by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Absolutely no one cares at this point about this novel I’m working on, but I have reached a significant milestone, at least for me: the midpoint of the first draft.
The issue is, the tempo of the novel changes at this point — as it should — so I’m introducing new characters and the story begins to have the elements of a police procedural. Sorta. I’m probably going to revamp the outline I have of this portion of the novel significantly as I go through it.
I’m trying to lean into my strengths with this novel, but when it comes to the second half I’m going to have to get outside my comfort zone even if I don’t really want to.
I have been at the midpoint of this novel several times in the past, only to have everything collapse on me and I have to start over. This time feels different because first I’ve kind of worn myself down to the point that I’m willing to do anything to finish a first draft so I can edit it and second my native storytelling ability has gotten significantly better.
Throw in that I’ve cherry picked the best bits of the original huge story I cam up with in the beginning and I’m feel pretty good about where I am. I’ve given myself a very tight deadline — I want to finish the rest of the novel by no later than June 1st. Then I will pause for a month and throw myself into the second draft around July 4th weekend.
This novel has taken significantly longer than I ever imagined, but it’s been a very fun struggle. I’ve been drifting towards this point in something of a vacuum and hopefully now I can speed up the process a great deal. I refuse to be one of those guys who works on a novel 10 years and STILL doesn’t finish it.
If I had a women in my life, I suspect development of this novel would have gone far faster. But those are the breaks, as they say. I have decided to throw myself back into this novel in a few days.
I need to distract myself some in the meantime. Do some reading. Reflect on what it is I hope to accomplish in the second half. The story in its second half grows far more potentially controversial as it delves into race a lot more. And I also really begin to wallow in some of the tropes of the Trump Era as well.
I’m aware that there’s a real danger that people won’t care about the Trump Era when I try to sell this thing, and, yet, to me, at least, it’s obvious that the problems of the Trump Era haven’t gone anywhere and, as such, a lot of people likely will want some sort of catharsis by reading a novel set during it.
Throw in how by the time I try to sell this thing people will really start thinking about politics again and I think I have at least a greater-than-zero chance of being within shouting distance of selling it.