"I had posted a few smaller pieces on the web before, in a similar vein, but with my scientific background I never considered myself literary material. All I was trying to do was write down my own story in novel form." Tsai's approach is to write about personal experience, with a touch of imagination thrown in.
「《第一次的親密接觸》是我的第一部小說，之前雖然也在網上寫過一些抒發情感的小品，但讀理工的我一直都不覺得自己是文學創作的料，所以當時也不過是嘗試以小說形式寫自己的故事罷了，」蔡智恆說，真實加上生活經驗再加上一點點想像，是他創作的模式。