NaNoWriMo, Day Five

Today’s writing seemed more difficult than previous days. I don’t know whether it’s because my inspiration is giving out, or the plot is bogging down, or the stress of my day job, or what. Regardless, I still managed to get the word count in, but I went to some odd places. For example, today’s writing began with this passage.

“At last, finally, she [Darlene Dove] managed to get to sleep. This lasted exactly one hour. Then she flew awake. Jason was staring into the tunnel, eyes wide. He had heard it too. It was a definite, distinct sound that wasn’t at all the badger’s breathing. A high, shrill, wailing cry rose out of the dark. “Bagpipes,” Jason whispered. “Bagpipes in the deep. They are coming.”

Naturally, they wind up chasing after the bagpipes, in wild pursuit in the dark. Darlene, incidentally, is the Sugar Plum Fairy, with magical powers I haven’t quite defined yet. At the moment, she can conjure up things. Like, for instance, really fast and powerful race-cars. Think The Bridge of Khazad-Dum chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring, meets Cars. Vroom vroom.

Then Darlene makes a wrong turn, and finds herself reenacting the part of the sperm whale in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Namely, she is, at the moment, plummeting towards the surface of a planet, and her magic powers have inexplicably failed to work. This could be a problem.