How long did it take you to complete the first draft?

[gem1122]

Just curious. I understand that not everyone works through the first draft at a regular pace. I also understand that drafts may be 150 pages or 900, etc. Finally, I understand that many of you have more than one novel draft completed. So, with all that mind...

My first novel's first draft (80k words) took me one year to complete, pretty much straight through, taking off only a few days here and there. That was eight years ago.

Working on my current WIP has been a very different process. About three years ago, I started the novel at a week-long workshop. The first draft is about 1/2 way complete (probably end up being 50k words). I have walked away from the book for long periods of time, for various reasons. Hopefully the first draft will be complete by the end of this year.

[justpat]

I think one year is about average. I know that's how long it took me, and I've read about several best-selling authors who say it still takes them about a year per book. That is, except for Stephen King, who is a human word-processor.

[Siddow]

First book: 45 days
Second: three months
Third: 15 days (it was YA)
Fourth: 10 days (another YA)
Fifth: three months and counting.

[Death Wizard]

For a book of around 125,000 words, three months for the first draft and three more months of revisions.

[sadron]

My first? Umm.. it has over 100 pages and it took some 2-4 years or more. Still working on it.

[Shady Lane]

First drafts generally take me two or three months.

[RG570]

two months or so for a 100k draft.

[reenkam]

First book: 3 years 110k
4th: 1 month 50k
5th:1 month 50k
7th: 2 months 120k
8th: 13 days 65k
9th: about a month 62k

I don't know about my others because I took breaks and wrote other things in between.

I also just passed a 3 year mark on a first draft that's 780k and still going...

[underthecity]

It took me about five months, give or take a couple weeks, to write my 100k word first draft. I was also unemployed for two of the months, so my daily word count sometimes topped 2,000. After I got my job, I averaged up to 1,000 words a day.

allen

[JamieFord]

About two months.

[scarletpeaches]

I don't know how anyone could take a year to write a book, even working full time. That's less than 250 words a day on average.

The first draft to my very first novel took me 6 months and it was 150k words. And I wrote half of that in a fortnight. The rest was sheer laziness. And it was handwritten.

The first draft of the novel I'm rewriting now only took a month. And yes, that was while working - part-time voluntary work, but still, I was working.

[Dancre]

Just curious. I understand that not everyone works through the first draft at a regular pace. I also understand that drafts may be 150 pages or 900, etc. Finally, I understand that many of you have more than one novel draft completed. So, with all that mind...

My first novel's first draft (80k words) took me one year to complete, pretty much straight through, taking off only a few days here and there. That was eight years ago.

Working on my current WIP has been a very different process. About three years ago, I started the novel at a week-long workshop. The first draft is about 1/2 way complete (probably end up being 50k words). I have walked away from the book for long periods of time, for various reasons. Hopefully the first draft will be complete by the end of this year.

It took me a year to complete my 1st draft, but I didn't work on it every day. I work for an accouting firm, so feb-april was taxes only. After the tax season, I was able to get back into writing. I started my novel in June 06. I don't write in Nov and DEc b/c of the holidays and family stuff, so I guess it would have been 6 months minus taxes and family stuff. I think it's different from everyone since life does seem to get in the way. I think it's the finished product that matters, not how long it takes to write it.

kim

[JoNightshade]

Depends on what's going on in my life. Right now I'm working very part time and working pretty much just on writing. I think it's been about 6 weeks since I started the WIP, and I've got just over 45K, so double that and it's 3 months total.

[Jamesaritchie]

First novel, first draft took twenty-one days. Last novel, first draft took four months. Current novel, first draft, should take about ninety days.

[justpat]

I don't know how anyone could take a year to write a book, even working full time.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize that the question was about 1st drafts only. I was talking about completing the book, including edits and rewrites.

[Sean D. Schaffer]

Just curious. I understand that not everyone works through the first draft at a regular pace. I also understand that drafts may be 150 pages or 900, etc. Finally, I understand that many of you have more than one novel draft completed. So, with all that mind...

My first novel's first draft (80k words) took me one year to complete, pretty much straight through, taking off only a few days here and there. That was eight years ago.

Working on my current WIP has been a very different process. About three years ago, I started the novel at a week-long workshop. The first draft is about 1/2 way complete (probably end up being 50k words). I have walked away from the book for long periods of time, for various reasons. Hopefully the first draft will be complete by the end of this year.


Just for my first draft, I would say with this novel it took me a little more than a month. I'm on my second draft now, and it might take me a little longer, because I'm not working at so mad a pace.

BTW, the first draft of my present manuscript is 344 pages long, double-spaced.

[scarletpeaches]

Oh good god, a FULL edit? That would take me...let's see, I'm 31 now, so...yes, 31 years. :D

Nah, seriously. Altogether I'd say about four or five months start to finish. Then I start fiddling and think, "Stop. It's done. Leave it."

