I need to average 1,667 words a day to fulfill the requirements of NaNoWriMo, so 1,979 is a respectable first-day effort, and I haven’t ruled out adding a few more words before bedtime. Even better, I feel like I made a good start. It’s certainly much better than the opening pages I wrote for a similarly-themed novel which I abandoned a few months ago.

But now that I’ve introduced everyone, it’s time to start advancing the plot a little more.

The mission-trip novel I tried writing earlier this year started at the airport, with the various team members arriving one by one, a very clunky, obvious and over-expository beginning. This one starts in midair, over the North Atlantic, with the insomniac protagonist wondering whether his teammates (who are scattered throughout the cabin) are sleeping.

I will not be blogging the novel as I did in 2004, but I do have a very brief excerpt posted on my profile page at the NaNoWriMo site. (The site is running very slowly tonight, as it will the first few days.)

For those of you who actually visit the site, as opposed to reading me via RSS, I will be keeping a current NaNoWriMo word count in the little green box at the top of the page which normally bears a welcome message.

By the way, I mentioned this at Music City Bloggers but forgot to mention it here — if you click on the podcast on the front page of the NaNoWriMo web site, you will hear me at about the 22 minute mark, talking about the inspiration for my novel.