How many hours to write?

Quick answer

I'll let you know when it's finished! I'm at week 23 and so far about 500 hours (exc. thinking time which surely would be half again on top). I expect the finish line to be about 750-1,000 hours.

I work full-time from home, running two online businesses: selling wood-burning stoves and raincoats. Very seasonal. Winter is flat-out. Summer is quieter, which means I can steal 2–4 hours a day during “work time” for writing.  Winter writing happens in the evenings and weekends, sometimes fuelled by 'drinks'.

Timeline

Circa 2010 – Spotted the three words Chip Stealing Bastards in a house in North Wales, stitched neatly under an embroidered seagull (see The Evolution of an Idea (and title)). Thought: one day, I’ll do something with that.

17th February 2024 – That day arrives. I’ve been trying to write a novel for four years (nothing to do with seagulls). Scrapped one. Started another. Both ground me down. Ninety thousand words feels like walking to China in flip-flops, so I decide to take a break and write a novella instead (25–35k words). Working title, you guessed: Chip Stealing Bastards. Three acts—beginning, middle, end. About a seagull in St Ives who steals from tourists and has a big fear to overcome. I live in Cornwall, by the sea, with plenty of seagull inspiration. If it’s any good, maybe it’ll sell. Can't be that hard. Can it?

18th March 2025 – I'm officially a planner. Four weeks of brainstorming done. Plan set: 500 words a day, 60 days, 30,000 words. Thirty-six scenes mapped out, one paragraph explainer for each. Beginning, middle, end, low points, high points, mid point, inciting incident, antogonist, protagonist, darkest hour, completion etc. etc. Easy, right?
Feeling: compared to a full novel, this will be a doddle.

Week 1 – Title still Chip Stealing Bastards. I’m on a roll—3,876 words. Sentences are flowing. I keep thinking, This could actually work.
Feeling: like a movie writer who’ll be typing “The End” before the coffee gets cold.

Week 4 – 15,693 words in. Still having fun, but exhausted. Two to three hours a day, eyes on stalks.
Feeling: are we nearly there yet?

Week 8 – First draft done. Finished! Well… finished. 31,581 words of chaos, typos, and questionable metaphors. A crappy first draft in the main. But still—start to end. A first for me. Usually I stall around Chapter 3 polishing words like they’re family silver. (The polishing is the part I enjoy.)

I hand the first draft to my writing tutor. She says "not bad for a first draft" and returns the draft covered in red slashes and "constructive criticism". I need to make the seagull characters more distinctive, give them more personality. Get more into Flick's head. And she'd like more of the human angle. And the plot needs some work.

I resist the urge to send my character "Snap" to peck her eyes out.
Feeling: like a marathon runner who staggers over the line and collapses in a heap.

Weeks 9–21 – Revising Act 1 (14 scenes) turns out to be far more exhausting than expected—harder than writing the whole thing. It’s like untangling fairy lights after a Christmas party: fix one knot, three more appear. Line by line editing trying to make each do its job.

Finally finish Act 1 second draft on 13 August 2025.
Feeling: need a few days off—but happy. Characters now developing their own characters, and the main character finally has a pulse.

• Lazarus “Flick” – sharp-witted young gull with big ambitions and a fear he can’t shake.

• Samoel – his younger brother, bold, curious, and not afraid to question the rules.

• Wencastle – loyal and straight-talking, a newcomer from far away where the sun rises up oot the sea.

• Snap – the hard-beaked enforcer and protector—prone to a little beak-sharpening—proud to keep order in the gang.

• Racket – a dreamer and collector, forever chasing beauty in overlooked things; they never see the world in quite the ordinary way.

• Dreckly – always late but loved by all.

• Twitch – a sharp-eyed female gull, quick to spot what others miss—loves ice cream.

• Malivor – the ruthless gang leader on the rooftops, feared, admired, and never quite trusted.

Weeks 21-23  

The last few weeks have been all about revision of Act 2, twenty-eight scenes in total, and I’ve set myself the rhythm of one polished scene a day. As of 27th August, ten are now complete. It’s hard graft, but satisfying: Draft 2 is finally edging toward its midpoint, and the story feels sharper, hungrier.

The best bit? On a walk the other day, the novella's ending lines finally arrived in my head. Clear as a gull-cry. I scribbled them down before they flew. For the first time, I can see the whole arc stretching from opening squawk to closing jabber.