Wednesday 28 September 2011

My first novel

One might think I just decided to begin writing novels but the story is far more complex and mysterious. I always wanted to do some writing and the early beginnings can be traced to my primary school times but my writing adventures always stopped at about 50 words. Yeah, believe it or not but I just couldn't write more than a few sentences, and that was it. Looking at my bookshelves I never understood how could all these authors write hundreds of pages. That's like 70,000, 100,000 or even more words. It just didn't work out for me and envy was the only thing that remained with me for many years to come.

The real change started with my PhD when I was asked to produce a piece of work as large as universe or to a seasoned writer, somewhere around 100,000 words. God bless I said to myself but after three years of pain I actually managed to produce something to be proud of. More than 10 years later I got an idea to write a boring professional book about my frustration with the construction industry (Construction 2.0). I did, jointly with Prof John Bennett and I am really happy as the two of us work together like a Swiss clock. Well, the book eventually got a bit more digestible title (Construction Management Strategies: A Theory of Construction Management) but we're still pretty provocative and I'm happy with the result.

Then I thought to myself that now is the time to begin writing a novel and I did - last week. I've got 12,000 words so far and I am thrilled! Why? Well, it was a hell of a journey since my 50-word beginnings but I can now write for hours and even create a story. Don't laugh, it's a huge progress! It's a romantic novel about a student that fell in love with a girl, ends up in war and realizes there are people one doesn't even notice that can really make a difference. My plan is to finish it by the end of November and complete it just before Christmas - again, fingers crossed!

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