[Andre_Laurent]

First draft of 93K took four months. Spent another eight months doing rewrites and edits.

[christinex]

My first drafts usually take me about three to four months, depending on how much time I have to put into them (this is for novels in the 90K-100K range). The book I have out to an agent right now (101K) took me a month, but that was because I wrote it during NaNoWriMo last November and averaged 3K a day. By the end of the month I felt as if I'd been run over by a steamroller.

[kristie911]

First novel: 3 months (handwritten)
Second novel: 1 month (typed)
Third novel: 2 months (typed and handwritten)
Current WIP: 1 year and counting but the plot is far more complicated and I haven't had time to write lately...not to mention I went through a long bout of depression and a divorce and didn't write at all for nearly 5 months!

[jordijoy]

I don't know how anyone could take a year to write a book, even working full time. That's less than 250 words a day on average.

The first draft to my very first novel took me 6 months and it was 150k words. And I wrote half of that in a fortnight. The rest was sheer laziness. And it was handwritten.

The first draft of the novel I'm rewriting now only took a month. And yes, that was while working - part-time voluntary work, but still, I was working.

That just proves inspiration comes in different degrees for each writer. It took me about a year to write a 163k ms long hand. Getting it typed was another matter altogether. I was working full time and caring a kindergartener and keeping tabs on two teenagers to boot. My second ms 80k took less time under like conditions. My third is really slow going. I’m trying my hand at SF.

[JoNightshade]

It occurs to me that all of these times are subjective anyway-- because a first draft for each of us is going to be totally different, regardless of length. Some peoples' first drafts are a complete mess and will need lots of edits, rewrites, etc. Other people are more careful the first time around and turn out something closer to done.

[Prawn]

It's all in my sig:

[jordijoy]

It occurs to me that all of these times are subjective anyway-- because a first draft for each of us is going to be totally different, regardless of length. Some peoples' first drafts are a complete mess and will need lots of edits, rewrites, etc. Other people are more careful the first time around and turn out something closer to done.

You summed that up nicely:D

[gem1122]

I don't know how anyone could take a year to write a book, even working full time. That's less than 250 words a day on average.


In response, I'd second JoNightshade's point that everyone goes about writing the first draft differently. I am careful (too careful, perhaps) when first putting words together. I outline and sketch and map and let things take shape. I'm patient. When I hit a roadblock, I step away for a while to mull things over, as opposed to just plowing through it. (I would be no fun at all on a cross-country road trip.)

Personally, I don't know how anyone could write an entire first draft in only a month. I don't/never have written every single day, even when I was single and had no children (in other words, when I had lots of free time). I suppose I've always been a binge writer. Also, I have several other interests that I can't imagine going without so that I could hyperfocus on writing. Sometimes I wish I didn't, but that's just me.

It's very interesting to see such differences here. Thanks, everyone, for sharing.

[scarletpeaches]

You don't think I have other interests either? You think being single and sans children means I have lots of free time?

I just make good use of my time. I write a couple thousand words then go out and do other things. It doesn't take hyperfocus or writing every day, just good time management.

[triceretops]

I average about 400 pages per book and I've written five in the past two years. It takes me 10-12 weeks each for just a first draft. A full edit with about 8-10 passes takes me about 30 days per book. I'm trying to go faster but can't manage it. From stem to stern and complete, four months is as fast as I can manage. That is with NO interuptions and spending about 10 hours a day on it.

Tri

[mscelina]

My answer: As long as it takes.

I cranked out an eight book high fantasy series in about a year and a half. That was working 12-14 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. That was two years ago. Since then, I've done rewrites on all of them. Right now, I'm in final edits on the first books before its release this summer. All 8 were 150k more or less in the first draft, and ended at 100-115k after the second and third rewrites. I have less time to write now (thanks a lot, oh editor mine!) But I still produce a word count (if the muse is working) of about 25k a week.

Naturally, out of that 25k about 24k have to be rewritten but hey! No one said a first draft had to be GOOD>

[Prawn]

My answer: As long as it takes.

I cranked out an eight book high fantasy series in about a year and a half. ....But I still produce a word count (if the muse is working) of about 25k a week.




Mscelina! Out of the pool! You are not allowed to write books faster than people can read them!

[BenPanced]

I don't know how anyone could take a year to write a book, even working full time. That's less than 250 words a day on average.

The first draft to my very first novel took me 6 months and it was 150k words. And I wrote half of that in a fortnight. The rest was sheer laziness. And it was handwritten.

The first draft of the novel I'm rewriting now only took a month. And yes, that was while working - part-time voluntary work, but still, I was working.
I managed to finish a rough draft in a month and a half, working full time. Now editing it is a different story...

[gem1122]

You don't think I have other interests either? You think being single and sans children means I have lots of free time?

I just make good use of my time. I write a couple thousand words then go out and do other things. It doesn't take hyperfocus or writing every day, just good time management.

