I have 1 novella completed, but it's very short: only around 24,000 words. I wrote it two years ago when I was 18. I finished drafting it within three months, which now seems absolutely insane to me; at the time, however, I just wrote it without planning much at all. It's not horrendous, but it's not great; those who have read it tell me the prose is coherent and the story makes sense, but that some of it is a little monotonous and wishy-washy. I don't think I'll ever publish it, given the weird length and the lack of genre. But it was certainly worth writing, and it felt great to finish it. I wouldn't surprise me if the stat is correct in the general population: I know loads of people who start novels and never finish them. But most of them were never very determined to do it in the first place; they wrote just for fun and dropped out when it started to get hard. If you don't do that, you'll finish. Simple as that.
I'm part of the 99% that started but never finished. Although I could always continue it someday. I finished the first chapter and then decided that it needed a prologue so, I wrote the prologue and then decided that it needed a break. It's still taking a break. That was about eight years ago. I currently have one book complete that is 4655 words long. I don't know if that qualifies as a long-short story or a novella.
That's basically my situation, although I haven't completely quit out, I just tend to rewrite too often such that it never gets finished.
Is this a typo? Because 4655 words is a short story, and not even a long short story. It's nowhere near the length of a novel. Novels are usually upwards of 80,000 words long.
Excuse me please, it's just that I don't know what constitutes a short story and what constitutes a novella. So, thanks for that. I never said it was anywhere near the length of a novel. I fact I specifically stated that I have never completed a novel. Nevertheless, thanks for the clarification that it is a short story.
My apologies. It's just that you called it a "book," and to me, that means a novel or a collection of short stories. Sorry if I misinterpreted you.
No problem, apology accepted, to me a book is either and e-book of any length or paper with writing on it that is bound in the form of a book. Even if it is only eighteen pages. Thanks JackElliot.
I have four complete, two of which are currently "making the rounds". I have several others either first draft complete or in various stages of progress. A total of eleven and the ideas keep coming and compelling me to jot down notes on them for future projects - only the most compelling of which will ever see the light of day. Bear in mind, however, the responses you get on a writers' website such as this are logically going to be skewed as those here have a sincere desire to complete at least the novel on which they are working. The percentages here are not going to mesh with your 1/99 numbers. There are countless would-be authors in the world who fantasize of writing 'the next greatest novel' but either have no skill, no confidence, no idea. They begin with much gusto and energy and somewhere along the way lose interest or just get frustrated and give up. These make up the 99% of would-be writers who begin but never finish a novel. There are likely tens of thousands, possibly millions of them!
I think it's both, Georgia: practice for a second, better one and -- very important -- practice in revision. Somebody once said that "writing is revision" and that's really true. Personally, I like revision because I expect to have to do it. For me, the first draft is the hard one, but when it's finished, at least I have a beginning, middle and end, I have all my characters and scenes, and the story's conflicts have been worked out. After nine books, I can tell you that most writers I know have at least one novel that they stuck in a drawer someplace and they hope it never sees the light of day!
Unfortunately, none~ but I'm working on it. I have two stories in the works (As seen in signature) and I hope to finish one of them this year. In a year and 3 months worth of writing, I'm quite happy that I've managed to write over 100,000 words already. I guess that's something to be proud of, considering I'm apart of the 99% at the moment xD
Woah seems everyones been writing for quite some time...I'm currently writing my first novel! Like VM80 I always prefered short stories!
I have written 3 novels, none of them publishable loool. But I was no more than 15 or 16 when I wrote them. I'm older now and have experienced life a lot more so I'm currently writing my 4th novel.
Hi Georgia, I finished a first draft of one in January, only 60,000 words, but that's all. It was kind of a disaster anyway.
I wrote one when I was about 17 so it's horrible because my English was bad back then as well as my grasp on story-telling. I'm currently writing a new one, it's idea has been dormant for about 5 years now and I just got suddenly motivated to rewrite it. It should probably end up being 3 volumes, I'm up to 2,251/2 words/weeks. Very impressive for a lazy bum like me. =D
Re: I had an idea for what I thought could be a great story for years and tried to put it on paper many times. Having no idea how to lay out the thing so others could follow led to frustration and my giving up. Then sitting in a theater years later watching my story unfold on the screen before me as the last installment of Indiana Jones played made me both angry and excited. Excited because my story was close enough to the movie to realize I could indeed at least have an idea that would sale. Not long after I began flirting with a new story but did not start writing for many months. When i was finally ready, I started but struggled for nearly 2 years to get the entire story developed. Like you I really slowed when getting down to the final chapter. But I did finally finish the ~110k word novel and have edited it multiple times and had two others provide comments. I'm really proud to have finished it but am presently struggling with finding an agent. It's a difficult and painful process. I started picking out 3-4 agents to query at a time followed by waiting their required 4-6 weeks (or more) and before I knew it I had been trying to be taken seriously for over one year. I understand why so many end up self publishing and may do the same after I return from the three month trip I'm on. It's hard to be patient for so long when you think you have a great story but it doesn't tarnish the effort I've put into the writing of my first novel and while it could end up being my last, I cherish the experience and so will you if you finish it. PS: Lol, I do have another awesome plot in my head for another one but am unsure I'm up to doing this all again.
