McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

How long did it take you to write it?

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Craz:
I would like to give it a try sometime...

Unfortunately, I don't get to try this for another seven months. ;) And even then, it's only ten weeks...school's a bee-otch.

KevinEvans:
From time to time we get a request that makes a deadline mandatory. Mostly when we need to hit a certain issue of the magazine. Personally I have found that having a "Get it done by" date helps me concentrate, and most of the writers who support themselves with just their writing say that writing every day is a must. Most of the time even junk can be edited into something usable. Many writers say they start their writing time by editing the previous days effort, this gets them into the "Zone" and also gets the first edit out of the way.
Regards,
Kevin






--- Quote from: meg_evonne on December 03, 2007, 10:51:26 PM ---Okay, so we write.  Some of us professionally with varying degrees of publication.

I am willing to bet, no question, that writing full time for me would kill it all.  Writing when the "urge" or the "creativity" hits me seems to be worlds apart from being forced onto a time table of some sort.  The whole idea makes my skin crawl.

Anyone have any comments on that from their experience?

--- End quote ---

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: meg_evonne on December 03, 2007, 10:51:26 PM ---Okay, so we write.  Some of us professionally with varying degrees of publication.
I am willing to bet, no question, that writing full time for me would kill it all.  Writing when the "urge" or the "creativity" hits me seems to be worlds apart from being forced onto a time table of some sort.  The whole idea makes my skin crawl.
Anyone have any comments on that from their experience?

--- End quote ---

I'm not a professional, but my experience is, unless I make myself set aside one evening a week to write, usually Friday, and make sure I catch up on any weekends I have to miss preferably in advance, I don't get a reliable few thousand words done every week.

I have no idea what difference it would make to not have to worry about a day job; I think I'd move at the same speed on any given project, but write more things at once.

RMatthewWare:
It will have been two years in January (though I plan on finishing this draft and be done, for better or worse).  But it's also only been two years since I decided I wanted to be a writer.  So I went from wanting to be a writer, to gathering thoughts, outlining, first draft, revise, edit, revise, edit, to where I am now.  I've also written quite a few short stories and a first draft for my next novel, so I think I've done pretty good.  A lot of that time also went to figuring things out, learning some of my bad writing habits (like beginning a lot of sentences with 'so' or 'well') and learning how to edit in a way that is actually efficient (I think I've finally figured that one out).

Kathleen Dante:
The first novel took me eighteen months because of the day job. But after that, the second and third averaged about nine to ten months. I'm trying to get it down to six months, but family, vacation and promo time get in the way (plus the distraction of the Internet).   :)

At the start, I only wrote when the urge hit me, but now I have deadlines I have to find ways to keep the motivation to work on the current manuscript flowing. Of course, sometimes a different story idea bites me in the butt, and I have to write down the details to get it to shut up.

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