>>1202034I should probably say "it took me five years" rather than "I spent 5 years on it". I worked on the first chapter on and off. Technically it's a rewrite of something I did in 2012 or so, so I COULD say it took me over a decade, but I reserve that for my Fallout Equestria story I'm working on (and in that case it is more like I've been working on it for 15+ years, with planning and rewrites and notes and whatnot).
The first chapter is actually a lot shorter than I was expecting it to be. It just made more sense to end it where I did rather than drag it out.
So yeah, it just sort of took me a long time to finish the first chapter. You'd be surprised how quickly 5 years flies by.