How many hours go into writing a novel?

Bob Russell · 10-09-2011, 11:36 AM

As I prepare for a first novel, I'm curious about the total time that goes into writing a novel.

How many total hours do you spend on plotting, writing and revising each novel, start to finish?

I mean real "sit down at your desk and work on the book" time, not the "wonder what I'll write about" time, or research, or the formatting/selling/publishing side.

Also, I wonder...
* Do you consider the time consuming tasks the fun part or the painful part?
* Can writers learn to become very efficient with practice?

pholy · 10-09-2011, 01:11 PM

If you have to ask how much, you can't afford it...

You're supposed to write because you can't stand not to...

Seriously, Bob, all the best with your writing; I'm not brave enough to even think about it. I'm just a "simple minded programmer - retired" who loves to read. Last time I wrote an two question essay test I got 50% because I ran out of time.

Bob Russell · 10-09-2011, 04:26 PM

Well, yea, I do expect that the basic idea is "too much". But regardless of whether it seems to be "worth it" as a logical decision (which is obviously is not), the typical total is still interesting to me.

mr ploppy · 10-09-2011, 04:56 PM

It isn't something you could plan for in that much detail. What you need to do is set aside some time each day when people won't keep bugging you. It doesn't matter how much time, an hour a day will do, it's the routine that matters. Some days you will spend that hour staring at a blank screen, others you will write pages full of crap that you end up deleting the next day.

crich70 · 10-09-2011, 08:59 PM

It takes as long as it takes. There is no set length of time in which to write a book. One person will take x many hrs to write a 50k book and another may take either a longer or a shorter length of time. Or the same person who took a given length of time to write one book may take a longer or shorter amount of time to write the next one. Things like interruptions from other events in your life, if you fall ill or not, your personal excitement over a story etc. are all likely to have an effect on how long it takes to write a book.

MeiLin · 10-09-2011, 09:05 PM

I envy people who can crank out 4-5 or more books a year. I am lucky if I get one book and a few shorts out in a year. *sigh*

crich70 · 10-10-2011, 02:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MeiLin

I envy people who can crank out 4-5 or more books a year. I am lucky if I get one book and a few shorts out in a year. *sigh*

Yeah. Look at Barbara Cartland. She started in 1923 and produced a total of 723 titles during her lifetime before dying in May of 2000 at the age of 98. She must have produced multiple books per year. She wrote for 77 yrs so that comes to about 9.38 books a year. Certainly she didn't let the grass grow under her feet.

lindsayw · 10-10-2011, 08:07 AM

With 9 novels averaging 140k behind me, I found that each one took about 18 months from go to whoa... but they are NEVER finished! I am always revisiting old work and saying, "Oh, no – this won't do!"
In my case, about 4-5 months of research, plot development, character design, then the writing starts, but by then I have a real fire in the belly, so that part takes only 4-5 months (that always amazes me). Then starts the real pain. Editing. Pruning. Ruthless culling. Another 6 months. So about 18 months living in a completely different world. How the hell the Barbara Cartlands of the world manage I will never know...

crich70 · 10-10-2011, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lindsayw

With 9 novels averaging 140k behind me, I found that each one took about 18 months from go to whoa... but they are NEVER finished! I am always revisiting old work and saying, "Oh, no – this won't do!"
In my case, about 4-5 months of research, plot development, character design, then the writing starts, but by then I have a real fire in the belly, so that part takes only 4-5 months (that always amazes me). Then starts the real pain. Editing. Pruning. Ruthless culling. Another 6 months. So about 18 months living in a completely different world. How the hell the Barbara Cartlands of the world manage I will never know...

She must have developed some short cuts. I haven't ever read her work but it could be that it was written according to a formula to a degree and the differences were things like character backgrounds etc. That and a lot of typing at a good speed.

mr ploppy · 10-10-2011, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lindsayw

How the hell the Barbara Cartlands of the world manage I will never know...

I'm not familiar with her, but James Moffatt used to crank them out one a month under a variety of different names. He did it by recycling plots and characters in different genres. Plus they were all very short, an average of 100 pages.

VydorScope · 10-10-2011, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

How many total hours do you spend on plotting, writing and revising each novel, start to finish?

