How Long Did It Take You to Write Your First Book?

Virtual Office Hours #3

Note: This is one of a series of “ask me anything” posts I did for a group of writers I worked with in fall 2024.

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Q: How long did it take you to write your first book?

A: I’m glad you asked this question, and I’m happy to answer it. I personally love and appreciate it when writers are transparent about their journeys. Even if the answers aren’t always what I want to hear or hope to hear, I find it encouraging to know that it can be hard, yes, but it’s unquestionably doable if we do the work and hang in there.

So, to answer your question:

The short answer is, it took me nine years to write my first book.

But there’s a longer answer that is made up of equal parts (1) it depends on how you look at it; (2) it didn’t have to take me nearly as long as it did; and (3) it took as long as it needed to take.

Let me explain.

The Short Answer: It Took Me Nine Years to Write My First Book

It took me nine years to write my book, from start to finish.

I started writing my book on November 1, 2013. I know the date because I wrote the first 54,336 words of my book during National Novel Writing Month 2013.

I finished writing my book on October 28, 2022. I know the date because I had to finish it for a contest. I uploaded it to the contest at 11:59 p.m. on that date.

But, It Depends on How You Look At It.

Writing my first book wasn’t a straight chronological journey.

I wrote the first 54,336 words of a novel in 2013. I didn’t touch it again for a year. In late 2014, I made a one-day, half-hearted attempt to finish it. I only added 629 words. I didn’t know where to go with it, and I gave up.

After that, I didn’t work on it again for two years. Between 2016 and 2018, I pulled a couple of sections out of my book and turned them into standalone stories. I also wrote a couple of new stories in the same universe.

Between 2019 and 2021, I began to really feel my book as a linked story collection versus a novel. I completely dismantled the novel I’d started in 2013 and began the work of turning it into a linked short story collection. I finished most of the book by June 2021 and then worked on revising it. But, for some reason, I had a mental block that kept me from writing the ending.

In early 2022, I entered my book into a cinematic prose competition. I only had to upload the first 50 pages. I think I entered it in May and promised myself I’d finish it over the next five or six months before the contest ended. I did work on it, but I still struggled to write the ending.

In October, my book was named a finalist in the contest, and I was given a deadline to upload the full manuscript. I had one week to finish my book. I’ve been a paralegal for 35+ years, and there’s nothing like a deadline to motivate me. I finished my book, uploaded it at 11:59 p.m. the night of the deadline, and ended up winning the contest. Wow!

But, It Didn’t Have to Take Me Nearly as Long as It Did.

Now that I’m writing consistently and know what I’m doing, I’ve written drafts of two other novels in a much shorter period of time. I’m working on revising them, and I know that process won’t take me as long either. I estimate it will take me about a year to get through several rounds of revision and finish each one.

Why will it take me less time to finish future books?

Part of it is a function of the fact that I learned how to write and revise a book during the nine years I was writing my first book. But the bigger part of it is that I’ve learned how to be a writer. I’ve learned to do the work. I’ve learned to devote myself to the writing and to write consistently. I’ve learned that, when I don’t know where to go with a story, I need to keep writing into it until the ending comes to me or take a break and come back to it with a fresh perspective.

Giving up is no longer an option. Knock on wood, but I can’t imagine myself taking a two-year or even a two-month break from writing ever again.

So yes, I could have finished my first book in a much shorter amount of time.

But, It Took Me as Long as It Needed to Take Me.

In some ways, my first book is the tangible manifestation of me learning to write. When you look at it that way, it makes sense that it took me such a long time to write it.

The length of time it took me to write my first book is a subset of the length of time it took me to begin writing in earnest at all. I wrote about that journey here, and writing my first book was a big part of that journey.

So, I don’t regret or wish away the nine years it took me to write my first book. Those nine years taught me how to write a book, led me to write a good book, and armed me with the tools I needed to begin a real career as a writer.

Do I recommend you spend nine years writing your book? No, I most certainly do not! I’d love to see you learn from my mistakes and buckle down now to do the work consistently.

But I do recommend you come to terms with the fact that writing a book, especially a debut book, is hard. It involves learning to write a book and learning to be a writer. It takes a long time. It’s going to take a long time. It takes lots of rounds of rewriting and revision. It takes as long as it needs to take.