# How Long Does It Take?



## Nick (Aug 28, 2009)

How long do you usually take writing a story? Or even a chapter?

I'm writing my first furry story and it's taking me a while to get the characters and plot established. I've got it where I want to be now, far as that goes. But was just curious to know how long the rest of you take to write a story. =)


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## NeroFox1989 (Aug 29, 2009)

get really awesome typing skills and hit those keys as fast as you can when something comes to mind.  You must free your mind nick :V
plus if u get enjoyment out of it, the rest doesnt matter


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## Aurali (Aug 29, 2009)

it takes me about 5 (6 hours) days to write a chapter and finalize it.


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## Mojotaian (Aug 29, 2009)

Ya, it takes a long time. I'm working on a novel which I don't think I'll finish... It takes hours to do, you want the right wording, actions, expression, locations, emphasis, order of events, importance of events...

There's a whole goddamn list to consider when typing even a single paragraph...

Of course, if you've thought of it beforehand, it's much shorter...

If you're writing a novel, depends how enthusiastic you are.

Rough first novel... Better of 5 years if you're on and off... Or never even...


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## Shark_the_raptor (Aug 29, 2009)

I'd say three or four days to do a completed work.  (Which is about 6 pages in Works at 10 size font)


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## SailorYue (Aug 29, 2009)

oneshot drabbles: half-hour to an hour depending on how fast i write...

chapterfics/one chapter: forever ><


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## GraemeLion (Aug 29, 2009)

A few hours to get draft one of a short story.. a  few days to weeks to get a novel key framed up and outlined.  A few months to get a novel's first draft out there.. about a year to get a novel worked  through drafts.

That's about what I'm looking at.


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## Kaevon (Aug 29, 2009)

It depends.  If it's a poem of some kind that I'm really into, I could get it out in ten minutes or less if my rhyming is spot on.

If it's a short story or a chapter of a story, it really depends on what everything's like that day.  I could easily get it out in an hour or two, but there are factors like people randomly coming into the room and distracting me with conversations, tv, computer, etc.  That, and if I don't have the right music on, it can make me start to pace back and forth out of...I don't know, just irritation for sitting in front of my computer for too long.

As for novels...way too long. =>_<=;


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## Karou WindStalker (Aug 29, 2009)

Depends on how much my muse is nagging me.

I tend to take ~ 1 to 2 weeks per chapter of my current fanfic, not including sending it to the proofers.

But my chapters are also between 18 and 30 pages, at 14 point, which I use since I'm pretty blind even with glasses.

So my best answer is : it depends on a lot of variables.


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## Nick (Aug 29, 2009)

Alright. That's kinda what I was hoping to hear. I started mine last night and worked on and off but didn't get alot done. Three or four paragraphs, just figuring out the names I want to use and the plot and all that stuff. Hopefully things will start to run a little smoother now.


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## Karou WindStalker (Aug 29, 2009)

Sad to say this .. but right now, I kinda make up names as I go, basing at least a portion of their name off their species, either latin, greek, or other version of their base species..

Sometimes, at least.

IE : Wolf - Lupin, Caelus, Romulous, Remus, Fenrir, And other names .. Some similar to mythological names, and some just because they sound like a good name for a wolf. :twisted:


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## CrazyWolfGuy (Aug 29, 2009)

When on meth, ideas come out at about 200 words a second.  Logically, at least one has to be good.

Just kidding, for some its easy, some its hard.


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## TakeWalker (Aug 29, 2009)

I think I've kicked out short stories in an hour or two.

Lately, it takes more like a week if I've got both the time and the focus to finish it.

I think my average right now is one five-page chapter a month, though. -.- If that. And most of that is done all at once, after I've gotten sick of sitting on it for however long.


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## Ragnarok-Cookies (Aug 29, 2009)

Depends on how you are into it, how fast you can type, how well do you properly type in the first place, your grammar level, and how fast you can edit/change/revise the first draft.

._. I can produce a chapter in 6 hours (Hard on and off work), and then proof it and maybe revise it a couple of times and whatnot. That's if I'm really into it, so 2 days max.


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## panzergulo (Aug 30, 2009)

Varies between anything from a couple of hours to months. Really, it depends.

Some Thursday Prompt responses and other extremely short short stories I usually write in an hour or two, the prompt responses I give a proofread right away and post them, other stories I let be a few days and return back to them later, giving them (hopefully) a few edit/proofreads. So, a few days to a week is a fair approximation on my regular short stories.

