Nano 7 - End of Week 1

Well, good and bad news. The good news is that I am way ahead of where I need to be on word count.

The bad news is that I was really hoping to break 15k tonight, and would have normally been able to. I was only 400 words off. But I just had a slow day. The numbers didn't want to come.

More good news is that, despite it being a really slow and trudging day for word counts, I still came pretty dang close to meeting the daily goal.

I very definitely plan to keep this up and break 30k at the end of week 2.

Daily: 1492 (teehee.)

Total: 14,578

I don't have any insights today. Sorry. The slow day affected that too. So instead, I give you an excerpt. I was going to do a different part, but for it to make sense, it had to be kind of long. So I picked this one instead. It's part of the one on my nanowrimo profile.

**Note, this is from the pre-nano part. Which is itself about 15k words. (I started my nano count at like chapter 8 or something.)

Even more than before, the strange shadows crossed his mind, giving him chills. He pulled out his knife, determined to get the job over with quickly.

A shadow passed by on the right, just outside the netted barriers. He tried to ignore it. Nothing dangerous could get through to him now that they had improved their perimeter security. Or at least, he hoped so. All the same, he sawed at the dead leaves a little quicker.

A strange tingling spread across his skin. He knew that he should be safe, but he couldn’t suppress the feeling that something was right behind him. He prepared to push off from the ground, and head back to the shallow waters. As he did, he turned around, just to reassure himself.

There, not ten feet away, was a mermaid.

Aiden knew that she was a real mermaid. Something about her made him quite certain that she was no illusion. She had a human torso, and a long, scaled tail. Her skin was a murky, pale green, making her difficult to see clearly. Her tail was a darker version of the same color, and her hair was coarse and flat, almost like sea weed.

She smiled at him with sharp, evil-looking teeth, and then lunged. She was obviously more at home in the water than Aiden, and covered the distance between them before he could get away. He had pushed off, and started paddling for the surface, but she caught his ankle in a grip that he knew he could never break.

He struggled against her, kicking and stroking, but it was useless. She was far too strong, and he was almost out of air. The look on her face was one of glee. She was just playing with him. Drowning him with such ease that she found it funny.

Aiden’s lungs screamed for air. He only had seconds left before he blacked out, and then he would be at the mercy of the sea. A picture of Rindi appeared in his mind just then. The thought of his sister gave him enough strength to swing his arm down upon the mermaid in one last strike.

He had forgotten about the knife in his hand. It slashed the green-skinned forearm, and she squealed in rage, releasing his foot. He paddled desperately for surface, only vaguely aware of the green creature that took up the chase.

After what had seemed like an eternity, he burst out into the air and sucked in huge lungfuls. He was coughing and shaking, and only had about a second to recover before a long-nailed hand was groping at his ankles again. He kicked as hard as he could while treading water, and connected with something. Then he began the swim to the shelf, all the while knowing that it would be impossible to out-swim a mermaid.