Hello! I'm an amateur writer and a lover of your fanfics! (THEY ARE PERFECTION!) I was wondering how long it normally take for you to write your stories? Sometimes I've been writing for an entire afternoon and then realize I've only written 500 words. It can be frustrating, especially, when it's only a rough draft.
hi there~ (replying 4 days late?? sorry) (also thank you!!! glad you like my stories~)
writing for hours and realising you’ve written almost nothing is something that happens to all writers, i think. it definitely happens to me. (also 500 words ain’t bad?? i think that’s maybe a standard day’s writing for writers who aren’t fic writers)
so. basing this solely on my currently published+completed works: from the point of writing the first word, to the point where i hit publish on ao3, my fics can take me anywhere from 1.5 hours (What’s a Hickey?) to 8 months (Angelhawke - although almost all of that was written in a 2.5 month block, the rest was procrastinating and editing). and an average of 4 months isn’t even correct, given the massive expanses of time between some fics.
when i actually get to typing, and the world disappears and i become one with the keyboard, i type about 1,000 words per hour. more if it’s largely dialogue or a sex scene, because for some reason that goes faster. less, if i’m tired or i’m writing a block of narrative text. (again, 500 words is perfectly reasonable, anon. you crafted those 500 words with great effort. therefore they are worthy words.)
when I was writing Angelhawke I was writing 8 to 10k per night. it was the most bizarre, intense, and mentally freeing part of my life, hands down. i did nothing except write, eat, and sleep. but you know what? that was perfect. because for two years prior, all i’d done was eat and sleep. writing Angelhawke filled a void in my soul that has never become fully empty since, even at my worst times. (is this relevant? i dunno. but 8 to 10k is a HELL OF A LOT, even for me. one night i even did 12k and i have no idea how, i think i typed for 14 hours straight. nowadays i count 5k as impressive, 4k as a good point to stop if i’m tired.)
fff i wish i could just answer “lol a long time” but I’M REALLY BAD AT SHORT ANSWERS. the answer varies so much as well!!! you deserve an accurate answer dammit, and besides that i’m kinda interested too
also i should note that i’m not really sure what the concept of a “rough draft” involves, since i’ve never worked like that. i just put the whole thing down and tweak until i’m happy. (i lost marks in school for this. teachers want complete rewrites and AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT, especially now when my work is often novel-length.) sometimes i’ll scrap a scene if i’m stuck and take the story a little way in another direction, but i’ll never write the same scene a second time. i mean, if it didn’t work the first time, i’m not doing it again. i don’t even understand how rewriting is meant to help. (wouldn’t you just end up with the same words again?? if the same thing happens???) (in case it’s not obvious, i failed all my classes at school. i’m good at writing, i’m not good at knowing how to do things the way teachers like)
in comparison:
Try-Something Tuesday (42k) took me five days, while Drop Anchor (also 42k) took me about 2.5 months.
Welcome All Winchesters (60k) took me 2 months + about a week, and i deleted a third of what i wrote. Held in Your Tender Hands (59.8k) took me 4 months almost to the day, including a month’s break.
Shadows Across the Camera Lens (13.7k) took me two days, each day being six months apart, and then a couple days of editing. Roost (12k) took me exactly a month, writing for only 6 of those days. (which is weird, ‘cause i remember it taking two days right next to each other. i must’ve enjoyed it so much it made time fly.)
the time a fic takes is so completely relevant to my health at the time. if i were healthy i’d probably write more consistently. i honestly have no idea how long it takes anyone else to write, but i’m trying really hard not to compare, because the only person whose record i need to beat is my own. and even then, i gotta learn to go easy on myself, because if i don’t meet my own ridiculously high standards all the time, i’m just going to be miserable. to all writers, especially struggling or chronically ill writers, i recommend being gentle with yourself, and making your goals relative to your current ability, not anyone else’s, and not your previous self’s.
tl;dr – at a guess, excluding outliers, the average fic probably takes me about a week. maybe. that’s probably wrong. i’m always probably wrong. spoiler alert, i am not a credible source for my own information. and i’m really bad at answering messages, both concisely and on time.
ALSO I HIT 1400 AO3 SUBSCRIBERS WHILE TYPING THIS AND GOING TO MY STATS PAGE FOR LINKS THANK YOU THAT WAS FUN TO SEE
