Tag: writing about writing

Contemplating A Second Creative Track — Again


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I love the five novel project I’m working on, the more serious I become about it, the more I realize each of these novels is probably going to be a bit long. I’m an unknown, untested first time novelist and, as such, things aren’t exactly in my favor. In fact, as it stands, for me to sell anything would be the creative equivalent of winning the lottery.

As such, I find myself again thinking of a second creative track. I have a great concept for a novel that I originally conceived as a screenplay. But the learning curve for a screenplay is simply way, way, way too sharp for me to finish it as quickly as I’d like. Half my time would be spent just figuring out how to use FinalDraft properly.

So, a novel it is.

I’m hoping this second track novel will be safely within the 80,000 to 120,000 word range that any first time novelist should strive for. I’m giving myself 100 scenes, which would be just about right. The story is very much in the vein of Don’t Look Up, but it addresses global climate change in a very much more direct manner.

As I’ve said before, the people I’ve described the story to have been enthralled by it. But the problem is, I only have an ending at this point. I have a general idea about a beginning, but everything else besides the third act is a total mystery. I just hate the idea of spending all this time on a second track when I could be using that time to make the main five novel project better.

But, like I said, I need something shorter to serve as a calling card of sorts for what I’m capable of.

I think my best bet to speed up the process of developing this novel is to really focus on motivation. That’s been a real struggle with these five novels I’m working on — for a long time, I didn’t know what the motivation of my protagonist was.

So, I’m going to think about motivation really hard before I get too wrapped up in sorting out the plot. I hope, at least, that that will speed things up in the long run.

I’m In The Second Act


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I know this story is stable enough for me to get into the second act fully because of how much I’m changing things and moving scenes around in the outline. Anyway, tomorrow is the first of the month and that’s as good as a time as any to throw myself into working on the second act.

I’ve got to do something, however, because time is really moving forward at a fast clip and if I don’t wrap up something, anything with this first novel then it’s going to be next year and I will be just about where I am now.

I really feel like I’m out of my comfort zone already. This project is turning out to be far more overwhelming than I could have ever imagined. There’s just so much to think about so I don’t embarrass myself.

But, that’s what I wanted.

For Once, I Have Both The Motivation & Ambition To Pull Off A Third Hat Trick


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m doing a very sloppy vomit first draft right now of the first novel in what is hoped to be a five novel project. I’m now at the beginning of the second act and it’s interesting how just by going through the events in the story, things are getting a lot better.

But the point is — I have to finish the first draft. I have to allow myself to get outside my comfort zone and finish something, anything as quickly as possible.

I’m also at the moment mapping out the events of the second novel in the series. It’s exciting because I know exactly how I’m going to do it. I’m going to draw inspiration from a very dark, dysfunctional era in my personal work history. I’m going to smash a number of different eras in my life into a cohesive whole.

Anyway, things are going well with the first novel. I continue to be surprised by how much the specifics of the story change as I make another run through of the outline.

The key thing is, I need to figure out how to use my time more wisely. I can’t just keep drifting in a general direction. I need to be more focused. I need to see this project more as a job than as simply a part of my personality that I work on when the mood strikes me.

I’m trying my best to see things that way, but sometimes it’s tough.

Time To Put Up Or Shut Up


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have to buckle down now with these five novels. I have to take this all far more seriously. I’m not going to live forever. I want to finish something, anything within a year.

As such, I’m going to have to do something to speed the method by which I develop and write these five novels. For once, I have both the motivation and vision to get this done.

And, people always, always, underestimate me.

They have every reason to, given that I’ve done jackshit in a long time, but I have these five novels mapped out in my mind and I just have to do the hard part of making them a reality, something you can hold in your hand and read.

If I don’t do something, I’m going to wake up in a year and be essentially in the exact same place I am at the moment with these novels.

