If you were to ask a panel of average persons how long they think it takes to write a novel, the median estimate would probably come in somewhere between five and eight months. That’s pure conjecture, but I’d gamble $10 that it’s close to the mark. I can tell you with some certainty they wouldn’t think in terms of years… but they should.
Once upon a time…I, too, thought six months was in the neighborhood. Even after I began work on my first novel—200 pages cranked out in seven weeks—I thought I would have a finished product, ready for agents and auctions and galleys and gala release parties and book tours with nary a word changed by an intrusive editor… That book, which I’ve spoken of before in the blog, has been dead since early 2004.
Monday night I attended a meeting of a local writers’ group and when I announced that I finished my first novel over the holidays, everyone applauded. Within a few minutes, I had orally delivered my sharpened pitch (available over at Publishers Marketplace) and expanded on a few questions. I fended off attempts to paint the novel as autobiographical (perhaps I should have Billy re-matriculate at Princeton). And then someone asked the question prompting this blog: “how long did you work on it?”
The files have moved around from computer to computer, so those dates aren’t reliable. But I posted the first piece of the novel to an online workshop (Zoetrope) on 6/19/2004, one day before my 27th birthday. By then, I had to have been working on it for at least two months (probably more). One file, containing a mere scrap (too lousy to publish here), entitled “Paper Mill Murders,” bears a last modified date of 9/23/2003.
I mailed my first query letter on 1/7/2007.
A conservative estimate pegs this project at THREE YEARS from conception to representation. (That's assuming I find an agent in the next 2-3 months, hardly a certainty!)
Now, for all those non-writers out there, here's another dose of reality. Tack on an optimistic 3-6 months for an agent to sell my manuscript, and 18 months from publisher acceptance to publication, and you’re talking about FIVE YEARS from scribbling my first notes until my book finds space on the shelves at Barnes & Noble. (Actually, where I want to see that hardcover is in the greeting area of Trident, the coffee shop and bookstore where I edited half of it!)
What takes so long? A few friends have asked me this question over the last two years, prompted, no doubt, by how far apart in time they heard me say “I’ve almost finished!” The answer is that you have to travel a good distance between the first draft and anything worthy of sharing. The shape of the story may remain, but wordsmithing takes hours and hours. My favorite quote on the challenge of a novel (and the difference between writing styles comes from A Moveable Feast. There, Hemingway is talking about Scott Fitzgerald (who wrote quickly) and says:
I wish I had the kind of discipline to get every word right the first time through (I have to believe the computer has all but eradicated that style of craft). But the reality is that I have gone over some chapters of my novel, red pen in hand, one hundred times. I know I’ve talked about this before on the old version of my blog, but it bears repeating. ONE HUNDRED TIMES. Just the other day, I deleted an entire chapter that contained sentences I wrote back at the beginning. That’s editing. (And I’m far from finished with that task!)
This has been a meandering entry, but it’s a topic that has been on my mind for a while now. Now I’ll go back to fidgeting over what a certain agent thinks of my manuscript…
Labels: Writing
I remember when you started this, Jason. Huge Congrats on finishing. And I can't wait to say Grats about an agent, and then a big publishing deal!
01-15-2007: Contacted first agent with my novel.
01-06-2007: Revamped home page launched!
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jason@jasonshaffner.com