Some short stories I write several weeks, because I lack inspiration or something. Or don't have time, that's another choice. I have never written a novel, but I dare say it would take at least... say... four months to several years. Four months would be extremely short and the novel would be barely above the level of a draft, but considering the speed I can write, that pace can be achieved. Quality is totally another question, of course...

I sometimes have the short story completely thought through in my head before I even start writing, at those times the writing is usually faster. Sometimes I invent while I'm writing... then the writing process might take longer. It depends.

Yup. Those were my ideas. Don't worry, writing takes just as long as it takes. A masterpiece can't be created in an hour, it takes time.


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## Mojotaian (Aug 30, 2009)

Yup, it's hard to do intro's too, because they're majorly uneventful and sometimes plain boring... It's hard to push past them too, and sometimes they can be so important...

As for the novel writing, lol, I'm just piecing it together as I write!


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## Aeturnus (Aug 30, 2009)

It depends on how focus I am on whatever I'm writing. If I really get into a flow, I can write up to twenty to thirty pages within a day, and this is by hand. If I struggle or my mind really isn't into it, I'm lucky if I get ten pages. of course after I write so many pages, I type them up and edit what I can.


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## M. LeRenard (Aug 30, 2009)

> Yup, it's hard to do intro's too, because they're majorly uneventful and sometimes plain boring... It's hard to push past them too, and sometimes they can be so important...


If your intros are all boring, you're doing something wrong.  That should be the most exciting part of the whole story, if you want anyone to read it.

In terms of hours, I usually write about 5 pages in two hours.  Sometimes it's faster, sometimes slower, but that's about right most of the time.  In terms of days or months, I have no idea.  It all depends on what else is going on in my life, what kind of story it is, what importance I attribute to the work (am I sending it out for publication, or just posting it to FA?), things like that.  So it runs the gamut for me.


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## Aurali (Aug 30, 2009)

M. Le Renard said:


> If your intros are all boring, you're doing something wrong.  That should be the most exciting part of the whole story, if you want anyone to read it.



*THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS*

People are always wondering why they never seem to have any comments.. well if you don't open a story well.. who is gonna read it? I'd rather not skim through a book, so please. entertain. At the start. You'll have time for boring filler later.


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## TakeWalker (Aug 30, 2009)

If your intro is boring, delete it and just start at the interesting part.


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## Aurali (Aug 30, 2009)

TakeWalker said:


> If your intro is boring, delete it and just start at the interesting part.



Would recommend against just deleting it if it's vital to the story development, however. you can always put it in a later chapter of the story and build from there.


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## StormKitty (Aug 31, 2009)

One professional full-time author claims to put out about 2500 words per day, 5 days per week.  Out of 8 hours per day working as a writer, about 3 hours are spent actually drafting story text.  The other 5 hours includes editing and proofreading, doing research, overall story development, plotting and outlining, and "business of writing" stuff like managing submissions, correspondence with his agent and publishers, fanmail, and so forth.


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## TakeWalker (Aug 31, 2009)

Eli said:


> Would recommend against just deleting it if it's vital to the story development, however. you can always put it in a later chapter of the story and build from there.



No, delete it. If you want to keep the information included, then there's definitely a better way to include it. Even if it's just a flashback to deposition later on, your rewrite will no doubt come out far better than the original.


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## Zeichwolf (Sep 2, 2009)

Take's right. One of the things that really is a turnoff on stories is a slow introduction. Create a tweak to it that makes the reader curious, something that draws them to wonder "what is the character going to do?" or "what is about to happen?" If you can find a way to incorporate the information you need in there, great! If not, try to find some way to tack it on, either by someone's explaination, the suggested flashback, etc. But you really need to get that initial pull going or the rest of the story just becomes pointless; no one's reading it.


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## Shotgunjim (Sep 2, 2009)

Normally, it takes me about 5-7 hours to write a chapter, sometimes even longer. There are various factors to consider, like writers' block. Right now, I'm writing a novel-length story and I'm stuck on chapter five, just trying to think of dialogue and where I'm going to go with it all.


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## Karou WindStalker (Sep 3, 2009)

Length of time for me also depends on if I'm translating from my handwritten notes.


