I’ve written drafts from anywhere between 100-190,000 words, but all first drafts have taken largely 6-9 months of solid work. Obviously things get broken up, especially if I publish a book during the drafting stage, but that’s what it usually shakes out to. The editing and pre-publication process can take anywhere from 6 months to another year of work. For example, the first draft of RED QUEEN took six months to write, and I finished in January 2013. It was sold in April 2013, edited again over the next year, and then published in February 2015.