“Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.”
–Winston Churchill
Starting to write a book can be both thrilling and overwhelming, and involves a serious commitment of time and patience.
In this article, I’ll explore the question: how long does it take to write a book? For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll set aside the publishing process and focus on the part where you’re doing the heavy lifting.
The timeline for writing a book varies wildly based on your daily schedule, the complexity of the idea, and how many drafts are required to reach the finish line. To finish efficiently, you should rely on a solid outline, maintain a consistent writing habit, and resist the urge to edit until your first draft is complete.
To give you a better sense of how long your book might take, let’s look at a few aspects of the question. To start, I’ll unpack the factors that determine the time it takes to pen a book. I’ll also offer you some tips to speed the process along. Finally, just to remind you that you’re not alone, we’ll take a look at how long a few other authors have taken to write their famous works. One day, your story might rank among them!
Factors at play
There isn’t a clear-cut answer to this question, because there are a few different factors that determine how much time elapses from the start of a draft to finishing it. Let’s take a look at each of those and how you can use it to estimate how long your book will take to write.
Available time
You likely have obligations that stand between you and the writer’s desk. Sometimes you only have half an hour between meetings or picking up the kids from an after-school activity. Some folks travel often while others have full-time jobs or are taking care of a sick parent.
To help estimate how long your book will take to write, ask yourself how much time each week you can consistently show up to the page. This should be a pocket of time that fits into your schedule and doesn’t require something extreme, like skipping sleep. I won’t judge you for doing it now and then, but it’s not sustainable for the amount of time you’ll be spending on writing a book.
In my 90-day writing workshops, I encourage my students to try to set aside two hours a day for writing, but if that is not possible, don’t worry about it. You can still get a lot of writing done in thirty minutes.
If you have all the time in the world, odds are you’ll still only be creatively productive for a few hours each day.
The complexity of the idea
Some stories are (seemingly) straightforward and others require more crafting. If you’ve got the sort of plot or subject matter that will require you to change things often, you won’t have a straightforward march to the end of your draft. Put another way, you’ve got more work to do in outlining and planning than someone who’s recounting events or details that are more familiar to them.
When you’re estimating how long it’ll take to write your story, allocate some time to outlining the story. Even though it may look like pacing around the room and scribbling cryptic words on scratch paper, outlining will save you time in the long run.
How many drafts does it take?
Some first drafts arrive on the page more fully formed than others. It’s not a reflection of quality or skill, so much as the nature of the idea itself. You may have a story that’s relatively clear. The editing process is then mostly about rearranging a few parts and cleaning up the prose.
On the other hand, some stories need more tinkering to find their final form. The editing process is then more involved. You may find yourself trying to fix certain character arcs or mix around which characters are involved in which parts of the plot.
My advice here is to be patient with the process. A first draft could only take you three months, but the next draft might take more. It depends on the story itself.
The kindest thing you can do for yourself is to not rush the process. By making writing a part of your routine and your life, you can let the story evolve as you do and it’ll be done sooner than you think.
Tips to speed up the process
Write an outline and follow it
An outline is the best gift you can give yourself. You might balk at the idea, but an outline helps keep you focused and consistent. After you’ve allowed your subconscious to roam through the world of your story, and you have a sense of who your characters are, spend some time mapping out the story.
I recommend following the three-act structure. Not only does this give your characters a path to the end of the story, it also gives you a path to the end of your draft. Try to allocate a set amount of time to each act. This gives you some soft deadlines to work toward. A deadline is often exactly what writers need.
Be consistent
The desire to write is deeply connected to the desire to evolve. You are not going to finish your book if you are at the beck and call of inspiration. To maintain your progress, it is important to make your writing a consistent practice. Your writing schedule is all about making a promise to yourself..and keeping it..
Over time, your pages will begin to pile it. Some days may be harder than others, but showing up to the page is the victory. The irony is that we often overestimate what we can produce in a week and underestimate what we can produce in a month or two. Steady progress is the key to joining the ranks of writers who’ve finished their books.
Don’t double back or edit
It’s tempting to clean up the writing as you go, but resist the temptation! Editing your work as you write your first draft will keep you stuck in a loop of perfectionism and slow down your progress toward the finish line. While it may be easier than writing new pages, it will also take you out of ‘first-draft mode’ and put you into ‘rewriting mode.’
The focus of the first draft is simply to get the story down. Don’t concern yourself with spelling, grammar or syntax. None of the writers you admire published their first drafts. It’s only with the benefit of editing that they became wordsmiths of note.
Your story weapon: You’re not alone
Here’s a list of various authors with a note on how long it took them to write their book. This isn’t meant to intimidate you, but remind you that each story and author is different. Remember that you are making art, not widgets. Some seasons are busier than others and every book arrives at its own rate.
- To write One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez took about a year and a half. He wrote every day and revised the text multiple times with his friends.
- Creating the masterpiece Les Misérables took Victor Hugo 12 years! The work began in the 1840s and wasn’t published until 1862. This is a great reminder to not rush things.
- To write Sphere, Michel Crichton worked on the manuscript for just about two decades. Obviously, there were long spans of working on other things and taking time off from the book. He never lost the thread of the story, however, and finished it when he was ready.
- It took William Faulkner just 6 weeks to write As I Lay Dying. Not every book takes years. Sometimes the juices are flowing and the time is right to write.
- Similarly, Ernest Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea in two months. This book example is actually a novella, which is shorter than a novel.
- Last on our list is your book. I can’t tell you exactly how long it’ll take, but you’ll never end up on this list if you don’t see it all the way through!
Good luck! Don’t rush. But write your first draft quickly.
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