Tag: writing about writing

Learning A Lot About Nick Denton In An Unexpected Way

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m reading Ben Smith’s “Traffic” and am delighted that I’m learning a lot about Gawker founder Nick Denton. But I also realize that I really need to recalibrate my expectations about my future.

While got my emotional knees broken in my mid-30s when I started ROKon Magazine in Seoul, at the same age Denton was starting up Gawker. As such, even if I somehow stick the landing and write a breakout hit novel….I’m not going to have the TYPE of success I always thought I would.

I have to accept that not only would I be in my mind-50s when I’m a published author — even if all goes according to plan — but because I will be so late in life having any sort of measurable success that it will all just not be what I thought I would get when I was younger.

I will get what I want and yet not really get what I want because of how old I am when I get it.

But the book Traffic is pretty good so far. I’m pleased that I’m actually reading all these books I need to read.

A Risky Decision

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have a number of reasons for splitting the novel I’ve been working on into two stories. The now two different stories can be written faster. The two of them now are a lot more coherent. And, what’s more, each story will be about ~100,000 words if things work out the way I hope.

I hope my heroine is as interesting and compelling as Lisbeth Salander.

But there are risks.

One is, who wants to read a novel that is, for the most part, a story about a woman struggling to own a newspaper? So, in a sense, my first novel would be if The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was about a power struggle over the Millennium magazine, rather than solving a decade’s old murder.

But I do think that because the story will be really interesting, character driven — and does have a murder in the third act — that it could be interesting enough to be successfully queried. And, what’s more, because of how I’m splitting the novel, I have the original murder mystery story that I can write out pretty quickly.

(L to R, foreground) DANIEL CRAIG as a stranger with no memory of his past and director/executive producer JON FAVREAU on the set of an event film for summer 2011 that crosses the classic Western with the alien-invasion movie in a blazingly original way: “Cowboys & Aliens.”

So, rather than one novel done this year, I could have two.

And, given that I want to write a third novel, a scifi western, I could soon have three novels to pitch in some capacity within the next year.

That, at least, is the plan.

A Reimagining

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I finally did what I’ve been talking about and cut this thriller into two novels. But the way I’m doing it, they will be two separate stories as well as books — no cliffhanger needed.

My first novel is now much more a publishing thriller than murder thriller.

You will finish the first book thinking that the murder investigated in the second book has been solved.

This decision both speeds things up and makes the novel more pitchable because I’m going to be in the ~100,000 word sweetspot now. But one problem is I don’t know what to “comp” my novel to because the murder doesn’t happen until the third act.

The rest of the novel is about something different.

But the point is — the new version of the story is much more character driven and focused than the previous version. I have a lot more build-in wiggle room to talk about things than I did before.

AND, I HOPE, if I do a really good job that I might be given a lot more words to play with in the second novel. The second novel may also be about 100,000, but I’m not as sure about that because I’m REALLY going to have to totally re-imagine things.

But we’ll see. This is the second or third time I’ve done something massive like this to the project. But I do think that this decision will significantly speed things up so I can query a lot sooner than I might otherwise.

Am Querying (Eventually): Not Dead Yet

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Sometimes, I feel like I should just lie in my bed, twiddle my thumbs and wait to die. I’m old and I’ve wasted way too much of my life grieving over a dumb zine in Seoul. But every time I get into this mood, I immediately think, “Well, once more unto the breach.”

I hope that the heroine I’ve come up with is as interesting as Lisbeth Salander.

It’s just not my nature to give up, even though that’s exactly what I should probably do — give the fuck up.

So, I’m going to keep going with this novel as well as a back up novel. All I can say in my defense is I’m an eccentric and, as such, I willing to throw myself into something which objectively will never happen successfully — querying my first novel.

But I just refuse to self-publish, no matter what. I would rather fail on a spectacular level than self-publish because to me self-publishing is a huge co-out. I need and crave the validation of a third party — in this case a literary agent — so I can turn to people who have told me I suck as a writer all these years.

I can turn to them and tell them to fuck off.

I can prove them wrong.

So, I keep moving forward.

The End Of Coding(?)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As a liberal arts creative person, I sometimes absolute fucking loathe smug tech bros whose answer to every problem is, “learn to code.” Fuck that and fuck them.

So the news that it’s at least possible that the blackboxes that are LLMs might, in the future, made the programming profession moot…fills me with a delicious liberal arts joy.

But I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon. And the moment there was some sort of threat of that happening, there would be a lot lobbying for human carveouts and my dream of a world dominated and controlled by creative arts people will be prevented from happening.

Oh well. 🙂

I May Have To Split This Story In Two & Connect It With A Cliffhanger

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve decided to just write the story without worrying about word count. Once I actually finish the novel, I will assess things. I will either split the story in two and have it connected by a cliffhanger, or I will try to pitch a backup novel that is the “proper” length.

