I’ve finally finished the fourth draft of my latest novel-length story, which I started on November 1st of last year, as I’ve done in years past. Considering I finished the fourth draft of my previous novel-length story in October of last year, I’ve gotten a lot faster. Some of that is due to more experience with planning, some of it is better initial writing = less editing, and some of it is moving into a better writing routine. This time around, I took detailed notes on how long I spent on the different parts, so I’m posting those statistics in case you find them interesting or instructive. One thing of note is that editing takes a whole lot longer than writing (which it should).

1st Draft (writing to get it done!)
Started Nov 1st, 2012 and Finished Dec 13th, 2012
Total Word Count: 75,741 words
Words by NaNoWriMo Nov 30th Deadline: 66,770 words
Total Hours Spent: 53.8 hours (3,228 minutes)
Average Pace: 23.5 words / minute
Best Pace: 37.9 words / minute on my old 10 minute train ride to work
* other train days were similarly high pace, but likely lower quality because of the rushed nature
Worst Pace: 11.6 words / minute working from home
* other “working from home” days were similarly bad

Second Draft  (edit to fill in scenes, address “notes for later”, and redo the outline):
Started December 18th, 2012 and Finished March 18th, 2013
New Total Word Count: 86,456 words
* more due to fleshing out certain events & characters which I had left rough
Total Hours Spent: 49.8 hours (2,985 minutes)
Average Pace: 28.9 words / minute

Third Draft (edit for content and flow):
Started March 19th, 2013 and Finished June 7th, 2013
New Total Word Count: ? words
* I didn’t keep a copy of the third draft because it tied so closely into the fourth,
but assuming it’s halfway in length between the 2nd and 4th, I’ll put it at 91,776 words
Total Hours Spent: 56.8 hours (3,409 minutes)
Average Pace: 26.9 words / minute

Fourth Draft (edit for consistency and wording):
Started June 10th, 2013 and Finished July 1st, 2013
New Total Word Count: 97,095
* Most of these words were required to improve the flow of certain sections or to address consistency issues
Total Hours Spent: 23.3 (1,400 mins)
Average Pace: 69.4 words / minute

Project Total:
Started on November 1st, 2012 and Finished on July 1st, 2013
Total Hours Spent: 183.7 hours (11022 minutes)
Total Words: 97,095 (roughly 389 pages at the industry standard 250 words / page)
Total Avg Words / Minute: 8.8 words / minute

Of course this still leaves a good old fashioned copy edit to ferret out mistakes, which will likely take about two weeks.

Previous Book Word Count: 99,348 words