Today’s word count: 3458
Today’s writing: flowing
My energy level: relaxed but tired

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.  — E. L. Doctorow

And it’s a good thing, too. Because, as full of ideas as I am and as easily as the words are currently flowing, I don’t actually know very much of my story yet. So I am focusing on what’s in the headlights and getting it all down, and hoping that as I move down the road, more will come into view.

Today’s writing was really fun. I wasn’t trying to get such a high word count. It just happened. I started by getting Wren and her maid off the ship. I decided the best way to do it was a big wave. The maid, who can’t swim, washed overboard. The bravest princess in the Isles naturally jumped in after her. Since it was night and the seas incredibly heavy, the crew was unable to rescue the girls and now must search the coast for them, without knowing for sure where exactly they left the ship.

Once the princess was in the water, I was free to start on the prince’s story. Prince Roderick of Pepin, as I explained earlier, is cursed. I love the idea of how he was cursed so much that I wrote that scene today, even though it may turn out to just be back story.

Why he is cursed? Because the steward lost one of the Faerie invitations to the christening, and the Faerie took it personally.

How is he cursed? With a demon, a little fellow who is not evil in the traditional way. His main talent is to be inappropriate — saying and doing the rude or unseemly thing at every turn. And as the royal family has yet to find out, the demon cannot be locked away or separated from the prince. They are bound together magically.

Bittersweet is not a patient or forgiving sort of Faerie. Not only did she give the prince a curse that will be with him every single day of his life, she didn’t give him any way to break it. So Roderick is going to grow up with this social embarrassment and have to make the best of it.

Tomorrow, I get to write about the Princess Priscilla Pennyroyal Peridot Pansy Petunia Pearl of Stagspeak, why she wants to marry Roderick, and why he is so anxious not to marry her. I can’t wait to find out.