Judging by Canal Bank Dreams and The Bridge that's not surprising. But then again how long should it take to write a novel. Snowflakes took me 2 years from start to finish and six months in revisions. But I'm also an 8-4 working dad who has to get everything out of the way at home before I can start writing, or even thinking.

Michael

I don't think there's any should. We all have to find our own way. When you work full time and you have kids, you do what you can.

It also depends enormously how you define 'write'. I've got first drafts down on paper in three months, by really pushing, but I'd never say that I'd 'written' the novel in that time. More like two years minimum, from first proper work on it to reckoning it finished. And that's before an agent and editor have had their say...

Emma

Good point. If you include the time the agent and publisher have the ms, and the editing time that ensues, it would be pretty difficult to produce a completely finished version of a novel in a year.

Must admit, I was thinking of the time it takes to produce the version I first send off. (And who knows what Kingsley Amis was thinking of?)

I was thinking of the time it takes to produce the version I first send off

For me that's not much less than eighteen months, at a guess. TMOL had passed its third birthday when I finally signed it off, and then I had to go back to it six months later for my US editor.

Elizabeth Jane Howard - who was married to him for many years, and a publisher's editor too, I think - said that Kingsley Amis was the hardest working writer she'd ever come across, which might explain why he only needed a year. It helps to have a wife like EJH, of course, even if she will insist on writing her own novels too , but some of us aren't so lucky.

Emma

I think Kingsley Amis was counselling against a year's framework.

I'd no idea he was married to EJH! I wonder whether being hitched up to another writer makes for an easier time, or not?

What if you're under contract to provide a follow-up book in a year's time? That happens, I believe.

I am! It's never been a bother for me. But I was intrigued to hear a writer saying you shouldn't work so fast (or appear to be saying that, at any rate). I reckon it's up to your individual writing-biorhythms - or something - and also dictated by the project itself.

EJH's autobiography Slipstream is well worth reading. A fascinating and deeply damaged person.

What if you're under contract to provide a follow-up book in a year's time?

The moral of that I guess would be don't agree to a contract that's you're not going to be able to cope with. Which is another reason for understanding how your own writer's self works.

Emma

Like many other listeners I found the advice incredibly useful - and inspirational. Not unlike this writers' forum, in fact. I joined earlier this week.

A few things about method intrigued me - Jake Arnott sketching in long hand in a note book, Marina Lewycka taking her laptop to bed at night and both talking about writing at the time of day which isn't the normal time of day, i.e. very early in the morning or late at night. This last point fits in with another piece of advice I've received - tap into your unconscious mind. Perhaps these times of day enable that more readily.

As an older-ish person starting to find his voice, I was encouraged by Marina Lewycka being published for the first time at the age of 57.

Thanks for publishing the link - I'm listening to the programme repeatedly.

Regards,

Russ