Tag: Stieg Larsson

The Struggle Continues To Be Real

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So. I’ve pretty much finished the first chapter. Almost. At least to the point that I feel comfortable showing it to people who, of course, will inevitably never get back to me about what think think about it.

Anyway, it’s now the second chapter that I’m having trouble with. I understand what has to be done, but the actual process of doing it is a real pain in the butt. I have juggle a lot of different things in my mind because I have more than on POV within a chapter.

This is something turns off a lot of readers, but people read Stieg Larsson’s work and he did that, so fuck those people. Just don’t read the fucking novel, then. Those kind of quibbles really annoy me because the whole point of some elements of the way I’ve structured the novel is to draw in people who *did* like — or could at least tolerate — how Larsson went back and forth between different POVS within a chapter.

I just need to clear my mind and write some scene summaries before I actually do some writing. I hope to zoom through the rest of the first act after wrapping up the first act, then in the second act….oh boy, do I have a lot of writing and rewriting to do.

Mulling The Other Three Novels In This Project

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For a long, long time, I dreamed of writing six novels in the same universe, set in the same small town. But just recently I’ve managed to cut that down to four. But I’ve changed the first novel in the series so much that it’s going to be interesting to see what happens to the other three.

Naomi Scott would be perfect to play Union Pang, the heroine of my first novel in any movie adaptation.

I finally — finally? — have some sense of what happens in the first novel to the point that I can begin to game out the rest of the novels. I have the beginning of the second novel fleshed out in outline form, but for one thing — the hero, the son of Union Pang now grown up — is too passive.

But the premise of the novel — we see the daughter of the murder victim in the first novel try to escape a cult — is really fun and cool. I can do a lot with it. I imagine this young woman to be a Zendaya-type woman.

By the time I actually finish everything and it sells, however, I’m afraid Zendaya herself will have aged out. It’s going to be awhile before I get to the point where I can really take working on the other three novels in the series seriously. But it is fun to daydream, I suppose.

The last two novels in the project are the closest to being a direct homage to Stieg Larsson’s work. I worked and worked and worked on the two novels (which are one big story connected by a cliffhanger) for ages and then Trump lost the first time and I realized I had all this backstory I wanted to write about.

While Zendaya would be perfect to play my version of Lisbeth Salander, she’ll probably be too old by the time I actually finish and sell the novel.

That’s how I ended up writing a my first novel being set in the mid-90s. It otherwise would be a prequel, but I wanted to start at the very beginning of the life of my Lisbeth Salander-type figure. She’s meant to be an American Lisbeth Salander and the way I’m going about it, you, the reader, will get to see first hand what the weird life of the character was like.

Because the four novels are set over the course of 25 years, I can do some really interesting things with the characters on a macro basis.

No Coachella For Old Men

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about finishing a novel good enough to query is even if I’m successful, I won’t get what I want. I mean, I could be on the near side of 60 before someone could physically hold the novel in their hands in a bookstore, even if I stick the landing and everything goes according to plan.

That sucks.

It sucks for so many reasons.

I want to be young again, and be wild cand crazy like I was in my 30s in Seoul. I want to chase women, drink too much and be a bon vivant this time in NYC, not Seoul.

But, barring the Singularity allowing us all to live to be 500, I’m kind of fucked on that front. I mean, if I try to do all the cool stuff with my “DJ money (read novel money,)” I’ll stick out.

I won’t be able to date 24 year olds without it being taken note of.. I can’t go to music festivals or Burning Man without young people looking at me and rolling their eyes.

And that doesn’t even take into account that I STILL want to get married and have kids. Again, I suppose if the Singularity happens then I can be a father at 65 and live to see them have children of their own.

But, my worry right now is I’ll be like Stieg Larsson in the bad way — I will drop dead just as I successfully query the novel.

At Least I Have A Vision For Thriller Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I keep saying, I have a very clear vision for this thriller novel I’m working on — I want it to be an old brown shoe to anyone who read and enjoyed the Stieg Larsson Millennium series of novels.

