I've been writing my first of a trilogy for 3 years, Yes I said 3 years.
It's a hobby and I would have no problem keeping my story all to myself, forever, mine mine mine.
My inspiration came from a bunch of conspiracy theories I've been pretty much fed my whole life from my paranoid ganja smoking father.
I read somewhere J.K Rowling took 7 years to finish the first Harry Potter book 1990-97. John Boyne however wrote 'The boy in Striped Pajama's' in less than 3 days.
How long have you been writing yours and what was your inspiration.
Let me justify that statement that I've been "writing" "The Sleeping Beauty" for 33 years, even though I haven't set pen to paper on THAT project for most of that time.
[Actually, if you count the "prefects' pantomime" as the inception of the whole project, it's been over 42 years.]
I'm a Guardian cryptic-crossword fan. Many a time I'm stumped for a solution to a particularly difficult clue. I'll put the crossword aside and get on with my life. Then, the next day, I'll pick it up again and the answer will just be THERE. I hadn't thought about it CONSCIOUSLY in all those hours, but some part of my brain had continued puzzling over it.
I like to think that that's happening with "The Sleeping Beauty"...
Let's see... Back in 1982, I decided to write a collection of re-tellings of classic fairy tales, turning them on their heads. (The witch in my version of Hansel And Gretel is the "goodie", H+G are prejudiced against her, because their parents have always used "The Witch!!!" as a bogey-woman to keep them in line.)
The Collection was to be called "Jimm's Fairy Tales" (the name of my current web-site), and since "The Sleeping Beauty" was my totem fairy tale (I'd already written one version for my school's "prefects' pantomime", another pantomime version for the drama society of my teacher training college to perform for local schools, and yet another - more risqué version - for the same drama soc to put on for our fellow student teachers.) I decided to start with it.
[My H+G version, "The Witch And Her Two Guests" has 2,951 words and I considered this to be a +/- standard story length: one chapter.]
Since "The Sleeping Beauty" was / IS so important to me, I decided that it would be 2 chapters long. At the end of 2 chapters, I thought, "Well, it really deserves 4 chapters..." After 4 chapters, I opted for 8. After I'd written 8 chapters, it was obvious that this was going to be a novel. "And a novel needs a lot more thought: I really have to get to KNOW my characters. So I'll write the other stories and come back to this one later..."
There are 6 and a half fairy-story rewrites on my web-site... and I still haven't got back to my first love, "The Sleeping Beauty". I'll do it some day, if I don't kip over first.
So - after all that blurb - the answer to your question: 33 years and counting...
Some very interesting responses.
I love the journey you embark on throughout the whole novel writing process. Growth of my knowledge for the craft, and the evolution of my story and characters as a result. But most of all I love the way writing gives me a much needed break from my sometimes harsh reality. Taking my mind to some bizarre but fun places I will never experience in real life.
I wish i'd have started writing sooner.
Thanks for sharing guys.