Writing Nano-Plasm over a seven year period
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Writing Nano-Plasm over a seven year period
I worked on my book for over seven years. Why did it take so long? Because I didn't work on it very much! Just a few weeks each summer. Finally, earlier this fall, I ran off some copies at LuLu.com and gave them to friends for feedback. I made some revisions based on their comments and decided to declare the book done.
The first few chapters are the roughest, in spite of the time I spent polishing them. I noticed I was really anxious to get the story going and so I think the early chapters move too quickly (although I improved that a lot). Once I got to chapter 10 (the chapters are small, so that's relatively soon for most readers), I think I started to hit a certain stride.
One problem with taking seven years to write a book is that other people also write books. Some of them are good writers like Michael Crichton, who wrote Prey. Prey had the same basic concept - nano-technology and people. While the books are quite different there was one problem - Mr. Crichton had used the ending I had planned! So I dropped that and made up something which I think is better.
In fact, as much as I love Michael Crichton, and in spite of my first (slightly) rough chapters, I like my book better. I'm sure Crichton is a better writer, but I like my story a lot more. And I like how fast it moves. And I like the clever things I came up with nano-tech wise.
The most rewarding feedback has been that most readers have read the last third of the book in one sitting.
So, all in all, writing the book was a pretty fun experience.
Here's a chart that shows how much I wrote each year derived from my frequent backups:
(Click for larger view.)
The history for the first year is lost but based on this chart I'd say I wrote 1/3 the first year and then hit a block that took six more years to overcome!
Also, when the size decreases, it's probably because I removed big hunks of stuff; some of that stuff became the "deleted material" at the end of the book.
