How I survived NaNoWriMo 2017

It is December, which means NaNoWriMo has once again come and gone. I once again took up the challenge. And a challenge it was! Last year being pregnant sucked all of the energy and brain power I had, making the year a "come from behind" win. This year I had a 6 month old bouncing baby boy that fills my days.

Nevertheless, I took up the challenge!

The month started out well. I decided to further two stories during the month. So the first to be worked on was book one in the Aarken Chronicles, no official title yet, the second was An Irish Christmas, the second in my Emerald Isle Trilogy.

Neither one had been plotted out, and I should know by now that for me that makes the writing process much more difficult. I am firmly in the "plotter" category as far as pre-writing goes.
Aarken ended up with a new total of 23,450 words. Before NaNoWriMo it sat at just about 8k. So I got a good chunk written and much more of the world building done. Somewhere in the middle of NaNo I was writing along when I realized I had done almost ZERO world building for Aarken. Sitting down with my notebook and some inspiring music, I did the leg work and now have much more of the plot for book one solidified, as well as more of the series overall figured out.

An Irish Christmas was sitting at roughly 5k before, and after NaNo is now at 11,761. So about double. Again, this was like pulling teeth for some of it. I'd be inspired, get through a scene or two, and then boom. Lost momentum since I didn't have the story better plotted out. About 3/4 of the way through NaNo I had to sit down and like Aarken, I had to plot out more of the story. With that done, I am hoping to finish the story by the end of January and be sending it off to Beta readers. I want to release An Irish Christmas either in late October, or early Novemeber next year. I better get a move on!

Now, as most of you know NaNoWriMo is all about hitting that glorious 50k, and if you can do math, you'll have noticed that those numbers listed above do not meet that 50k goal. In between writing in those two WIP's I also worked on editing. The story I chose was Wolf's Bite, the second in the Athruithe Trilogy. I had finished the initial first draft a few months prior and it needs some major rewrites/added scenes.

Though I didn't complete a full bright and shiny 50k first draft, I am still pleased with how much I accomplished. Especially since my entire family came down with a pretty nasty flu the week before Thanksgiving and we are still recovering!

How did NaNoWriMo go for those of you who took up the challenge?
You're a winner in my book if you wrote anything during November!
You can't edit a blank page, so any progress is worth celebrating.   :)