You never finish, you just decided enough is enough and leave the story. But there really is no way to measure this. How long is your story? Do you even know? If I siad it will take 1 hour per 500 words, would that even help you since you almost certainly do not know how many words the story is yet?

My novels are "short" by some standards, in the 80-90k word range, and I would say takes me 6 months. I research and edit as I go, then when I think its perfect I hand it off to my editor who rips it to pieces.

Quote:

Also, I wonder...
* Do you consider the time consuming tasks the fun part or the painful part?
* Can writers learn to become very efficient with practice?

The fun part is the writing! Its why I do it! I love to tell the stories that are trapped in my head, its great fun. I live the story as I write and get to experience all kinds of new things. This is why I wish I had a good agent that I could trust. I wish I could just take my work and hand it off to some one to publish/market/etc, and let me write the next book!

Efficient? I dunno, I kind of hope I never do...my goal is to write, not to be a machine.. but you will get faster at typing, your grammar and vocab will improve, and the like so that will help some.

EileenG · 10-11-2011, 03:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crich70

She must have developed some short cuts. I haven't ever read her work but it could be that it was written according to a formula to a degree and the differences were things like character backgrounds etc. That and a lot of typing at a good speed.

She dictated most of her later novels, and yes, those ones where definitely written to a formula. Beautiful virgin (usually with a special skill or education) meets titled handsome man. There is danger and often a scheming older woman, and they fall in love while having adventures before ending up married. No nookie before marriage for her heroines, ever.

The earlier ones were much better.

Harper Kingsley · 10-11-2011, 04:29 AM

The answer is 42.

No, sometimes I can write a novella (20,000-50,000 words) in two days. Other times I'll write a novelette (5000-12000 words) in two WEEKS. A novel takes me longer than that, mostly because I seem to have developed ADD.

Anyways, it takes as long as it takes. It depends on how much you love your characters, or how much detail your mind gives you about what their world looks like. I mean, if you have to struggle to make up the world and the people, it takes forever. But if you can close your eyes and completely visualize the whole story like a movie... well, it takes you as long as it would to write a detailed synopsis of your favorite movie, then a bit more time to flesh things out.

Does that help you at all?

EDIT: Just wanted to clarify that this is just the WRITING part. The editing is a whole other kind of horror.

rhadin · 10-11-2011, 06:57 AM

Georges Simenon, author of more than 500 police procedurals and psychological thrillers who was very popular in the 1950s and 1960s, took 3 weeks to write a novel. He was noted for being able to churn out a new book quickly and on demand. He is best known for his Inspector Maigret novels.

From Penguin:

Quote:

Georges Simenon was the most successful author in the world in the 1960s. His books have been translated into more that 20 languages, with over 40 filmed for television and cinema. These new editions are being published to coincide with the centenary year of Georges Simenon's birth. With a startling understanding of the criminal mind and a strong belief in moral justice, Inspector Maigret is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time.

Another prolific author who wrote quickly was Evan Hunter, who wrote under numerous pseudonyms, including Ed McBain. As McBain, he authored nearly 100 87th Precinct police procedurals. He was also the author of The Blackborad Jungle.

Bottom line is that there are many factors that go into determining how long it takes to write a novel.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 10-11-2011, 08:17 AM

A lot of responses about the abilities of prolific professional authors (add Lester Dent, the monthly writer of Doc Savage, to the list). Not many anecdotal responses. I've written over a dozen books, and I couldn't venture a wild guess as to how long it actually took me to write any of them. Generally, I go from start to finish within maybe 4 months.

But Bob, since everyone writes at a different pace, the thing to do is not to try to work out how long it takes/will take to write a book, but to figure out how much time you can devote to working on it each day, and just go.

It's like bird-watching: You can't predict when you'll see a particular bird; you can only get your gear together, go, and wait until you see it.

10-09-2011, 11:36 AM	#1
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	How many hours go into writing a novel? As I prepare for a first novel, I'm curious about the total time that goes into writing a novel. How many total hours do you spend on plotting, writing and revising each novel, start to finish? I mean real "sit down at your desk and work on the book" time, not the "wonder what I'll write about" time, or research, or the formatting/selling/publishing side. Also, I wonder... * Do you consider the time consuming tasks the fun part or the painful part? * Can writers learn to become very efficient with practice?

