How Long It Took 40 Writers to Finish Their Famous Novels

19 thoughts on “How Long It Took 40 Writers to Finish Their Famous Novels

  1. The variety of the lengths of time it took for different authors to write their most famous books us soooo 😮 different. Some stories take years to perfect. I'm always amazed at the authors who can crank out drafts in 2.5 days like Charles Dickenson and in awe of the ones like J.R.R. Tolkien who have the patience to stick with a narrative for 16 years.

  2. Just finished the first draft of an 26,000 word novella, about eighty pages. I give it another 2-3 days of work before it's completely finished, but I'm going to let it rest for a few days first.

  3. Dude! Use google before making videos, please! John Boyne did not write The boy in the striped pyjamas in 2½ days! He wrote the first draft in 2½ days! A draft is FAR from the finished book!

  4. Though this is quite inspirational, this is only how long it took the author to write the book. Not preparing it, editing it or publishing. For example The Clockwork Orange even has its own language in it which was prepared before he started writing .

  5. The books that took a very short time to write can be misleading. Usually the writer has been mulling over the ideas, the characters, the plot for a long while before they sit down to write it. Essentially, it's a mystery how long it took some writers to develop a book. There may be a few cases where it popped out of the blue, but it's rare that a book comes from a complete vacuum.

  6. I try to stay motivated when I see tons of great novels being published daily. I’ve been working on a novel for a year, and I’ve seen every aspect of my novel in other previously published books. That happened after I already slaved to plot something original. Maybe the rewrites will make it all better. I’m still prewriting. Lol.

  7. While this is true, you have to look at it from a classifications point of view. There are 3 classes to this, the unicorn, the discovery writer and the outliner. The unicorn is a book that writes itself and little revision needs to be done. The discovery is to write what comes to mind then and there and whip it back into shape at a later point when you know everything that will happen in the story. Last is the outliner, you plan everything and the last thing to do is filling in the gaps, which can take alot of time. I'd say most of the classics are outlined books, there is a constant feeling of purpose throughout the book, which usually comes from months of planning.

  8. Man some of them finish classics in less than a few weeks and here I am writing a book that probably will never be published and it's taking me 2 years so far!

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