posts ahead. 😦

However, I do have back-up content for you! I have the beginning of a cellphone novel that I am writing based on my NaNovel from last year. I never finished it, but I wanted to post some writing this month, and making it public will probably make me more likely to write a few more pages now that I’m writing for Nano again.

Here’s a prompt for today and a Nano update:

grasshopper / cape / museum

Nanowrimo Day 5 update: 19,243 words! (6.5 days ahead)

[3 words] tea/pen/teddy bear

Originally written Tuesday, October 2, 2012

“First, I’ll serve you tea, Mr. Bear, and then you have to serve me.” Angelica sat at the small table in her light blue tea dress that matched her eyes. Her golden curls floated around her head like a halo, but things were about to turn stormy.

She poured the tea into the small plastic teacups her mother had gotten her for her fifth birthday. Then, she sat back and waited.

“Mr. Bear, I am waiting for my tea,” she said, crossing her arms.

The stuffed bear sat across the table from her, holding her glare without flinching.

“Mr. Bear!” Angelica balled up her fists and screamed, pounding on the table and knocking over her tea things. A pen rolled off the table as tea and cake crumbs filled the air.

When no adult came, she calmed down and took stock of her situation. Tea had spilled down the front of her new dress, and some cake had gotten into her hair, making it look more like a fuzzy mat than a halo, but otherwise, she was unhurt.

Mr. Bear, on the other hand, had one arm hanging limply by his side, a casualty from his latest defiance of Lady Angelica.

“Oh, Mr. Bear,” said Angelica. “Why won’t you move for me anymore?”

Mr. Bear stared back at her, silent and still.

(222 words)

Nanowrimo Day 3 update: 10700 words! (3.4 days ahead)

[3 words] flowers/knife/rabbit

Originally written Sunday, September 30, 2012

The dead rabbit lay in the pile of flowers on the altar. Blood dripped through the flower petals and stained the stone underneath. The ceremony was almost complete. The hooded figure took the knife that had slain the rabbit and pricked my finger, allowing drops of my blood to mingle with the blood on the altar.

There was a flash of lightning, and then darkness.

(65 words)

Nanowrimo Day 1 update: 3281 words, 1.3 days ahead!

[3 Words] NaNoWriMo

In order to get ready for NaNoWriMo this year, I did a short writing exercise every day from late-September until I got too busy ^^; Basically, I made a list of random nouns that I thought would be interesting to write about and grouped them into threes, trying to pick words that are not normally found together and creating 3-word writing prompts.

Using those prompts, I did an exercise I do with my students called “power writing,” where you write for 5 minutes trying to get as many words as possible while incorporating all three words into the story. After the 5 minutes were up, I took a few minutes to finish the story and edit (typically spending about 15 minutes total on each story, although some obviously took a little more time than that). I ended up with 18 “power writing” entries that I will post throughout the month of November.

I’ll post the prompt and the story I came up with, but feel free to use the words as prompts for your writing, too! You can also post links in the comments if you want to share 🙂