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How Long is Feasible to Work on One Project?

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I know the correct answer is "as long as it takes" but I'm looking for more personalized answers if possible. Like how long does it take you to do a rough draft or how long does it take for edits. You can give specific examples if you want. Now that we're in October, I've been working on my current WIP for exactly one year now. I know Stephen King once mentioned that it should only take about three months to write a rough draft. Do you tend to give yourself self-imposed deadlines in order to keep yourself on track? For me, my deadline is the end of this month and then I'm ready to find some people to give it a read. I personally think a novel a year is a good goal for me, but I'm hoping to get a novella completed by the end of the year as well.

Do you find stretching on projects for too long can eventually kill them or do you think working at your own pace, even if it takes years, works better for you?
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
I've been working on my current WiP since May 2013. It feels a bit long and I'm hoping that in the future, I will be a lot faster than that.

I think that with what I've learned since I started I should be able to achieve a novel in a year, from idea to finished product. I originally planned on having this novel done in a year but I extended that to a year and a half, and now I don't know. It'll probably be closer to two.
However, for this project, the important part isn't how long it takes, it's to get it done and to learn from the process.
 

PaulineMRoss

Inkling
My first took a year for the first draft. It sat untouched for six months, then it took another year to get it revised, critiqued, revised, beta read, revised, proofread, formatted, published. The second took five months for the first draft, and the revising etc will probably be six months . It gets quicker once you know the process.

I couldn't take years over one project. I'd get bored with it, lose the thread, forget the characters' backstories, forget why they're in the wretched enchanted forest in the first place. It's hard to keep the fire burning for that long, and (for me, anyway) I write better when I'm on fire, when I feel all the excitement of a new story, new characters, new challenges. But that's just me.

Really, the only answer is: it takes as long as it takes. As long as the end result is a finished product, it doesn't matter how long it takes.
 

TWErvin2

Auror
As long as it takes and your interest remains.

However, if it's sequels you're planning after, then years of working on the second, and then years following the third, may be too long, at least to maintain reader interest. There is so much out there new each year to attract reader attention elsewhere.
 

Jabrosky

Banned
In an ideal situation, I would crank out a whole short story within a few days. One short I finished in three days, another in two. Of course the number of days would vary with story length, but once I know where I need to go, I can easily write a couple thousand words within one day. The real trick is figuring where I need to go with a given project in the first place, but let's not get into that here.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Hmmm...

First draft of 'Labyrinth' took about six weeks...back in 2010. Set it aside for a couple years, been rewriting/editing it in spurts of a couple months at a time in between other projects.

First draft of 'Empire' also took about six weeks...but I have yet to get into serious editing/rewriting with that one. When I look it over, though, most of it seems pretty good, not nearly the rewriting/editing hassle 'Labyrinth' is.

Then again, the first drafts for both works were novella, not novel length, and one of the major pains with 'Labyrinth' is that it grew to novel length during the rewriting - mostly going from 'telling' to 'showing' and fixing minor plot bugs.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
My first novel, it took me three years to write. That ended at three major drafts and 270k in words. It was not even remotely close to being ready. It had 3 major POVs and 3 minor ones.

My second novel, I wrote the first 50K in one month, but life got in the way and I had to stop writing for about 5-6 months. After I got back into it, it took me another 6 months to finish, mostly because I tossed the last half of the book and rewrote it from scratch. I did another year of edits and after 4 major drafts, with as much as 20 minor passes to each chapter, now it's as ready as it's ever going to be. It had one major POV and one minor POV. and topped out at 110k.

My third novel, I'm about 25% into it, and it's taken me about 3 months. Though I think I can do better. Last year I got diagnosed with a hyperthyroid and it saps my stamina. Where as I used to be able to consistently write 1-2 thousand words a day, now I can only do about half of that. This book has 3 major POVs and 1 minor one for now. It's planned to be around 100k but I get the feeling that it can grow by as much as 50%.

I usually try to write until the story is as good as I can make it. But after the one year mark I start to get anxious to finish. From past performance, I think I can pump out a first draft in 3 months if my outline is good. Editing though, that's a different animal. The time needed for me depends on how much needs to be fixed.

The strategy, I'm trying to employ now with editing is "Show what you and the story got" approach. What I mean is, show that you have good writing mechanics, good control of the narrative, an interesting story with interesting characters, and great potential, I think the editors will be able to look past the minor and in some cases major flaws in your story.

If you show with your writing that you can implement any changes the editor may demand, then maybe it makes you a much more appealing buy as an author. Obviously, the aim is perfection, but we all know that's impossible. So we all have to find that point where it's good enough.

IMHO if you work on a project too long, you end up just spinning your wheels, just shifting words around instead of actual writing. You maybe even chance making the story worse.

Any way

On a side note, I'm starting to think that multi POV books aren't for me, at least for now. I think after this book, I'll focus on single POV stores. It's not that I can't handle them, but when I have to divide my attention between the various plots, and get back into character with each POV change, that's not appealing, especially to a hyperfocus person like me. But who knows, maybe I'll try writing out all of one POV before I move on to the next. Maybe that will be a better strategy.

Any way. I'll end the ramble now.
 
