How long does it take to write a book?

Most writers take six months to a year to draft a book, and longer to finish one. Reedsy, citing its data from a 2021 survey, says it takes between six months and a year. N J Simmonds, writing for Jericho Writers, says someone with a few books behind them can reach a draft that is good enough to send to an editor within six to 18 months. Those are drafts, not finished books, and the range around them is wide: some novels took weeks and some took more than a decade. The useful question is not the average but how long your book will take given your length, your hours and the stages that come after the first draft.

The numbers sources give

None of these is a target. Reedsy's own advice is that there is no wrong amount of time, and that as long as you are getting words on the page you are writing at a good pace.

What famous books took

Published timelines show how far apart books can sit, and how much depends on how you count. Reedsy lists three weeks for A Study in Scarlet, three months for Twilight, nine months for Wuthering Heights, a year for Frankenstein, five years for A Game of Thrones, six for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, ten for Gone With the Wind and 16 for The Lord of the Rings. Merilyn Simonds, writing on Jane Friedman's site, says Tolkien laboured twelve years over the same book, which shows that even published figures disagree.

Counting rules matter too. Simmonds notes that when someone says a book took a month, that normally means four weeks to get the words down, after an idea that may have grown for years and before any revision. Stuart Horwitz, also on Jane Friedman's site, says Jack Kerouac's famous three-week scroll was typed from a draft he already had in his journals. Treat a speed record as a typing time.

The stages around the draft

Writing a book is a sequence, and most of the time is not in the first draft.

The rest stage surprises first-timers. Monica Cox, writing on Jane Friedman's site, advises giving yourself several weeks off after typing the end, so you can read like a reader. If your plan has no gap, you are borrowing it from the quality of your revision.

What changes your number

Sources agree on a handful of factors.

• Time you can protect. Simmonds says her debut took three years while she worked and cared for two toddlers, and a later book's draft took four weeks once the children were self-sufficient and she worked part time.
• Length and genre. Reedsy compares fantasy at 100,000 to 120,000 words with romance at about 80,000. Jericho adds that a 140,000-word high fantasy needs more planning than a 55,000-word middle grade story. See average book word count.
• Research. A historical novel or a memoir can take longer to prepare than a contemporary story you know well.
• How much you plan. Reedsy says work goes faster with an outline, and Jericho says plotting makes it easier to churn out chapters in order, though pantsers may enjoy discovering the story.
• Your experience. Jericho says a first book usually takes longer because you are learning as you go.
• How many drafts you need. Authors disagree widely on this.

How to work out your own estimate

Start with arithmetic, then add the stages. Reedsy's table for a 75,000-word draft shows how fast the numbers change.

Simmonds adds that even 50 words a day adds up to a book eventually, at about 4.3 years, and that the average writer can type 1,000 words in an hour or two, research included. Reedsy warns that real life breaks daily targets and recommends a more realistic schedule.

Here is a worked example for an invented writer. Teodor writes four evenings a week at 400 words, so 1,600 a week. His book is 90,000 words, and 90,000 divided by 1,600 is just over 56 weeks. Add six weeks of planning at the start, four weeks of rest, ten weeks for two revision passes and four weeks for beta readers. That is about 80 weeks, or a little over a year and a half. The sum is an illustration of the method, not a figure from a source, and it is useful because every stage is a number he can change on purpose.

One draft or twenty-two?

Authors disagree on how many passes a book needs, and the disagreement explains many timelines. Stuart Horwitz argues for three drafts: messy, method and polished. Simonds says her usual is fifteen drafts, a writer friend said the same, and her novel Refuge reached a 22nd draft after more than a decade of stop-and-start work, with long pauses between revisions. Neither is wrong. A book that takes three passes finishes sooner, and a book that needs fifteen may be doing something harder.

Ways to finish sooner without cutting quality

Reedsy's tips include working from an outline, tracking progress, finding an accountability partner and never going more than two days without writing, because even 100 words of flow maintenance beats nothing. Simmonds adds telling yourself how many words you will write each day or week and what stage you will reach by when. A loose outline, in Reedsy's words, stops the two biggest time sinks: writing scenes you later cut and getting stuck on what happens next.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to write a book for a beginner?

Jericho Writers says a first book can take up to a year or more, and Reedsy's survey says six months to a year. A first book often takes longer because you are learning the craft as you go.

How long does it take to write a novel working part time?

At 400 words, four evenings a week, a 90,000-word draft takes about 56 weeks. The stages after the draft add to that, so plan for about a year and a half in total.

How many hours a day should I write?

Simmonds says an average writer can type about 1,000 words in an hour or two. An hour a day is a fair test of what you can protect.

How long does it take to write a book and get it published?

Jericho says a debut author seeking a traditional deal should expect 2.5 to 5 years from idea to bookstore. Self-publishing can be faster, since you set the schedule.

Is it bad if my book takes years?

No. Reedsy's list includes books that took years, and Simonds writes that she stopped feeling guilty about her pace. Do check that you are still writing, not only polishing.

Where Musael fits

A book that takes months or years is held together by a plan you can see and a draft you can keep trusting. Musael is built for that long middle. Writing goals, sprints and Focus mode are on every plan (see pricing), the manuscript editor saves on your device first and syncs, so a train or a café does not stop a sentence, and the plan board shows each scene's status so you can see how much of the book is draft, revised or done. Versions keeps a named snapshot before a big revision, and bringing one back starts a new version rather than overwriting the one you had.

Sources

• Reedsy, "How Long Does It Take To Write a Book": reedsy.com
• N J Simmonds, "How Long Does It Take To Write A Book?", Jericho Writers: jerichowriters.com
• Merilyn Simonds, "How Long Should It Take to Write a Book?", Jane Friedman: janefriedman.com
• Stuart Horwitz, "Finish Your Book in Three Drafts", Jane Friedman: janefriedman.com
• Monica Cox, "Why Your Revision Shouldn't Start on Page One", Jane Friedman: janefriedman.com
• Musael features: musael.com/features