Which story was the quickest to write and which was the slowest?

Home Page Forums General Site Info Topic of the Week Which story was the quickest to write and which was the slowest?

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #107419
    Kathleen
    @kathleenramm
      • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
      • Total Posts: 635

      Which story was the quickest to write and which was the slowest? Why?

      So for me the shortest amount of time it took to write a novel was 5 months and that was my three siblings and my “Cliche Story”.

      Yuh, yeah. That was the working title that never got change because we wrote it mostly to have fun. Heh. We purposely wrote it to be as cliché as possible. So yeah, it ended up being both quick and fun to write. However, that was mostly due to my sister who did like 85% of the work and wrote like 5,000 words a day, haha.

      The story that has taken us the longest amount of time is the one we are currently working on. And it’s been 6 years in the making. It’s shocking how long it’s taken us. It has been due to getting stuck during the outlining process, trying to get through that problem, then realizing we have to rework the entire story to fix it.

      We have done this countless of times over the past six years.

      The good thing is that we figured out what was causing all the problems so it’s been pretty much smooth sailing for the past few months.

      So what about you? What story took you the shortest amount of time to write and what took you the longest?

       

       

      #107420
      Lorelei Angelino
      @lorelei-writer
        • Rank: Charismatic Rebel
        • Total Posts: 32

        God question! I haven’t finished anything yet but here’s what I didn’t finish:

        Shortest: a sci-fi WIP that I got more than 20K in in only a few months, but I never needed up finishing cuz I had no plot LOL

        Longest: my current WIP. The idea for it came in April/May of this year and I spent a lot of time just brainstorming and right now I’m only 15K into it after more than half a year. XD

        Writing is a journey . . . journey for the Lord.

        #107424
        R.M. Archer
        @r-m-archer
          • Rank: Loyal Sidekick
          • Total Posts: 243

          Shortest: Not counting short stories, since I can write at least one of those in a single day, the project that took the least time for me was the novel I wrote the first time I officially participated in NaNoWriMo. I wrote around 53k in 23 days. I have no plans to do anything with that novel because it’s kind of terrible and there are very few parts I’d be interested in salvaging, but it was a big win and it did have an impact on my writing progress moving forward.

          Longest: I have this massive, complicated fantasy trilogy concept. It’s three “standalone” books that take place over the same time-span and overlap with one another. Book one went pretty smoothly for a while, but due to the overlaps I can’t finish it until I know what’s happening in the other two books, and the other two books have been a nightmare to make work. I started this series in… 2017, I think, and I’m still nowhere close to finishing. In fact, I think I need to scrap the entirety of books two and three (90k+ for one and around 20k for the other, I think) and start over with those. But I’m still invested in the concept, so even though I’ve barely touched it since book two started giving me massive trouble in 2018 or 2019, I haven’t been able to completely set it aside and I’m not giving up on it altogether. I’m just waiting for the time and mental/emotional energy to bring it back to the forefront and really invest on getting it to work again.

          Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.

          #107425
          Linyang Zhang
          @devastate-lasting
            • Rank: Eccentric Mentor
            • Total Posts: 1700

            @kathleenramm

            Shortest was a quick three page short called “Delusionary” that was based off of a quick two line conversation someone and I had during rehearsal one day. But short stories aside, I can write 50-80k work in 40 days. But that doesn’t count, actually. Which perfectly segues me into…

            Longest: “Thirteen Ways to Infinity” is an absolute monster of a project. I’ve been working on it for 6 years so far and have, currently, a projected vision of 5 more years. Not to mention the time it’ll take to edit and rewrite afterwards… It’ll probably end up being around 3 million words? With 52 installments of 50-80k (see above) right now I’m trying to work as fast as I can, haha. But yes, this beast/monster/nightmare of mine is going to be spending a large portion of my life with me. Hopefully I can put it down one day and get other stories done as well.

            Lately, it's been on my brain
            Would you mind letting me know
            If hours don't turn into days

            #107472
            SeekJustice
            @seekjustice
              • Rank: Chosen One
              • Total Posts: 3365

              @devastate-lasting

              All I can say is…wow.

              That is…quite a lot of words.


              @kathleenramm

              The quickest I ever wrote a full length novel was in Camp NaNoWriMo one year, 2018 i think, when I finished my 90k novel in three weeks. I have never done that again 😛 I think the longest I’ve been actively working on a project is about eighteen months, and that one still isn’t done yet. I do have a novel I’ve been plotting, left on the backburner for about ten years at this point though.

              INFP Queen of the Kingdom commander of an army of origami cranes and a sabre from Babylon.

              #107479
              Kathleen
              @kathleenramm
                • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                • Total Posts: 635

                @devastate-lasting

                Oh wow. Thirteen Ways to Infinity sounds crazy but in the best way possible. What is the premise?

