What's the fastest time you've ever finished a first draft?

Hmm, think my best was 80K in about 57 days. Might've been a little less. I know my official count was 59 days from start to finish, but there were days in there that I didn't get to write a single word. So about two months for me.

25 days for me. I didn't care what I was writing--I just wrote. Strange thing is, the plot itself will pretty much stay the same as it is now. Now all I gotta do is wait for the Pulitzer people to call.

*watches the phone with bugged out, Joan Crawford eyes*

Jessianodel said:

Threads like this make me sad...

I'm just gonna leave now and pretend every writer on earth is slow as molasses.

Click to expand...

Jess, pay attention to suen's post:

seun said:

About six weeks.

And it's worth mentioning that speed doesn't automatically equal quality. The last thing we need to do is suggest to new writers that they're not doing it right if they take their time.

Click to expand...

This is not a game limited to the swift. Jess, work at your own pace and let others do the same. The important thing is not time to first draft, or even time to submission-ready, but do you get the projects to the submission-ready stage?

My stories take from 6 to 9 months from first thought to submission-ready, but I have a day job that requires way more than 40 hours per week, I am a part-time single parent, and I have a rich recreational life and an nice social life. I find enough writing time to make steady progress on my projects and I finish everything I start.

If you can look in the mirror and repeat those last two statements (I make steady progress on my projects and I finish what I start), you likely have a leg up on a significant number of new/developing writers, no matter your leg speed.

Well, I wrote a novelette for about 5 months xD But that was because I got bored of it and didn't write for ages.
Right now, I've done half of my WIP in 15 days...so I'm guessing I'll be done in another 15. So, then, 1 month!

NeuroFizz said:

Jess, pay attention to suen's post:



This is not a game limited to the swift. Jess, work at your own pace and let others do the same. The important thing is not time to first draft, or even time to submission-ready, but do you get the projects to the submission-ready stage?

Click to expand...

What Beardy said. Especially my bit.

Writing is not a race. If you can write fast and well, then cool. That works for you. Other writers take their sweet time. As long as everything is finished, polished and completed, then that's what counts.

My first one took longer than my second, my second took longer than my third, my third etc. But that was/is purely because I'm learning and I'm more comfortable with my voice and style of writing now.

I think my shortest was anywhere from four to five months. Considering my first two trunked novels were anywhere from one year to two endeavors, I'm pretty pleased with my increasing speed.

I also wrote a novella in three months, but I'm not sure that counts.

Fastest one to get from start to end (At 62.5K) was 25 days, during NaNoWriMo 2006 - my first NaNo. I've since written more words during NaNo, but didn't finish the stories until after the end of the month. And I have to say that I definitely write faster during NaNoWriMo than at any other time. It's the deadline and the whiff of competition. I get the red mist in my eyes.

Outside of NaNoWriMo it would probably take me more like two months to do one that same length, up three months to do something around the 90k mark. If I'm getting less than 30k a month while working on a draft then there's either external factors stopping me, or I'm having a problem with the story. Of course that's my pace, everyone is different, so don't think if you do 20k a month there's a problem with your story!

As for how? No big secret, just doing it. Just writing. Not a huge number of hours every day, but a couple of hours day after day after week after week until it's done. Yes that means giving up other fun things I might otherwise do, but if I want to be a writer that's the price to pay. I do longer hours during NaNoWriMo - and am a bug-eyed wild woman come December - but always find that a very useful event to refocus myself and get back into good habits that might have been slipping. Also outlining is key to speed for me, though not everyone.

Wow! I'm amazed! I'm just finishing up a book that took me almost exactly 2 months... and I thought that was nuts!
Now I just wonder how long editing will take...

12 days. 100,000 words. I've since rewritten it, so I don't know about that. It is more normal for me to take about a month.

1 day. 1 to 2 paragraphs summary of every chapter (24 chapters)

Layla Nahar said:

I've never finished anything (I'm talking *drafts*) in less than two months. And that includes *short stories*.

Sigh. I wish I could figure out this story thing better. And stop being so discouraged...

Click to expand...

You and me both.

3 months, but it's taken about 18 months altogether to get it submission ready.

The first draft I've just finished was torturous and took between 6-7 months.

I've gone from the seed of an idea to finished first draft in three months. Most of this time was spent researching and planning, the actual draft took about three weeks of pretty solid writing -- but not the storm of inspiration that made me a machine, I can never really write like that. I would work about five hours a day, with tea breaks for sanity.

I like to write my first drafts quickly, but then the editing is a killer. My shortest first draft was in five days two years ago during Nano. My most recent novel took 9 days to write and I'm still in the process of editing and rewriting to get it ready to submit.

Five weeks. Of course, I've only written one novel. Still, I think it'll be the fastest I ever write one. The scale of my next novel is much grander.