From LifeHacker site:

Did you know it took J.R.R Tolkien approximately 16 years to write some obscure trilogy of novels called The Lord of the Rings? Clocking in at over 500,000 words, that’s no real surprise. But how long do you think it took to write some of the other popular books in human history?
This infographic comes courtesy of printerinks and is an expertly-designed look at how long some of the biggest names in literature took to write their books. Of particular interest to me is George R R Martin’s five years on Game of Thrones… No wonder Winds of Winter is taking an age. Please finish the book, George!

I also had no idea that John Boyne’s The Boy In Striped Pyjamas was written in such a short amount of time! Apparently Boyne barely even slept until he was done with the first draft. Incredible stuff. It’s not a long book, but that’s still some real dedication to the craft. I also did not expect The Great Gatsby to have taken so long, but what do I know?

Find out more and see the high resolution infographic at:

LifeHacker