Will There Be A ‘MAGA Revolution’ Starting In 2024?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

America is spinning out of control so fast that I sometimes think all that we don’t know if it will be MAGA or Blues that decide to leave the Union starting in late 2024, early 2025. I spend a lot of time assuming that if such a thing happens, it will be Blues who do it.

And, yet MAGA sure does enjoy mentally masturbating about Red states leaving the Union. So, yet again, let’s contemplate what a “MAGA Revolution” might look like in the context of the 2024 presidential election cycle. The issue for me is, MAGA really is fading in popularity to some extent. Or, to put it another way, that core 38% of the Republican base has such a stranglehold on Republicans that when the time comes that, unto itself, might be enough to cause Red states to leave the Union.

The key thing that would prompt Reds, rather than Blues, to leave the Union would be if ding-dong Trump won or not. If Trump won the 2024 election — which definitely seems he will one way or another — then the possibility that Blues will begin to leave the Union increases significantly.

But if Trump somehow loses, then I could see a situation where he rants and rants and rants about how yet another election was “stolen” from him and he, as such, causes Red states like Texas, etc, to begin the process of leaving the Union via secessionist conventions.

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Dalton, Ga., on Jan. 4, 2021.

If it has to happen, then of course I want the onus of secession to be on Reds. Then Blues get to keep the USA brand and we have every moral obligation to keep the Union together, just like we did during the first American Civil War. But something I have to keep reminding myself whenever I run these Second American Civil War scenarios is I just can’t predict the future to any specific degree.

There’s every reason to believe that if there was a National Divorce that it would be successful for various reasons. And, what’s worse, the DPRK could aggravate things by lobbing a few H-Bombs our way as we’re in the middle of tearing ourselves apart. And, what’s worse, if the US is having a civil war, WW3 would, by definition, begin to happen around the world.

But we have to appreciate that on a systemic basis, the Republican Party is chomping at the bit to either turn the United States into an autocracy or force the issue of a National Divorce. And that existential choice will come to a head one way or another as part of the 2024 election. At the moment, I just don’t see how Trump doesn’t win in 2024, which would cause Blues to think about leaving the Union.

And, yet, I just can’t predict the future — I sure did a bad job of it in 2020 — so I suppose something could happen that causes Trump to lose the 2024 election and, as such, prompts discussion within MAGA Reds about leaving the Union. It really could, at the moment, go either way.

Day 10: First Act Struggles

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Today I have had a real struggle on my hands, trying to figure out how to keep the first act down to about ~30 scenes. I have all these completely arbitrary rules of thumb that I expect of myself on a structural basis that can really make it seem like I’m just treading water.

My heroine in my mind looks like a younger version of Nicole Zellweger — sorta.

It doesn’t help that as I work my way through the outline, new and better ways of laying the plot out on the page keep coming to me. This causes a cascading series of events to happen where I have to move things around. This happens a lot of late as I really try to make the use of the multi-POV style intentional. Using more than one POV is interesting to me and I really feel it brings a lot to the table storytelling-wise, but the only reason why I started using it in the first place was I wanted to do what Stieg Larsson did in his work

The point is — I want this novel to feel like an old brown shoe to anyone who has read Larsson’s works in the past. And, yet, at the same time this novel is definitely it’s own thing for a number of reasons. I’ve read at least one Larsson imitator who seems to really want to lean into the villante element of Lisbeth Salander’s personality.

And, I get it.In a way, I suppose that is the most interesting part of the original Larsson stories is what a bad-ass Salander was. But after much, much, much reflection and not a little consternation, I’ve finally settled on my characters to the point that things are really beginning to flow.

They aren’t just “moods” anymore, I now understand them well enough –and their motivations — that once I have written out my scene summaries for a few scenes, that I can sit down and natively write out scenes without too much trouble.

I like having scene summaries prepared because I like have a guide as to what is going to be in the scene before I write it. In some ways it’s a crutch, but it also allows me to game out clearly what is going to be in a scene before I actually write it. I have discovered more ways to make a meh scene sing by having a scene summary already laid out to follow.

I have managed to whittle down the length of the novel — or, at least the number of scenes — to the point that I have a decent chance of being at least within shouting distance of the ~100,000 word sweetspot. But it could be that even with the lower number of scenes that I will still blow past that sweetspot As such, I continue to mull a backup novel that would be built on the assumption of strictly being between 80,000 and 100,000 words.

One of the biggest improvements to the story is I’m really conscious of the need to make the POV character in any scene the person who pushes the plot of the novel along. So, one of the reasons why it sometimes feels like I’m treading water is I game out a new version of the outline, only to find as I actually write scenes that my POV character is….rather passive.

Anyway. I’m beginning to grow alarmed at how slow things are moving. Here I am, 10 days into the final push to wrap up the second draft and I haven’t even finished the first act yet. But, hopefully, by making myself really self aware of this particular issue, that I will be prompted speed the process up.

