Concept to Publish Timeline

It seems that every time I find a blog or cool website that talks about the steps needed to develop and publish a book it uses a published novel as the example. My novel is not yet published, hopefully it is close, but I wanted to talk about my timeline so far.

The Beginning
I started coming up with the idea for The Seamus Chronicles in January of 2012. It was not intended to be a book. It was a fantasy/story that I used at night in bed to help me fall asleep. In February of 2012 I decided that I was having so much fun with the characters in my head I would try and document them in a book. I started writing daily and by April I had written more than 25,000 words and finished the first third of the book. Then I quit. Stopped writing altogether, didn't open the file again for five months.

The Middle
In September 2012 I decided that I should try and finish the novel. My thinking was that if it came out decent I could make some money and have a nice little side business. But the money didn't motivate me and I didn't go back to writing. In October I opened the file for the first time since April. Once I re-read the first third of the book I realized that I had to finish the novel. I wanted to see what happened to the characters. I started writing everyday and got deep into the last part of the book by November when I had to stop. I stopped so that I could write the second book for NaNoWrimo which I won (meaning I wrote a 50,000+ word novel in a month). Then in December I went back to book 1 and finished it up.

The End
I'm not at the end yet, the book isn't published. The revision process and beta readers are ongoing. All told I would say that it took me three months to get the story keyed into the computer. The edits and getting the document ready to publish are taking far longer. I've set a goal of March 15, 2013 for my submission to Amazon, I'll let you know how it goes.