This can mean when the idea was first conceived or when you started outlining or when you started writing… or all three.
For me, the idea was first conceived in 2015 (seven years ago). I tried writing it then… didn’t work out so I shelved it. Finally pulled it back off the shelf around 2018-2019 to start the outline. I had already outlined a lot of it in my head but the official (written) outline took a month (and it wasn’t finished yet) and then came NaNoWriMo in 2019. I stopped outlining and went to writing.
Three years later, I’m now over 60,000 words in… and still not finished.
Most the ideas I’m currently waiting to finish are about a year and a half old. The Cinderella Smut is 2 weeks older than NaNo. Everything else goes from 2 to 15ish years?
But nothing is written on has dragged on for actual writing time of a full year. Most are merely months.
RISE: The Red Sun Rapture Saga was a story that my angst-filled, anime-fueled teenage self had constantly day-dreamed about throughout middle and high school, like waaaaaay back since 2006 at the earliest. (I was a bit of a mal-adaptive daydreamer back then. Still am, I guess haha.) I finally decided to put it to paper and get it out of my head in November 2019. 170k words and three months later, I finished writing my very first book on February 14, 2020.
The very first “draft” of Marvela Mystic was done in crayons on construction paper when I was a wee little kid in elementary school. The characters and story were both inspired by my favorite stuffed animals lol. :3 When covid hit decades later and I ended up being furloughed from work for six whole months, I thought, “Well, I’ve got all this free time now that I’m out of a job and Rise is over with, might as well write something else.” And then a month later, I finished the first draft of Marvela Mystic. I’m 29 now, for what it’s worth.
Both Rise and Marvela are very different stories now than how they originally began in my head lol.
And then the writing bug bit me and now I can’t go back. :c
I had the titles “The Dark Between Dreams,” and “Hollow is the Heart” stuck in my head since the end of 2020/beginning of 2021 but no stories to go with them. And I had a desire to write about people in the afterlife and something with swords (because swords are cool) but no real ideas of how to tackle those plot bunnies. Then ONC 2021 rolled along and the first draft of The Dark Between Dreams just kinda exploded into existence that Spring/Summer. Its sequel, Hollow is the Heart followed very quickly after.
Weird that my “youngest” series is the one taking up all the real estate in my head right now hahaha.
Finished my previous book in October, started something else for NaNo, gave up on that about halfway through November, so started this in December? Something like that. (♯^.^ღ)
Lunar Heart, Shadow Bound: The idea was created in 2012, but I didn’t expand or touch it until NaNoWriMo 2016. I got it professionally edited 2021, and now rewriting some of it.
Atlia Princess story: It’s a merging of several ideas. The oldest idea in there is from around 2013 or so. The newest idea in there is from 2019. I finished one POV. Taking a break
Their Posthumous Lives duology: The magic realism stories, well, the idea was created in 2016 or so, with the desire to write a sequel of sorts to my satire story, The Facade of Quad in Nimrod. But the full idea didn’t come out until 2017, and then I wouldn’t start writing it until 2019. I’ve since finished book 1, uploaded to Wattpad, and now editing book 2. Book 2, I finished drafting through NaNoWriMo 2020.
Some epic Oz-inspired thing: The idea came to me in 2020 and I’ve finished the draft, but still kind of on and off working out the kinks.
I came up with the idea for my wip in the last week of October 2021 and worked on it for NaNo, but most of what I wrote then had to be rewritten for lack of conflict, most of which happened over the past two weeks, along with writing the rest of the first half.
Now I have a deadline of a week from yesterday to finish it and I’m not sure I can get it done but I’m gonna try anyways.
Rise: The series began at the end of 2017, but I didn’t start working on Rise specifically until early 2019
Tell: 6 years
Shelter: Like 7ish months?
Serpent in the Shadows: Original version started way back in like 2015 but it underwent a huge revamp about 6 months ago and is practically a completely different story now
Sheep Among Wolves: Series began in 2018? Started working on Sheep Among Wolves specifically about a year ago
Untitled story with Elm: Like 3 months
Devilgames: Around 8 years
Untitled story with Tatum: Like 6ish months
Untitled story with Fallon: 4 or 5 months?
Untitled story with Tessa: Also 6ish months?
Asunder: Just over 2 years
Of Blood and Ashes: I think 8 years
Untitled story with Hazel: About a year and a half
Untitled story with Melanie: A week lol
Untitled story with Cyra: A month or so?
Untitled story with Anneliese: A year
Those are my main active projects at the moment at least lol. I have plenty more I’m not actively working on, including 2 series that have been around for 11 and 10 years respectively, if I remember correctly
My now discontinued / on the shelf project was ideated first in 2019, and I wrote a draft of it for 12 or so chapters, then shelved it, restarted in March of 2020, and finished that draft in three months. Then I grew up in my writing a lot, so I decided to rewrite, but the rewrite is a hot mess of plot, so it’s currently shelved.
The other idea of mine, the one in my current wip came around Feb last year. I wrote around 12 chapters, restarted twise, and I’m currently on the 10th chapter this time. I’ve decided not to go back and edit, no matter how strong the temptation, because I’ve been struggling with finishing.
