I’m also often asked, “How long did it take you to write?”

Well, that depends on which parts of the process you want to include in that. For the first draft, I would have to say “15 minutes at a time over the course of a year.” While I was writing the first draft, I was working full-time and going to school at Brigham Young University full-time, as well as being newly-married. Thus, I did not have time to sit down for hours at a time and pound away at my keyboard. Instead, I wrote in little snatches here and there, and did my thinking and formulating in the little in-between times, such as when I was walking to class or doing something menial like making dinner.

Each day did not seem like much, but over time those little bits really added up, like grains of sand piling up to create a huge mound of sand.
It felt nice to have that first draft, but it was far from the book that it ended up as. The revision took me about another year in all, and so I guess the most accurate answer to the question is “About two years.”

To anyone aspiring to write, I would say this: Writing does not have to take hours of your time every day. Even if you only have 10 – 15 min to devote, this small contributions given consistently can still add up to something you might be happy to call a finished manuscript.

How have you found ways to write even though you are busy? Let me hear from you and you’ll receive another shot at a free signed copy. Thank you for reading!