That’s my hope, at least. I really don’t want to wake up on July 1st and STILL be in the first act, spinning my wheels. Something’s gotta give. I’m not going to live forever.

Forget Pete Davidson, When is Taylor Swift Dating Cara Delevingne?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m enjoying some whiskey this quiet Sunday evening and so, lulz, I find my inebriated mind pondering the question of the ages: so, is Tay-Tay going to date Cara Delevingne now?

The thing about Tay-Tay is she is the exact center of modern white heteronormative pop culture. An entire generation of (white) (liberal) women have projected all their hopes, dreams and aspirations onto Tay-Tay to a ridiculous degree.

As such, there is a lot to unpack about what Tay-Tay might do next with her romantic life. I’m fond of Tay-Tay because from her lyrics — she’s obviously sex-positive and loves to drink — just like me! So, obviously, she’s just another human being like all of us.

So, all things equal, she should be allowed to go through a “slut era” like Emrata. But, alas, because of all those liberal white women feeling broody it may be that Tay-Tay just doesn’t feel she can go around banging a series of high profile men like Emrata.

If she did something which would be perfectly understandable, the Wall Street Journal (or The New Yorker) would be writing long tirades about how the woke cancel culture mob and feminism is turning even Tay-Tay into a slut. What does it all mean? The headlines would scream if Tay-Tay was seen conspicuously bouncing from man to man for a few months.

But, wait, it gets worse.

If Tay-Tay decide to make her long-rumored “queer” side official, the amount of verbiage written by “thinkers” in the mass media would be astonishing. It is very easy for center-Right people to assume Tay-Tay is one of them because of, well, the way she looks. This is true to the point that Tay-Tay has to go way, way, way out of her way to MAGA fascists they have it all wrong.

So, but for how MAGA fascists would freak the fuck out, I could totally see Tay-Tay dating someone like Cara Delevingne. I think it would be sweet and fun if she did, and given how many songs St. Vincent wrote about Delevingne, maybe we might get some music out of the whole thing. And, what’s more the two women are already pretty close — Delevingne was a member of Tay-Tay’s “squad” back in the day.

I still don’t know what might — or might not — have happened between Tay-Tay and Karli Koss. There was a moment there when it definitely SEEMED like they were fucking. But at the same time, whatever they were doing, they did in a way that gave them the plausible deniability of just being “good friends.”

And, remember, the idea of a same-sex relationship between two women being something to even notice is a construct of we Poors. Within the elite worlds of fashion and Hollywood to even raise an eyebrow about two women dating is considered extremely gouache and low class.

Anyway, the point is — while it would be cool and all if Tay-Tay went a little nuts and bed hopped with both men and women, I suspect that’s just not going to happen. The poor woman can’t even get married and drop a few kids without it being THE CENTER OF DEBATE on editorial pages across the world.

Anyway. Thankfully, no one cares what I think.

I Hope Taylor Swift Dates Pete Davidson, Just So We Can Finally Get Her To Release a Rock Album

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Jesus Christ, does modern pop music suck. I don’t know how much of this observation is I’m old and how much is it that the economics of modern pop music combined with changes in youth culture mean that music is, in fact, demonstrably worse.

We are overdue for a third wave of Punk music. But to date, at least, it definitely seems, lulz, that’s never going to happen. We’re just going to drift into a sea of bland, meh pop music for the rest of my life.

It definitely seems as though if anyone is going to save us from decades of bland music it’s Taylor Swift. Rumor has it that she produced — but shelved — a rock album called “Karma” for some reason. It definitely seems as though if Tay-Tay dated a bad boy like Pete Davidson that maybe he would inspire her to freak out and do a really great pop rock album.

Or not.

What do I know.

It could be that the economics of pop music — along with all the would be punks being Incels on Reddit — mean not even Tay-Tay could save ourselves from ourselves. It’s all rather curious. It’s as if something I don’t know is warping pop music to the point that rock will never, ever be pop again.

Ugh.

Day Nine: Getting Better All The Time

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After a few days over the weekend cogitating, I am now ready to throw myself back into writing a new and improved second draft. It’s taken some fancy footwork to get to this point, but I’m feeling pretty good. There is a new element to this story which is either going to be seen as ridiculous or totally unexpected.

By doing so, I continue to draw upon ideas I was toying with using in the last two novels in this projected six novel project. Because at this point I have no idea if I will ever get to write all six novels, I feel pretty safe in drawing as much from the drawing board as I can if that means the first novel is more likely to get sold.

The new version of this novel flows a lot better and there is a lot more character development. And, what’s more, I’ve established clear stakes as to what will happen if my heroine doesn’t get what she wants. Now that I have established stakes, the story has a little bit more spice to it. And is, in general darker. That has been a real problem to date — the story just hasn’t really seemed as dark as a modern thriller for adults should be.