Officially Back Into The Second Act


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While the actual text is garbage and there are too many scenes, I’ve “finished” the first act of a decent first draft of this novel. I think I’m going to have to admit to myself that this novel is probably not fit the “sweetspot” of between 80,000 and 120,000 words.

I have no idea why this is, but I’ve revised this thing many, many, many times and the first act always settles at about 50 scenes. If each scene is, on average, 1,000 words, well, lulz. The other acts aren’t as long, but, still, I’m pushing the length of a novel that I would be pitching as an unknown, untested author. I’m fully prepared to self-publish, but this is kind of my Hail Mary pass to get myself out of a rather fucking annoying situation.

I have a huge ego and believe that I’m interesting enough that one day soon I will be able to relive what I had in Seoul, only as a Blue Check liberal who bounces back and forth between NYC and LA.

I’m well aware that I’m being extremely delusional, but, lulz, I have to do something to keep going. Otherwise, I would just lie in bed and stare at the celling all day.

Now that I’m in the second act, I have to do a lot of reading. I’m now in the police procedural part of the novel. I know nothing about any of this, but I can read. And, if need be, I’ll get outside of my comfort zone and do even more research than I already plan to do. I’m even willing to pay someone with police experience to give me information as to how what I propose would actually play out.

I really believe in this project. And I have to keep reminding myself of the old adage about novels, that all novels are never finished, but abandoned. What this means is — you’re never going to “finish” your novel so it’s “perfect.” There comes a point when you just have to give up and produce something, anything that you can pitch to an agent.

Anyway. Wish me luck.

Never Show Your First Draft To Anyone

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, in a sense, I’m in the second act of this first novel. It’s required a lot of fancy footwork, but I’ve managed to pull it off. Not only do I have a few blank scenes to write, there are a number of scenes I’m going to have to throw out at some point even to finish a “first” draft.

Otherwise, things are moving pretty fast.

I’m going to try to do a lot of reading in the coming days so I can finally figure out how to flesh out the body of the other books in this series. Right now, I know I have five really great, very solid concepts but they continue to be pretty vague in huge portions of their plot.

I hope to change that pretty soon, though. I love this project too much not to throw myself into figuring out how to make it a reality, something you can actually read instead of something I mentally masturbate about on this blog.

Anyway, once more unto the breach.

Just About To Get Back Into The Second Act Again


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Today was extremely productive when it came to the first novel in this projected five novel project. I’m going to spend the next few days going though editing what I’ve done so things are back to what they used to be — my heroine for the first novel is now a middle aged AmeriAsian woman.

Now, I know because of “woke cancel culture” I’m kind of playing with fire being a CIS white male writing from the POV of someone who is neither white nor male. But, YOLO. I’m here for a good time not a long time. If I have to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune by having the temerity to -gasp — write from the POV of something other than that which I’m directly knowledge of, then so be it.

Anyway, I have to go through the process of beveling off the edges of a series of scenes that I wrote for different versions of this story. Once I do that, I can really get into the second act (again.) I’m really pleased with the symmetry of the plot.

I hope to wrap up this version of the first novel pretty soon. I just can’t keep spinning my wheels. I’m not going to live forever and I have five strong novels to work with and the issue now is to flesh them out. I believe in myself. I can do this. But I have to admit that I’m going to have to do a lot more reading. I really need to know like the back of my hand the structure of how to write a twisty novel with enough thrills and excitement to keep people reading.

Maybe my angst over this situation will give me some sense of an actual deadline and, as such, I will actually fucking finish something instead of spending way too much time writing about writing.

But, to my credit, my storytelling ability continues to improve on a near daily basis. I continue to worry that someone is going to come out with a story of some sort that steals a march on me. But that’s out of my control. I just have to keep working on what I believe in and see what happens.

Feeling Pretty Good About The Latest Iteration Of The Outline For The First Novel In This 5 Thriller Series


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m feeling just about ready to start writing again on this first novel. The plot now has a nice symmetry to it and the ending both wraps up the story and gives a nice lead-in to the beginning of the next novel.

