Time to Fess Up - How Long Is It Taking You?

[dmarie84]

Too long! I first had the seeds of the idea back in college about four years ago. It's changed a great deal over that time; I've written about four drafts and am on my fifth one now (and hopefully the *right* story). I think my love of history and other cultures has played a big role in why it's taken so long to get it done. The story changes course when I realize things aren't accurate.

LOL I just want it done already....

[r louis scott]

I have a "finished product" that has taken six years to complete.

That may sound like a lot of time but I also wrote:

* the start of a sequel (about 45K words)
* the start of another book (about 65K words, this one will be a monster)
* six short stories, which I have little hope of ever finding a home for
* about 10-12 short story starts or VERY rough outlines
* a few pages of an idea for another book

Also, given that my writing is historical in nature, I sometimes have to break off for a little research. I write based on my knowledge of the era for the most part, but there are always details that need to be filled in as the story develops. Not too surprisingly, this research sometimes makes me adjust the story to make use of well documented facts or re-write because I can't find information I need.

I guess it's a good thing I don't do this for a living.

Well, and then there was that whole cow-raping incident you had to grapple with - one can understand how that took some time to get over. Poor guy. *wink* (Death of the Adverb)

Now for those of you just tuning in, I'm thinking that maybe just a little bit of explanation might be in order regarding a comment that contains the phrase "cow-raping incident". See, we had a thread here once asking what adverbs ever did to you:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=930

In that thread, I said that adverbs had burned my farm, driven off my family, and raped my cattle. For the record, at no time have I ever personally contemplated cow rape and if any of you were eating lunch while reading this, I apologize most sincerely.

[cmrprindle]

I honestly have no idea how long it took me to come up with, what I thought would be, the first draft of a humungo work. (It has since become a series. I think. Hopefully.) I know it was at least three years for sure, because I did the bulk of the first draft as parts of NaNoWriMo. So at least four years, possibly five, and it's taking me months to do the editing.

Now for those of you just tuning in, I'm thinking that maybe just a little bit of explanation might be in order regarding a comment that contains the phrase "cow-raping incident". See, we had a thread here once asking what adverbs ever did to you ....In that thread, I said that adverbs had burned my farm, driven off my family, and raped my cattle. For the record, at no time have I ever personally contemplated cow rape and if any of you were eating lunch while reading this, I apologize most sincerely.

I'm quite glad I wasn't reading that during lunch. I don't think the girls would have appreciated me spewing tuna on them. It may have amused me, but I don't think they would have agreed.

[Kalthandrix]

Hmmmm...well I began my novel in/around January 2007 when my second daughter was born. I have had some great spots of writing where I get a lot done, and then other times where I will go six months without adding new material or doing revisions.

Of course, my novel is about 140k(-ish) and am working more on it now because I only have seven chapters to finish for the first draft to be complete. So I imagine the first draft will be about 175k, but who knows where the revision process will take me...I imagine down in word count because I am an adjective whore and I will be fixing my over-usage of fluffy, action-packed, and unnecessary modifiers :P