I started writing American Prophet in late June or early July of 2008, and published it on 26 July 2016, about eight years and a month. Originally, I gave it the working title of Prophet of God. For perhaps the first month or so I didn’t even write the novel. Instead I created characters, a time line, and did research. One of the first things I did write was the Toronto chapter, which has been substantially unchanged since then.
Each November there is a project/ competition/ challenge known as National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, in which participants attempt to write a 50,000+ word novel in 30 days. Clearly I did not even come close to finishing my novel in a month. My novel is in excess of 218,000 words. The Microsoft Word document that became the novel is 416 pages. For comparison purposes, my novel is larger than any of the seven Harry Potter novels except Order or the Phoenix.
So why did it take over eight years to write and publish? There were several reasons. Firstly, I stopped writing to do research on a regular basis. I read a book on the poison gas known as Lewisite, and researched a number of historical incidents along the way. Secondly, I finished my first draft in early 2014. It was much longer than the published version and, frankly, unreadable. I spent more than two-and-a-quarter years rewriting and cutting material from the book. Thirdly, I learned how to use software to complete the book. I switched word processors a year into the novel, and learned to use Microsoft Visio to do most of the illustrations for the novel. Finally, I was employed full time during that period, and worked on the novel evenings and weekends. When I was originally thinking about the story, I considered writing it as a short story!
A very large part of the editing process was cutting the book down to size. I had to make cuts in virtually every chapter. As a result, I have a lot of stuff — fun stuff — which didn’t make the final cut. I may eventually release a “author’s cut” of the novel, but I will be including many of the deleted scenes on this website.