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I think it depends on the story. You can try to get every story you write done in a certain amount of time, (and some very disciplined seasoned authors do) but I haven't reached this level yet (lol) but every story is different, characters are different and plots are different. Sometimes the story comes easy and sometimes it needs time to cook. I feel like if you rush it (or try to squeeze it into too tight of a schedule) you can psych yourself out and jeopardize the creative flow. But, after saying all that....I do think it is imperative to have a deadline. Some end date in sight. Otherwise, it will never get done. For my most recent book, I would say it took about 9 months to a year--but that wasn't writing every day.

FOREVER...
I'm working on feeling "finished"; I don't really know how that feels.

Well I learnt a lot about writing. It is not a walk in the park. I recently started to write my first book but from what I've read about writing a book here today, I am actually nowhere near to the end. And it's not easy as I thought it would have be but I make sure I write as much as I can think of every single day. Me thinks what makes it hard for me to write, is that I want to write in english of which is not my home language. However I love it so much. I've been inpired in english

Like everybody is saying, it really takes different lengths of time. My first book, Riddle in Stone (shameless plug!!) took five years to write (it's dark fantasy, by the way). Every day, I wrote for at least fifteen minutes. It was going to be a short story for my son but got out of hand:)

The second book, Betrayal in the Highlands (another shameless plug!) will be out in September and it took about ten months to write.

However, a better question is... How long does it take to write a GOOD book? That I don't know.

I read "On Writing" three times. I am publishing my first book on July 4th. It took me three months to write the 110K word novel (now 75K once it reached my publishers hands). But it was the editing that took the longest--about a year and a half. This is with working a full-time job. Weekends were prime time for me to write. I think it depends on your writing style. For fiction, I found that having hours and hours to write at once was more beneficial to doing 30 mins here, an hour there...etc.

It took me almost two years to write and edit my first novel 'Collision - A Sci-Fi Romance'. It didn't have to take that long, but I was determined it had to be the best I could produce. It was also and enormous learning experience. I had written and produced six text books before, but never a novel. And during the process I must have read every 'how to' book on writing fiction. There was also a lot to learn in becoming and indie author all of which is time consuming. My next book, I'm working on, I expect to take a year. I could do it in less if I wanted to, but quality is more important to me than speed or word count.

After reading "On Writing" I disciplined myself to carve out time with two young children and a disabled wife. Yes, those almost 2000 creative words a day can come by losing sleep for 8-10 weeks five days a week. Besides, unless you're self-publishing, you won't be required to complete more than one book per year because the publisher doesn't want the marketing energy for the current book to lose steam and be directed onto a new book out of your box. If you are self-publishing, you can do what you want. I'll have put three out by the end of this year!

A year in and I've just finished chapter 2.

I wrote the first draft of Petty (96,000 words) in about three months, and it would have been two if I'd not had a baby in the middle. :)

Editing though.... was a nightmare. My editing process will definitely be WAY different for the next book. I should have been able to edit it entirely in about a month, and it took me more like five because I was so inefficient about it.

My first took about 16 months for the rough draft; lots of research; polished over next 20 years (The Last Day). Still not perfect, of course. My last one (Reluctant Intern) took 4 months for rough draft. Not much research necessary for that one -- all in my head since internship.

a year including the editing process

I'm approaching the end of my 1st book ever. Draft one took two years, probably because I was in middle school and didn't write that often. All other drafts have taken a month, since I recently discovered NaNoWriMo. It'll probably be done in a year or two.

That's a total of... six or seven years. But that includes editing.

It takes as long as it takes to write a book. It depends a lot on your writing style, where you are in the writing journey (newbie first draft might take longer) and how much time you devote to it.

Once I drafted an entire novel in two weeks. (50,000 words, no kidding.) It literally hurt the nerves in my left arm and my neck creaked for - well, actually it still creaks. It took a few months after that to rewrite it.

After writing full-time for six years I'm faster at getting the books finished, but it still takes as long as it takes, but I seem to be able to churn out one full-length novel (after beta reads, professional edit, publisher stuff, marketing prep etc.) every six months. Inside of that are also: regular blogs, short-stories, and drafting new novels and that marketing stuff.

