How long...

[crich70]

Do you think it should take to write a 1st draft of a novel? I know that one year in Nov. I pushed myself and wrote just over 50k in some 28 days, but I was wondering what others here, some of whom have reached publication I'm sure, find is the average length of time it takes them to write a 1st draft.

[ASparrow]

I write first drafts of 125K novels in about 6 months, then finish three months later. It probably varies widely, though, depending on the difficulty and ambition of the writing. Painstaking literary stuff might take years. I write fairly simple fantasy/adventure stories that aren't particularly adept.

[James_Wilde]

First novel, 200k, took almost exactly two years to the day, from the time I got an ex-publisher's approval of the story-line.

Edit note: That was more than the first draft. I think the first draft took about a year. The rest of the time went to rewrites.

At the beginning I was writing on Monday evenings,
later I was writing one hour to work and one hour home on the train three days a week, but at the end I was writing pretty much every evening, although differing amounts of time.

I'm hoping to finish #2 in less than a year.

Edit note: Once again, I'm thinking in terms of a marketable manuscript. Say six months to first draft, same to tart it up.

Another guy I know finished one in January/February this year, and has just produced the sequel.