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## VÃ¶lf (Sep 3, 2009)

Nick said:


> How long do you usually take writing a story? Or even a chapter?
> 
> I'm writing my first furry story and it's taking me a while to get the characters and plot established. I've got it where I want to be now, far as that goes. But was just curious to know how long the rest of you take to write a story. =)



I've written a variety of things:

_Poems_: usually one sitting, less than an hour most times
_Songs_: Usually get lyrics done over a few days. Writing music? that can vary greatly.
_Stories_: Depending on length of story, obviously. My normal short story is 2-3 hours. Sometimes I write it over a few days, breaking it down a bit.
_250 Page Novel: _I completed this in a year and a half, chipping away by writing almost a page every single day most of the time.

Chapters in that book: Oh days, definitely.


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## Tiara_Estella (Sep 4, 2009)

Nick said:


> How long do you usually take writing a story? Or even a chapter?
> 
> I'm writing my first furry story and it's taking me a while to get the characters and plot established. I've got it where I want to be now, far as that goes. But was just curious to know how long the rest of you take to write a story. =)


As you can see from the variety of replies.
It depends on the person. If you like being detailed and having everything set from the beginning then it'll take longer than usually expected.


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## nybx4life (Sep 8, 2009)

Nick said:


> How long do you usually take writing a story? Or even a chapter?



Depends if it's a chapter story or a short story.
A short story usually takes anywhere from a half hour to a few hours (considering if I have enough silence to work in)
A longer story with multiple chapters takes a few hours per chapter.

Because I go back and edit things, it takes longer, but usually it doesn't go past a few days work just writing.


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## Karou WindStalker (Sep 8, 2009)

Another thing that interrupts my writing is the fact I need to do all my chores around the house first.

Home ownership is a full-time job in of itself.


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## Gavrill (Sep 8, 2009)

It could take me weeks to write one chapter. Depends on how fast I come up with a good intro.


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## Atrak (Oct 2, 2009)

Mojotaian said:


> Ya, it takes a long time. I'm working on a novel which I don't think I'll finish... It takes hours to do, you want the right wording, actions, expression, locations, emphasis, order of events, importance of events...
> 
> There's a whole goddamn list to consider when typing even a single paragraph...
> 
> ...


 
Heh heh. It doesn't take me long  . All of that stuff we need to plan out...I don't  . I free type. I just start typing, and the story flows from my mind to my fingers, which then type it, like they are doing right now for this response  . If I am in the mood...it takes me a few days to write a 100+ page novel/novelette, Using Word, size 12 font. Though if I have brainstorm (more than usual, a brain thunderstorm  ), I can knock it out a couple of days. I am limited only by my typing speed and my motivation.


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## GraemeLion (Oct 2, 2009)

atrakaj said:


> Heh heh. It doesn't take my long  . All of that stuff we need to plan out...I don't  . I free type. I just start typing, and the story flows from my mind to my fingers, which then type it, like they are doing right now for this response  . If I am in the mood...it takes me a few days to write a 100+ page novel/novelette, Using Word, size 12 font. Though if I have brainstorm (more than usual, a brain thunderstorm  ), I can knock it out a couple of days. I am limited only by my typing speed and my motivation.



I've tried free typing without even the vaguest idea of where I'm going.. and to be honest, at the end, I had to toss away around 90% of what I'd written.  The remaining 10,000 or so words were a nice short story, though.. but it would have been better for me to just do the pre-work and know where I'm going and how I plan on getting there.

Because then, I had to take that 10,000 word short, and expand it back into a coherent story.. and then I had to draft that through editing and all that.

It would have saved me a ton of time to just know from the beginning instead of freewriting it.


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## Atrak (Oct 2, 2009)

> I've tried free typing without even the vaguest idea of where I'm going.. and to be honest, at the end, I had to toss away around 90% of what I'd written. The remaining 10,000 or so words were a nice short story, though.. but it would have been better for me to just do the pre-work and know where I'm going and how I plan on getting there.


 
Therein lies my problem. I have tried planning stories out. I have created really good plots and storylines (in my opinion), but my problem is that once I plan it out, I lose all motivation to write it. The single biggest motivation for me to write...is that I want to see how it ends  . If I plan it, then write it, it's like rereading a book...right after I finish it the first time. It bores me. I know that planning is good, and makes the story a *lot* better, but I just can't do it. I can't do something if I'm not motivated to. I am trying to wean myself off of complete free typing, but it's a slow process  . I am using a little bit of planning in my series, but only a little. I don't want to lose interest in it halfway through, just because I over-planned. I have a *very *general idea of what is going to happen, but no details whatsoever.

