The Longest It's Ever Taken You to Write a Novel

Quentin Nokov said:

I'm wondering, what's the longest you ever spent writing a story?

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Well, the current draft of my novel was started in earnest in October 2011, but it's a complete rewrite of something I started way back in 2005... so either just over 3 years, or nearly 10, depending on what you wanna count as the same novel

Quentin Nokov said:

Did you eventually get it published? hopefully, one day... Did you trunk it? neverrrr! Do you regret putting all that time into it? I regret that it's taken me so long, but I don't feel that the time I've spent writing it was wasted, if that makes sense.

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Surprisingly, my longest AND most coherent project so far has been started on December 12, 2014 and is now 280 pages long. Others have taken months never to get finish or pass the 70 page mark without starting to derail into bullcrap.

Well, if you count rewrites and complete reworkings of the story, I've been working on Empire of Chains for over nine years now. It was the first real novel I ever wrote (though it was a super-massive cliche back then).

My longest is over twelve years and counting. It was the second I ever started, back in the fall of 2002. I put it aside to write another novel I was gung-ho to work on, then went back to it later. Set it aside, went back to it again. Finally finished a first draft, and realized it was too short, and that I could bring it up to novel-length without unnecessary padding if I deepened some things I'd only hinted at.

So, I'd work on it between other projects, and didn't get a solid draft I was happy with until this past October or November. I submitted it to about the only place I knew of who took stuff like it, and they rejected due to one aspect they really didn't care for. That's made me rethink whether I should change it again and try another publisher (if there is one), self-pub it as is, or trunk it forever. Haven't decided yet, as there's something else I'm working on now.

But no regrets--it's a very sweet story, and I've enjoyed the time I've spent on it.

First drafts usually a month or two. "Finished" drafts I'd say 5 months from start to finish, however, I seem to have a habit of getting heavy R&Rs which tend to knock the projects to around 8-12 months start to finish. Got to finish the latest R&R, then two first draft WIPs... I foresee sooooo much editing this year and not many new projects!

Much longer than I'd like to admit, but it became substantially different enough with each rewrite that I like to think of it different works with the same general premise, each one much better than the last.

It now resembles the original only in scant details, and that's a good thing.

I have three novels in the bag. They took me, respectively, two months, four months, and three months to get to a point where I said "that's that. Time to shop them around. No more editing until I have a contract and an actual editor". In the meantime, I put them on Amazon KDP, and the sales pay my gin bill, which keeps me writing.

They are all three ripe for major polishing, but it isn't work I can do alone. I feel that I serve myself better as a novelist at this point in my career by concentrating on new projects, where I can improve my writing structurally, rather than spending time on line editing for books that maybe nobody will ever pick up. My knowledge about what makes writing readable is increasing too rapidly at this point. If I line-edited now, I would know even better in a month's time. It would be wasted.

Have been working on the current project for two months. I have about 110K words down, out of an estimated 250K. I have done quite a lot of going back and revising... not more than I did on the other three though.

15 years.

...then I packed it up and put it away.

You really need to complete—at least a rough draft—within a year or three: other wise it’ll continue to expand as your life experience does. Your mind needs to move forward whether you want it to or not…so, beware of the never-ending revision vortex.

Ten Years...

Ten years for me, too. I'm querying agents for it now. And while I wait for a "yes" from an agent, I'm working on the next novel--following the advice I found here.

Hmm. The first novel I completed took me about 1.5 years. I also took about 4-6 months to write about 40K words of a novel before getting stuck. (After coming out of the shock of quitting that one, and getting my wind back, a few months or so... I started the one the one that took 1.5 years.)

Now, with that stopped-at-40K novel, somewhere while I was writing the one I completed, I got the solution to the problem that had stopped me. I had been writing without only a vague story goal, so it got harder & harder to write. I'm writing a short following completion of the the novel, and I expect to go back and complete the 40K one. But I'll only consider that the time it took me to write it was the time I spent writing. The 4-5 months plus what time it takes to finish it. I wouldn't consider that it took me that amount of time plus the intervening two years, because I wasn't writing it.

Neegh said:

You really need to complete—at least a rough draft—within a year or three: other wise it’ll continue to expand as your life experience does. Your mind needs to move forward whether you want it to or not…so, beware of the never-ending revision vortex.

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I disagree with this. I've been working on the same project for many years. And I relish every minute of it. When it's ready, it'll 'escape' on its own.

Five years so far.

In another life, it might not have taken me so long.

Mine is taking three years so far...plus all that learning I'm doing.

