Did you know that it took Victor Hugo 12 years to write Les Misèrables, and Margaret Mitchell toiled over Gone with the Wind for an entire decade? That, conversely, Stephenie Meyer wrote Twilight in three months, and Charles Dickens penned Great Expectations in eight months – while in the realms of frantically fast writing, Anthony Burgess created A Clockwork Orange in three weeks, and Robert Louis Stevenson got The Strange Case of Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde down on paper in only six days?

With such a differing timescale for novel first drafts, I wonder: is there a right speed for writing?

Ray Bradbury advised, ‘You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.’ This is the thinking embraced by those who write a first draft quickly, getting the bare bones down on paper before reality can encroach much at all. I suspect these writers are also what’s commonly known as ‘pantsers’ rather than ‘plotters’; they write by the seat of their pants, directly connected to the subconscious, the muse, lost in creativity.

At the other end of the scale, it strikes me that you have two kinds of writer. The first is the writer who wants very much to write a book, but can’t quite get around to actually writing it – the writing process elongates because the writer doesn’t prioritise the writing. The second is the writer who wants very badly to write a superb book, one that will go down in history: it doesn’t surprise me at all that JRR Tolkien spent 16 years crafting his Lord of the Rings trilogy; clearly, he put so much thought and effort into each and every word (and there are many).

What, then, is the right speed? I would argue that the middle ground is where the best, most informed and good-quality writing is often to be found. All of the following books were written in nine to eighteen months: Wuthering Heights, Nineteen Eighty-four, Frankenstein, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Jungle Book.

Personally, I aim for around nine months per book: three for research and meticulous planning, and then six for the writing itself and editing. My aim has always been to write not just one book or two, but many, so I have created a rhythm for each year that allows me to create, on average, a book annually. During the writing period, I know just what I am writing, and I know I have allotted time in which to write – but I also have time off from writing, to rest and rejuvenate, which I believe is essential.

If I wrote faster, I think I may become exhausted by the writing process and I worry I would not write as well. If I wrote more slowly, I think I may become jaded by the work in progress, and have itchy feet to move on to the next project – or I may even lose the mood and thread of the current book.

No blog post on writing speed would be complete without considering marketability. For authors these days, there is a constant need to write the next book; spending many years on a single book is a luxury that is usually incompatible with the business side of publishing. I write ‘usually’, because a notable exception at the moment is George RR Martin’s forthcoming book in the Game of Thrones series, which has been a work in progress for five years now. But outside of bestselling epic fantasy fiction, most authors have to always be working toward the next book even while penning the current one.

Whatever the speed at which you write, one fact remains: writing is an engulfing and time-consuming pursuit, but when you reach those words ‘The End’, the sense of accomplishment and fulfilment eclipses the memory of all the sleepless nights.