Wow! Late start, but a great finish!
It’s 12:01 am and I just finished writing 2234 today after work! I even managed to have a nice evening out with my lovely fiancee where we devoured some delicious Italian food at our local haunt and played with the pups!
In fact, before our meal tonight I felt stuck. I’d written my protagonist into a corner (or a jail cell) and had no idea how to progress the story another 6000 words to the moment she is actually tossed into the demon realm and left for dead. It wasn’t until we were discussing it over dinner that my fiancee came up with a plot device I’d left open in my last writing session.
So during my last word sprint, I’d unleashed a beast upon the world that now had the ability to leap between the two realms (demon and human). The only way a demon can do this, is if a human brings it through, and then once it’s broken through once, it can do it as many times as it wants. This is important for a future plot point (next up) but the panther-like beast was still out there and my protagonist was up for execution.
“Why not have the beast serve as an unintended distraction?” She said as though it were as plain as the nose on my face.
If I’d hit a wall, that small suggestion was essentially the wrecking ball that got me through. In fact, the whole reason these beasts exist is to get more powerful, and they feed off the lifeforce of humans (as demons have a different kind). They never starve to death (at least in recorded histories) but they grow weak. As they consume more, then they become faster, stronger and can create multiple images of themselves. So, the crowd being full of its favourite food? Nothing like emerging from the demon realm and directly into a feeding frenzy… also, quite the entertaining distraction from an execution for all involved (me included).
The scene felt great to write, kept the tension going and instead of a classic jailbreak it became more of a take advantage of this insanity that is going on right now. Also, the scene served as a good stage for how powerful the antagonist is, as he didn’t exactly fear this whirling dervish of claws, tentacles and razor-sharp teeth. My other scene finally came out and had the antagonist confessing to the protagonist’s father’s not-so-accidental death, shortly before tossing her into the chasm before him.
Anyway, I need to sleep, if I’m going to write after work tomorrow. I have to be in bed early as I’m probably going to have to write early on Saturday (as social events have crept their way into NaNoWriMo) and then I cannot wait for Sunday as by then I should be past the 50% mark and well and truly into the insane conflicts that await (the guilds being crushed by the king, them joining the cause and crushing the Inquisition, only to be rebuffed by the King’s army, culminating in a partial defeat yet massive win on the inquisition front.
Spoiler alert though, the trilogy this story is an indirect prequel to, has an Inquisition.
*DUN DUN DUNNNNN*
See ya next time and good luck out there!