While I continue my pause in writing, I’m going to try to sketch out the plots of the other four novels as best I can. At the moment, most of the novels have a beginning and an end, but not much in the middle. The last two novels are the most thought out, but they also have way too much plot and i have to figure out a way to pare all that plot back some.

But I’m feeling a lot of hope because of how well the first novel’s plot is beginning to shape up. I have it in me to flesh out the other novels’ plots, I just have to be patient and believe in myself.

As I keep saying, the emotional core of these novels is one woman’s love for a young woman who grows up to be my personal interpolation of the Lisbeth Salander trope. You get to see, over the course of a series of novels, the major events that lead up to the motives of the young woman in the last two novels. I find the whole project very compelling.

At the moment, the woman at the heart of this project looks a lot like Olivia Munn in my imagination, while the young woman who grows up to be my personal hot take on the Lisbeth Salander trope looks a lot like Zendaya. But I’m really just daydreaming at this point. I’m a very visual person and if the learning curve for screenwriting wasn’t so difficult, I probably would have gone into screenwriting instead of novel writing.

Yet, of course, I’m not going to live forever. I really need to get something done. I can’t just keep daydreaming about finishing these five novels, I’m going to have to actually do it soon enough. Otherwise, I’ll just be a dude who died of a broken heart over a failed magazine for expats in Seoul.

And I simply refuse for that to be what people think of me, if I have it within my power to do so.

I really need to get back to work writing .And, yet, I also want to use this pause in my writing to psyche myself up and do some of the reading I’ve neglected to do over the course of this project’s existance.

At the moment, I have a lot of hope. But the clock is ticking.

Movie Pitch: A Romcom Based On Digital Telepathy


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have too much on my plate creatively to do anything with this, but here’s a fragment of a movie idea that someone, somewhere should do something with. The idea has a touch of magical realism to in a vein similar to The Enteral Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Same same, but different.

The idea is that there’s an app that not only can read your mind, but also manipulate you. So, what happens is our hero keeps seeing a woman who is perfect for him, the love of his life, on his For You Page, but she lives in NYC. But he knows if he ever met her in person, they would fall in love — or at least he would.

So, the plot is something like, he studies the young woman, travels to NYC and they meet. He uses what he’s seen from her videos to strike up a relationship with her.

Now, this is the point where I don’t know what happens. I like the idea that the couple realizes that the app (a Tik-Tok clone) really is reading their minds and they have some sort of adventure together to prove this to the rest of the world.

Or something. Something like that.

Back to mulling my five thriller novels.

Of Developing The Other 4 Novels In This Thriller Series


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ok. I’ve pretty much figured out the plot of the first novel in what is meant to be a five novel thriller series. (I don’t know if you can really call these novels “thrillers” but that’s the genre that they’re closest too.) Anyway, now to plunge into the other four novels.

The last two novels — which make up the original story I worked on for a few years before Trump choked on me and couldn’t establish Trumplandia — are probably the best thought out. But there was a reason I shelved them for a while — the story was great but also way too packed full of plot.

I’m hoping that went I look at the plot of those last two novels with fresh eyes that the development will zoom a lot quicker because I might be more willing to radically change the story as necessary to actually finish something, anything.

Then there are two novels in the series where I have beginnings and ends but a huge hole where everything else should be. Fleshing out these two novels is going to be a real struggle. At least I know how the start and end. And I have the general conventions of a thriller I can use to help me.

These five novels depict events that take place over the course of a generation. The entire thing is pretty great. The overall arc of the five novels is everyone wants to control my interpolation of the Lisbeth Salander troupe and it’s done in the context of a Oliva Munn-looking woman who loves the Salander-like woman like a daughter over the course of the years.

But really need to stop talking about writing and start writing. Yet, some of all of this is me processing in the back of my mind how I’m going to work out plot points. And letting off steam while drunk.