NaNoWriMo: the Final Week

Well, the fourth week of NaNoWriMo has started.

But I’m actually doing okay, as can be seen in the above infographic. I’m on target for finishing four days ahead of schedule, which gives me a little room to do what I really wanted to do, which is make it to 60,000 words. Which is still not quite a complete novel, but it’s more words than I’ve ever done in a November before.

Fingers crossed!

Anyhow, to celebrate both this and Thanksgiving tomorrow (and give me a way to get back to writing faster) here’s a little clip from Act One. Unpolished, of course, but it’s something I enjoyed writing.

“We should have brought Ris with us.”

“We’ve got it handled, Tolin.”

Despite his words, Blane knew that they did not, in fact, have it handled, seeing as how they were dangling from a ledge and had a one-in-five chance of making it successfully to the other side of the ravine they were attempting to traverse. Tolin knew he knew this, but he let it slide because in spite of his words he didn’t really want to bring their baby sister into this maze of a deathtrap.

They’d been doing pretty well, actually, up until that point. They found the door, Tolin picked the lock at the gate, Blane worked out the riddle that led them down the correct passageway, and they’d been halfway across the bridge when some twisted architect let loose his mad genius. At some point in the distant past, someone decided it would be a good idea to booby trap the only bridge with swinging axes. Hence why the two brothers were creeping their way along the edge rather than walk calmly across the top. Also, at some point in the mad rush to avoid the swinging sharpened pendulums, the map had been dropped, and now Blane had to watch as the piece of paper fluttered gently in the breeze before dropping into the dark depths below them.

“At least whoever built this place was a fan of natural lighting,” Tolin said breezily, adjusting his grip on the ledge. “Remember that one ruin in Zorab when we kept running out of light?”

“The one where I got bit by a snake because you weren’t smart enough to bring along a few extra elixirs of light? Yeah, I remember that one.”

If they’d been on solid ground and not in immediate danger of their lives, things probably would have devolved into a tussle. As it was, Tolin gave an icy glare. “Like I said, at least we can see what we’re doing.”

They hung there a while longer, and Blane cursed his brother under his breath when they stopped even the tiny forward momentum they had.

“Blane?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s no more bridge.”