So again I say, it takes as long as it takes, figure out what works for you.

I first draft in about three weeks.
I'll normally put it aside for a few months, so I wouldn't count that in production time.
I then take maybe a month to first edit, and another month or so for second, third and fourth edit, which will include using feedback from my editor.
I'll try and get cover art, blurb etc done during that time, so probably three months in total.

Took me 2 1/2 years to start and finish my book: Instant Connections, Essays and Interviews on Photography. It actually took longer to edit the book than it did to write it.

My first book one year, i was cruising. My second books five years. It depends on research time

It depends on the book, I guess. The first draft of Cosmic Girl took me 6 months. It was around 416 pages back then, but I wasn't happy with it. Then our daughter arrived, and she had a hole in the heart, so that was stressful. Naturally I took some time out. I still had a full-time job as well, and I work weird alternating shifts. So when I went back to write Cosmic Girl again from scratch, this time it took me one year and six months, then a further four months of editing, getting it proof read, and getting some feedback before finally clicking on Publish. I was only able to write a few hours a day, and some days I was so tired that I only managed one page. So, it took me around two years to write this version of Cosmic Girl: Rising Up, which is available on Amazon, but overall, it took me five years to go from idea to published.

I've written the outline to my fantasy novel three or four times over the last 5 years but was never happy with it. This time I have started from scratch and hope to have my debut novel out by the end of 2014 (work and life in general, permitting!)

It varies. My first published novel took 17 months to write, and that was with several off months peppered throughout the process.

My second novel took six months to write, start to finish.

Novel #3 was actually my first completed novel and has been in various stages of completion for seven years.

Mine is a different scenario. Wrote 3 novels during my senior college. Lost all the manuscripts, now re-writing everything from scratch. The whole trilogy just took me 2 years to make, but this time since i cannot devote full time in writing it might take me much longer.

I don't know how ya'll do it that fast. My first book has been 10 years and three revisions in the making. Two of mine are ideas I started as college papers and two are NaNo novels that took a month to write a very rough draft. The biggest problem is that I get to a certain point and then I can't keep going and then I get other ideas and start working on those.... One of these days I'll finish one of my projects.

It took me 3 months, but that's after saying I was going to do it for nearly twenty years. I finally just sat down, approached it as I would a project at my day job, and then suddenly it was finished. I took two weeks off during that time, and there were a few days where I just didn't feel like writing, so I probably could have done it in about 2 months.

And now I've discovered that writing the book is the easy part. Actually getting it in publishable form and marketing it are the hard things.

The book I just released this month (Book 2 in my series) took about 8 months from start to publication. This includes revisions, editor feedback, and beta reader feedback. 8 months was a big improvement over the my first book, which I worked on and off through the years.

I'm currently working on my 3rd book, which I anticipate taking 6 or 7 months. I've found that doing the research and outline ahead of time keeps me from wondering what I should be working on. My first two book lengths were about 100K and the 3rd book will be at least that long.

I am not a full-time author so I fit this in the early morning hours when I'm fresh and the brain will work for me, especially during the 1st draft phase. 5AM start time and 6:30AM finish (My kids start getting up by then). I will try to fit some time during lunch. Weekends I take off mostly or keep it light with some planning for the next week.

It usually takes me about a week to write the outline, and then a month to write the first draft of a new mystery, but it takes about 6 months to do the revisions. I like getting the story out quickly, because it helps with continuity, and then taking my time to make sure it's working. My agent usually doesn't see it until around draft 8 or 9.

With writing I think its important not to rush, but don't take forever either. It took me over three years to write and edit three Novella's. I work a full time job, I'm married, have children etc. and I think people greatly underestimate the drive it took to complete these books with full time work. If you can write full time it goes much faster. I feel like I went the speed of light considering the daunting effort writing can be� especially during the editing phase. Don't rush. Don't take too long is my motto. I read somewhere the average is about three years.

My first novel was my vehicle for learning to write, which begins to explain eighteen years. A further explanation is that I was taking the time to create a story that would be my gift back to the horror genre. The final portion of the answer is that I write differently from many others and my process simply takes longer. My second novel took about five years. My third novel will end up at about four years.

