Welcome to the fourth weekly update on the NaNoWriMo project for 2023! A Cage for Horrors was locked away in my mind for years and years, only expressed in my drawings. Now, it is time to see what the world actually looks like!

How did the past week go?

In my previous update, I said that the Thursday was a heavy day. I had only been able to write about 2000 words. On Friday, I returned with a vengeance and carried these words over, writing about 6000 words on that day. 2500 of these were for the next chapter, chapter 21.

These 2500 helped me on Saturday. I only planned to write one chapter due to scouting eating my morning and a significant part of the afternoon. With my head start, and by starting early in the morning with chores, I got to work. I finished the chapter I started, completed a second one, and started a third. Way more than I planned and making up for Thursday.

After that, on Sunday, I knuckled down again and wrote 3 chapters and most of a fourth. This included the work I did on Saturday, allowing me to end a little earlier. That was likely my last 3-chapter day and I have to admit that I’m glad for it. These days take a lot out of me, but I described that before. I ended the weekend with 25 chapters finished. The countdown has officially started.

Monday was the day that I noticed fatigue setting in. I had 3000 words already written for chapter 26 and after finishing that chapter, I was unmotivated to keep writing. I put on a stream and just decided to see how far I’d get and still wrote a cool 2000 words for chapter 27.

On Tuesday I finished chapter 27 and did the same thing as I did on Monday, writing 2500 words into chapter 28. I was still ahead of planning!

Wednesday was a repeat of Tuesday. Finished 28, started 29.

Because of that start, I could finish chapter 29 before my roleplaying session, this evening. A day I hadn’t even expected to complete a chapter!

fourth weekly update graph

Did I earn any badges?

One! I made a 21 day streak!

What happened in the story?

Darryl escapes his run-in with the law and learns things about a seemingly innocent friend. He isn’t able to give this enough thought when disaster strikes! His ex-girlfriend is gone! Who took her and where did they go? Will the guard believe her?

Cadence, meanwhile, learns the consequences of everything that has happened to her. Is she going insane? Or is she really being helped by an unknown force? Just as she wants to take vengeance for something that was done to Darryl, she is stopped… and the two are reunited.

Just in time to be accused of a whole lot of crimes. The endgame has finally started, where the problems accrued by Cadence come to a head and Darryl learns something new and unexpected about his powers.

How does the next week look?

We’re in the home stretch! I just finished chapter 29 today, which means I have one more chapters to go, plus the epilogue. This will be done tomorrow, on Friday, and the day after, on Saturday.

After that, the challenge is over for me. I’ve more than beat the set NaNoWriMo challenge and also completed my personal challenge. After 23 days of hard work, I think I can manage two more days.

What’ll be done with the manuscript after that? Well, I’ll discuss that later. I will be relaxing and gaming a bit, I think.

Are we still on schedule?

Yes! We are right where I want to be!