How to Write a Book (Without Getting Stuck or Giving Up) Part 3: How Long Should a Book Take to Write?

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One of the first questions new writers ask is also one of the most misleading: How long should it take to write a book?

You’ll hear every possible answer. Three months. One year. Five years. “As long as it takes.” At Book Cave we believe none of these answers is especially helpful when you’re sitting down to write your own book while balancing work, family, and everything else life demands.

The real issue isn’t speed. It’s expectations. Most abandoned books didn’t fail because the writer lacked discipline. They failed because the timeline the writer imagined didn’t match the reality of writing.

Why Most Writing Timelines Fail

Writers often create timelines based on enthusiasm instead of experience. At the beginning, the idea is exciting. The opening scenes come easily. Progress feels fast.

Then reality arrives:

• The middle of the book gets complicated
• Life interrupts your schedule
• Doubt creeps in
• Revisions take longer than expected

Suddenly the original plan—“I’ll finish this in three months”—starts to feel impossible. When that happens, many writers assume the problem is themselves. More often, the problem is simply this: The timeline was unrealistic from the start.

What Actually Determines Writing Speed

Writing speed varies widely between authors, but a few factors affect nearly everyone.

• Available time. Someone writing one hour a week will move differently than someone writing every morning.
• Experience. The first book almost always takes longer than later ones.
• Clarity of the idea. If the story or argument is still forming, progress slows while you figure things out.
• Revision style. Some writers edit heavily while drafting. Others write quickly and revise later.

None of these approaches are wrong. They simply produce different timelines.

Typical Word Counts by Genre

Understanding common book lengths can help you set realistic goals.

• Romance: 60,000–90,000 words
• Mystery/Thriller: 70,000–100,000 word
• Science Fiction & Fantasy: 90,000–120,000+ words
• General Fiction: 80,000–100,000 words
• Narrative Nonfiction: 50,000–90,000 words

These ranges aren’t strict rules, but they give you a rough idea of the distance you’re traveling. So you can see that writing a 100,000-word book is a very different project from writing a 40,000-word one.

Writing Speed vs. Writing Consistency

Many writers focus on how fast they write. But finishing a book rarely depends on speed.

It depends on consistency. A writer who produces 300 words a day will finish a 90,000-word book in about ten months. A writer who produces 1,500 words once every two weeks may take years. Neither pace is inherently better. The key difference is regular progress.

Books are rarely written in bursts of inspiration. They’re written in small, repeated sessions.

Build a Timeline That Fits Real Life

Instead of asking how long a book should take, try asking a more useful question: What pace fits my actual life right now?

Here’s a simple way to figure out how long your first draft will take.

1. Choose a weekly writing schedule
   Be honest about the time you truly have.
2. Estimate your average writing session
   Many writers produce 300–800 words per session when drafting.
3. Multiply by your weekly sessions

For example:

• 500 words per session
• 3 sessions per week
• 1,500 words per week

At that pace, a 90,000-word draft would take about 60 weeks. That might sound slow. But it’s realistic—and realistic timelines are far more likely to succeed. Many authors could hold down another full time job and still write this much.

Example 2:

• 2000 words per session
• 5 sessions per week
• 10,000 words per week

Many experienced authors who promote with us on Book Cave can easily write 2,000 words a day. At that pace, a 90,000-word draft would take about 9 weeks. Your perfect goal may be somewhere in between these examples.

Revising and Editing

Keep in mind that the estimations above are for a first draft, and there will still be days of editing and revising to add to your overall timeline. We’ll talk about revising and editing later on in this series, but for successive drafts, authors will often revise a certain number of pages or chapters per writing session. As with the writing the first draft, the number of pages you complete at each sitting will determine the overall time. Take a look at the number of pages or chapters in your book, determine how long you would like to take revising, and set your goal from there. Seasoned authors often complete their second drafts in a third of the time it takes them to write the first draft. But again, go at your own pace.

Proofing and/or having a third-party edit your book will take additional time. While an author may be able to proof their own book in days, a paid editor will often take up to a month after you give them your book, so schedule them as soon as you know when your book will be finished. (It is always good to get a second set of eyes on your book.)

The Goal Isn’t Speed. It’s Completion.

Fast drafts make impressive stories. But finished books are built through persistence. A steady pace that survives busy seasons, discouraging days, and messy middle chapters will always outperform a burst of motivation that burns out quickly.

Writing a book isn’t a race. It’s a long conversation between you and the page—and consistency keeps the conversation going. In the next post, we’ll tackle the moment nearly every writer encounters sooner or later: What should you do when you get stuck in the middle of your book?