by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
In the name of getting something done before I croak like Stieg Larsson did at my age, I plan on buckling down and write as much as I can this weekend. I often say this and then, lulz, I spend all my time either rearranging scenes or staring out into space.
But here’s hoping this time will be different.
One issue that is now at the forefront of my mind is my heroine’s personal ideology. People seem to really like that Lisbeth Salander had a very clear set of personal ethics and, as such, I want to imbue my heroine with something similar.
But I’m also very lazy and don’t want to do any research. And, yet, I think I’m going to have to just that. I can’t keep screwing around. I need my heroine to have some sharp edges. I need her to have a very clear set of morals and beliefs that the events of the novel challenge.
The most obvious way to do this would be to make her a Christian. But, lulz, even though I was raised in the Church, I’m not a Christian and I just don’t feel like having to look into such things. As such, I’ve given it some thought and I realize there’s another way I can accomplish my goal.
I think I may lean into her being a Third Wave Feminist some. Maybe. And, given what happens in the third act of the novel, I think if I made her a very strict secular humanist that maybe that might be enough to put a really interesting spin on things.
I hope. That’s the goal.
I’ve been using AI some to help with development. Sometimes it helps me lay out scene summaries really well. Other times — lulz. And don’t even try to use AI to help game out a “spicy” scene. It just locks up and says it can’t help you out.
I have rewritten and expanded the first act so much that I am going to have to give the entire rest of the novel some serious thought. I’ve introduced a lot of new, interesting elements to the novel that I am going to need to actually use rather than bring them up and then ignore them.