...

Let me try explaining this another way.

...

For me, I write my stories like I'm living them. The main character is me. I write his reactions as I believe I would react. Honestly, when I'm writing, if my protagonist is happy, I'm happy. If he goes into a rage, I feel anger burning, and the only way I can calm it is by continuing to type until I get to a point where the me in the story is no longer angry. I *immerse* myself into the story. That's why planning doesn't work well for me. Planning and then typing it is like remembering something, and no matter how good your memory is, it pales in comparison to the actual experience.


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## GraemeLion (Oct 2, 2009)

atrakaj said:


> That's why planning doesn't work well for me. Planning and then typing it is like remembering something, and no matter how good your memory is, it pales in comparison to the actual experience.



I can understand that sentiment.

However, fiction isn't about the real world.  Even historical fiction isn't REALLY about the real world.  I'd go so far as to say that even autobiography and biography isn't about the real world. 

The experience is what you live for in these books though.  So you have to take emotions.. heighten them.  Refine them.  Dialogue gets changed up.  In a book, people's phrases are almost rehearsed, they're so clean.  In the real world, nobody talks like that.  Heck, the President and other key public speakers use teleprompters, and not even THEY speak that cleanly.

The point is, a novel isn't real.  It can never really and truly match the experience of the real world, and that's good.. because the real world is relatively boring.


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## Volpino (Oct 2, 2009)

I use both methods of writing, in a way. Planning out has it's advantages, but my planning tends to be very shallow and I find the characters wander away from my planning quite often.

As for slow beginnings, it does depend a little bit. You have much more time  in a novel to establish a relationship with the reader. I'd say about a page even. With a short story, if you haven't caught the reader's attention in the first line, you might need to be rethinking things.

With what ML Renald says about deleting the opening, I mostly agree, but I use strikethrough instead. I'm not big on getting rid of anything until I've seen where my characters have taken me.

With all the wandering threads taken care of, I'll end by saying that I can do as much as 5,000 words a day if the characters are up to it. My record for taking the longest was a single paragraph taking 3 hours. I was experimenting with some things regarding rhythm and punctuation. The first round of critique trashed it and the whole paragraph was scrapped less than a day later.

I'm very much against people thinking that the correct format of writing is x in y amount of time. I've heard of seminars that are based on teaching people to write a novel in a single week. I find it interesting though that the author that teaches one of those only has a novel published about once every five years.

The amount of time that comes naturally to you, is the correct amount of time it should take you to write. =)

Look at my personal hero in writing, J.R.R Tolkien. He produced only a handful of books and really hardly ever worked on many. Yet, he left vast amounts of notes and letters that show us how he slowly and carefully worked his way towards his final goals.


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## GraemeLion (Oct 2, 2009)

Heh..

One of my writing professors had a quote about Tolkien.  He said that Tolkien had it easy.  He simply created a gigantic encyclopaedia of all the events that ever happened in the world, and all the characters that ever lived there, and then went in and pulled the story out of that.


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## Volpino (Oct 2, 2009)

I can agree with that on the story level, but writing the stuff before was a huge task. =P


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## Fere (Oct 12, 2009)

All sorts of factors come into play I guess. Myself, I can scribble out a 3k short story in a few hours; but I have to be really zoned-in to do it. 

Anything larger I tend to split down into stages and events, rather than chapters. The book I'm working on was started in February this year, and I'm like 60% done now (all in rough draft - I don't trust the pc to handle it just yet). With my day-job shift pattern, I usually get about 7-10k done on a good, coffee-laden, full week. So 8 months gone, and I'm looking at a late Oct/early Nov finish.

But above it all, and I don't know if anyone else feels the same or experiences the same.... I spend like 3 or 4 times the amount of hours planning and setting out a story (storyline, characters etc...) compared to actually writing it out.

I resort back to my ethos when I was at uni.... if you don't feel you can start it or write it right now, don't. If you feel you can, go for it. If you've planned it well enough, time won't ever be a problem. 

Overriding everything should be enjoyment I believe. It shortens the time spent, makes everything flow smoother and just plain makes you want to pick up the pen every time something cool pops into your head. It's why I have a pen and pad next to the bed.


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