My average WPM is about 55 when I am typing without too many pauses. I can go as high as 80wpm but that's usually for copying or rewrites. So, if I do buckle down and write for one single day: 55wpm = 550wp/10m = 3300wp/h = 52800wp/16h I think that'd be more than an acceptable time frame for a first draft. If anything, I could be done a rough draft in 2 days of 8 hours each. Also, this would work for a story I know from the back to the front. Just food for thought. If we can do a day job for 8 hours, why not write? I suppose everyone has different limitations but I know many of us would benefit terribly from a first draft.
Just a few minutes ago I read that Stephen King finished "The Running Man" in under 70 hours without any changes before it was published.....
I think that's quite reasonable actually. Let's do the maths (maths is fun!): I took a dactylography course back in highschool, but I never really practiced so I'm a bit rusty - I can do about 40wpm (Edit: tested myself to 38wpm). An 8 hour work day: 18240 words. A 5 day work week: 91200 words. I think that's about right for a novel-length work. This leaves me 435 hours (about 4 months) for research, plotting, revisions, rewrites, etc. That also seems quite reasonable... Problem: for the last 4 weeks I wrote approx. 2000 words. A short story. That's it. I worked on it approx. 2 hours a week=~8 hours, which means I spent 7 hours on research, plotting, revisions and rewrites (mostly research, a single revision). That's 1:8 ratio, which is pretty much ABOVE average 1:12 ratio.... But still, with my time schedule, I'd need around 46 weeks for the said 91200 words novel.... I published my first story 18 years ago: I SHOULD have already finished 18 full novels by now, even with my low end working habits... WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?!?!
Nothings wrong with you. Not everyone is meant to publish yearly or even once every two years. Maybe you just didn't make a career out of it. Some do, some wait till retirement, some only give what story they have.
Sounds fairly reasonable to me but yeah, it really depends on what's being included here. There are so many variables. I remember spending probably a total of about 3-4 months on a first draft, but that was working on it pretty irregularly (so spread out over a longer period of time), and rarely more than 2-3 of hours per sitting. That was just the typing. Brain-storming and especially editing was another kettle of fish entirely.
yes, capnogrow, there is a santa claus!... and an easter bunny, and tooth fairy and a Stephen king who can write a whole novel with nary a typo or grammar glitch!
I guess when I reckon the time it takes to write a novel, I don't mean just the first draft. I mean all drafts necessary to get it into publishable shape. Maybe that's not what they meant on the show, though.
To me research is fundamental to a good novel. Without it yiu so run risk of plot holes etc. And that takes time. Also included in research I would put creating outlines and plot mapping. So im with you ed
Michael Moorcock wrote his early novels in three to ten days each (novels around 60K words each; shorter than most novels today but still an accomplishment). His book Gloriana took six weeks, which must have seemed an age to him.
i have worked it out that, at a push, i can do about 1400 words an hour, or, if i include in the fact that i didnt write for much of december, i can write a novel in 2 months (most of november, and most of january, with a few days break in between) and also, the piece i wrote is 90,000 words long too... it depends on the person, i, @A.M.P. and probably a lot of others, touch type, which is something that takes a lot of practise to do, but is well worth it.
It's just theory maths. When I wrote my latest piece, it was a complete rewrite. So I knew every scene and piece of dialogue. I just had to make it sound better. One day, 15k words, 10 hours. That's half the amount my math suggests. But I believe it nonetheless a fair amount. Quite true, I only ever have a typo when my hand or keyboard slightly shifts without me noticing. Years of non-stop keyboarding gave me that skill. Useful as anything to do with computers I can do in seconds. Very frustrating watching someone else type slow, it's something I take for granted and expect everyone else to do. I can't imagine it any other way.
I know that feeling @A.M.P. ive just started on my second novel (which is part II of the draft i finished) and ive not even been working on it an hour and a half and im at 2k words
I can touch type pretty well, but who can write as fast as they type without it coming out crap? Typing speed isn't the limiting factor for me. I spend 90% of my writing time staring into space, getting my imagery right and working out the rhythm of my sentences. I suppose if I just wanted to charge through a first draft to get it all down, I could do it as fast as I can type. I tried doing that with a 23,000 word novella once, and I wound up with the most depressing heap of pages I've ever written. I'd much rather sweat over the first draft, taking it slowly and carefully, rather than face rewriting garbage from beginning to end.
@minstrel I know what you mean. For me, I prefer getting the first draft done if I have a clear idea of what I want to show. If it sucks, I have a much easier time reworking and looking up specific things that I need to improve. However, I also need to know the story back and forth or then I just get stuck. If I work too hard on a single chapter or scene, that's the way it stays. I procrastinate far too much to advance by taking it slow. I need to speed through and then work piece by piece. Speed can, and does for me, lower general quality.
Well, Emily Bronte only turned out one novel in her entire life so her working speed was 1 novel/30 years and look at how that turned out. My working pace is about 1000 words/24 hours, (if I'm dedicated) and that includes time for rest, research, and all the other stuff that keeps me alive and sane. I think quality is more important than speed because it saves time in the long run on rewriting and reworking the plot. My longest/fastest ever was a 3 month work measuring to about 120k words, and I've carefully consigned it away in a hidden folder within a partitioned drive protected with a password I've forgotten.
I think you should write a novel about this. A sad turn of events, indeed. I've never lost any of my work (an indescribable blessing), but I'm sure it must be horrible.
It is about right for me. Two to three weeks to get the original words on paper followed by months of off-and-on editing. 47, ten hour days? Mostly editing? Sure.
