Every once in a while, I run across statements that suggest if a novel doesn’t take two or three or whatever years to write, it can’t be very good. I don’t know of any published novelists — at least not any who have written/published more than one novel — who would say such a thing. That’s because someone who has written and been published multiple times knows that a book takes as long as it takes. No more and no less.
I have read absolute garbage that it took an author years to write, and I have read masterpieces that were created in a matter of weeks. And whether it takes weeks or years to write a book, it always takes blood, sweat, and tears.
If you are an aspiring writer and it’s taking you two or three years to write a book, fine. Accept it as the way you write (unless, of course, you are merely a procrastinator and should be working harder). But beware the arrogance of assuming that someone who writes faster than you is not writing as well.
-rlh-