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10-09-2011, 01:11 PM	#2
pholy Booklegger Posts: 1,801 Karma: 7999816 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Device: BeBook(1 & 2010), PEZ, PRS-505, Kobo BT, PRS-T1, Playbook, Kobo Touch	If you have to ask how much, you can't afford it... You're supposed to write because you can't stand not to... Seriously, Bob, all the best with your writing; I'm not brave enough to even think about it. I'm just a "simple minded programmer - retired" who loves to read. Last time I wrote an two question essay test I got 50% because I ran out of time.

10-09-2011, 04:26 PM	#3
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Well, yea, I do expect that the basic idea is "too much". But regardless of whether it seems to be "worth it" as a logical decision (which is obviously is not), the typical total is still interesting to me.

10-09-2011, 04:56 PM	#4
mr ploppy Feral Underclass Posts: 3,622 Karma: 26821535 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Yorkshire, tha noz Device: 2nd hand paperback	It isn't something you could plan for in that much detail. What you need to do is set aside some time each day when people won't keep bugging you. It doesn't matter how much time, an hour a day will do, it's the routine that matters. Some days you will spend that hour staring at a blank screen, others you will write pages full of crap that you end up deleting the next day.

10-09-2011, 08:59 PM	#5
crich70 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,310 Karma: 43993832 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Monroe Wisconsin Device: K3, Kindle Paperwhite, Calibre, and Mobipocket for Pc (netbook)	It takes as long as it takes. There is no set length of time in which to write a book. One person will take x many hrs to write a 50k book and another may take either a longer or a shorter length of time. Or the same person who took a given length of time to write one book may take a longer or shorter amount of time to write the next one. Things like interruptions from other events in your life, if you fall ill or not, your personal excitement over a story etc. are all likely to have an effect on how long it takes to write a book.

10-09-2011, 09:05 PM	#6
MeiLin professional daydreamer Posts: 71 Karma: 537292 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Portland, OR Device: Kindle	I envy people who can crank out 4-5 or more books a year. I am lucky if I get one book and a few shorts out in a year. sigh

10-10-2011, 08:07 AM	#8
lindsayw Author from pBook days Posts: 49 Karma: 10782 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kindle-3-Keyboard; 8" Android Tablet	With 9 novels averaging 140k behind me, I found that each one took about 18 months from go to whoa... but they are NEVER finished! I am always revisiting old work and saying, "Oh, no – this won't do!" In my case, about 4-5 months of research, plot development, character design, then the writing starts, but by then I have a real fire in the belly, so that part takes only 4-5 months (that always amazes me). Then starts the real pain. Editing. Pruning. Ruthless culling. Another 6 months. So about 18 months living in a completely different world. How the hell the Barbara Cartlands of the world manage I will never know...

10-11-2011, 04:29 AM	#13
Harper Kingsley Clone Trooper Posts: 212 Karma: 4566103 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Washington Device: kindle	The answer is 42. No, sometimes I can write a novella (20,000-50,000 words) in two days. Other times I'll write a novelette (5000-12000 words) in two WEEKS. A novel takes me longer than that, mostly because I seem to have developed ADD. Anyways, it takes as long as it takes. It depends on how much you love your characters, or how much detail your mind gives you about what their world looks like. I mean, if you have to struggle to make up the world and the people, it takes forever. But if you can close your eyes and completely visualize the whole story like a movie... well, it takes you as long as it would to write a detailed synopsis of your favorite movie, then a bit more time to flesh things out. Does that help you at all? EDIT: Just wanted to clarify that this is just the WRITING part. The editing is a whole other kind of horror.

10-11-2011, 08:17 AM	#15
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	A lot of responses about the abilities of prolific professional authors (add Lester Dent, the monthly writer of Doc Savage, to the list). Not many anecdotal responses. I've written over a dozen books, and I couldn't venture a wild guess as to how long it actually took me to write any of them. Generally, I go from start to finish within maybe 4 months. But Bob, since everyone writes at a different pace, the thing to do is not to try to work out how long it takes/will take to write a book, but to figure out how much time you can devote to working on it each day, and just go. It's like bird-watching: You can't predict when you'll see a particular bird; you can only get your gear together, go, and wait until you see it.

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