How long did it take you to write your novel?

Elizabeth Slick · Jul 9, 2006

Hi there,
As a novelist, I was just curious what the NORM was or if there is a norm for writing a good novel with some meat to it.
Mine took 6 years, but that is not entirely accurate. I stopped and started through the years and did hundreds of edits. I couldn't possibly guess at how many hours it took. How many edits did you do and how long did it take to write your story?
The reason I ask, is because I would like to start a second novel soon. Just curious . . . Thanks!

Elizabeth Slick

http://elizabethslick.homestead.com/

scfirenice · Jul 9, 2006

I think everyone has different time tables, so maybe judging isn't the right way, BUT it takes me about 4 months. The last one took mr almost 6. (I have a 2 year old, am having twins now, and have a full time job.) Everyone is different. I get possesed by the writing devil and will write from baby bedtime until dawn to get it off my back. Like I said, everyone is different.

TwentyFour · Jul 9, 2006

hmmm...I am still working on my first and begun the first draft in 1999...I left it for awhile and came back two years later...now I begun again and this is the third rewrite...In the last year I have written half. I expect to finish next year.

Marlys · Jul 9, 2006

I usually take 3 to 4 months on a first draft, then a few weeks or months of revisions.

But I agree--it's going to be different for everyone: some people take years to write a novel, some months. But if you're not satisfied with your pace, you can try various exercises to increase it. Author Susan Kearney advocates writing six pages a day, six days a week. Some people have luck with the time pressure of NaNoWriMo (if you're not familiar with it, every year people sign up to attempt to produce 50,000 words during the month of November). Or join a critique group where you have set deadlines of so many words or pages per week or month.

On the other hand, if you're fine with taking several years to produce a manuscript, more power to you. That might just be your pace.

Simon Woodhouse · Jul 9, 2006

I read a quote once that said something like 'novelists don't finish books, they just abandon them', and in my case that's true.

I've written three novels in five years, and though they're all 'complete', I can see things in each I'd like to change and edits I'd like to make. The first is due for publication later this year, but I'd still like to change parts of it.

First drafts normally take me four to six months, then I leave the thing for a while and go edit something else. Then it's back to the first draft again, at which point I usually begin a total re-write. This second draft is then left to mature/fester, until I look at it again and make another round of hefty changes, and so on and so forth.

Until something is actually in print, I don't consider it done and dusted.

Siddow · Jul 9, 2006

First drafts take me two-four months.
If I ever finish revising one, I'll be very surprised. It's not going well. If I get the one I'm working on now done by the end of this year, it will be eighteen months start-to-submission with a few dozen short stories thrown in there for fun. Oh, and another novel, and outlines for three more. I'm pretty scattered. Perhaps it will take six years, I don't know, but just going through the process of revision has taught me a lot and I hope I don't muck up the next book so bad. I'm thinking I probably won't even start submitting novels until I've got three completed ones--completely revised and ready to read.

Gary · Jul 9, 2006

It took me three very long days to write the basic story and three months to do the re-writes. It's now being read by several beta readers, so I'm guessing it will take another month to make the suggested changes.

TwentyFour · Jul 9, 2006

Six pages...every day for five days...hmmm, I wrote five pages a day for two days so far in the last three days...I'm just a page behind that quota I guess.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 9, 2006

Elizabeth Slick said:
Hi there,
As a novelist, I was just curious what the NORM was or if there is a norm for writing a good novel with some meat to it.
Mine took 6 years, but that is not entirely accurate. I stopped and started through the years and did hundreds of edits. I couldn't possibly guess at how many hours it took. How many edits did you do and how long did it take to write your story?
The reason I ask, is because I would like to start a second novel soon. Just curious. Thanks!

Elizabeth Slick

http://theturquoisehouse.homestead.com/

I don't think there is a norm, or anyting close to it. Time can vary greatly, even from novel to novel, let alone writer to writer. My first novel took three weeks, start to finish. Another took six months. But I do a first draft, and then a second draft, and that's it.

Then I look at someone like Dean Koontz, who has a dozen pseudonyms, writes in darned near every genre there is, and has published almost 100 books, or Lawrence Block, who has published even more, or Nora Roberts, who has written roughly a million, and I start thinking I'm terribly slow.

