How long does it take to write a book?

Oof, this is a loaded question. It’s changed a lot over the years. Back when I first started writing I was a college student and had basically zero responsibilities outside of school, so I could write a book in three months if I was really on a roll. And that seemed long at the time! I remember the first time it took me six months to finish a story and I felt like a failure. Needless to say, while those books provided invaluable practice, none were very good.

Kore’s Field took me two years to write. I’d pick it up and work on it for a month, then put it down for four. This pattern continued until October 2016 (I think?) when I finally decided it was time to finish the blasted book. Five months later it was done.

The Turncoat in Carrington Park took nearly six years. This was partly poor time management, but I also experienced some major life events during that time. Marriage, big career changes, children, etc. I also went through a bit of an identity crisis—not my own identity, the book’s. I basically had two concurrent versions of the story going at the same time and I couldn’t decide which one I actually wanted to pursue. Once I finally settled on a plot it took about four months to finish.