by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
One of the biggest reasons it’s taken me so long to get to this point with this project is I’m doing everything in a vacuum. All I have is my own internal true north as to what to do. This has served me well, and, yet, I gave the first chapter of this first draft to a really creative woman I know and she startled me with how insightful some of her observations were.
Things that I totally missed, she pointed out, leaving me feeling rather sheepish.
Add to this the fact that literary types apparently think I’m too big a drunk crank to even allow me to fucking pay them to help me with this project and, well, I sometimes feel like I’m developing and writing this novel with one hand behind my back.
But it’s not impossible to overcome. What is probably going to happen is when the time comes, I’m going to be a beta reader so I can find beta readers and a lot of the dumb mistakes I’ve missed because I don’t have a reader I’ll will get fixed. At least, I hope that’s what’s going to happen.
That’s the plan, at least.
All systems continue to be go for me to wrap up this first draft pretty soon. But I did a rough calculation in my mind today and I think I have to accept that it’s going to be closer to Christmas when I finish the first draft than I originally expected.
I continue to just drift towards my goal. It’s just a lot more difficult than I imagined to buckle down and write maybe when I’m not in the mood. But I’m hoping I’ve got it wrong. I’m hoping can summon the energy to put on my big boy pants and wrap this novel up as quickly as possible.
It’s a pretty interesting read, if I do say so myself. There is a lot — A LOT — of room for the characterizations to be fleshed out, however. Too many of the characters remain just moods that change as necessary for expediency sake. But, over all, I’m quite pleased.
I still need a Reader, though.