When I begin a story I start with a basic concept, some appropriate characters and turn it all over to my imagination. I check in with my magic genie every few days to view the short movie clips that have been prepared for me. My job as a writer is to convert those movies into words so that I can show the reader what my imagination shows me. Because of the way I do this I'm often surprised by dialog and actions of my characters. Occasionally I have a minor background character step up into the main cast and affect the story. I never know the end beyond the most general terms. The bad guy gets it, but I don't know how or where until it is shown to me.

I began WWIV-In The Beginning July 14, 2013.

I published it on Amazon March 28, 2014.

That's 8 and 1/2 months.

Looks pretty much in line with what everyone else has written thus .
far.


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about a year myube less if I'm really inspired it can be faster.

Most of the time, with the first draft, it takes me about 3-4 weeks.

All things being equal, and they are not, it would take me one year tops to write a book.

My first book, "Living Soul: In The Image Of God" took about that amount of time but so much was happening in my life then.

If I'm writing full time then I need four months for writing, and eight months for editing, I think. lol!
These days I'm writing more than ever with a blog. I write every day.
Probably I could do it all in six months. I'm in the zone.

My fastest book took me a year. (Included editing). Now two years.

It depends on the subject and how often you go back and re-edited your work. Plus if your a plotter or a pantser I think would make up the difference also. I finished a first draft of one book that I currently have to go back and edit and that took about 4 months but that's only draft 1. It also depends on the amount of time you invest as I currently still hold down a full time job as well as the time i invest in writing.

Over a year these days

I'm writing a book right now. I have been doing this for about a year now. Also, I try to find a good service where write my literature review. I like the option with because it looks quite reliable. It seems to me that writing a book is important not at a certain time, but because you want and because your heart feels and then everything you need will then help on the Internet.

I write my first draft fast in one month. Then, after about 20 drafts and rewrites I publish. I find that cranking out the first draft in a hurry keeps my momentum going.

It depends on the book for me but I think 6 months, including rewrites and so forth might be about average.

One Labor Day weekend about ten years ago I participated in a 'Labor Day Weekend Book' contest ... starting Saturday morning, you had three days (the long weekend) to write a first draft and send it in on Tuesday ... I prepared as little as I could to try and 'play fair' (unfortunately, when the winners were announced I found out others did not play fair, including the winner who wrote a book about his family immigrating to the USA, etc, that he had researched for several years ... I thought it was more about creating fast and furious but still it was fun) ... I had my character names (I'm pretty picky about my character names so that does take what might be an unusual amount of time for most writers) and a general idea where I was going ... a lot changed along the way, as it always seems to, but I hammered out about 160,000 words by Monday night ... it was fun to do tho it required a great amount of coffee and cigarettes lol ... but you do end up with at least a decent first draft to work with :)

I follow Stephen King's advice pretty much to the letter. This means, at my particular pace, I can put out a finished novel every 4 months. My first was 86,000 words, and it looks like my December release will be around 100,000 words.

That time includes commissioning cover art and launch advertising, fantasy map creation, the proofreading stage, the beta reader feedback, and all of the rewrites involved with those steps.

Before I read King's 'On Writing', my pace was less than half of the above. I would easily waste weeks or months on things that I shouldn't be obsessive about. I would get stuck whenever I had writer's block, instead of simply writing something else for a bit and switching back. I didn't treat it as a job or a business. 'On Writing' changed all of that.

Examine this and you can learn how to write on your own.

Last year I wrote the first three full-length novels in a new series in about six months. These flowed easily for some reason, unlike any previous book I had written. That said, last year I also finished a book that I had been working on for over 14 years. It was a hard sci-fi thriller and kept getting set aside when stronger ideas emerged.

The first draft of a 50k word book will take me about six weeks or a little less. But the editing takes the longest time for me, about three months and that's without too much extra things going on in day to day life.

My first novel took me 4 years to write, but I had five kids, two dogs, and a full time job at the same time. I know a local author near me who finishes a book in 4 months. But, just like any skill, it gets easier and faster as you practice.
Good writing is a gift, but writing a book requires a whole set of skills that needs to be fine-tuned.

