How Long Does It Take To Write a Book

How long does it take to write a book? It's one of the most common questions we receive at Reedsy, and for good reason. Just as you wouldn't start a road trip without checking your route, it's smart to have a timeline in mind for your writing journey.

In this post, we'll tackle this million-dollar question using real data from writers. We'll also share actionable tips to help you speed up your writing process and finish that manuscript faster.

Now, since time is of the essence, let’s begin.

How long does it take to write a book?

Based on Reedsy data from a 2021 survey, it takes authors between 6 months to a year to write a book. Your own writing timeline will depend on: 

1. the genre of the novel,
2. the word count of your story,
3. how much research you do,
4. how much available time to write you have, and
5. how many revisions you make to the completed draft. 

Of course, every author is different. There are famously wild outliers from the range above:

• Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in just three weeks, whereas The Catcher in the Rye took J.D. Salinger 10 years to finish! (To be fair, he was busy fighting in World War II at the time. See what we mean by time available, though?)
• Even a single author may have totally different timelines for different books. For example, Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in six weeks, while David Copperfield took him over a year.

Every book is different as well. Word counts vary wildly between genres: just compare the average word count for fantasy books (100,000 to 120,000 words) to that of romance novels (80,000 words). Naturally, if both authors are writing the same number of words per day, the romance author will finish before the fantasy author!

So as you can see, there’s no wrong amount of time to write a book. If there’s a demon perched on your shoulder berating you, “You should be writing faster than this!” — ignore it. As long as you’re getting words down on the page, you’re writing at a good pace.

Okay, but how many words should I write per day to finish a book in 6 months?

If you’re aiming to finish a draft of a 75,000-word book in about half a year, you need to be writing 500 words every day.

But what if you write more than that — or less than that?

Here’s how long it will take you to write a 75,000-word book if you write X number of words per day:

• 200 words/day — 375 days, or just about one year
• 500 words/day — 150 days, or 5 months
• 750 words/day — 100 days, or 3 months
• 1000 words/day — 75 days, or 2.5 months

Remember that this is all based on the most tenuous of assumptions, however: that a human being can really churn out a certain number of words every single day. (If that were true, then George R.R. Martin would have finished Winds of Winter already. Right, George?) In reality, we will likely not find ourselves writing 500 words every day. Our villains will be the regulars: family emergencies, vacations abroad, birthday parties, a social life — essentially, everything outside of writing that defines us.

That’s why we recommend that you create a more realistic writing schedule for yourself. You can do this in a few clicks with Reedsy Studio — a writing app made for authors, by authors. Writing goals are simple to create in Reedsy Studio, which is built to smartly calculate the target number of X words/day that’s ideal for you, depending on the demands of your daily life.

How long did it take other authors to write their books?

Whether you’re on pace to write your book in 3 months or 10 years, rest assured that you’re in very good company. As we mentioned earlier, famous authors such as Jack Kerouac and Charles Dickens took anywhere from between weeks to years to write their books.

Here are some more data points about the authors we all know and love — and how long it took to write their novels.

• John Boyne took 3 days to write The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
• Ray Bradbury took 2.5 weeks to write Fahrenheit 451
• Arthur Conan Doyle took 3 weeks to write A Study in Scarlet
• Stephenie Meyer took 3 months to write Twilight
• Antoine de Saint-Exupéry took 6 months to write The Little Prince
• Emily Brontë took 9 months to write Wuthering Heights
• L. Frank Baum took 1 year to write The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Mary Shelley took 1 year to write Frankenstein
• Toni Morrison took 1.5 years to write Beloved
• Philip Pullman took 2 years to write The Golden Compass
• Harper Lee took 2.5 years to write To Kill a Mockingbird
• F. Scott Fitzgerald took 2.5 years to write The Great Gatsby
• Gillian Flynn took 3 years to write Gone Girl
• Audrey Niffenegger took 4 years to write The Time Traveler’s Wife
• William Golding took 5 years to write Lord of the Flies
• George R.R. Martin took 5 years to write A Game of Thrones
• J.K. Rowling took 6 years to write Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
• Margaret Mitchell took 10 years to write Gone With The Wind
• J.D. Salinger took 10 years to write Catcher in the Rye
• J.R.R. Tolkien took 16 years to write The Lord of the Rings

So, don’t feel discouraged by any means if it’s taking you longer than expected. Unless it’s taking you 5 years to write a children’s book, you should be fine. Speaking of which…

How long does it take to write a children’s book?

Children’s books are much shorter in nature, and therefore it takes less time to write them (though one can’t underestimate the degree of care and effort that goes into writing for kids, where every single word needs to count).

