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> He responded to my October 2022 email, explaining that he had “stopped writing much journalism as of 2015 so as to avoid distractions from a book project that
by alabastervlog 2y ago
> He responded to my October 2022 email, explaining that he had “stopped writing much journalism as of 2015 so as to avoid distractions from a book project that I thought would take an almost unfathomably long time—two years or perhaps even three. Seven years later, I’m doing my best to polish the third draft.”
One encounters this over and over again—even books that successfully get finished and published take far longer than expected, very consistently, and especially any involving research. Books (non-fiction in particular) written as series often also expand from, say, five planned volumes in the forward to the first edition of the first volume, to (say) a dozen.
Reminds me of software estimation.
- ggm 2y agoVikram Seth. Massive advance for a "jump novel" on "a suitable boy" characters in modern times, breaks up with life partner, has total catastrophic writers block, book still "coming soon" a decade later. Also a poet. Said to pick his team at the agency from people who like poetry, working his prose.
- etc-hosts 2y agoNever knew about Vikram Seth before. He's coming up on beating Joseph Mitchell's 30 years of not finishing anything: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/01/joseph-mitchell-up-in-old-hotel https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/01/joseph-mitchel...
- mprovost 2y agoI really recommend his novel-in-verse "The Golden Gate". Such a literary accomplishment, and a real page-turner. Maybe it's hard to follow up when you have such an early success? Actually, I was introduced to it by Douglas Hofstadter, who in the same way has never been able to top GEB, which he wrote in his early 30s.
- dmoy 2y agoMy dad has been writing a specific non fiction book since forever (at the very least 25+ years, possibly longer?). It's not exactly the kind that can be finished. If you need to know about that specific topic, there's that one and like one other that goes into as much depth. He resurrected and nearly completely rewrote someone else's thing from mid 20th century era, which itself was a resurrection of an late 19th century era thing. But yes it's exactly as you describe - keeps expanding and updating. Near 6000 pages now?
- mysterydip 2y agoHas it been released and he's doing updated revision/editions, or has it still not been released?
- dmoy 2y agoOh, it got released like 20 years ago, and there's new editions with new volumes every N years, and constant updates to the older material as it goes out of date or needs newer references or whatever. It'll just never be done, it's not a thing that can really be finished
- lupire 2y ago> This has a lot to do with the fetishization of what’s difficult, And this reminds me of software development!