How long to write a book

Any editor, coach or ghost writer can Tidy Bowl clean it up for you.

Subscribe to our FREE email newsletter and download free character development worksheets! James Scott Bell March 29, There are a lot of ways not to do something. Like the new boat owner a few years ago who was filling up his pleasure craft with fuel for that first time out.

Only he mistook the tube meant to hold fishing poles for the gas tank. After completing his work he started up the engine. The gas fumes ignited and blew the boat owner into the sky. He came down in the drink and was rescued, but the boat was a goner.

You can be just as creative in finding ways not to write your novel. With a little thought and not much effort, you can easily devise methods to prevent yourself from actually finishing a book—or finishing a book that has a chance to sell.

This guest post is by James Scott Bell. Follow him on Twitter jamesscottbell. Go to your favorite writing spot with your laptop or pad.

Perhaps your location of choice is a Starbucks. Sit down with a cup of coffee and hold it with both hands. Do not put your fingers anywhere near the keyboard. Glance out a window if one is available. Wait for a skein of geese flying in V formation.

If no window is available, simply observe the other patrons and make sure they can see your expression of other-worldly concentration.

You are waiting for inspiration. It must come from on high and fill you like fire. Until then, do not write a word. Tell yourself this will relax your mind so inspiration can pour in. Of course, those who think it wise to finish their novels do things backwards.

They do things like this: Establish a writing quota. The quota is based not on how much time they spend thinking about writing, but on how many words they get down.

Some do a daily quota, others do it by the week. But they figure out what they can comfortably get done and set a quota about 10 percent above that as a goal. By looking at what they wrote the day before, they get back into the flow of their story. And one day they look up and see a finished manuscript.

They have lost sight of how not to write a novel. Look over your shoulder. Something may be gaining on you. To not write your novel, constantly worry about how bad your book might turn out to be.

Pause every thousand words or so and think, This is about the worst piece of crud known to man. Where did I put the bourbon? If you think about those doubts long enough, you can even develop them into fears. Jack Bickham, a novelist who was even better known for his books on the craft, put it this way: We fiction writers make a business of being scared, and not just of looking dumb.

Some of these fears may never go away, and we may just have to learn to live with them. How do they do that? But mostly they simply pound away at the keyboard.

They concentrate on the words in front of them and kick that inner critic to the curb. They train themselves to do this via writing exercises, such as:Apr 25,  · It depends on the difficulty level of a book, motivation, and, of course, how much time you have each day to write it.

Research books, for example, can take a very long time to write since it can be difficult to find all of the caninariojana.com: Resolved. pages for visual books, like monographs, photography books, travel books, cookbooks, etc. The average writer can do , words per session.

This might be 1 hour, 5 hours, or a day, depending on your speed and your inspiration. Mar 03,  · Best Answer: Depends on how much effort and thought you put into it.

If you want to write an amazing book, it may take a a while. If you want a simple book, not to overly done, you could make it in a month maybe? Up to you. Send deadlines for chapters and when you want it to be caninariojana.com: Resolved. May 02,  · The main books I have worked on is book 1 and book To me writing a book in three years seems a bit rushed.

Not saying that people aren't taking all the care they can and putting all there love and heart and soul into it. Just seems that writing a book could take near on twenty years to get it all completely perfect. The biggest question new writers ask is “How long does it take to write a book?” And the common answer normally is: “It depends”.

According to this article that interviewed famous authors, when asked how long it took to produce their debut novels, the answers ranged from four years to a decade.

In other words, a very long time. Jack Kerouac spent seven years on the road, but the actual writing of that iconic book took less than a month, typed on a single, taped-together roll of paper.

Anthony Burgess wrote A Clockwork Orange for money and churned it out in three weeks.