A year total. Three months writing and nine months editing

I found writing my first book much easier than self-publishing and then advertising that my book is out there. And it's a non-fiction. I'm half way through writing a second book because it calms me after trying to market my first. I am much better at writing than marketing apparently. Still need to get the first off the ground though...back to writing lol

If life didn't get in the way, I could write a novel in approx. 6 months. But, life...

Hello. I am writing a "how to" book and wanted to see if anyone else had ever written one. If so, would anyone be willing to give me some pointers, tips and advice? Thanks!

if i have to say we can take our full life to complete a book and may be not complete it or we can complete any book in just 3 months
it depends on out thinking our character an dour imagination but the best part when i get upset or any thing i start typing on my laptop i revise it i search that location and when i go to bed i feel it and i reach their with my character i became the same character what i am talking about then i wake i think what i see then again i write that.
i dint care what will happen but i am very happy and i can do these my full life because the joy what i think when i am at bed is most expensive diamond that i have and i will never want to share it
i think writing proves me that i born to live
this is writing book and story think can you do it your entire life i have think and i can do

As a writer I have found it difficult to keep writing.
I had started writing some of my books in 2005 time. Though mainly drafting of them. Over time I have added more context to it. Character creation, artwork (Inclusive of cover) Languages.
All fantasy based / multiverse which all links them in some way.
I have been working on a collection of about 14.
It's been tricky due to my mental ups and downs and moving here and there and my living conditions changing a lot. Not to mention lack of concentration.

Not to mention I am very creative with this I have created tracks that are based on three of the books. All symphonic metal / Electrical and deep.

Research is one thing that I find hard to keep in balance. I watch a lot of things and listen to a lot of music as well. So it's very bouncy. At most I write about a paragraph at most a week.

Lets say I have written introduction to one book and it is about 20 A5 pages log. Mainly creature creativity. Introduction to languages. This is book one in the vast collection and so far I am only on chapter IV. This book is the one that I started in 2005 and the drafts for it was put together as poetry format. Which in whole so far is 12 poems. Though due to the soundtrack names and how the tracks develop which is 74 tracks atm. And it confuses the poetry with the events that happen in the music titles.
Writing the main book is only intro and 4 chapters so far and to get to that point has taken a good 3 years. To piece it together.

Yet it's difficult in the aspect that as a multiverse of events that unwind in all the books as well.

For instance the first book will be broken into a trilogy. Then after that there is a smaller book which explains events that cross from one place to another (From space to earth)
Then the forth book so to speak is start of heroes on earth which is 9 books. 8 of which are individual character bios and personal events. Most of those are barely 2 chapters. then a couple are about 5. The 9th of the superhero collection is the closure of all of the books basically and that so far is on chapter 10.

While deep in writing it's been very backwards and forwards. Rechecking certain names and events and places. Not to mention the fact that I write only a little here and there.

The main books I have worked on is book 1 and book 14.
To me writing a book in three years seems a bit rushed. Not saying that people aren't taking all the care they can and putting all there love and heart and soul into it. Just seems that writing a book could take near on twenty years to get it all completely perfect.

Look at how much time it took Tolkien to write and release lord of the rings. He started in uni and the books were released when he was in his 40's (Or older) I can't remember. Yet there's still information that is missing. Though if I remember correctly, it took a few years to get all the editing together.
Also he did a lot of Poetry readings and other projects and moving around as well.

Anyway I just don't know if it's possible to actually put a book together in a short amount of time like 3 years.

It took me five weeks to write 37682 words. Is that fast or slow?

When I write I have to force myself to write rapidly or I'll lose it. My MS's clock in at around 60k usually give or take five thousand or so and it takes me about two to three weeks for each one.

I can write a first cut of a 100,000 word novel in three months. Editing and so forth takes longer of course. I am hoping to write (to completion) one 100,000 word novel and one 25,000 word novella each year.

Who is minding the store? ME! I work full-time as a lawyer and have two kids, my husband also works full-time. I am lucky enough to be able to write on my commute.

Most writers don't make a living from their work because there just isn't enough money in it.