NaNoWriMo started slowly for me this year, but I did hit my daily word count on the first day. Yesterday, I surpassed that by getting over 5,000 words written. And on the third day there was life … I mean, 10,508 words.

It seemed right to use this year’s NaNoWriMo to do a 50,000 word boost on one of my existing novels that have been languishing in the paradise of “no muse” since early this year.  This is my story of four (that’s five, really) parts.

I’m finding it easier to focus on one part at the moment, letting the characters do their own writing with just a vague goal in sight.  This is helping the story to gestate a little and start to reveal what it’s all about.

Since starting this year’s NaNoWriMo, I have figured out the single thread that runs through each part of the story.  Prior to this, it was more about getting the characters into different environments that would (with luck) lead to them uniting in the final part.  I had trouble working out what big catastrophe would be sufficient to the story, until yesterday when it came to me.  The big catastrophe isn’t as big as I thought it might be, but it’s enough to thread all parts of the story together.

My only question now is whether it’ll remain a story of parts, or if I’ll end up merging them all together in a single multi-threaded story.  I think, for now, and for the sake of my sanity, I’ll keep them in separate parts.

Day 3, word count: 10,508, target: 5,000, words remaining:  39,492.