Around 1980 I read Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". In 1993 I started sketching some ideas for a novel loosely - very loosely! - inspired by it. I k

Around 1980 I read Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". In 1993 I started sketching some ideas for a novel loosely - very loosely! - inspired by it. I kept poking at the ideas, and tried to write the book several times. I never got much traction, but did end up writing and publishing several non-fiction articles in national magazines in this time. In 2011 I started. I wrote 160,000 words and created a fairly epic (in scope) science fiction novel that tied in moon colonization, desktop manufacturing, genetic uplift, AI, open source software, and more. In 2012 I kept going. I wrote a second draft, and it reached 180,000 words, and was a MUCH better novel. In September 2012 I kept going and wrote the third draft, splitting it into two novels. Right now I'm taking a one month hiatus before writing the fourth (and final?) draft. I hope to publish it later this year. So far I've sunk over 2,000 hours into this project, and it's one of the things that I'm proudest of in my life. All of which is to say: yes, hang onto your crazy side projects; you'll be glad you did.