I have fixed things on that front, but now I find myself concerned that there is too much “spicy” content. And, yet, as far as I can tell, all the spicy things that happen in the story push the story along — none of it’s gratuitous.

As an aside, I am now actively working to ignore as much online “writing community” content as I can. I know that at this stage, any such content that I engage with will just make me feel bad. I have a very specific vision for this novel and, lulz, all that will happen if I look at writing community content is I’ll either get mad or I will aggressively ignore it.

It just seems as though all writing community content online can be boiled down to the following: you’re a fool not to self publish and if you do try to get traditionally published, however it is I’m doing it is wrong.

Fuck that.

I don’t want to self publish, I want to endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune associated with trying to get an agent and getting the novel traditionally published. I validate people who self-publish, but that’s just not my vision for this novel. I feel I’ve come up with something good enough to get traditionally published.

As I’ve said before, I’ve reached the point in the process where but for the fact that I am 100% extroverted I would go dark. I wouldn’t use social media and I wouldn’t write about the novel at all. It’s time to work, not talk. And, yet, I just can’t help myself.

Sometimes, I need to let off some steam and because I have no friends and no one likes me, all I got is writing and doing videos on social media. So, lulz? Anyway, my goal is to wrap up the first act (again) as soon as possible so I can throw myself into a totally revamped “fun and games” portion of the novel by, say, maybe the end of the week?

A Hot Take On The Taylor Swift Breakup Rumor

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Instead of ranting about my usual “hysterical doom shit,” let’s pause to reflect the most important news of the day — Taylor Swift allegedly breaking up with Joe Alwyn.

H/T The Mirror

The thing about Tay-Tay is she is not only an aspirational figure for millions of women around the globe, she is also the exact center of Western pop culture. So, whatever might happen because of this breakup could have some significant pop culture implications.

Off the top of my head, I can’t help but think about how Tay-Tay isn’t getting any younger and, as such, she might start to be on the prowl for a husband-father-to-her-children type guy.

Or, alternately, she might decide to go through her “slut era” and be really aggressive dating a lot of different guys — and women? — before she finally settles down again. I mean, hell, if Emrata can date a string of high profile dudes during a few short months, so can Tay-Tay. (I find this potential scenario very, very dubious.)

And I doubt that Tay-Tay would totally freak out and date Pete Davidson, as much she might like to take a walk on the wild side like that. Her fanbase would explode into tears of Tay-Tay dated a bad boy like Pete Davidson. Or, heck, if she was even seen in his general vicinity anytime soon.

Alternately, if Tay-Tay wanted to placate a certain small, but vocal part of her fanbase, she would date Cara Delevingne, who was already a member of Tay-Tay’s “squad.” That would be one way to keep her name in the public eye a really mind-blowing manner.

But given what little I know about Tay-Tay’s preferences, she will probably pick a safe soy-boy like dude who is non-threatening just like Alwyn. But I will note that Tay-Tay makes no bones about being a sexual being — at least in her music — so it’s within the realm of possibility that she might freak out in some way and do something really interesting and thought provoking with her love life.

All I ask is whatever she does, she releases a rock album because of the experience.

Jesus Christ, Do I Hate Orthodoxy Of Any Kind

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about the forces tearing America apart at the moment is how convoluted and easily conflated all of it can be. Unlikely what was going on in the late 1850s, the centrifugal forces tearing America apart today are far more muddled.

Now, let me be clear — as long as everyone is of age and it’s consensual, I don’t care what you do with your body. What bothers me about the Trans movement is not that people are Trans, but, rather the secondary issues associated with the Leftist media narrative on the subject.

Either you embrace the most extreme possible take on the Trans movement, or you risk having your life destroyed by the “woke cancel culture mob.” I try to be as open minded and empathetic as possible on this issue, but even I find the conspicuous embrace of Trans “influencers” by beer companies….odd? Why poke the bear of all those Traditionalist beer drinkers if you don’t have to? What purpose does it serve to add another rhetorical bow in the quiver of bonkers MAGA people who want Trantionalists to embrace their fascism?

As an aside, some of the Trans “influencers” have an eerie nature to them that seems like the gender equivalent of the Uncanny Valley. Something about their appearance just seems a bit…off. This is just a few of them. I’ve seen some Trans women who are so natural looking that I wouldn’t know they weren’t born women unless you specifically told me.

Anyway. Whatever. Again, the issue isn’t Trans people, it’s the meta elements of the orthodoxy associated with the movement. I just want to live in a functioning liberal democracy and if you push conservative Traditionalists into the arms of MAGA fascists, my God have mercy on all our souls.

Day Eight: Once More, With Feeling

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So. I’m still reflecting on how I might change the “fun and games” portion of the novel, or the first half of the second act. I think some of my struggle has to do with continue to have lingering questions about what, exactly, the novel is about. Is it about a murder or is about a person’s obsession with…what?

