Why Good Books Take So Long to Write?

Writing good book takes time and it is a lot tougher than reading it. There are several reasons behind it. When you read a novel of 400 pages in 3 days, you feel productive and accomplished but to write those 400 pages, takes months or probably more than a year and even after completing the writing, the book has to go through a lot of things and the perfectionism of the writer to conclude it as a good book. So, why good books take so long to write? Let’s read.

Overthinking the Plot

Once the writer gets an idea out of the blue, probably while they are in a café, a family gathering, or the middle of the night while recalling their lives, and starts jotting it down. After they are overwriting their thoughts, they re-read it and realize that they need to sell this book, so is this plot adequate to be a good seller? Is this plot different from the other books that they have read? Is this plot even worth rereading or sharing with others? – One kind of writer thinks about the market and public demand. The other kind will overthink their ability to create a plot and keep on changing the plot almost every day.

Doubting the Effort

When we think of our capabilities and start questioning our efforts we tend to somehow doubt our attempt and tend to give up. Almost all writers suffer from the tendency of being perfect, to be different from others, and to become known by their name. So, whenever they start writing something new or a book that they would love to publish and prepare them for public opinion, critic or appreciation – they tend to read every sentence, dialogue and notice every detail of the characters and their description and delay writing further.

Noticing Major Flaws

Art is always unfinished – a writer can always do better, write better, and make it remarkable forever. Writers like Franz Kafka detested his writings even after they got published – it is always easy to find major flaws in a story when the plot and storyline came from the writer itself. It can be a specific character that they think is not making a huge impact among the readers, or perhaps the character does not have a huge role to play. It can be certain dialogue that is not going well with the character’s description. These are a few small flaws that the writer might notice while revisiting their narration.

Revising the Details

The major issue of writing a good book is probably the revisiting factor. Revisiting the framework and outline based on which the writer first started writing the work. This is the place where the writer may take a lot of time changing certain characters, deleting certain characters, omitting or changing dialogues, certain soliloquies, or scenes that are certain to make a huge impact on the readers.

Re-reading the Work

Lastly, the toughest part is to re-reading the entire book after they are done writing it. A few factors are there such as, the writer is afraid of finding it imperfect, or they are might not ready to hand it over to the publisher, there can be a fear of public opinion, the writer is perhaps afraid of hating his work after all these months of effort.

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