It is 11:06 pm on November 30th as I sit down to write this post. Okay, honestly, I’ve already been sitting down for the majority of the past 4 hours, because we’re having our last-chance write-in, and boy did I need it this year. 

I’ll be honest, when we got here and finally settled in to write, I was doubtful that I would be able to get the nearly 3,000 words I still needed to finish by midnight.

But I plowed through and got all of those in 2 1/2 hours.

And now NaNo is done, at least on the writing front. Michelle and I still have a TGIO to plan (GAH!) and I still have a story to FINISH. Because that 50k I’ve written? That’s the first seven chapters of the story.

But I’m not completely sure where this book needs to end, though I’m starting to get a glimmer of an idea.

#WriteMotivation is over for the year as well. It’s so bizarre to think that there are only 31 more days left in 2013.

But I’m ready to bid farewell to this year. With the exception of winning that award back in May, and getting an agent to actually look at my manuscript, the year has sucked.

I would gladly give up the award in exchange for Tabby being completely healthy for the rest of his life, no matter how long or short it may be.

But I’ll have another post later about the year, so let’s move on to November’s #writemotivation goals.

#WriteMotivation goals:

1. 50k words on Stars for the Dead.
And done! I crossed the finish line with two hours to spare, and validated a little while later with 50,285 words!

2. Major progress on Catalyst revisions.
HAHAHAHAHA.

3. Exercise 3x per week.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA. wheezes

And now for the in-depth NaNo update…

NaNoWriMo 2013, Days 25-30

Words Written: 50,285/50,000

Characters Killed: 5 (2 flashback, 3 in the actual storyline)

Excerpt (completely unedited, so ignore the stupid, please!):

With horror, she watched the Otwlh commander’s lips move. “Fight!”

Fight?

Dina looked around frantically, and realized that the other Otwlh still in the circle with her had charged.

Oh. Fight!

Dina nearly screamed as she barely brought her sword up to parry in time. She knew, at worst, she would have had a bruise, possibly a concussion, but she had a feeling the test here was to see how little times she could get hit.

Her wrists ached as shock waves from the blocked strike traveled through the sword and into her arms. With the second barely-managed parry, her shoulders started to burn.

She managed to charge the woman once, and got a face full of sand for the effort, and before she knew it she was knocked flat on her back, gasping for air.

Her lungs were burning now.

And she did not like the feel of a sword pressed against her throat.

She let go of the sword and let her head fall back onto the sand. She heard the soft pat-pat of steps come up beside her, and looked up into Naho’s face.

“You have passed.”

Dina gaped, shocked at the woman’s word. Passed? How? She’d barely been able to defend herself.

“I… passed?” Surely she hadn’t heard right. She didn’t remember being struck on the head, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t been concussed.

The Otwlh who’d actually dueled – if her pathetic attempt at defense could be called dueling – bent over and held her hand out to Dina. Dina took it, felt herself hauled up, and swayed on her feet for a moment. It had been a while since she’d exerted that much energy all at one time, and with it on top of her ordeal in the desert the other day, she found herself to be more than a little dizzy when she was upright again.

The Otwlh chuckled. “We don’t actually expect anyone to beat us in this test. We just need to make sure you actually have the will to fight back, especially after the first test.”

Ah. So, that meant… “Everyone encounters that trial in the desert, then?” Dina didn’t mean for her voice to tremble when she asked the question, but evidently it was something out of her control.

“Yes.” The Otwlh’s face grew serious. She still held Dina’s hand, though, and she suddenly drew Dina forward, her voice dropping to a whisper, soft enough that Dina could barely hear her over the bustling testing grounds. “I knew your mother and admired her very much. I pray, for the sake of Eswad and the Otwlh, that you pass your final test.”