I’ve Reworked The Beginning Of The Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The beta reader process is — as expected — turning out to be something of a dud. People just aren’t giving me any input. I expected that for various reasons and I think, ultimately, I’m going to have to wait until I finish the third draft to get the input that I really need.

I need input that is constructive, but not harsh. Encouraging, not nit-picky. Anyway, the second draft was 81,000 words and, as such, I feel I can safely add 20,000 words without making the novel too long to get published. The key reason why I’m adding some words to the beginning is world and character building.

I want people to actually care enough by the time things get moving that they’re willing to read the novel to the end. The novel is already a very accessible, easy read. I have to take things to the next level by fleshing out and explaining the world I’ve created so more of the novel is on the page, rather than in my mind. That seems to be one of the biggest complaints from those willing to give me any input — they just don’t understand what’s going on.

I continue to worry about the issue of having more than on POV within a chapter, but I refuse to believe that audience expectation have changed so much that I can’t do the same thing that Stieg Larsson did with his work. And, yet, I am worried enough about this particular problem that I am definitely going to start to work on a backup scifi novel just in case I need to be able to say, “Well, if you don’t like this novel, I’ve got a first person, single POV novel for you to read.”

Or something like that. Whatever else is going on, the key thing is I have to finish something, anything so I can start to query ASAP. Even with that in mind, I think I probably have about a year ahead of me. I say that because of time and money.

In a sense, it’s all kind of comical because the world could be collapsing just as I’m ready to query in late 2024. It could be that civil war / revolution breaks out in the United States just as I’m about to pitch my first novel to agents. And that doesn’t even begin to address the issue of AI really making all my hard work moot.

But, sometimes, you just have to believe.

I’ve Started Writing The Third Draft

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After about a month-long pause, I’ve started writing the third draft of my first novel. But given that the beta reader process is still going on — and I still want to read some more — I’m probably going to only do it in fits and starts until I really throw myself into things starting around Sept 1st.

But the outline I have is pretty strong (so far) and I think I can probably zip through the third draft pretty quickly, baring something I can’t predict. Once I finish the third draft, I am going to start to save up for someone professional or semi-professional to read the whole thing and give me some advice before I turn around and start to query things.

I also between now and September 1st hope to really think about not just the other novels in the series but a few scifi concepts I have rolling around in my mind. I’m still smarting over the really great scifi concept I had that turned out to be way too similar to Wool / Silo for me to continue it the way it was. I’ve come up with a reworked version with is very similar but it’s going to take me some time to game it out.

I really have to focus. I really have to think up ways to make this third draft a lot — A LOT — better. I have some specific person who is participating in the Beta Reader process that I fear is going to give me a pretty brutal critique of the novel. While it’s going to sting, I really need such brutality if I’m going to get a novel anywhere near being good enough to query.

But, in general, I’m very pleased with the novel I’m come up with. I think it’s going to be about 100,000 words this go round, rather than its current 80,000. I have come up with an idea for how to make the beginning of the novel significantly better.

So Joe Biden Is Going Be Impeached?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Of all the reasons for Joe Biden to be impeached, the one that House Republicans have come up with has got to be the dumbest. If they impeached Biden over the border, or, hell, the indictment of Trump, then, yeah, I could at least give them points for being logical.

But…Hunter Biden? They’re going to impeach Biden over some dumb conspiracy theory they have no proof for? It’s all very curious. I suppose, maybe, they can always impeach Biden for the other shit later.

Ugh. It’s all so very, very dumb.

The Online Writing Community Often Makes Me Angry

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t mind people talking — or writing — about writing. I do it all the time. But WHAT some of the people online talk about really drives me nuts. They talk about how much they hate to write. They talk about the absolute stupidest shit. Jt’s so stupid that I just roll my eyes and think, “Shut up and write.”

Anyway.

I’m in a bad mood.

I think I’m growing closer and closer to a tipping point where I will start writing the third draft of this novel. I think that may be the source of a lot of my anger over all the stupid shit I see from other people in the online writing community.

Does ‘Barbenheimer’ Portend Our Long-Awaited ‘Vibe Shift?’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely FEELS like we’ve reached the absolute end of one pop culture era and we’re waiting for a new one to arise from the ashes. And, yet, given that we may face a perfect storm of Petite Singularity and The Fourth Turning in late 2024, early 2025, these months leading up that era in time may be nothing more than wasted time.

We may just drift through cultural time without any sort of clear idea of where things stand until we make up our minds about if we’re going to continue to be a democracy or not. And, at the same time, we also have to decide if AI is going to completely and totally take over huge swaths of the human experience or not. I’m very weary about both of these events, given that they’re going to take place at the same time.

So, I don’t know. It could go either way. It could be that we just slide into autocracy and we let AI write and produce all our entertainment and we live in a permanent Black Mirror episode. Or, it could be that we have some sort of sharp, violent political event starting in late 2024, early 2025 and not until that’s settled we make any big decisions about AI.

It just seems like we’re lurching towards Something New in a rather abrupt manner and it will be interesting to see when exactly this happens. I suspect we may continue to be in something of a cultural vacuum for a few more months. We really haven’t reached a tipping point, I don’t think. It’s definitely one of those — you know it when you see it kind of things.

I look forward to what’s next, though. We’ve been suck in the post-911 cultural era for way, way too long.

I Want To Visit Asia

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I find myself wanting to visit Asia. Because of my life situation at the moment, Something Big could happen at any moment that would dramatically change the context of my life to the point that I might actually be in a position to go back to Asia sooner rather than later. I don’t want this Something Big event to happen, but it’s definitely out there, lurking in the aether.

