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It depends on the book and what else is going on during my life, but it usually takes me about six months to write and revise the first draft.

Generally I finish a first draft in 2-6 months, then I set it aside for a while so that when I come back to it I can read it with fresh eyes and figure out how to improve it.

Each of my books took roughly one and a half years to write. Some may have taken a shorter time to write the draft and a longer time to revise, while others were the opposite.

It generally takes me about nine months from the point the book is conceived to the point my editor sends it off to be typeset.

Once I've got the first draft down on paper then I do five or six more drafts, the last two of which will be polishing drafts. The ones in between will flesh out the characters and maybe I'll check my research.

I'm a passionate believer in revision, and a lot of my writing gets done during revision process. It isn't just tweaking: I tend to break it apart and remake it every time I do a new draft.

I draft quickly and then revise, a lot.

I started to write a new editor not too long ago and had it about half done after two days.

I don't write a quick draft and then revise; instead, I work slowly page by page, revising and polishing.

Revision is the heart of writing. Every page I do is done over seven or eight times.