Tag: novel

I Continue To Be At A Loss About The Third Draft Of My First Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have totally reworked the beginning of the third draft of this novel and now I’m going through and editing it so it makes sense. In general, the story is really good. And, yet, because I’m doing all of this in a creative vacuum…I just don’t know.

I honestly just don’t know.

Some of the story is a bit…edgy…and I just don’t know what that most important of audience categories — women — will think of what I’ve come up with. But there comes a point when you just do the best with what you have. I just don’t have a “reader” to give me any guidance, so all I can do is move forward and try to finish the novel.

It definitely seems as though the novel will now fit the ~100,000 word sweetspot. Or if it’s longer, it will be longer in a manageable way. It shouldn’t be anymore than. I’m estimating the novel will now be no longer than 120,000-ish words the way things are going.

And all of this continues to make me want to do a backup plan. I have three solid back up scifi novels. If I do ever break down and write them, I will be sure to have them single (male) POV and be no more than 100,000 words.

Anyway. I’m looking forward to finally — finally — getting into the part of the novel that I’ve already written. Things should move far, far faster once I’m actually writing the third draft of the novel and not just spinning my wheeling at the very beginning of the novel trying to figure out relationships.

I Need / Want to Watch ‘Carol’ But I’m Being Stubborn

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Carol is just the type of movie I *should* want to watch. I started it, but stopped because, I dunno, something about it turned me off. But I think I’m going to try — TRY — to watch it again.

Cate Blanchet stars in “Carol.”

I think some of it comes from the vibe is shoots off. Something about the over-serious nature of the relationship turns me off. And, yet, I can tell it’s also just the type of Serious Storytelling that I should enjoy.

Ugh. I’m so torn.

And all of this happens in the context of me feeling more and more guilty about how little content I actually *consume*. I really just read my own stuff over and over again and that’s not good. I need to expose myself to other people’s work. These thoughts are happening in the context of preparing to query my novel at some point in 2024.

I’m going to have to have something to “comp” it to other than Stieg Larsson’s work which is, at this point, nearly 20 years old. Ugh. It’s times like these when I realize leaving the extended delusional state I’ve been when developing and writing this novel is going to be extremely jarring.

I *Think* I’m Where I Need To Be With The Third Draft Of My First Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While things continue to collapse over and over again with this third draft, there is at least a chance I may have reached some stability. The only quibble I have with it at the moment is the first chapter doesn’t really make it clear the mystery-thriller element of the story.

But I think there are ways I can shoehorn that element of the story into it to make it stronger. But I have managed to make a number of the other chapters of the first act have some sense of where things are heading in the second act. I am still at about 40 scenes. This is too much, but not so much that it will dominate the entirety of the rest of the novel.

So, that’s something to be thankful for.

And if I can just focus for once, I think I can zoom through the first act fast enough that by around Christmas or Boxing Day I might — MIGHT — be able to enter the second act.

As all of this is going on, I continue to dwell on reading a lot, watching a lot and also doing some development on some other projects as a “just in case.” I’m really having problems doing all that, however. I continue to drift towards my goal, rather than have the focus that I need.

Hopefully, that will change soon enough for me to actually get some work done really fast. I’m not going to live forever.

Things Are Stabilizing Again With This Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I continue to fall apart, I’ve managed to pause my physical decline long enough for me to stabilize the first act of the third draft of my first novel…again. It’s been a real struggle, but I *think* I have a pretty good sequence of events laid out.

I continue to want to work on some other ideas. I’ve got three solid scifi concepts rolling around in my mind that I may piviot to whenever I need to king of chill out for a little while. But I have got to get out of the first act of this novel ASAP.

If I’m going to work on the rest of the novel — which I’ve written twice already — I’m going to have to get out of the first act. The clock is ticking. And there continue to be a lot — A LOT — of known unknowns that could either slow me down or dramatically change the context of the years’ long project with little or no notice.

I really — REALLY — need to wrap this third draft up by no later than April 1st if I’m going to query in the fall….just as America makes a decision as to if it’s going to become a MAGA-themed autocracy or fall into revolution / civil war.

Good times!

I Knew This Would Happen

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have added back some scenes to the first act. But instead of 65 scenes, I now have just 40. That’s still a little bit too much, but it’s a lot better than what I had. Now I can have ~60 scenes in the second act and it not be that big a deal.

The new first act is far, far more focused on the heroine and goes by at a faster clip. And there is a lot — a lot — that I will allude to that won’t be seen on the page like before.

But only time will tell. It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to revamp the new version of the first act to accommodate all the changes I’ve made.

I Have A Great Scifi Concept, But For One Thing…

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The president of Hollywood.

I have a great, great scifi concept rolling around in my head, but there is one problem with it — if I don’t do it right, it might come across as racist. This is ironic, given that the entire point of the concept is to attack, well, racism in modern America.

But it’s one of those things where given how fucked up everything is in America these days, if I’m not careful, the logline might doom the story. But the idea is very intriguing to me because it addresses the biggest problem with all the apocalyptic pandemic fiction that is out there today.

