IWSG: November

It's the first day of NaNoWriMo and I will fully admit I'm off writing somewhere, probably in my comfy chair under a blanket in my pajamas. But I did like this month's question and it's a topic near and dear to me so I'm going to chime in.

Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published?

I've only not won once, but I'd say it's about half and half on finishing. It took me years to get back to finishing my early NaNo novels, and some of those will never see the light of day. Was that a waste of time? Certainly not. Everything I write is a learning experience, sometimes it's to learn to never do that again.

More recently, I've been better about staying on the novel after November and finishing it without years of gathering dust. A good example is The Last God, which was last year's novel and is now published.

2006 - Sahmara  was published in 2016

2007 - Swan Queen is still waiting to be finished

2008 - Not Another Bards Tale is also waiting to be finished and is likely the next on my list.

2009 - A Broken Race was published in 2015

2010 - 50K worth of short stories, one of which did go on to be published
2011 - The Narvan Book 2: Chain of Grey - Is contracted for publication
2012 - Jackson - A horrible idea, but some of the content ended up in the epilogue of ABR.
2013 - Into the Blue - I'd like to finish this someday
2014 - Damaged - I was building a house so this isn't even close to done and may never be
2015 - The Narvan book 3: Bound in Blue - Is contracted for publication
2016 - The Last God, is published

I like to claim NaNoWriMo as my dedicated writing month. I get that rough draft out and can spend the rest of the year making it pretty and work and all that fun stuff. Sometimes my brain and life don't cooperate and I end up with one of those half finished lingering projects.

Good luck with NaNo this year for all those participating!