|
Yeah, how long is a piece of rope? But, Bob, if this is your first novel, you probably haven't developed your rhythms and systems yet, although if you have written shorts and novellas you'll have some of the baggage. So this first one is going to take longer than number 2. Here are my data:
I had a story idea which I had turned into a two-page synopsis and sent to a retired publisher friend to see if she thought the idea would bear a novel. I wrote to her again to relate that I now had a book ready for editorial review, and when I checked, the date was two days earlier than two years after the first letter.
During that time I started writing about 3 hours every Monday evening (whilst my wife was at choir practice), but over time I managed to turn that into about an hour a day weekdays, and three hours on Mondays. Say an average of 8 hours a week.
Of the two years it took me, probably one year went to the first draft, and one year to rewrites and editing.
This book ended up at 500 pages, or say 200,000 words. Novels are more often in the 100-150,000 word size I would say.
On the other hand I read an ebook in January of this year, probably about 100,000 words, or slightly less, and the author recently notified me of the second sequel to that book. Don't know his writing routine - full-time or part-time - and I'm not going to comment on the relative literary merits of his book and mine.
But the big thing is that the fun is in the creating, cos, unless you are very lucky - talent doesn't seem to have a lot to do with it - and get yourself an agent and/or publisher, you're doing it for love, not for money.
|