Wish me luck, Howard.

And how do I make the first half of the second act juicy enough that if you read a blurb describing it on the back of a novel’s cover that you would want to open the first page so you could see if you wanted to buy the novel or not. I’m giving myself until Sunday afternoon to do all this reflection.

I have done a lot of tinkering with the first act, too. The first act is a lot better, but re-imagining portions of the first act leave me feeling like yet again I’m treading water. But I’m not. It’s just the revamping of the first half of the second act is so radical that I have to go backwards in time in order to make the “fun and games” portion of the novel as interesting and juicy as possible.

I continue to have a lot of existential dread about the querying process. I mentioned this one Facebook and some smart-ass said, “Then just don’t do it.” If I was younger, I would have gotten REALLY FUCKING ANGRY at this asinine advice, but I was able to keep my cool for once. Just because something fills you with “existential dread” doesn’t mean you don’t do it. It means you rise to the occasion and push yourself harder to prepare for the battle ahead.

Ugh.

Anyway, I’m getting really excited about what happens next with this novel. It’s going to be a real pain in the ass to go outside my comfort zone by entering the beta reader process where I am someone else’s beta reader so they will be MY beta reader. Given the looming instability in the United States in late 2024, early 2025….I dunno.

I’m either going to well on my way to knowing if I’m good enough to be a published author — or a domestic political refugee. But I have hope. I hope that I can stick the landing, the world doesn’t go to hell and I can become a smug “bi-coastal” liberal who looks down on the Poors of flyover states and tweets humble brags about how bad the Red Eye was.

Wish me luck!

Republicans Embracing ‘Fetal Personhood’ May Be The Thing That Finally Sinks America’s Ship Of State

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If my fears come true and “fetal personhood” becomes mainstream Republican orthodoxy by the time the 2024 election rolls around, holy shit does it seem like my “hysterical doom shit” is pretty prescient. Abortion and gun control are two issues very clearly mark if someone — or their state — is Red or Blue. And if Republicans embrace the idea that a zygote should be afforded all the Constitutional protections of an adult person…YIKES.

This is a prime example of why I fucking hate radicalism. If you’re so radical in your dreams of banning abortion that you pretty much make it inevitable that women will go to prison for having a miscarriage then you’re a piece of shit. But here we are — it could be that 2024 will be a battle royale between Two Tribes where no matter who wins the election, we face a secession crisis.

Either Reds begin to leave the Union because Blues won or Blues leave the Union because Reds won. There will be no middle ground and we will all be faced with the biggest historical event since the French Revolution. For all the people trying to “save” babies by having an absolute ban on abortion, I’d like to know what they’re going to do when a Second American Civil War combined with WW3 causes the death of about 1 billion people because of various horrible things happening in quick succession.

And, yet, it could very well be that Blues don’t have it in them to leave the Union. It could be that all those smug Twitter liberals with podcasts will decamp to the south of France and that will be that. There will be a national contraception ban, all gun control will be overturned and the existing ICE camp system will be weaponized to the point that yours truly finds himself cooling his heels in one of them for getting drunk and saying the autocrat can suck his dick.

The issue is — I can’t predict the future. I have no idea what is going to happen, but I am growing more and more alarmed that the existential choice of autocracy or civil war that I’ve been ranting about for some time really is going to happen.

I don’t that to happen over and above the obvious reasons because I have a novel I’m working on and I’d like to actually have a fair shot of becoming a successful, published author before I drop dead.

Who knows? Anything can happen in the next 18 months or so.

Massive Resistance Is Not Cool, Regardless of Who Is Doing It or Why

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Back in the bad old days, there came a point during the Civil Rights movement when a number of Southern states ganged up and simply refused to abide by Brown Vs. Board of Education. In some parts of Virginia, in fact, counties shut down their public schools entirely rather than integrate them.

Now, much to my chagrin, a growing chorus of Blues are calling for something similar when it comes to the recent ruling by a MAGA judge banning one of the two major abortion pills.

I’m not cool with such talk.

Massive Resistance was not cool when racist Southerners did it and it’s not cool when otherwise well-meaning Blues do it now. America is already tearing itself apart to an unprecedented degree, no need to aggravate the situation by ignoring a decision by a Federal judge you don’t agree with.

That way lies madness.

Or, if nothing else, a National Divorce which would, by definition, spark a Second American Civil War.

But all this talk of ignoring the Federal judiciary definitely highlights the dangers of the 2024 election. We’re careening towards the existential choice of autocracy or civil war and it definitely seems as though the only issue is if its Reds or Blues who ultimately decide to leave the Union (depending on who wins the election.)

And, yet, it could be that ultimately Blues just shrug and we become an autocracy, with about 1 million smug liberals fleeing the country in due course.