Tag: novel

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.

Oh Boy. I Really Need A Backup Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though my first novel is going to balloon to somewhere in the 140,000 – 160,000 word range. That’s just too long. If that’s what happens, I have two options.

One option is to split the novel into two and connect the story with a cliffhanger. But I’m uneasy about my first novel being the first part of a bigger story. Meanwhile, the other option is — especially if the novel is closer to 140,000 words — to pitch the novel as-is while also having a smaller novel of about 100,000 words that I can pitch in case it becomes clear that the larger novel just isn’t going to sell as a first novel.

I have a few scifi novels rolling around in my head that are pretty well developed. All I would have to do is think up some characters and a plot and I could probably knock out a first draft pretty quick. The biggest problem is, of course, that I am so obsessed with the mystery-thriller novel I’m working on — the main project — that it’s really, really difficult for me carve out any time for anything else.

But I think it’s time I figured out how to do that. I really love this mystery-thriller novel, but I’m also growing more and more worried that its word count will be…problematic.

This Third Draft Of My First Novel Is Getting Really Good — But

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The original script for The Blues Brothers was over 300 pages long. While I don’t quite have the problem that Dan Akroyd had with that project when it comes to length, I definitely have a problem.

In number of scenes, at least, the first act of this novel is going to equal the entire second act. This is bad structure. And, yet, I think what I’m going to do is just finish an “alpha” release of the third draft then take stock of things. I will have two options depending on how things work out.

If the novel is no more, than, say, 140,000 words, then I will just say damn the torpedoes’ full speed ahead and try to pitch what I have. If the final alpha release is closer to 160,000 words, I’m going to think seriously about splitting it in two and connect the two novels through a cliffhanger.

No matter what, I think I need to YET AGAIN try to begin work on a backup project — probably a scifi novel. I have a really good scifi take on pandemic fiction that I think I could probably knock out pretty quick because I have so much more experience about how to write a novel after years of struggle.

But I am really pleased with how this third draft is sorting itself out. The big issue is there are all these elements to the novel that simply can’t be “yadda yadda yadda’d” if I want to do it properly. Now that I know how to tell a story, I realize that writing a novel — at least for me — is a lot like trying to move a huge ship one way or another.

You can’t just turn on a dime. If you think up a really cool element of the story with a secondary POV character, you have to give that element some thought or otherwise people will feel cheated.

That’s why I have a huge first act at the moment. And, yet, I try to comfort myself by realizing that the first act of The Girl Who Played With Fire is just as enormous. All this goes back to the cold, hard fact that the point of writing a novel is to equally tell a good story and finish the Goddamn thing.

So as long as I serve up a great story to readers, I doubt the average person will get too worked up that it has an enormous first act. And, remember, the issue is there are a number of known unknowns. I just know scene number, not length. And I haven’t rewritten the rest of the novel that is already written from the second draft.

So, I’m going to buckle down and finish the third draft without much regard to some pretty basic issues. Once the alpha release is done, THEN I can make an executive decision as to what to do next.

At A Loss As To What The Audience Reaction To This Novel Will Be

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

On a structural basis, my novel is a lot like Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire in the sense that the Big Event doesn’t happen until the end / beginning of the first act. It took me forever to figure out the structure of that novel…until I learned it was actually the first half of a much bigger story. After that piece of information, its structure make a lot more sense.

But other than having The Big Event be the thing that pushes my heroine in the the Special World, otherwise, if I do my job right, the rest of the structure of the novel should be pretty conventional. At least, that’s my goal.

My big concern is that it takes soooo long for The Big Event to happen that people will grow board or annoyed. And, yet, there is so much drama — and sex — in the first act that I’m pretty confident that people will be so busy reading all the spicy scenes in the first act that they won’t even notice that that many thousand of words have gone by without, well, The Big Event happening.

My heroine looks, in general, like Corrie Yee in my mind as I write her.

I, in general, like what I’ve come up with. But, as I keep saying, all of this is being done in a near complete vacuum so, lulz, I have no idea what the fuck the audience will think of it — especially some of the more spicy elements. Some of what I’ve come up with is supposed to be serious, but because it’s not hateful and scary…I could see it be as rather….uhhh…comical.

But I can’t help who I am. I’m just not as dark and scary as Stieg Larsson in my writing.

Writing This Novel In A Creative Vacuum Is Really Frustrating

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have no friends and no one likes me. As such, all I have when it comes to this novel is my gut. I just tell the story with Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire as a hazy, general frame of reference. I have — somehow — managed to flip the script on some of the…uhhh….darker…elements of the first novel in a way that reflects my personality.

Instead of dark and scary, I do the same thing but in a consensual way that furthers the plot. (IYKYK)

At least, that’s the general goal.

