A question about Novel writing

This is kind of like a poll. I'd like some discussion of how long you usually take to write a novel. My first one(which I lost in a computer crash: Lesson learned? Always backup. I was young) took me about two years. The YA my agent has took me six months from idea to rough draft.

How about some of you, what is your time like?

Another question, will a publisher expect your books to come at a certain speed once they buy the first one(especially in a series)?


David

me

my last novel took 32 days.

Most series novels come out once a year so I assuming that they expect you to do one a year.

Shawn

Re: me

This was a poll, way back when. For your amusement:

Poll

Re: me

Thanks, Yesh

Re: me

The novel I'm currently working on is a rewrite from scratch of an idea I first wrote when I was much younger. It took me 6 years on & off then (probably about a year of which I spent actually writing).

I've been working semi-seriously on this rewrite for a little over a year, and think I can see it being finished some time in September or October. But, I've got much faster while I was working on it. If I look at it from the perspective of the last few months, I'd have done the entire thing in 6 months.

Based on the word count I produce now & an estimate of 2 complete rewrites per novel, I figure that if I worked 3 hours per day plus a little more at weekends, I'd produce 2-3 novels per year. That's about as much as the day job & a social life will permit me.

Re:

My first book took six months (should have been dumped…but hey, I wanted the experience!) My second book took about a year and a half with revisions.
My third book, took about two months for the majority of the story (it started as a vent online about a personal experience) since then, it’s been 7-8 months of revision. After this, my next book I’m sure will take close to two years because I’m on my third month of just researching.

How long it takes ... depends

First novel attempt: 3 months; in the drawer
Second novel attempt: 3 months; in the drawer
Third novel attempt: unfinished after a year; in the drawer
Fourth novel attempt: unfinished after two years; in the drawer
Current novel attempt: First draft, 6 months. Subsequent drafts, ongoing...completion looks possible in a couple of weeks.

time

I've been working on my current project for a year and 4 days. However, I put it aside for months at a time. I wrote the first draft from Aug-Nov. Then revised from Jan-Mar. Then revised that draft from July-Aug.

The first draft of a novel, depending on how much time I have on my hands, can take as little as a month.The most I've ever spent on a first draft is a current story I've been working on since Febuary.

Re: time

Let's see... from the day I wrote the first word until the final draft... *taking off socks* 2 years, nine months. But, like many new authors, I didn't write steady. I had to actually work for a living, so that puts a damper on your time. Then I had my son, and that REALLY takes a chunk out of your day.

This one I have started I think will go much quicker, maybe under two years. If I was a professional with nothing else to do, it would guess closer to six months, maybe a year. I have a little bit of research with this one, but nothing that can't be done online. And I am a better writer now, so my first drafts are better and require less editing.

Re: time

Two to two-and-a-half years, working most days. They are big complicated books, though.

- Victoria

Novels

First novel, three weeks exactly. Sold it.

It's hard to say about my last novel. I started three novels earlier this year, one in April and two in May. In the last two weeks I finished the first draft of all three.

I didn't plan it this way. I didn't plan on finishing the second until late this month. Somehow the schedule I work and the somewhat haphazard way I switched from novel to novel just made it happen. I wish I'd paced it better.

The novels are of varying lengths, and in different genres. One is a mystery of about 85,000 words, one is a western of about 72,000 words, and one is a literary novel of about 60,000 words.

I put in 106 days writing on these three novels, doing just a touch over 2,000 words per day. I write five hours per day, broken into a two and a half hour session in the morning, and another two and a half hour session in the afternoon. Two of these three novels were written pretty much completely during the morning session. The third one was written in longhand, about an hour after each evening after supper.

So I guess the first drafts took just over a month each.

The novel I wrote before these took about six months.

Re: Novels

For my first book it took about two months to finish the first draft. I am working on the revisions now with a mentor. My second book is at about chapter ten and on hold for now because of revisions with the first and a whole bunch of other commitments I have right now.

My goal may be uncommon, but when I am writing new stuff, I do a chapter a day. Sometimes more but I like the chapter a day thing because it gives me a break at each chapter to figure in my mind the course of events for the next chapter of the book.

Uncle Jim says "two hours a day of writing new stuff"... With the chapter a day, I sometimes do more than two hours and sometimes do less. It's just a system that works for me right now.

~~Tammy

“Today is the best day. Yesterday is gone forever. Tomorrow will never arrive.” ~ David Wolfe

Re: Novels

As for a serial, I'd agree that once a year would be a pretty standard number. I'm thinking Janet Evanovich, hers are pretty regular. Some of the earlier ones may have even been more than 1 a year.

Then you can look at the major success of Rowling, where at this point she's given as much time as she needs to complete the series. Of course, the only way anyone would receive that kind of loose agenda is if you ARE Rowling.

schedule

Roughly a novel per year is what many pubishers want. They fear a longer interval will lose readers, and a shorter one will make a writer's novel compete against each other. There are many exceptions, of course, but this is where the book a year notion came from.

It's also why a goodly number of writers use pseudonyms and/or write in other genres.