by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m of the opinion that no one can have “N+1” happiness. Something shitty has to happen to balance a good time in your life and vis versa. So, something happened to me today that really rattled my cage.
I won’t tell you what it was, but, boy, I do get the sense that this means there’s a tick-tock starting *now* when it comes to this novel I’m working on. I need to fish or cut bait.
I need to throw myself into wrapping up this novel as soon as possible so I can begin the process of beta readers then querying. I’m trying not to pin too much of my hope on the success of this novel, but at the moment…that’s pretty much all I got.
Hope. Hope that I might sell this novel in some way to get me out of this particular era in my life into something new, and fun. I am very well aware that many, if not most novels — especially first novels — don’t amount to anything commercially even if they are actually published.
But I need some sort of abstract hope. Something to keep me going. To make it to the next day. And, for the time being, this novel it is.
And I understand that this novel may be too “spicy” to ever be a success, but nothing else, it is a novel that I believe in enough to have it serve as a “pathfinder” for the next novel that I write.
I’m going to make a point of making the next novel not as spicy and as mainstream as possible for an adult audience as I can possibly do. I have figured out how to integrate AI into my novel workflow without actually, in any way, leaning into it for writing actual copy.
Anyway, I really hope that this “cage rattling event” focuses my mind and reminds me that life is short and I can’t just drift towards my goal of being a published novelist forever.