MidnightMuse · Jul 9, 2006

There's not going to be a hard and fast rule for time to completion, quality novel or not. For me - when my muse is working me hard, and things in life are complying, I can write a 160k piece start to finish in 4 months.

On average, when I'm writing steadily and marching ahead in my average daily mode, I can get a 90k story out in 3-4 months, take a couple of weeks to give it one good editorial look-over, and call it done.

I wish I was faster - but I've heard a lot of people take much longer. It's whatever works for you.

Starbrazer · Jul 9, 2006

250k/one year

My first novel took me two years to write, but that was not solid writing; in fact I experienced writers block along the way. That's very rare for me, but it happened then. The actual amount of time I spent writing the book was a year give or take a few days. That book was K if that gives you some idea. But that is not counting the rewrite of course. That process took me five months of nonstop work to finish and it still needs work I know. So far Rejection has become my middle name, but I am hopeful. If this ain't the one, then maybe the next one will be...or the next one...who knows? Currently I am at the 30,K mark on my second book and I have only been working on it for a couple of months. I have received constructive criticism from a literary agent and I am taking his advice to heart and applying it to my writing right now. It's kind of like learning how to write all over again...lol!

kristie911 · Jul 9, 2006

My first novel took me 4 months to write from beginning to end. That was handwritten. Then I typed it. Then I changed it from first person to third. Then came revision after revision. Then I shortened the ending, cutting out nearly 20,000 words. I'm still not completely happy with it and I continue to revise even as I query agents and publishers. So, basically, I started it 3 years ago.

The next two took me about 2-3 months to get from beginning to end and they still need rewrites.

Everyone's timetable is different...I can't believe there would even be such thing as a NORM. Whatever works for you...good luck!

TrainofThought · Jul 9, 2006

I am writing my first novel; it took three months to write then three to type. Three years later and fourth edit. For me, time is not important the edits are what count. It needs to meet my approval.

bsolah · Jul 9, 2006

I'm writing my first two novels. One I started in November 2004, and the other November 2005. I'm at 35k for the first and about 29k for the second and still going. In a sense, they're learning experiences and so couldn't be considered my average writing time.

IThinkICan29 · Jul 9, 2006

I just wanted to say thank you to the person that created this thread....this is an awesome question...

triceretops · Jul 9, 2006

About 2 1/2 months for a first draft, then add another 3-4 weeks for about five or six run through to polish. But that is really wailing for me. I've writen four books in 2005. This year I have 260-pages started on the fifth book, which is really devastating to me. But I did have two books to rewrite this year via agent's request, so I guess I can't biiiitch about it.

tri

blackbird · Jul 9, 2006

My first novel grew gradually over a ten-year period. I wrote many drafts, short stories and sketches featuring those characters. I finally buckled down to business in 2003, and had finished it by early 2005. The actual shaping of the final product came about during that intense two-year period, but I could never have accomplished it that quickly without the backlog of material I already had.

I began my second novel in late 2005 and finished it earlier this year, after a period of about eight months, but it's a considerably shorter work.

All in all, it really just depends. For example, if I have an abundance of free time and can pretty much devote eight hours or more a day to writing, then naturally I can finish a project much more quickly. I have had some periods in which I was fortunate enough to be able to accomplish this, but normally I have to plod along, doing what I can around other responsibilities and obligations, so it may seem like it takes the project longer to complete than it might otherwise.

DamaNegra · Jul 9, 2006

My first novel hasn't been finished due to plot problems (since I'm co-writing it with someone who lives in anoter city and therefore it's hard for us to get together to work out stuff)

My second novel, I finished it in two weeks, plus another two or three weeks of revisions.

My third novel, I'm working on it, but at the rate I'm going, it's going to take me another two weeks to finish the first draft.

LloydBrown · Jul 9, 2006

Six weeks for the first draft.

Branwyn · Jul 9, 2006

I'm still working on it--so that makes it--about fourteen months. I devote less time to it when I get the attack of the guilts. Usually my youngest son complains that I'm 'always on the computer writing,' so I take time off(then go back when he plays his video games). I have also in that time, written a second and will work on its third or fourth draft shortly, and a third is floating in my brain, waiting to be born.