That’s my goal and that’s always been my goal, from the very beginning.

As such, I use a few subtle and not so subtle techniques that he used so when people start to read the novel they’ll think, “Huh, this is like a Stieg Larsson novel from 20 years ago.”

For instance, I refer — outside of quotes — to people by their surname like he did. I also, within chapters, change POVs. Both of these things will either annoy the hell out of you or you’ll remember Larsson’s works and say, “Huh, cool.”

Had I been a bit more clued-in when I started working on this novel, I probably wouldn’t have done these things. But I really, really love The Girl Who Played With Fire and so I decided to use it as my “textbook.”

As such, I tried to hone as close to “how would Larsson do it” as possible.

Now, one thing is clear — Larsson on the backend clearly had a much more elaborate development process. Mine is all ad hoc and just do whatever necessary to finish the Goddamn thing.

Anyway, I guess I’ll see what happens.

Some Thoughts As I Potentially Zoom Towards Querying In The Fall

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Looking over the content I’m fusing together, it definitely seems as least within the realm of possibility that it won’t be a year from now when I query my first novel, but, rather this fall.

Four things come to mind as I contemplate this.

  1. The Novel May Be Too Long
    Because I work in terms of scenes, not word count — at least for a lot longer than you might think — I honestly don’t know how long this novel will be. While I’m aiming for about 100,000 words, there is a real chance I may blow past that and be closer to 160,000. That would really put a crimp in my dreams of ever successfully querying, but, lulz, this is a passion project and I just want to experience what it’s like to query.
  2. I’m Kind of Bonkers
    Any literary agent doing due diligence on me is probably think I’m nuts. I may just be too “colorful” for my own good. I just have accept that particular example of the “kook tax” and try to roll with the punches. But it sucks that that and my age may really in a cold, clinical nuts-and-bolts kind of way may prevent me from ever getting published traditionally.
  3. The Novel May Be Too Spicy
    There is a fair amount of sex in this novel, the point that that, unto itself, my turn literary agents off. And the fact that my heroine is something of a part-time sex worker might also cause some problems.
  4. I’m A Middle-Aged White Dude Writing From A Brown Female POV At Times
    There are a number of problems baked into the very structure of this novel from the get-go that may make it a no-go. I often write from a female POV in this novel. There are more than one POV within a chapter. And the chapters are probably a little too long at some points. All of those issues — while true to paying homage to Stieg Larsson — may really make it difficult to sell the novel.

Yet Again…

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve printed out the entire first act AGAIN and I’m going to go read it AGAIN in hopes of finding any weak scenes so I can re-write them. I’m really leaning into AI to do this form of development.

I hate it when AI gives me copy, writing is MY JOB.

Anyway. Things are going well with the novel as of now. I’m hoping to enter the first half of the second act pretty soon. I already know there are a number of weak scenes. It’s just annoying that I keep reading and rereading the first act. It’s time to get into the second act.

The novel continues to be a little too spicy for my needs, but, lulz, fuck it. As long as the overall story is good, I suppose I can grit my teeth and allow for a little bit more sex than might otherwise happen.

At least I didn’t start the novel with a sex scene, which I think is bad form. But, in general, I’m pretty pleased with what I’ve come up with — at least the first act. The tough part is going to be to smooth things out between the first act and the rest of the novel.

But, in general, I think if you’re a fan of Stieg Larsson’s stuff, you’ll really enjoy this novel and the planned novels that follow it.

Comparing My Novel To Stieg Larsson’s Works

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One thing I did not know for a long time was that two of the three novels written by Stieg Larsson while he was alive were actually part of one huge novel that was split into two and connected by a cliffhanger. Hence, that was why it was such a struggle for me to figure out the structure of the novel I decided to use as my textbook — The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Now that I’m back into the swing of things with working on this thriller — when I should be using some of my time to work on some scifi, too, natch — I find myself mulling how much of a one-to-one there is between my textbook and my novel.

