Common misconceptions: 

First, that it was his masterwork largely because he spent seven years on it, and that the book is renowned for the endless care Stoker took in its crafting.

 Second, that a work span of seven years indicates, unusually painstaking and authoritative research, which uncovered, among other things, the grisly true story of a bloodthirsty fifteenth-century Wallachia warlord, Vlad Tepes, “the Impaler,” who was also known as Dracula.

Actually, the reason Dracula took seven years to write was that Stoker had great difficulty writing it, especially cutting through the overload of his own imaginative clutter. The process was twisted, arduous, and constantly interrupted. He stopped to write other books. He questioned himself. He censored himself. He had second, even third thoughts about almost everything. In the end, he wondered if the book would even be remembered.

- Jonathan Harker, Chapter Four.