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So, I finished the fourth draft of my novel. It's a very important number, because now all I have to do is have a friend critique it, make a few changes if necessary, then start the process of agent querying. And that, by the way, is my intended route. I would much rather have an agent to worry about everything than do it on my own. Agents can move faster and make sure everything is legit. Of course, if I can't get an agent, I'll go it alone. But that is my first choice. I should be able to start shopping my novel by June or July. It's very exciting.
So, there is a question in here. I started writing my novel in January of 2006. It's now May of 2007, so it took 17 months to finish my first novel. How does that sound? Short, long, neither?
quote:So, there is a question in here. I started writing my novel in January of 2006. It's now May of 2007, so it took 17 months to finish my first novel. How does that sound? Short, long, neither?
It depends, don't you think? If you were a full time writer, that would be very slow, I think. Most full time write at least one novel a year -- that is, from the first word of the first draft to the final polish.
But you're not a full time writer. So taking 17 months to write a novel seems like good part time work to me.
Finding friends that want to read my book is easy. Finding friends that can actually give constructive advice and not be afraid of hurting my feelings? Just one at the moment, but he's awesome.
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No set times. My last finished novel took five years to finish. My novel before that took nine months. (Or was that the one before that? It's all so long ago I forget.)
I've gone down as low as one week---not that it was very good, but it was finished. (Not that the other ones were any good, either.)
My latest unfinished novel is already almost as long as said last novel, but that's only taken nine months to get that far. (I've done better this year, too: I completed twenty-five thousand words of a rough draft novelette, and just fifteen minutes ago finished the second draft at twenty-one thousand words.)
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