Here’s how long it takes to write children’s books, on average:

• Picture books (500-1,000 words) — 1-2 weeks
• Early reader books (1,000-2,500 words) — up to a month
• Chapter books (10,000-15,000 words) — 1-3 months
• Middle-grade novels (25,000+ words) — 3-6 months

But whether you’re writing a children’s book or a 125,000-word . Let’s now look at a few strategies to write faster.

So how can I cut my writing time in half?

Though it takes some serious discipline to get a book done that fast, the good news is that there are tricks to finish a book sooner rather than later.

The standard disclaimer applies, of course: don’t set goals that you aren’t prepared to meet, lest you end up more discouraged than ever. But if a few months of sacrifice sounds like a worthy tradeoff for a finished manuscript, read on.

1. Work from an outline

We’re sorry, pantsers: the work does tend to go a lot faster when you outline first.

Now, we know that while outlining will be second nature to some, it’ll still be like pulling teeth to others. But your outline doesn’t have to be intensely detailed, nor does it need to be impervious to change! You simply need a framework so you don’t either a) write too much irrelevant content that later gets cut, or b) find yourself stuck on what should come next. Both these scenarios are massive time-wasters that can set you back weeks if you’re not careful.

So whether it’s a standard chapter-by-chapter synopsis outline, a “mind map,” or a character-based plan, try and plan ahead before you write. An organized outline is absolutely paramount to reducing how long it takes to write a book.

Do it in Reedy Studio:

• In your left-hand side panel, click on the “Planning” button to access an in-built Hero’s Journey Template.
• Click anywhere in the template to begin visualizing and sketching out scenes.  

2. Track your progress

To keep on top of your internal deadlines for word count, we recommend progress tracking. There are some great writing apps, like Ink On and Word Keeper, to help you keep track of your word count goals, time your sessions, and maintain summaries and stats for all projects. You can also create a simple spreadsheet and keep track of your session times and WC milestones in there. Again, the theme is simple: whatever helps you stay organized!

Do it in Reedy Studio:

• In your “Goals & insights” panel, click “Add writing goal.”
• Enter your goal name, your target word count, and when you’d like to have it written by.

3. Find an accountability partner

Other than progress tracking, having a writing partner is probably the best thing you can do for your productivity.

What makes it even easier is that it doesn’t have to be someone you know in real life. Though it’s great to write together in person, you can always find a writing buddy (or several) through writing communities available online and forums, which include people from all over the world. This may even be better than working with someone you know, because you’ll be more objective with each other: about goals, deadlines, and even feedback if you decide to swap manuscripts.

The key thing with a writing partner is to stay in constant contact. That way, if one of you falls off the writing wagon, the other one can provide a pep talk — and maybe some gentle guilt-tripping — to get them back on right away.

Do it in Reedsy Studio:

• Here we could pitch our collaborative feature maybe.

4. Never go more than two days without writing

Remember when we mentioned “long breaks” as one factor affecting your writing timeline? Well, it might sound obvious, but if you want to finish your book faster, don’t take breaks. Or at least, don’t take breaks for more than a day or two.

This is because, if you’re aiming to write a book in three to six months, you simply can’t afford it. Not only will you lose precious writing time, you’ll also lose the “flow” that you obtain after writing for several days in a row. So try to write at least a little bit every day! Remember: 100 words of “flow maintenance” is still better than nothing.

Do it in Reedy Studio:

• In your “Goals & insights” panel, click “Settings.” You’ll be shown a screen with the different days in the week.
• Pick the days you can work on your book.
• Reedsy Studio will automatically tell you how much you need to write per day (or per Pomodoro sprint) to reach your overall writing target.

5. Get used to the “pressure cooker”

The truth is, if you’re trying to write a book in under six months, it’s going to get intense. Most writers have day jobs, many have families, and of course there’s the constant juggling of hobbies and social obligations. Cram in writing on top of that, and you might feel like your head is literally going to explode!

But don’t give up before you’ve even started. The first few weeks are the most painful, and after that — well, things don’t get easier, per se, but you grow accustomed to the pressure cooker. Believe it or not, it’s actually better to be busy: when you don’t have very much free time, you tend to build extremely efficient habits.

We’ll end with this: how long it takes to write a book is almost entirely dependent on you. If you want to finish it as soon as possible, the best thing you can do is start today. So get off the Internet, and get cracking on that manuscript. You’ve got this!

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Another way to speed up your writing time? Choose a writing platform that lets you stay organized, leaving you free to do the important stuff: write! For more advice with getting started plotting, check out this advice from NYT bestselling author Caroline Leavitt!