There is so much sex happening the first act that I sometimes worry that it may come across as the mystery-thriller version of Debby Does Dallas. And, yet, because all of this is happening in a vacuum….I just don’t know.

And things calm down dramatically on the sexxy time front during the rest of the novel, to the point that I kind of feel uneasy that I come out swinning hard in the first act then everything goes normal for the rest of the novel, leaving the audience a little let down.

Or not. Who knows. I really do like what I’ve managed to come up with. The story is a real page turner, even if I have no idea what the reaction of the audience will be to some of the more….controversial editorial decision on my part.

YOLO.

Finally, Things Have Stabilized With The Third Draft Of My First Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ok. Things are rocking now with this third draft of my first novel. I’ve finally, finally, figured out some pretty basic elements of the novel that I can work with going forward. I’ve swapped a gender and changed the ethnicity of one character, but now I am closing in on the end of the first act.

The Big Event that ends the first act is growing even bigger and more dramatic by the moment. Let’s just say there my heroine has a hell of a New Year’s Eve 1994. And that’s just the event that kick starts the her push into the “special world.”

I now have THREE MEN interested in my heroine for different reasons and one of them I have to flesh out so there’s a point to him even being in the story to begin with. He serves a purpose in the first act, but I’m at a loss as to what he does for the rest of the novel.

I have a few options. One of them is he shows up every once in a while to serve a specific purpose AND his appearance in the last scene would give the story a lot of symmetry. Which allegedly, is a form of good storytelling. But the key thing is I have to keep my eye focused on what genre this novel is. If I’m not careful, this thing is going to be more just general fiction than a mystery-thriller.

It’s not my nature to go dark in my writing and I’m not really all that interested in *showing* bad things happening to my characters, so, I dunno. I guess I’m going to have to be really thoughtful in giving a lot of pagetime to the results of bad things happening.

Or something.

The general premise of the story is really, really good. I’m very pleased. But, then, of course, that could be the delusion that has been a the core of all of this talking. There have been a number of times when I’ve winced at some mistake I made because I’m doing all of this in a creative vacuum.

I continue to be concerned that just as I’m about to query this novel, there will be a perfect storm involving AI and The Fourth Turning that makes all my hard work over the last few years very, very moot. But I’m well on my way to actually writing a novel — a real novel that I can at least be content that I’ve finished.

My Macro Plot For This 6 Novel Project Sometimes Forces My Hand As To What Happens In This Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The ultimate endgame of this six novel project is a heroine who will be an American twist on the Lisbeth Salander trope.

I have the general ebb and flow of a six novel project that spans 25 years in my mind. And I definitely know how the macro story ends — it’s an open ended ending that allots for a new open-ended series of novels set in the modern day with an American Lisbeth Salander doing cool shit.

But there’s a downside — in the first novel, I occasionally find myself boxed in. There are certain things that HAVE to exist in the first novel so I can use them later on in the series. This leads to some situations where I could see an editor raising an eyebrow at such a decision.

I’ve decided to just say fuck it and not worry about that. The point is to tell a good story and if there are few elements of the first novel that seemingly are “unusual” because they are the building blocks of later events in the macro plot, so be it.

I just don’t know. Either all of this is going to work out great and I’ll look like a genius, or it won’t and I’ll like like a fool. I guess there are worse fates in this world, huh.

At Last, I’ve Stabilized The Beginning Of The Third Draft Of My First Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Months after I thought I was going to get this point, I believe I’ve finally — finally –come up with the beginning of the third draft of this novel that I like well enough to stop futzing with. I believe I can now zoom through the rest of the novel at a pretty fast clip.

There are a lot of known unknowns, however. A lot could go wrong that might force me to either pause my writing or at least dramatically change the context of it all. But until that happens, all systems are go.

I still am at a loss as to what people will think of some the new elements of the story. A number of times in this new version of the novel I flip the script on some of the dark things that happen in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I’m just not as dark as Stieg Larsson was in his writing and time and again I have found myself interjecting a bit of levity in unexpected ways.

My goal for what I’m writing now is simple — produce an “alpha release” of the third draft that I can use as the basis of a much stronger “beta release” which will be essentially the same version but with a lot of the inconsistencies ironed out and the characterizations improved.

As all of this is happening, I keep thinking up various other stories I want to explore. I think I’m going to at least *try* to work on a number of backup stories starting at some point in early 2024. Some of the scifi concepts I’ve come up with are really original and interesting.

Anyway, wish me luck. I continue to hope to query this novel in the fall of 2024, just as AI makes all my hard work moot and the Fourth Turning causes the end of the post WW2 liberal global order.

Good times!