Honestly, sometimes I feel I should just quit this novel, but I can't. I have other novels and short stories to work on, ones that will be much easier and faster to finish, but I just can't put this one down. It's my baby. I figure all the learning I'm doing now will just make my other works much better when I get to them.

I can't wait until I get to querying and leaving this novel for months at a time in an agent's hands. Then maybe I can get to the other stuff.

Um. I'm embarrassed to say this, but 22 years? That's the one I put aside because I wasn't able to write properly back then. If I use it at all, there'll be massive revisions. The one I'm working on now started life as a short story in 1998. The one I just revised down to 25K to fit a magazine's wordcount, began in 1996.

I tend to grow into my stories as a writer. Just as I use beads, gems, and fabric scored decades ago in current paying projects - it's all a form of capital investment to me.

ETA: my debut novel is mostly unrelated to those previous books, in a different genre, took around 5 months from first line written to final queried draft, and sold within a month of querying. It was my sixth novel-length piece of original fiction. But the massive 30-year worldbuilding project behind it is what really has my agent interested. Not a single line written was a waste of my time or effort.

phantasy said:

Honestly, sometimes I feel I should just quit this novel, but I can't. I have other novels and short stories to work on, ones that will be much easier and faster to finish, but I just can't put this one down. It's my baby.

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Hey, if you're passionate about it, why not?

Brutal Mustang said:

Hey, if you're passionate about it, why not?

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So true!

Of course, I love all my works. For me, every project turns into an obsession. And I'm a firm believer in finishing what I start.

Then I consider finishing my other work and assume it'll take months and months...I always feel like this current novel just needs a little bit more work and I'll be done. Of course, it's been six months since I thought I was almost done the time before.

phantasy said:

Of course, I love all my works. For me, every project turns into an obsession. And I'm a firm believer in finishing what I start.

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I can't say I'm passionate about everything I've written. I feel some things I've outgrown or grown bored with. Once something gets to that stage, I don't waste another hour on it. If I had a 'no quit' rule, I'd be stuck working on a bunch of stuff that bores me. But on the flip side, I give myself permission to obsess over a manuscript for years, if it excites me.

So, yep. I give myself permission to quit, and I give myself permission to obsess. I suppose because I do it for enjoyment first and foremost.

Brutal Mustang said:

I disagree with this. I've been working on the same project for many years. And I relish every minute of it. When it's ready, it'll 'escape' on its own.

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Well, there is one school of thought that advocates writing is an act of getting it out (or letting go) not hanging on. After many years I’ve come round to thinking it’s better to get it out sooner rather than later.

Neegh said:

Well, there is one school of thought that advocates writing is an act of getting it out (or letting go) not hanging on. After many years I’ve come round to thinking it’s better to get it out sooner rather than later.

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Different strokes for different folks, eh?

*HUGS* to all you people taking years. It takes me at least a year to finish most of my first drafts and it always made me feel kind of bad to see so many people finishing first drafts within a few months max, especially when some people (not necessarily anyone here, but I've seen it a lot) act like taking any longer than that is being unreasonably slow. I often only get a few hundred words written each day. I pore over each word I write and tend to kind of edit as I go, and I'm very much a plotter and have to know what I'm going to write before I write it, basically. The "JUST GET IT ON THE PAGE" method has never worked for me and I simply take longer as a result.

Brutal Mustang said:

I can't say I'm passionate about everything I've written. I feel some things I've outgrown or grown bored with. Once something gets to that stage, I don't waste another hour on it. If I had a 'no quit' rule, I'd be stuck working on a bunch of stuff that bores me. But on the flip side, I give myself permission to obsess over a manuscript for years, if it excites me.

So, yep. I give myself permission to quit, and I give myself permission to obsess. I suppose because I do it for enjoyment first and foremost.

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For me, I see the potential in all my ideas. So if I'm writing something and I get bored, it means I'm doing something wrong. It means I need to twist the story somehow or something. The problem with me is I intend to finish everything I get halfway through, it's just a lack of time. I also tire out easily, I can't do 8 hours of pure writing, maybe only 4. I need lots of breaks and time with people and time to mull plot lines over.

pandaponies said:

It takes me at least a year to finish most of my first drafts and it always made me feel kind of bad to see so many people finishing first drafts within a few months max, especially when some people (not necessarily anyone here, but I've seen it a lot) act like taking any longer than that is being unreasonably slow.

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This. (Even though a year would be super speedy for me.)

I wish I could get a first draft together that quickly. I must have been a tortoise in my past life.