I have passed the deadline for my book on Sex.com and I estimate I am still three weeks to a month away from finishing.
How? How could I have miscalculated? And why is it taking so long? Well, there are several reasons:
1. A book contains a hell of a lot of words and it is hard, relentless work getting them written
2. I underestimated the depth of the story. I am *still* discovering new elements to the story. I suppose when you are talking about two characters like Gary Kremen and Stephen Cohen, it was never going to be simple. And they have been at it for 10 years now. I figure if I am going to write a book on the whole saga I have to do it as comprehensively as possible.
3. It took me a month to escape from my news editor mentality. You really have to get into a whole different state of mind to write a book
4. It just takes alot of time to read thousands upon thousands of pages, interview people and pull it all into a coherent mass
As an example, here is a snap of the shelves I have to put up in order to have room for all the documents. The top shot was from when I first started on the book and felt that I have most of the material I needed. I second shot was from this weekend where I now believe I have got the vast majority of the material I need.
I would tell you how much of this material I have read so far, but I'm not sure my mind wouldn't melt if it was put down on paper.
Anyway, this should all hopefully make for a better book. Although I have to confess that now all the stuff that I have let go for the past three months is starting to stack up – lost stories and features, and jobs, and plans, and projects, and meet-ups with friends and plenty more.