My goal from the beginning of this process has been to write an American Lisbeth Salander. What I didn’t expect was I would start the series not with my own The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but with what would effectively be a prequel. My novel is set in late 1994 and is about the events surrounding the BIRTH of my Salander-like character.

The other (planned) novels are about my heroine as an adult. But doing things the way I’m doing them gives me a lot of room to distinguish my work from that of Larsson. Since I’m an American (duh) my novels are going to be natively American in their scope and style, even though I use some structure techniques of Larsson just so I can hopefully appeal to his fanbase.

(Even though the novels first came out about 20 years ago.)

Anyway. It will be interesting to see what happens next. I hope to get this first thriller in the series done ASAP — hopefully no later than maybe a year from now, if not sooner.

I really want to query this novel (for the first time.) I’ve never gotten that far in the process before.

‘Kill Your Darlings’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have managed to cut down my new first act of the new version of the thriller novel I’ve been working on for years to about 44 scenes or so. I’ve attempted to make the first act as simple as possible. I’m attempting to streamline things to the point that I don’t overwhelm readers with a lot of information.

All of this has reduced the word count down to something a little bit more manageable.

The novel is now going to be a far more a traditional murder-in-a-small-town type of affair. There is a lot more of a point to the novel, I think. Previously, the novel was something of a character study that didn’t seem to have much of a point to it.

I haven’t yet gotten to the part of the new version of the novel that is the second draft of the novel. Things may slow down dramatically at that point as I try to figure out how to essentially write a third draft to the novel.

But the key thing is — I now have a first act. Before, I just started the novel at a point in the story where there was a lot of information thrown at the reader. Now, there is an entire act before the murder happens, which is what I wanted.

This is similar to what happens in The Girl Who Played With Fire. I like that structure style for some reason. I like the idea of there being a whole act that leads up to the murder instead of just opening with a body being discovered or it happening in the first few chapters.

‘A New Hope’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. In the name of not throwing too much at the reader at one time — and to made the first act more manageable, I’ve decided to yet again change the beginning of the novel in a dramatic fashion.

Now, a lot of things are either alluded to or happen “off camera” so things are smoother and not so overwhelming. But I do think I’m probably going to have to do a lot more rewriting than I would prefer.

And, all the same problems that this novel has relative to modern expectations still exist — I change POVs within chapters, etc. But my hope is that people who remember Stieg Larsson’s work will read it and say, “Oh, I get it, this is just like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.”

That’s the hope, at least.

And this remains a passion project. I really, really need to piviot some of my free time to the other, more traditionally marketable novels I’m working on. But there comes a point when I just have to shrug and say, “Either you like this passion project and want to read it, or you don’t.”

I have my vision for the passion project and I’m sticking to it, come what may.

Now The Word Count Problem Is Back

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The novel that my novel is meant to be an homage to, The Girl Who Played With Fire, is, as I recall, about 160,000 words. That is way, way too long for my novel for a number of reasons, the biggest being it would be my first novel.

And, yet, here I am — it definitely looks like I could blow past the 100,000 sweetspot of a first novel in a pretty big way.

I don’t know yet because I haven’t gotten that far in the process — I work in terms of scenes, not word count, so I don’t get around to finding out how many words something I’ve worked on is until pretty late in the process.

I have been very careful in the other projects I have been working on to do everything in my power to get them in at about 100,000 words.

Despite all that, I still am fixated on this passion project to the detriment of the other novels I should be working on. So, all this time I should be using on a scifi novel of about 100,000 words, I’m using on a thriller that could be close to 160,000 words.

Yikes!

But, like I said, I don’t know yet. It could be that the novel — which is probably going to be more than 100,000 words no matter what — could come in at something closer to 120,000 or maybe 140,000.

I’m really enjoying myself, though, with this passion project. Once I get into the second act, I think things are going to slow down a great deal ’cause I’m going to be working with the second draft material. I probably am going to have to root around in that second draft material a lot to have it synch up with all the changes I made between the second and third draft of the novel.