How long did it take for you to write your YA book?

I started world building and plotting (it's fantasy) in November, starting writing in January, finished it in September. Got an agent in October and sold it last month

I've found it takes me about 6-8 months for a YA first draft of 60K words. Another few months of polishing and fleshing out, which usually takes me into the 65-70K range.

But don't judge your work by what others do. You need to find the right rhythm for youself and do what you need to do to write the best book you can. Some folks write fast and other slow, some have lots of time and others have to slip it in between work and family.

I don't actually have to motivate myself (sorry), I enjoy writing and don't feel forced to sit at the keyboard unless I want to. I write best first thing in the morning, so I sit down and write for a few hours every day. But if the words don't flow I don't sweat it. I either work on outlines, do some editing, re-read passages to get back into the groove. If you feel you need motivation, then perhaps you're pushing yourself too hard and losing the joy of the writing. It's okay to take breaks and not write if you just don't feel like it. They only times you HAVE to write if when you're on a deadline and your editor is houdning you for those pages. Don't force it into being work. Keep it fun.

Try, I started writing my novel 22 years ago and I'm just now getting ready to market it. I know, I'm slow.

I write anywhere from 200 words a day to 5k a day. My average is about 1k a day, although this lags in the middle and picks up toward the end.

For my first novel, I started November 7th, 2007 and finished January 17th, 2008. I took a week off to study for midterms in December. I did write nearly every day, though. It ended up being 57k.

For my second novel, I started June 7th, 2008 and finished July 12th, 2008. This first draft was much shorter, at 34k. I took a week off to study for finals. After the first draft I expanded it a few days later and it's currently 40k, so I'd say about a month and a half overall.

Just stick with whatever works for you. As long as it gets done eventually, there's no rush. =) The world will wait for your ideas, heh.

--Inkspill

I started "Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad" in earnest in spring of '06, finished a first draft in spring of '07, and kept it in rewrites for another six months. It's 50K, so that works out to 136 words a day for the first draft! In my defense, I was also doing my Masters thesis, then starting my first real job.

My natural writing speed used to be about 1200 words a day, but I'm more careful about my first drafts now and it's down to 400-500.

I wrote The Memory Box in about 15 months, coming in at 96K. I cut it to 80K in three months and shopped it as an adult mainstream novel with little success. It took me five weeks to overhaul and convert it to a 76K YA novel.

Write something everyday, even if it's only 50 words. Go with the ebbs and flows. A page a day equals a novel in a year. If the characters are in your head having conversations every day, then they will lead you down the right path.

I started MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY in November 2006 and started sending out the "completed" manuscript to agents in October 2007. I'm in revisions now, so by the time I'm finished I will have worked on the book for more than two years.

I finished my first draft last year I believe.... I finished my second draft last month. Working on my third draft right now.
It's been a year and a half so far.

I don't know. I did at least five major rewrites of my first YA book. I got the first inkling of an idea for it in Oct 2005, started sending it to agents Apr 2008. I can't say I worked on it constantly for those two and a half years-- it is hard to keep up the motivation after finishing a new rewrite and realizing it still doesn't work... but I eventually got it to a place that I felt was the best I could do (even though not perfect) and actually got signed with an agent like last week! So all that fretting and polishing feels worth it. I will be getting revision notes on it early next week from agent, so it's not over yet... but I'm looking forward to learning more and continue to develop as a writer.

As for motivation: You have to love (or at least have respect for) the process of writing as well as the craft and the result. The process is a lot of rewriting and doubting. Take the time you need to get the writing done, if it's "only" 500 words a day, then do that. I learned somewhere between the fourth and fifth draft that setting ATTAINABLE daily goals made me feel a lot better about the process, made me feel like I was actually getting stuff done (instead of pissed off that I was never going to be finished.)

Keep writing!!
xxxrae

Three years. I stopped part way into it and didn't work on it for at least one year.

I wrote BW in a month.

I've been rewriting the blasted thing for what feels like forever.

My first book took a year for the first draft and it has gone through several revisions/rewrites. I'm STILL revising (this time for an agent, though *crosses fingers*). In the meantime, I've written two other books. One took five months, including revision. I wrote the other in a month and have yet to begin revising.

Usually a few months. I write between 2 and 3 books a year. I have a full-time job and a toddler, so some months are more prolific than others.

As far as motivation, as with anything worthwhile, it maybe be hard, but you have to have discipline to see it through to the end. Treat it as a job, something you have to do rather than something you want to.