You don't think I have good time management skills simply because I don't churn out several thousand words every week? You think I don't make good use of my time?

I certainly didn't mean to imply anything negative; there's no reason to take my comment personally. There were plenty of other posters who complete their first drafts just as quickly as you. When I said "I don't know how anyone could write an entire first draft in only a month," I began with "Personally," meaning that my point applied only to me. For me (a slow, methodical writer), I would have to drop everything else in order to complete an entire first draft in only a month. That's all I meant.

When you said, "I don't know how anyone could take a year to write a book, even working full time. That's less than 250 words a day on average," someone could easily have taken that as a personal attack, as if writing only 250 words a day somehow implied laziness or poor time management. I could have taken that personally. But I didn't.

[mscelina]

Mscelina! Out of the pool! You are not allowed to write books faster than people can read them!

LMAO! I never said they were readable. One of them is now....almost.

Seriously, though, I use first drafts to get the story down on paper ASAP. (mostly because I want ot know what happens next). Second/third drafts I'm a bit more meticulous about. It takes a long time to eliminate all of those superfluous commas and adverbs. *grin*

[gem1122]

(mostly because I want to know what happens next).

This is a nice point. It's fun to see what the characters will do next!

[Cav Guy]

I think it also depends on genre. When I'm working on a historical, it can take a year or so...but that includes a fair amount of research (both on-site when possible and archival). Straight fiction? My last one took about 4 months for the first draft.

[mscelina]

This is a nice point. It's fun to see what the characters will do next!

Meh. I'd just had to quit work because of a car accident. We were very poor (no internet, no cable...just me and the hubby and the cats) and I had two options for entertainment: read or write. Well, books are expensive...writing wasn't. I literally ate, slept, dreamed, and lived for those darn books. It was very freeing for my imagination, actually. before that time I couldn't write more than 2-3k at a stretch...and then nothing for weeks. Now my imagination is a full-time, full-blown personality that prods me in the back of the head with a stick and says "No, really, it'll work. Kill the elf by dropping him into a sand pit arena and making him fight an 8 foot tall scorpion with a toothpick. Just trust me!"

*sigh*

[DebMcTexas]

My friend, whose hardback was released in April, jokes that it took her ten years to write the story. She began it, encountered some life struggles and put it away for a couple of years and picked it up again.

10 years.

I can do that. LOL

In reality, I'm working on a complete first draft this summer-my first. Has to be done before school starts in August....homeschooling waits for no book. Because of our schedule and other committments, I do only a few thousand words a week. When I have time, my goal is 1200 + words a day.

[Southern_girl29]

Well, I don't really remember how long most of my earlier works took. Ships That Don't Come In took me a year and a half. It had autobiographical parts and was hard to write, so it took me longer. Life also got in the way with marriage problems, and I didn't write anything for six months.

Psychic Straits took me one month and four days. I started out with my butt in the chair for two hours a night. The first few nights, I might average 500, but after two or three days, I was up to 1,000 words. Then, the next week, I hit 2,000. The last few weeks I was repeatedly hitting 3,000 words a night. It ended up being a little over 63,000 words. I finished it in April, and I'm still working on the editing. I hope to be finished with the edits by the end of the month.

Edited to add: I wrote it in a month, and I have a full-time job and a child, so it can be done. I wrote from 10 p.m. to midnight every night, after everyone had already gone to bed.

[sassandgroove]

still workin' on it.

[Soccer Mom]

My first book took eighteen months. But of course, I didn't write everyday. It's not that my time management skills suck, but a husband and two babies (they were babies at the time) and working two jobs does take a certain amount of time. Some days there was not enough energy left for a shower.

I also didn't know what I was doing. I got lost in the story and had to start over in places. I wandered around in the middle like a lost child.

Fortunately, the kids are older, I've quit one of the jobs, and I know how to do the writing thing. My writing time is much more productive. I can write a novel in about two months.

ETA: And that first novel was a 178,000 word monster. :D I don't do THAT anymore either.

[mscelina]

Time management skills and their relative suckitude are irrelevant. I totally buy into the ideology that writing while trying to deal with stressed out young uns is EXTREMELY difficult (takes a moment to count the days until the youngest goes off the college :D ). Now it's not as easy to hit those huge word count per day for me because I balance work and brats and husband and a couple of aliases in different genres and I have waaaaaaaaay too much on my plate. Do my time management skills suck?

No. Fact of the matter is my time management skills are superlative. They'll be even better once I find a way to add six or seven more hours to the day. Sometimes my house doesn't meet with my mother-in-law's approval. *shrug* Fortunately, I don't need it Sometimes I *gasp!* call off work to get edits in. *shrug* Oh, darn. But I have made the conscious decision to put writing at the top of my priority list every day.

Oh, and if I'm on a roll I don't stop. Wreaks havoc with the thing I vaguely remember called *sleep* but there you have it. We all work at different speeds. no one needs to stress out about it.

Cheers. :)