That particular issue is enough of a pet peeve of mine for me to be willing to throw myself into writing a novel that hinges on the specific weakness such pandemic stories typically have.

But who knows. I have a lot on my plate at the moment. And I can be kind of unfocused, so I may just keep doing what I’m doing, which is futzing with the mystery-thriller I’ve been working on for years now.

A Dramatic Decision

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After months of hard work on the first act, I took a scalpel to it and cut a number of chapters off. NOW the first act’s length makes sense. Rather than an enormous 65 scenes, it is at about 24. That number may increase a little bit, but I’m going to try to keep it at no more than 30 because the second act is about 60 scenes.

The upside to this very dramatic turn of events is I know the relationship of my different characters far better than I did. And there’s a lot of backstory I can allude to rather than show.

Of course, I think if I had a wife or a girlfriend who was my “reader” that I wouldn’t have gotten myself into such a dumb situation in the first place. But, I can’t help that I have no friends and no one likes me.

My next task is to totally revamp the beginning of the novel to accommodate the new beginning. There are some basic elements to the beginning of the novel that I am going to have to somehow shoehorn into a beginning that takes place deep into what was once the first act.

But even starting the novel where I do, I still solve a major problem with the previous beginning — people felt too much was being thrown at them. The new beginning has a little bit of lead in to the Big Event that gets the story going. I’m really pleased — at least at the moment — with what I’ve managed to come up with.

I was really sweating it there for a moment. I was afraid that readers were going to have to wade through way too many words to get to the point of the story. I’m a bit annoyed that I spent so much time all these scenes that will now be on the cutting room floor, if you will.

But those are the breaks, I guess when you have no one to help you. There is a chance that some of those scene will ultimately be used. I have a tendency to use scenes I’ve already written here and there when I need something. It’s like object oriented programing.

Huh

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I find myself in something of a creative pickle. On one hand, the first act of my mystery-thriller makes total sense. But it’s way too long at over 60 scenes. For it to fit the traditional structure of a novel, the second act would have to be 120 scenes.

That is just not going to happen.

I continue to struggle with different ways I might shorten the first act, but the beginning I have works really well and the overall plot progression is fine. It’s just too long. So, I guess what I’m going to do is just write the entire third draft of the novel and see what happens.

I’ve changed so much of the first act that I may figure out a way to bump up some of the scene count of the second act — just no where near 120. It *might* get up to maybe 80 total scenes, but even that would be pushing it. I still have to leave some room for the third act.

Ugh.

It’s all so frustrating. Everything is working out with the third draft other than the length of the first act. But I have to press forward. Maybe after I’ve finished the third draft, someone can give me some advice as to how to make its first act shorter.

This problem is bringing the issue of a fall back story to the front of my mind. I have three solid scifi novels to choose from. All I have to do is think up some characters and game out a plot for each of them. The universes are very well thought out by this point.

It’s all a bit overwhelming at the moment, but I’ll figure something out.

I always do.

So I Have This Scifi Concept Rolling Around In My Mind

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have long had a really good scifi concept in my mind that I have pretty well thought out. And it was all systems go to try to write it out…until I realized there was already a series of novels with the same premise. I discovered this when I saw previews for the Apple+ TV show “Silo.”

My concept is sufficiently similar that I could see someone dismissing it with the phrase, “It’s already been done.”

AND YET, my story is completely different other than the basic idea of people living underground. That’s the only thing my idea shares with Silo. Everything about my story is different. I have begun to toy with the idea of reworking my idea so it’s same same, but different.

I only think about this again because while I love the mystery-thriller I’m working on, I am also growing nervous that it’s word count will be large enough that that, unto itself, might cause problems when I try to pitch it.

At least with the scifi concept, I could directly “comp” it to Silo in a query letter. But…I don’t know. I just don’t know.

The Struggle Is Real

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are going really well with this novel but for one thing — word count. I have a nice beginning that lends itself to a symmetrical ending. And, in general, I understand the story now to the point that things should move at quite a nice clip.

But I continue to worry about how enormous my first act is. And, yet, the story is a real page turner. There’s lot of sex and drama that would make people want to keep reading. It’s just on a structural basis, I’m alarmed at how big the first act is shaping up to be.

It’s going to be equal to the entire second act.

And, yet, that’s just scene count, not word count.

But there is an added complication — everything has changed so much in the first act that I have to re-imagine the rest of the novel to accommodate these changes. That is going to slow me down some.

Meanwhile, it is becoming more and more clear that I have to work on a backup novel in case this novel balloons to 160,000 words. That’s just too fucking long for a first novel by an unknown author. I keep thinking about splitting the novel in two if that is the case, but the thing is, I’m struggling to figure out the new structure of the first novel in the two part story if I do that.

So. I dunno.

My only hope at this point is either the novel isn’t nearly as long as I fear it will be or I can get over myself and spend some of my time working on a backup scifi novel to pitch. If that novel is good enough, then I can say, “Oh, by the way, I have another novel I’ve been working on…”

Of course, all of this is happening in the context of the looming Fourth Turning, Petite Singularity starting in late 2024, early 2025. UGH.