I'm on four years and counting. It took eight months for the first draft, but I realized some things needed changing, and there was a long period of time where I actually couldn't get any writing down at all because I was so busy with some things--prepping for horse shows and singing for the church choir. And now I'm entering my senior year in highschool, and my first official writing career has begun--I'm a journalist for the Xtreme Section and my bio should be in next Tuesday's paper. I don't know of a lot of papers that provide opportunties for teens to write. And yes, we had to go through the same process as any other journalist. I had to wait the entire summer to see if I landed this job.

But I'm 25,000 words into the re-write my hopefully 100,000 word novel (original word count is actually 184,000 words! Yikes! But I've cut 30,000 words so far)

My practice novels took me a couple of months, but this serious one is taking longer because I was inexperienced when I began and now that I know what I need to know, I'm pretty much prepared to handle anything thrown at me.

Two months for the first draft. I may never go back an edit it. It was just for fun.

It took me about... five months. Now I am thinking of deleting it all and starting over.

First drafts seem to take nine months for me, whatever the length of the novel. Does that mean novels are like babies?

...

It took me roughly a week apiece. The first took six days; the subsequent books took closer to a week and a half, and came in slightly shorter than the first.

I would note that these were written under rather unique circumstances, and that I don't expect my next books will be written in nearly the same time.

Once I'm done editing my trilogy, I'm going to shoot for 1,000 words a day. As some of the other folks here have already said, writing is a job. Some days it will be easier to write than others, so for the other days? Find something you love but normally withhold from yourself.

Treat yourself if you hit your target, be that 100 words or 5,000 words a day. If you like music, buy yourself a song or an album each week you hit your target every day. If you like sweets but seldom eat them, allow yourself a Snickers.

I write first drafts generally, in the span of three months. Sometimes it's less.

The book that is going out to agents this week (finally) was written in a month. Then I spent two years revising it. 9 drafts later, it is finally ready. I've removed characters, removed entire plot lines, cut out at least 30,000 words and added 40,000 more, added more characters, changed both the rising and falling action of the book (kept the climax) and basically tore my hair out and screamed a lot.

I try to write 2,000 words a day. Generally 1,000 words on whatever YA I am working on and then 1,000 on my romance novel/erotica type stuff. Sometimes the word count leans towards one genre more than another. But my other career (I work in a playhouse as a stage manager/director/actor/general go-to girl) gets in the way occasionally. I try to time my books between shows because otherwise I end up conked out on the green room couches with my notebook on my lap.

I try to carve out at least an hour a day to write with no distractions, no internet (unless it is for research) no phone, no IM, no one bothering me (generally). But I'm not married and I don't have kids, so I'm pretty sure that it's easier for me to find the time than for someone who does have stuff like that to deal with. Sometimes I stare at my computer screen for an hour and write maybe 100 words. Sometimes I write 10,000 words without getting up once. Sometimes I just let my cat sit on my computer and see what words his butt pressing into my keys comes up with

I also have great critique partners who do a fast draft 1,000 words a day minimum challenge every few months. It helps to have other people egging you on in this craziness

eyeblink said:

First drafts seem to take nine months for me, whatever the length of the novel. Does that mean novels are like babies?

Click to expand...

hehe! I've heard this before from several authors! I find it so interesting and have to wonder if this is more common among female authors than male.

Well i've never actually finished one before. I've started quite a few. I can write about 1000 words a day easily, but that's because I love to write and when i get into it I play it out in my head as i write it. Sometimes i actually forget i'm writing then like an hour later i go on word check and theres like 1000 - 2000 more words added

XX

It took me three years to write 186k words. And then realize I had enough for two YA books, but no way to break it into two books. So I had to cut about half. That took another two years. And it still sucks.

Before my current YA novel I only wrote short stories, so a novel length work was a new thing. The first writing took five days. The story came into my head one sleepless night - I was on holidays where I usuall write, but hadn't written for the first week. Then the story "happened". I got up in the morning, wrote an outline and started work. Five days later it was 55,000 words complete.

Several months later I had an editor run through it and she returned a ms filled with annotations and several pages of her notes. This was for story continuity etc more than writing style. My re-working took a month or so. Its up to five or six months from starting.

A year or so later at a writer's festival I met a highly respected author who read the ms overnight and took me on for mentoring. I did two re-writes before she considered it suitable for submission.

The process from start to finish was not five days, that was the manic flow and inspiration and adrenalin. From first moment to complete novel was about eighteen months.

It's interesting note that the long gaps in the process were necessary for me to be able to make the changes. I had to get a bit more objective about the work and accept that it needed improvements. The time gaps were therefore as much about writing as about sitting dormant.

I wrote 3/4's of the novel in about four months (jan to april) - then I went away for the summer and didn't really pick things up until early October. At this point I started rewriting what I had. I finished the last sentence at the end of January this year. So essentially it took a year.