Day 16 ~ Intense

Well, today was...intense. But fun. I tried out my first real action scenes, and I relaxed a little when I discovered that I could squeeze more than about 200 words out of each one. That was definitely one of my highlights. The rest are:

• Wrote another whole chapter (only six from the end - eep!)
• Went around a huge story turning point (about to begin one of the most intense sequences - yikes!)
• Showed my villains happy, for once
• Introduced my first elves
• Hit 1,000 pageviews on this blog! Thanks, everyone!

I'm undertaking an intense challenge. This week is school vacation week, so I'm a lot less busy. I've decided to challenge myself to write one whole chapter every day. If that goes well, I'll finish the book this week. Early wins ftw! Right now, it's going quite well. I'm about 1k words above tomorrow's par. What some of you may find a little strange is I'm having a lot more fun now in Week 3 than I was in Week 1. Want to know my secret? Okay. Here it is.

NaNo is very rigid in general. To win, you have to write at least 1,667 words every day. I've discovered that it's so much more fun if you stop thinking of it that way. We're writers! We use words, not numbers! Instead of thinking, "I need to write 1,667 words today," think, "I want to write up to the part where _____ happens." It's more interesting that way, and feels less robotic. Just a tip.

I've decided that action scenes don't really have spoilers, so I'm going to go back to excerpts. There's A LOT of action in the next few chapters, so expect excerpts in the next few days! Here's one to kick it off:

"When Rayand heard Gabby’s urgent whisper, he knew what was coming. It came as no surprise to him when he saw the skeletal dragon walking out of the trees. The problem was that it turned its malignant beady eyes on Gabby. Rayand rolled his eyes and slowly stepped toward it. It didn’t seem to notice him, and blew a blast of black fire straight at her. She shrieked as the edge of her cloak caught fire, and tamped it out on the rocks.

The skeletal dragon leaped forward to claw at her, eyes blazing with fury. Rayand charged at it and smacked it with his sword. It faltered, stunned, and then staggered over to a nearby tree, where it clattered into a pile of bones. Rayand stared at Gabby. 'Did I actually just save your life?'

A growl sounded from the other end of the path. Everyone froze as another skeleton emerged, this one even bigger than the last. This time, it wasn’t focused on Gabby, but instead Alcasor, who stood calmly in its path. The skeleton paused, surveying its target, and then lunged."

Enjoy your cliffhanger! :D 

Happy writing!

~ Sophia-Rose