My first novel took close to that long. Simply because I knew from the start that it was too quirky for traditional publishing. Plus, I wasn't a writer.

I had no following online besides friends and family on Facebook. So there was no real incentive to write a novel. It was not going to sell many copies or get many reads.

I worked on it when I was inspired. Which wasn't often. So times years went by without a writing anything.

Then I discovered Medium, and after writing on Medium for a couple of years, I thought, I should finish my novel.

So I hunkered down and finished it (about 3/4 of it) and self-published it in less than a year. It has sold about 75 copies. Which is far more than I thought it would.

I am now writing the sequel.