untangling braids

I discovered something these past days.
The book I have been working on for quite a time now (started writing it in NaNoWriMo), does not work this way. It's like a braid - there are three parts to it, that somehow belong together but that will only stay together because of a rubber band.
Now, the rubber band exists because I wrote it all under much time pressure. It was okay at the tim eto just let it flow. Now, my job is to loose the rubber band.
I'm not saying that the story itself isn't worthy of being told, I just think it should be three seperate parts, not one. So I need to untangle it.

Problem is, though, untangling gets hard with untidy braids. It hurts. And sometimes, a little hair needs to be cut in order to get a nice clean look in the end. And even then, it takes an awful lot of time and persistence to do so. And I don't think I have that time right now. Or the persistence. And thinking thi sway makes me feel like I never will finish the story. Damn it!