xlxii - Day 23 - How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story?

I've found that, on average, my process can be summarized in five stages: concept, outline, first draft, first re-write, final version. Some of these stages I've already outlined elsewhere, but I'll include them (in brief) for ease of reading.

In the conceptual stage, ideas float around in my subconscious colliding with each other until they create a spark. I'll take note of these momentary flashes of inspiration, and then leave them to float around some more. The ideas that stick together develop a sort of gravitational pull that result in further ideas being pulled in. This process can take months.

Once a concept has enough substance to it, I'll actively develop an outline. The outline commits the main actors and plot points to paper, and it's this step that I would consider the official start of the writing process. The outline takes a couple weeks to complete, regardless of the length of the story. The initial writing is usually a matter of an hour or two, but I like to give myself time to contemplate the events of the story for a while and let them settle properly.

The first draft takes the outline and creates the structure of the story, and in my mind represents the start of proper writing. Here we take the point form of the outline and transform it into proper prose. At this stage I try to set out the main scenes in a way that makes sense.

The first rewrite addresses gaps in the main plot and fleshes out subplots and secondary characters. The aim is to have a fully formed story by the end of this process. It's not pretty but all the pieces are there and they work.

The second (and usually the final full) rewrite addresses language.  Once the bigger picture is in place, the magnifying glass comes out and I look at the construction of individual sentences and paragraphs.  I'm no poet by any stretch but I like to tune the cadence of the words, to make sure they fit well, or well enough, within the rhythm and pace I'd like to set for the scene.

Being able to summarize the process in such simple terms doesn't mean the process is anything but painstaking (or sometimes even painful).  Though the first draft is usually cranked out in one pass, the first and second rewrites can involve retooling the same few paragraphs a dozen times or more.

Yes, but how long does it take?  I can manage about 500 "words worth reading" per hour when I'm on top of my regimen.  If I write every day it minimizes the amount of chaff that I need to blow out before the useful if not necessarily usable words start to flow.  That means a short story in about two weeks and - if I thought I could stay sane (someone please ask my wife not to give me that look) - a novel in about 9 months.

Realistically, though, I would double both estimates as I like being married.