Level of Effort timer/calculator

I am trying to create a LOE (level of effort) timer/actual time spent calculator on stories, but I am not having any luck. I have tried the Actual duration, open/closed, time worked...fields. Basically I am trying to accomplish the following: from the time a story is created to the time it ends give me the total effort/actual time spent on it. In addition, I have different states that the story can go through - 12 states. As a result, I want to know the amount of time spent in/at the state level as well. Are both of these things possible? If so how do I go about this? I am not a developer and scripting is not my strongest area; so if this requires scripting, I would appreciate it if you can assist me with that as well :)!!

Thanks!
nbarnes