Scribes & Archers

Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo, and a week ago things were looking sketchy. I was seriously wondering if I would win. But…

Current total word count: 50,073

Favorite snippet from this week: (Apologies for redacting so much, but there are few enough characters that even the gender would lower down options considerably, so pronouns have been redacted along with the character’s name.)

When Sairsha stepped into the hospital, Riye was in the front room mixing a tonic.

Riye looked up from her work. “Zen shouldn’t see anyone yet.”

“It’s not him I’m here to see. Is [SPOILERS] still here?”

Riye shook her head. “He headed for the guild right after dropping off Zen.”

Sairsha nodded. “Thank you.” Sairsha turned, but stopped and looked back at Riye. “How is Zen?”

Riye’s expression was far too uncertain for Sairsha’s liking. “He’s still alive. I don’t know for how much longer. The ginger doesn’t seem to be doing much. I’m trying, but… I don’t know.”

Sairsha bit her lip, taking a deep breath to steady herself again as tears threatened to well in her eyes. “Thanks.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. She hurried out of the hospital and broke as soon as she’d stepped into the puliquan. She fell to her hands and knees, eyes squeezed shut, sobs wracking her shoulders and making everything tight in her chest. She could barely breathe, and the heat wasn’t helping. Her fingers dug into the dirt, which caked under her nails as she curled them into a fist. A yell tore from her throat, scraping at her vocal chords. She pounded the ground with her fist until her fingers finally throbbed and ached.

Sairsha sat up and opened her eyes though hot tears still streamed down her face and dampened her skirt. How could [SPOILERS] have done something like this? Not only breaking the rules, which was bad enough, but also betraying her directly? Changing her past without her permission… It was a deep violation, and Sairsha wanted to make [SPOILERS] hurt for it. But there was also something in her that couldn’t hate [SPOILERS]. Something that wanted to forgive the unforgivable, because [SPOILERS] was her friend. Because they knew each other. Because she loved [SPOILERS] and didn’t want to hate [SPOILERS].

But she did want to hate [SPOILERS]! The other side of her said [SPOILERS] was awful, that this unwound everything they’d created in all the years they’d been friends, that this was the absolute end and [SPOILERS] had no right to be forgiven. She wanted to swear [SPOILERS] off forever. Break ties completely.

Because… because…

She didn’t know why. She couldn’t figure out why the two sides of her both raged so strongly, why she could want two such opposite things at exactly the same time.

But regardless…

Sairsha stood and brushed off her hands, followed by her skirt. She wiped her tears and wrested her curls into one long braid.

Striding toward the guild once more, Sairsha took a deep breath. Maybe she could at least use that hatred to her advantage and keep from crying.

Biggest challenge this week: Catching up. I was 15k behind.

Biggest success this week: I wrote 15,125 words yesterday! :D I devoted the entire day to writing, and it paid off! I caught up, and I had less than 2k to write today in order to win. I also finished the first draft of Calligraphy Guild yesterday afternoon, so I’ve been working on a backup project to complete the word count and that has also been going smoothly. So overall… several big wins this week! :)

If you were participating, how did NaNo go for you? If you’re still writing furiously, I’m cheering for you! :D If you weren’t participating in NaNo, how did this month go for you, overall? How was your Thanksgiving? Did you get any writing done? I’d love to chat with you in the comments!

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