Bane's blog post tonight got me thinking about how long it takes each of us to write our novels. I've read of some people who can pound out a book in a few months (Stephen King) and others who take years (Sue Monk Kidd) to complete their masterpieces. And then there are the crazies who can push out a whole book in a month for NaNoWriMo. That makes my head hurt just thinking about it!
I started writing HATSHEPSUT: FEMALE PHARAOH in January 2008. I only managed 100 pages in the first year. I just didn't know how to manage my time and went whole months without writing, knowing where I wanted to go, but now knowing how to get there. And then this January I buckled down and started writing. Unfortunately, with a two-year-old and a full time teaching gig I only managed about an hour of writing each night.
Thank goodness for summer vacation.
I started the summer at around 250 pages and finished August 16th with something close to 430 pages. I used page tallies instead of word counts to keep me motivated. Now I'm at 369 pages. So I exceeded Stephen King's 10% formula. But I think a lot of beginning writers write a lot more than they need so I feel good about all that chopping. I still have some fluffing, metaphors and the like that I tend to add in last so it will probably grow a teensy bit before I'm totally done.
How long did it take you to write your latest manuscript?
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