I began writing my first book February 6th, 2022. I published my book 473 days later on May 25, 2023. From the day I wrote my first word to the day I hit publish, I spent 98 sessions writing, editing, and preparing all 94,899 words for print. Here is a breakdown of how I spent that time.
It ought to go without saying that the number of late night jogs or even later night showers (which is when I do most of my thinking) I spent considering the book far exceeded 100 total sessions.
Although I did not log the number of hours spent working per session, I would guess most sessions were 3-5 hours (although once or twice I worked on the book for 12 hours straight). If I had to guess, I'd say my book took me about 500 hours to complete. Throughout of my 56 writing sessions, I logged an average of 1,695 words written each day.
It's fascinating to look back on how impactful my summer goal was to write 50,000 words.
Although it took me 473 days to hit publish, I finished my first draft of my book much earlier than that. I spent about 5 months in a cycle of distancing myself from my writing, and then editing it. I find waiting long enough to come back to my writing with fresh eyes to be very helpful in my editing process. Anyways, I finished writing my first draft November 14th, 2022, only 281 days after starting it. Throughout the editing process, there were five distinct drafts.
