The Time it Takes

Someone asked me this recently, and I rambled on nonsensically for about five minutes without ever giving a clear answer.It took me a LOOONG time to write Waiting at Jimmy's. The idea that eventually became WAJ first started to grow in my brain the summer of 2013. I was working my first full-time, grown-up job after spending my first year out of college doing temp and part-time work and had plenty of time to read. The more books I read, the more I disliked what I was reading and wanted something different. I wanted a book that my post-grad self could identify with. So, I started dreaming about a girl who was struggling to find a job after graduation, as so many recent college-grads do. Years passed before I actually started working on it, and even then, my writing time was sporadic at best. It was probably at least six months of actual writing, spread out over a year and a half before I finished my draft.As soon as I released WAJ in June 2017, I started working on the sequel. I had a lot of time to write that summer because I was between jobs, but having the time to write is very different from knowing what to write. I had no clue where the story was going in book two. I would write a few chapters, then scrap them, write a few chapters, then scrap them. Over and over. I think I ended up re-starting Clara Evans Book 2 at least four or five times. (Don't worry, I didn't totally scrap what I wrote. I kept all of it in a separate document and did end up using some of it in the book.) It was the following June, a whole year of trying, before I felt like I actually had the beginnings of a good story. Thankfully, once I felt like I was on the right track, the book came pouring out in about three months. All in all, I think it took between 4-5 months of dedicated writing time to produce book 2.What most people don't know is that in the months between finishing and releasing WAJ, I wrote another book that's totally unrelated. It's a fictional story inspired by a place that was incredibly important to me growing up. It took me less than three months to write the draft. I guess I was feeling inspired.I also started another unconnected novel in-between my attempts at writing Clara Evans Book 2. I only have the first couple chapters, but I like where it's going.All in all, I guess there's no easy answer about how long it takes me to write a novel. It takes as long as it takes. Each project will probably be a little different. I'm hoping I'll get better and faster as I write more.For me though, the most important thing has been to keep going. Even if it's been a year of trying the get the story to work, I need to keep trying. I need to keep showing up everyday and putting in the time because I know in the end, the time it takes will be worth it.