Late at night seems to be the only time I get a whole block of time without distractions. Unless I check out AW and get sidetracked.

HeyBooBoo · Jul 9, 2006

I wrote my first draft in two and half months, then did four revisions, which took three and a half months. The first revision was really just a pre-revision in which I did a read through to make sure all the character names where spelled the same way each time, nobody changed hair/eye color, or grew a third arm in the middle of a scene. After I learned that I had used the wrong font (Times New Roman), I needed to cut 80 pages. I did a second revision to take out all unneccesary scenes, and changed a portion of how something worked. Then I took a closer look at repetition in the story to cut more pages, and on the final draft I cut off all my dialouge tags that ended in "ly" and fixed all my passive sentances that should have been active.

It's different for everyone, but I usually try to commit to 4-5 hours of writing a day. That's not always possible for some people, but I'm a stay at home mom and I function best on 5-6 hours of sleep at night. When I did my first draft I wrote for four hours after my daughter went to bed, and another 1-2 hours during her nap, depending on how much housework I could put off. Usually we just pulled our clothes from the dryer/basket in the laundry room for two and half months. When the story is flowing well, I don't have time to think about wrinkles.

Shadow_Ferret · Jul 10, 2006

My first novel was started in 1993 or thereabouts and I finished the first draft in 2004. Granted I took something like a 7 or 8 year hiatus from writing. But solid writing when I finally sat down and scrapped everything except the characters, it took me about 2 years to complete the first draft.

My second novel took me just little over a year to first draft.

stephblake24 · Jul 10, 2006

I am writing my first novel, and started in early April 2006. I have about 43K and need to edit the last six chapters before giving it to someone other than my husband, to read. It should be 50K when I finish it.

I sent one (and only 1) query letter out on a whim when I completed 3 ch. and GUESS WHAT? They wanted a proposal and the 3 ch. NOW, they have had the proposal/samples since 6/9/06, and I am waiting to hear a yes or no. I gave myself (and them) a deadline of September 1 for the full finished novel.

I am a stay home mother of 3 boys and work about 6 hours a day writing various things from children's book mss to short stories, plus I go to a coffee shop 2 times a week and work about 3 hours.

I have had 3 poems published in college literary journals...and I am a former technical writer.

I also have NO patience and have become very serious about getting published (no vanity or self) before I am 40 in 2.9 years)

Good luck to everyone who has a book within them.

Elizabeth Slick · Jul 10, 2006

Hi there and thanks for the information. That is interesting how it varies with writing and how long it takes. It's just a highly personal thing I'm finding and knowing that there is no norm makes me feel better. Okay, so maybe my next novel won't take six years. Whew. Now, the question "How long did it take you to get an agent" must vary too. (500 rejected queries is what it took me)

Elizabeth Slick

http://elizabethslick.homestead.com/

Elizabeth Slick · Jul 10, 2006

Congratulations, Stephanie! That is awesome! (guess you saw how many queries it took me

I can appreciate that you are a stay at home mom. Personally, I think it is the MOST important job ever. I am too, and have two boys, (1 and 4 years old.) Good for you that you keep busy with writing and have the dream. It is SO important to pursue. Where is your writing posted? I would like to read some of it.

Elizabeth Slick

http://elizabethslick.homestead.com/

How long did it take you to write your novel?

Elizabeth Slick

scfirenice

professional multitasker

TwentyFour

practical experience, FTW

Marlys

Resist. Love. Go outside.

Simon Woodhouse

Siddow

I'm super! Thanks for asking

Gary

TwentyFour

practical experience, FTW

Jamesaritchie

MidnightMuse

Midnight Reading

Starbrazer

kristie911

Happy to be here

TrainofThought

A flowering bud of bitchiness

bsolah

AW's Resident Commie

IThinkICan29

triceretops

blackbird

DamaNegra

Mexican on the loose!

LloydBrown

Branwyn

Print release:Sept.1,'09

HeyBooBoo

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

stephblake24

Elizabeth Slick

Elizabeth Slick