February 29, 2016 
Jane 
Over the weekend, I finished a remarkable first novel. The author had taken many years to complete this work and, in the end, I think the time it took her to do so has paid off (of course, only the marketplace will tell).
Thinking about this – the time it takes a writer to finish a book – brought to mind how different each writer’s process is. I found this very interesting piece on the subject in the Huffington Post.
I have clients who take many years to finish their novels, much like the writer whose work I read this weekend. Then, there are those who actually ask for deadlines (from me) by when they should have their next manuscript completed. And then, of course, there are those who can conceptualize their stories and write them down much much faster.
In the end, there is no right answer to how long it should take a writer to complete his/her manuscript. It is what works for each individual. I find it’s best not to compare your process to others’. Do what feels right for you.
I am curious to hear what you think about the subject. Let me know.
At this point, I can easily take a year just to get it to the stage where it’s going to betas. I wish I wrote faster, and there may be things I can do to learn to write faster, but in the end, it takes as long as it takes. Rushing is not a good thing for me to do.
Currently I’m working on my first novel. So I know that this first novel will take longer than the others will. With this first book, I’m working on finding my groove, my routine, figuring out how I write a book. I’m learning what works for me and what doesn’t. I know that when I write my second book, it will go much faster than the first, because I’ll have figured out a lot of my book writing routine. And the next will probably go faster than that. But first, I have to learn what works and what doesn’t.
Well, my experience writing novels hasn\’t been one of acceleration from one to the next, but more stop and go. My first novel took me three years and many drafts before I had a publishable (and published) manuscript. My second took well over five years, came in at over 800 pages, was revised several times to bring down the page count and… never saw the light of day. After that, my third novel was written in about a year, was a blast to write, and was very well published. The next two novels were painful and protracted affairs that remain unpublished. Currently, I\’m working on yet another novel(apparently, I\’m not good with that learnin\’ thing) that I\’m starting to like quite a bit, have high hopes for, etc., though trying to type with fingers crossed does slow the process a bit.
I already have my next two books planned, lol. For me, it is just nonstop imagining, what-if’s, very few writer’s blocks and stints where nothing else exists except writing furiously on the pad before me (I always write things out by hand first). I have finished the first in what will be a trilogy (if my agent allows) and half of the second novel. I am in the glorious and very lonely stage of submitting to agents. Here’s hoping!