I wonder what might greet me if I did return to Asia sooner rather than later. The key thing is that I’m a lot older than I was the last time I was in Asia. And I would be just visiting — probably a week in Japan – South Korea, then a week in Southeast Asia — so I would only be able to able to do so much.

And, in all honesty, the world is so big and wonderful, I probably would be better off going to Europe instead. And, yet, I like Asia because I know it and it would be really easy to slip back into my expat mentality within moments I reaching it.

I don’t even know why I’ve suddenly found myself thinking about such things. I’m so very, very, very poor at the moment that there are only two ways I would be able to visit Asia again — the Something Big event or selling my first novel and it being a real success.

I guess what’s really going on is I’m having a minor midlife crisis, I guess. My life is in permanent limbo these days, so I find myself wondering how this particular situation is going to end. For the moment, I’m trying to keep my eyes on the prize — querying my novel in about a year.

Should I Be Worried?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Someone with some connection to “making movies” looked at my LinkedIn profile out of the blue and this has, of course, prompted me freak out a little bit. Because of what happened with me and ROKon Magazine, I am, to this day, still on edge that someone will swoop in and “steal” my novel.

And, yet, if you give this fear any thought at all, it kind of falls apart. The key issue is — getting a movie made is really, really difficult. What’s more, I know the state of the novel at the moment and it’s still nowhere near where it should be.

So, a lot — A LOT — would have to go wrong for someone to “steal” my novel and, like, turn it into a screenplay or something. I suppose it’s possible — the Public Beta of the novel is floating around out there now — but it’s still unlikely enough that I can only grow so concerned.

What’s more, it’s not like I wouldn’t have any recourse if someone “stole” my novel beat for beat to turn it into a novel. I could sue. And, in its own weird way, if someone did manage to turn my novel into a movie it would be strangely flattering.

I mean, it definitely would prove my goal — that I’m a good enough storyteller and all the haters can fuck off.

Anyway. I am growing more and more eager to do some practical development so I can start writing a significantly improved third draft. And I need to start working on the other novels in the series as well as one of the scifi novels I have rolling around in my mind.

Pom Klementieff Is Such A Babe

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Only because of the latest Mission: Impossible movie have I come to realize what a babe Pom Klementieff is. I only knew her from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies but without all the green alien makeup — holy shit is she a babe.

Pom Klementieff

In fact, I THINK she’s probably about the right age to play the heroine of my first novel if, somehow, magically, it should one day be popular enough to be adapted into a movie. But I’m being extremely delusional at this point to even suggest such a thing.

And, yet Ms. Klementieff is kinda sort the right phenotype play the character. Of course, in reality in my mind my heroine is a younger version of Nicole Scherzinger. But, lulz. It’s not like anyone is ever going to care one way or another about it.

Nicole Scherzinger

I’m delusional enough, of course, think that’s possible.

The Real Threat In 2024

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The key issue for late 2024, early 2025 has nothing to do with another January 6th type situation. The real danger is that, on a systemic basis, the Republican Party has grown so radical that if Trump somehow magically manages to lose the 2024 election that they will begin to leave the Union.

As such, people who are focusing on some sort of repeat of January 6th are totally missing the point. The is a real risk of a Second American Civil War if Trump loses in 2024.

Let me be clear — at the moment, in July 2023 — I just don’t see Trump losing. He’s going to win and he — and his successor — will lurch American into a Russian-style autocracy. I say this because Trump’s fate remains in the hands of 60,000 voters in five swing states.

That’s it.

So, baring something I can’t predict, Trump is the next president of the United States and he’s going to be a tyrant and a thug in ways that are unprecedented in American history. And, remember, Biden is very old. And history is replete with instances where the absolute worst thing that could possibly happen, happens.

So it is VERY EASY to imagine that Biden, tragically, shuffles off this mortal coil at some point between when the 2024 ballots are printed and Certification Day. If such a thing happened, mass chaos would ensue. The last time any such thing happened was in 1872 and the solution wasn’t great — they equally distributed the dead guys Electoral Votes among everyone else.

Yikes!

Anyway, if Trump does somehow manage to lose, there is a real risk that we’re going to have a civil war. The greatest, most powerful nation in the world, is going to destroy itself because of “vibes.”

The other alternative is, of course, Trump wins and we have something akin to a “Resistance Revolution.” I seriously doubt such a thing would happen — too many of the people who would otherwise spear head such a historic event will simply bounce — but it’s at least possible, I guess. If it happened, Blues across the country would actively work to prevent tyrant and thug Trump from becoming president.

If we’re lucky, it would be a “Glorious Revolution” if we’re not…oh fucking boy.

‘Butlerian Jihad’ #lyrics to a #rock song

I’m just being silly with this one. It really needs to be cleaned up. But I’m toying with different ways to express my frustration over the rise of AI.

Butlerian Jihad
lyrics by @sheltgarner
please give credit if you produce or perform

the machines are threatening
the very core of our existence
taking creativity from our souls
and turning it into digits
only humans should produce
the juice of our existance

is it time for a Butlerian Jihad
is it time for a Butlerian Jihad
is it time for a Butlerian Jihad
like Frank Herbert wrote
or are we just going to
lie down and quit
and be done with it.

machines can only do so much
humans are the best and creation
at least in my heart this is it
but one day soon we may confront
at time when not even song
is done by human hand
then what

is it time for a Butlerian Jihad
is it time for a Butlerian Jihad
is it time for a Butlerian Jihad
like Frank Herbert wrote
or are we just going to
lie down and quit
and be done with it.

(bridge)
no call for violence
in on my mind
but what I think is sublime
maybe we should say
that only humans have a say
in what creation may
happen one day

is it time for a Butlerian Jihad
is it time for a Butlerian Jihad
is it time for a Butlerian Jihad
like Frank Herbert wrote
or are we just going to
lie down and quit
and be done with it.