One of the most popular questions I get asked is: “How long did it take you to write…?”

Honestly, that’s a question I ask myself too. I need to know how much time I invest and how much I earn for each hour invested for all my other jobs (translator and editor, in case you’re wondering) and this summer I decided I would begin to keep track of my writing time. Now I’ve decided to share some results with you.

These numbers apply to a short story (5,500 words; usually, a full novel is around 70,000...