How long does it take to finish a book?

 

Per usual, I was scaring myself by going on google and searching up how everybody else is an author. What kind of books they're writing,how they write those books, how long it "should" take to write said books and whatever else. In the beginning of my writing journey I followed the lead of other authors, successful and looking to succeed. So many authors would say that it took them more than six months to write a book they considered to be good and others said it was at least 2 years before they finished one book. Which led me to believe that the path to writing a good book would have to take me at least a few months. So I spent 5 months creating and writing my first book, which is almost complete garbage if you ask me. I enjoyed writing the book and I still love the character, but I wasted too much time trying to write a book like someone else did. I was too focused on matching my author's journey with some strangers. Fooling myself into believing that writing for a certain amount of time would ensure a good book. It sounds stupid, because it is and I should've known better than attempt to mimic someone else. But I was so eager to have my first book be the one, that I didn't actually write anything worth reading. I just spent a whole lot of time writing nonsense. What I'm trying to get at is, there's no time limit or minimum amount of time when writing a book. Writing a book in two weeks most likely doesn't happen quite that often. Regardless, writing your book in two weeks doesn't mean it'll be great and it doesn't mean the book can't be enjoyable. Masterpieces have been made in no time and the same can be said for things considered worthless. It takes me somewhere between 4-8 weeks to write a book. Then it takes me somewhere between 3-7 months to write another. I've learned to just write and allow the story time to grow properly, however long that may be. Don't scare yourself into thinking that your 3 month book can't be as good as or better than a 2 year book. It's the quality of the story and the author that matters most in the end.