I hope my heroine is as compelling as Lisbeth Salander.

I just don’t know yet. It could go either way.

But I am really interested in a scifi-Western. I think that is going to be my backup story. It shouldn’t be too difficult to bone up on how to write a Western then use the scifi universe I’ve thought up in the same story. The Western element would allow me to have a number of ready-made plots that I could fuse with scifi elements.

(L to R, foreground) DANIEL CRAIG as a stranger with no memory of his past and director/executive producer JON FAVREAU on the set of an event film for summer 2011 that crosses the classic Western with the alien-invasion movie in a blazingly original way: “Cowboys & Aliens”.

I do know I have to hurry up, though. I can’t keep screwing around. I now have just about six months to wrap up this third draft of my first novel, regardless of how long it turns out to be.

Mulling A Scifi-Western Story

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m struggling to read a scifi novel. It’s just bad. As such, I find myself yet again thinking about writing some sort of scifi novel as a “second track” to the main mystery-thriller.

(L to R, foreground) DANIEL CRAIG as a stranger with no memory of his past and director/executive producer JON FAVREAU on the set of an event film for summer 2011 that crosses the classic Western with the alien-invasion movie in a blazingly original way: “Cowboys & Aliens”.

I have a really interesting scifi-Western story I’m tooling around in my mind. It’s one of my better ideas for two reasons — I can research how to write a Western really easily AND the already have this particular universe really well gamed out.

In fact, the only way I can think of to give this universe a plot is to make it a Western. I just find a standard Western plot that I like then tinker flesh it out in the context of the scifi concept I have thought through.

But, as always, what is probably going to happen is what always happens — I will make a lot of noise about a second creative track then I’ll just redouble my efforts on the main event.

Ugh.

Querying My First Novel Will Be Brutal

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Tomorrow, the day after my birthday, is kind of my January 1st. I have vowed to myself that this will mark a new era in my life where not only do I lay of drinking so much, but I also really buckle down with the novel.

I’m watching House of Cards a decade after everyone else.

I have something of an idyllic situation on my hands when it comes to developing and writing a novel and it could change literally at any moment. Then I’m going to look back at this moment in my life and be smarting that I didn’t take more advantage of it when I had the opportunity.

And, yet, having said all that, I know, just know, that once I transition from the delusional la-la land of developing and writing a novel into the cold, hard reality of querying that I have to prepare myself for A LOT of disappointment. I’m already preparing myself to piviot to a few scifi concepts while I query.

The biggest problem I can sense about this novel is it’s just not dark enough. Not enough fucked up, twisted things happen. But, having said that, I have come up with more than one reason for people to keep reading during the really long first act — there’s intrigue and lots of sex — some of it kinky, if consensual.

My heroine has a sleeve tattoo similar to this one on Megan Fox, even though I thought of the idea before I saw this.

I like the idea of talking about kinkier sex in a mater-of-fact, consensual way, even though it’s easy for it to be all rather funny. But, I can’t help myself. That’s just my nature — to be kind of droll instead of dark, twisted and scary.

Man, Is The First Half Of This Novel Too Long

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, things are going really well with this novel but for one thing — the first half (the first act and the first half of the second act) is going to be way too fucking long (at least in scene count.)

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was too long for a first novel, too.

But I have a viable explanation for why this is and it all leads up to a really good pay off. And, it’s at least possible that I could split the thing into two if the story is just too long. It might require an editor to figure out how exactly I would do that, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that that could be done.

Anyway.

Very pleased with the story I’ve come up with.

I Have A Villain Problem

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Watching “House of Cards” about a decade after everyone else has really opened my eyes to how piss-poor the villains of my novel are. I know what’s happening — my writing and storytelling ability is really getting a lot better so some things I didn’t really think about at first are coming to the forefront of my mind.

House of Cards

The villains of Stieg Larsson’s novels are horrific, while mine are just…there. There’s nothing really scary or notable about them. This is all happening so late in the process, of course, that I have only a limited amount of time to improve their characterization.

But I’ve at least realized it now, rather than when I try to pitch the novel.

I really need to dig deep — fast — and think up ways to make my various villains memorable and hateful. This is going to be really difficult because my usual way — which is to drift towards my goal and daydream until I come up with a solution — just isn’t going to cut it.

If I use that method, it could be next year before I nail down everything and I just don’t have time. Around July 22 – 23 is my deadline and that’s what I have to work with. If I don’t get where I need to be by that point, I’m really afraid that the window of opportunity I have to sell this novel will close and we’ll all be consuming AI generated entertainment, or the fucking Fourth Turning will happen — you name it.

Anyway. Onward.