My Novel Is Getting Really Good On A Conceptual Basis

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m rather drunk as I write this — too much 100 proof whiskey — but I’m very much at the cusp of writing the second draft of my first novel and it’s shaping up to be really, really good. The big difference between the first and second drafts is the story leaning into character a lot more because of structural demands.

I have to establish to the reader why the fuck they should care about what’s going on with these characters. And, as such, you have to give the audience a few scenes that pretty much just let them get their bearings as to setting and mood and the like. The first draft of the novel pretty much start so late in the chronology of events that you were interested because something was happening, but soon enough you lost interest because, well, lulz, so what. You didn’t really know the characters and they were just words on a page.

I have fundamentally fixed that problem and now the novel is starting to feel (to me at least) like a real novel, like the type you might stumble across at the bookstore when you randomly grab a book as you walk the shelves.

Anyway, I’m probably going to wait until this Sunday afternoon to sit down and start writing on the second draft. Given that I really want to lay out the development of interesting, well thought out characters I need to kind of psyche myself up for striving for more Gillian Flynn than Stieg Larsson.

Oh, Jesus am I drunk. But content.

I am so excited about how good things are shaping up with this second draft. The big issue is how long the damn thing may shape up to be. That is going to be a real issue. And, yet, given it’s going to go both through a beta reader process and maybe — if I can afford it — an actual editor…I should be able to revamp the draft to the point that it’s a close enough to the sweetspot of 100,000 to be get published.

Author: Shelton Bumgarner

I am the Editor & Publisher of The Trumplandia Report

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