What's the fastest you've ever written a book?
I once wrote a complete book in 3 months after challenging a friend to a daily word-count race. Another was drafted in less than 4 days. My longest? An intentional year, committing to just a couple of hours every Saturday.
It reminded me that books don't always arrive on the same timeline. Some take years. Some seem to pour out all at once.
What about you? What's the fastest—or slowest—book you've written, and why do you think it moved at that pace?
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I think so far Seed (and several others) are my slowest novels if having writers block counts. The fastest was Plastic Love, I managed 90k in just under two weeks. I was on FIRE lol it was awesome.
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Four weeks 73,000 words.
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Great question - My picture books that are on bookshelves in Australia were my quickest to write. They are 500 word 32 page children's books. Only a couple of weeks for those. It's the illustrator who takes quite some time to produce their work. But my screenplays and novels naturally take longer. Wow - @david - four weeks?! For the win!
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If I didn't have to put words on paper, I could probably write a book in my head in a few minutes. If that doesn't count - three weeks is my best time.
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Twelve weeks is my sweet spot. Although my upcoming novel took over a year, because it needed a lot of careful construction.
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I love this. It's not always about the amount of time it takes, as much as it is fully expressing the story.
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I can't remember exactly how long it took me to finish it, but the fastest book I ever wrote was the memoir about my 12th-grade year of high school. It started as a college nonfiction class assignment, but as I began typing, everything just came back. Before I knew it, I was 100 pages deep.
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Right now: "At the begining there was the end." Bestseller!
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The fastest I've ever written a book, (and i mean a full-length novel) was three years. The second fastest took much longer. My first book took only took a year and it showed! But I lived and learned.
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Less than 4 days is really fast, Kat Spencer! Congratulations on finishing the books! You're right. Some books take years. Some seem to pour out all at once. Scripts too.
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Maurice Vaughan it’s so good to see you!
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So good to see you too, Raven Riley! How are you doing?
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I’m good. Had to take some time off, but now I’m back and ready to write.
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Glad you're back, Raven Riley! I took some time off too because of my health, and I'm still taking time off, but I get on Stage 32 when I can. Hope your writing goes great!
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NaNoWriMo got me in gear several years ago to get through about 65,000 words of a novel. Total length was 110,000 and took about 2 months. That's not normal for me though. I tend to write for 1-2 hours per night, no matter what else I have going on, but that might mean 1 scene or 5, depending on how easily I can get through it.
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Thanks for sharing this clear write-up.
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Great storytelling process, thanks for the concrete tips.
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This helps a lot, appreciate the insight.
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Great point, thanks for sharing!
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Great post, thanks for sharing.
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Great post, thanks for sharing!
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Great take, thanks for sharing.
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Great post, thanks for sharing!