                #107483
                Linyang Zhang
                @devastate-lasting
                  • Rank: Eccentric Mentor
                  • Total Posts: 1700

                  @kathleenramm Lemme see if I can find the premise again…

                  There are 13 worlds. There are Magic Users. There is a question: “Why is there no happy ending for a Magic User?”

                  13 different installments, following so many different storylines that somehow entwine together.

                  This is the story of the Magic Users, and their search for a happy ending.

                  This is the story of their mad Crown Prince, who tries to save them all.

                  Lately, it's been on my brain
                  Would you mind letting me know
                  If hours don't turn into days

                  #107486
                  Issabelle Perry
                  @issawriter7
                    • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                    • Total Posts: 976

                    Shortest story to write: That’d be the first novel I completed at like 12 years old. I wrote it in a month, and I have no idea how long it was, probably less than 50K but maybe not. I wrote it by hand, and I was probably able to finish it so quickly because I had a lot of free time on my hands. I was homeschooled with few other hobbies, y’all. 😂

                    Longest story to write: probably my current main project, Heir to His Crown (about 90,000 words long). I’ve been working on it for about a year now and it doesn’t look like I’m going to be wrapping it up anytime soon. Which may not seem that long, but for a girl who doesn’t typically spend more than six months on a story… it’s long. XD It’s been a hard story to fully grasp my head around the world and characters they’re too complex for me so I’m constantly changing or adding to it and then like, well, I need to start another draft. XD It’s been mostly fun, though.

                    God gives His hardest battles to His strongest soldiers.
                    TeenWritersNook.com

                    #107488
                    Trahia the Minstrel
                    @trahia-the-minstrel
                      • Rank: Loyal Sidekick
                      • Total Posts: 193

                      @kathleenramm

                      I think my shortest time to write a novel was the first novel I ever wrote, a fan fic which I’m pretty sure took me under a year.

                      My longest has been my current project The Prince of WalfKlau (working title), in which it took me roughly 2 years to write the first and second book, back to back, another whole year to revise the entire first book twice, and now I’m starting revision the on 2nd, and it’s a 5 book series. Methinks I’ll be working on this own for a while longer.


                      @issawriter7

                      Sorry to be a bother, I was just wondering if you got my last email, after the last one you sent me.😅 Also, I just finished the Ascendance Trilogy. Man it was good! I’d read the False Prince years ago, but I only read the next two books this last week. Such a great series, with a really satisfying end!

                      So gooooooooood!

                      The end of a story, a beautiful picture; a feeling of longing yet hope~
                      That’s my wish to create.

                      #107489
                      Issabelle Perry
                      @issawriter7
                        • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                        • Total Posts: 976

                        @trahia-the-minstrel

                        You’re good. Yes, I did get the email!! Sorry for my late response. The weekend was busy and then school slammed on me right after that, but I plan to be catching up to all my emails this evening. *GASPS*  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I AM SOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaah, YES!!! See? What’d I tell ya. 😉 I LOVE this series!!!! WOHOOO!!!! I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂 Which one’s your favorite in the series? For me, it’d be The Shadow Throne.

                        God gives His hardest battles to His strongest soldiers.
                        TeenWritersNook.com

                        #107491
                        Trahia the Minstrel
                        @trahia-the-minstrel
                          • Rank: Loyal Sidekick
                          • Total Posts: 193

                          @issawriter7

                          Yes! Shadow Throne is my favourite, too, I think! Jaron’s tactics in it are just so good, and the ending was just so satisfying, and there were times where I wasn’t sure how he was gonna get out of those situations, but he did. And I really wanted him to be with Imogen at the end somehow, and he was — although I kinda couldn’t believe she had somehow survived all that. But who cares! The ending was so sweet — and Conner is such a grey character.

                          Also, Roden being Harlowe’s son❤️. That was sweet. I really love how Jaron proved himself as a king, over and over — and how he was always him, no matter what situation he got placed in. Great story. Great story. Also one of the most entertaining uses of 1st person POV I’ve read😁.

                          The end of a story, a beautiful picture; a feeling of longing yet hope~
                          That’s my wish to create.

                          #107492
                          Daisy Torres
                          @daisy-torres
                            • Rank: Knight in Shining Armor
                            • Total Posts: 691

                            6 years??? I can’ttt. My longest story took me 4 years, and surprisingly, it was a novella XD Later on, I wrote a much longer story that only took me 2 years! (It’s published now, by the way)  I still haven’t figured out why one took so much longer, but I entered Crazy Writing Week with the second, where I wrote like 20k in a week, so that mayyy have helped XD

                            "It's easy to be caught up in stardust and whispers when reality is so dark and loud."

                          Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
                          • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
                          >