ROWNaNo ~ Act Three: The Fiery Conclusion

Hi everyone! Only six days (including today) left to finish up NaNo – I hope all of you are in fine position to finish in style. Just a reminder to all of the NaNo’s out there that logging your work in for a final count starts today. Also, if you haven’t donated to NaNo – officially, the Office of Letters and Light – now would be a great time to do so. NaNo isn’t just in November, throughout the year they support writing camps, programs for children in disadvantaged areas and countries plus a host of other activities. A worthy cause that is helping to build our collective future. As always, I only promote what I find valuable and the Office of Letters and Light is a priceless treasure.

NaNo, Act 3 – Storm the Enemy Castle and Kick the Antag’s Butt (or die trying).

The Protagonist: Is all in, do or die there is no way to turn back. Ben finds himself entangled between discovering his past, coming to grips with the loss of his greatest love and finding himself in a budding romance – oh yeah, and saving the world. Not a to-do list for the weak of heart.

The Key Players: The ones who are closest to us are always tested. In loyalty. In honor. In trust. And all are about to be tested to their limits. Who will pass the deep test of faith and who will stand in the way of Ben’s success?

The Antagonist: New players are obstructing Ben’s success on all fronts, The Knights Templar, the dark immortal Lethe and a creature that knows the perfect way to get under Ben’s skin.

The Stakes: With one novella left to go of the three I set out to do, I’m in good shape, although completing the third one before the end of November is doubtful. However, Ben has come to a place where winning or failing will come down to a single choice, and a single moment. Choose wrong or be late and the world, the human world, may find itself blown away like chaff on a strong wind.

The Conflict: When you’re trying to save the world and nearly everyone you meet along the way wants you dead, or at least to fail – well, then you have conflict. Welcome to Ben’s world. I can’t wait to share his experience with all of you soon (a Marcia A. Richards cliffhanger – grins).

Which brings us to this weeks progress and a look forward to some post-NaNo goals.

I knew that the first part of this week would be chaotic. Thanksgiving approaching and arriving. The final burst of warm weather bringing a push to complete home projects and a stream of appointments. So, with a bit under 6k to go in NaNo I took a counter-intuitive move and stopped.

You see, the real reason I’m doing NaNo is to stress test my schedule, my system of doing things and myself. I learned a great deal over the first 17 or so days of NaNo. Enough that I decided to turn around and spend four days analyzing, reconfiguring and hunting needed resources. While this does put me off the “word count goal,” those are fairly meaningless to me. What I’ve gained instead is worth far more in the long run than the word count. I type fast, the words will be there.

As for NaNo, I’ll be back to writing today and should hit the 50k mark to officially “win.” The writing however, will continue unabated after that as I press to complete the third novella by the end of the month – or at least come close.

I hope you all had an excellent Thanksgiving. Be sure to get out and support your fellow ROWers.

Peaceful Journeys.