I Survived NaNoWriMo. Now What?

My writing spots most nights.

November went by in a blur.

No, wait. That's a lie.

November was a painful trek over thorny and headache-inducing terrain. My feet are bloodied and my body and mind are broken.

But you know what? I have a first draft of a novel. Worth it.

Now that I'm in blissful December, I feel like I can breath and finally focus on things I've been neglecting all last month (like working out and housework for starters).

December 1st -- this is what freedom feels like, and it feels marvelous.

Re-Finding Myself

 
We're only a few days into December, and I'm trying to re-find myself. There's something about NaNoWriMo that helps you hyper-focus on writing that book. Because of that, other things have to fall by the wayside. Otherwise, you'd never finish the book.

I'm currently trying to get out of the habit of skipping my workout so I can free up more time. I power through the morning, trying to get all my grading done because that's what I've been doing for the last month. By the time I realize that I can slow down again and enjoy parts of my day, it's a bit late and I have other deadlines to hit (like getting my twin girls in bed on time!).

Before November, I would sit down to my meals and read a book as I ate. It was some of my favorite times of the day. In order to find enough time to write my novel, I had to cut that out. Instead, as I ate, I worked.

I actually sat down today for the first time in over a month and read my book for ten minutes while I ate lunch. I was instantly more relaxed and happy. I had forgotten it felt like that. Boy, I missed that.

I even did a little knitting today. Watch out, world!

Remembering that I'm Still a Freelance Writer

During November, I had two articles get accepted to two different publications. I was excited but overwhelmed because of everything on my plate. It didn't take them long to send back edits, which I didn't have time to touch if I was going to hit my goal of 50,000 words.

So, I put it off.

Now that it's December, I can finally get around to those edits and finally feel the full excitement of getting those articles published in a few months.

Yay!

Reclaiming the Night

Before the chaos of NaNoWriMo, I spent the few hours between my daughters' bedtime and mine working on freelancing articles and querying a novel to agents. As you can probably guess, I had to give that up and devote that time to novel writing.

I love that I'm able to get back to that habit. It feels good to continue making progress on those fronts.

So, what about you? How was your NaNoWriMo journey, and how does December feel?