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Graylorne

Archmage
I've been working on 'Warlocky' since December last. Off and on, because I was still doing the third Shardheld book as well (Published in July).
End of June I had the first 70k. words ready for beta-ing. I wasn't sure then whether it would be 1 book or 2, so I had several people critique it.
Now we're three months on and it's definitely one book of 127k. I'm doing a first round self-editing, before having it beta-read again.
I guess it will have taken me a year, all in all.
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
Short stories usually take me about two weeks for a first draft, another week for peer review & editing. Novella-length works run about four to six weeks with a week or two for review/editing. Novels, well I've only completed a few, and each took about one and a half to two years, but they still need a lot of work...they were learning tools more than anything, in the end. The current solo WIP is nearing the two year mark an I think it'll stretch another six months beyond that before the draft is done. It's a chunky one though, with four major POVs.

I can't compare myself fairly to prolific writers like Stephen King.

First of all, I'm prodigious. I don't write quickly. I take a lot of time to try and get it close on the first run with a focus on showing. If anything, I usually have to find spots where the showing portions are overwrought and choose the places where telling is more effective. That's far easier and faster, in revision, than the other way around, I think. Still, there's lots of revision to do, but I don't think its as much as most other writers.

I'm not one who can fly through the first draft, not looking back, letting themselves run with a "stream of consciousness" style either. I've tried that. Just can't make it work. Rather I have loose, dynamic outlines and I discovery write between points, allowing myself freedom to diverge. It's slower, but I like my writing results better that way. My point is, your process, the one you've refined and have the greatest success with, determines your speed.

Secondly, I have a full time job and a young family. WritingIS King's job & his kids are grown. He can write eight hours, or more, a day. I have two hours each night. Until writing is my full-time occupation, I won't worry about whether it takes three months or two years. I'm working for the end result. When King was working multiple jobs, I bet he wasn't cranking out drafts in three months.

Even then, there are very successful writers (GRRM for one) who take five to six years to complete a novel. This is just as individual, and particular to the artist, as any other aspect of writing. Do what you do.
 
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K.S. Crooks

Maester
For my first novel Guilds of Galyndor I spent three months making an outline for it (I was writing another story and wanted to finish it before starting a new one). It took me three month to write Guilds, 3-4 months of editing and 2-3 months of production with the publisher. In all it took one year from conception of the idea to the birth of my book. While I was in the production stage for the book I began the outline for the sequel and am now writing it while trying to promote the first one. Hope this gives you some help.
 
I spent more than six years, off and on, writing the 560-line rhyme royal poem "The Hanging of Robin Hood" that will appear in "Measure" soon.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
The first draft of the only novel I've ever written took 6 months. I edited/revised for another month after that before moving on to something else. The rest of my work has been short stories and novellas. I like to crank those out fast so I don't lose momentum (as Pauline said work best under fire). After a story is done, its put away for a bit and work on something else. I like to go back and edit with a fresh perspective.

The time spent on my stories depends on the story itself. Some take longer to write than others, but I do go through the draft process a lot faster than I used to which is encouraging. Far as polishing until its ready, I really dislike editing, so that usually takes me longer to do. Don't think I could spend years working on a single story either.
 

SeverinR

Vala
Tolken took 7 yrs to write the Hobbit. (1925-1932)
You take as long as it takes to make it right.
You should set aside time to write, but never give up because you're taking longer then most people.

How long should a painter take to paint a masterpiece? Just because it takes weeks to paint a picture, does that mean its wrong? Less of a work of art?

Life happens while we try to write. So we might not get to pay as much attention as we need too.
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I do think people should take as long as they need, but I was just curious what people would say. One year seems to be a popular answer. I don't really feel the answer that Tolkien spent 7 years is applicable these days. Readers are constantly complaining about how long it's taking Martin to finish A Song of Ice and Fire and he's taking four to five years per book. Remember he started the series in the late 90s.

For example, if I started a book today I could say I started in late 2014. If it took me 7 years to finish that book, it would be 2021. I feel like with the way publishing and writing in general evolves, one might be looking at a completely different market by that point. Sure, good books can survive any market, but I do think stretching a book out over years and years makes it not only increasingly difficult to finish, but it takes on the risk of being outdated with some of its references (especially if you're writing non-fantasy).
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
Sure, good books can survive any market, but I do think stretching a book out over years and years makes it not only increasingly difficult to finish, but it takes on the risk of being outdated with some of its references (especially if you're writing non-fantasy).

...and chances are I'd be bored waiting for a sequel that "never" came. I'd read something else and forget about the second part. - Or I'd hear about it and not quite remember the first part and think that the author is probably just trying to make some money off of the fame of the first book.
 
I've known people work ten years on their first novel - I started my own dragonverse in 2006, though at the time it was intended as a mildly humorous concept, a dual recipe book for dragons and humans about how to prepare and eat each other, and slowly grew through novella to 'too long for one book'. If the thing - be it short story, novel or tetrology - is still improving with the writing ability of the author, it makes sense to not send it (despite what it might look like, that wasn't a split infinitive, at least conceptually - not-sending is not merely the absence of sending, it's an active choice) to agent or publisher (or even paid editor) until it's as good as you can make it without external help.

The thing to avoid is getting into a loop, changing for the sake of changing without going forward.
 
I don, t think a novel is about how long it goes, it is about you are satisfied with it or not. As a writer it is very tough to decide your novel is completely done and no need of any editing. I think it depends upon your editing habit.
 
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