I’ve finally found who I’m thinking of in my mind as I write my heroine and her adventures in my first novel — Nathalie Emmanuel.
Nathalie Emmanuel
My hope is, of course, that I will write a heroine who is as interesting as Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander. It will be interesting to see how things ultimately work out. A lot of writing a successful novel is just dumb luck. So, lulz, I could write The Bible and because I’m a smelly CIS white male writing from a female POV at times….the woke cancel culture mob will pillory me.
The dream is to write a character as interesting as Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander.
Whenever I get a little nervous about having my heroine be a part-time sex worker — stripper — I remind myself how freaky most Hollywood actresses are. And, what’s more, I don’t even really have anything all that bad happen to my heroine compared to, say, what Stieg Larsson puts Lisbeth Salander through….Jesus Christ.
So, I think that while a certain portion of the reading public will be turned off by this particular element of my heroine’s character, the people who might actually one day adapt it into a movie — if it ever became that popular, natch — will really dig it.
Having her occasionally strip to relax adds a lot of complexity to her character and evokes an emotional reaction of some sort, which is what all good storytelling does. I am well aware of how some people will want to throw the book across the room the moment they realize that it’s a smelly CIS white male writing from a female POV instead of an undocumented trans woman, but, lulz, slings and arrows and all that.
It will be interesting to see what happens, regardless.
From what I can tell of OpenAI’s Sora software, we’re rushing towards a future where human Hollywood becomes moot. What’s more, it seems as though the far Left and the far Right might fuse into some sort of anti-AI coalition that would demand legal carveouts for human Hollywood and human transportation workers.
I do think that, no matter what, human generated art will thrive, just the context will be different. It will be that 99.9% of all media is AI generated, and the little bit of pop art that is human generated will be really, really good. The one genre of human are that will probably see the most success because of AI is live entertainment ranging from sports, to music to theatre.
Actually experiencing something in the real world, rather than via AI generated VR wearing your Apple Vision Pro will start to be valued a great deal by the average person. I could see Broadway and live theatre in general replacing most of the current movie going experience because it will be real and true and human.
I love movies, yes, but in the future it could be that people will be so used to “playing” their gamified VR movies that if they are going to take their headset off, they’re going to want it to be a live experience. I will note again that scifi novel The Unincorporated Man talks about the downsides of VR in a really interesting way.
Anyway. It will really be interesting to see how things play out. I would like to think that I still have a window of opportunity to finish my novel and see if I can successfully querying it.
I think the only way I’m actually going to get past the first few chapters is just…not look at the first few chapters of the third draft once I finish them. Just wing it when it comes to consistency.
My dream is to write a novel as accessible and popular as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Things are set up now that I should be able to methodically go through at least the first half of the novel without feeling forced to re-read everything from the beginning. I had a real problem the last time I thought I had transitioned from the first to second acts of the third draft to the point that I went back to the very beginning and made some structural changes.
I’m pretty pleased, in general, with what I’ve come up with. I continue to worry about things I just can’t control. The rise of AI and the possibility of The Fourth Turning happening at some point over the next 18 months weigh heavily on my mind. But, as I’ve written, finishing this novel is existential.
I’m going to try to finish the third draft of this novel not later than April, but it might be closer to July. THEN I have to worry about finding the funds to get someone to look over the novel before I query an agent. And even then, I have to worry about an agenda doing due dilligence on me and thinking I’m not only a crackpot, but a smelly CIS white male who writes from a female POV sometimes.
I do still have a few scifi concepts I want to work on. It’s just so difficult for me to stop fixating on the mystery-thriller long enough to do such a thing. But I really do need to do it ASAP. I don’t like having all my eggs in one basket.
So. I have a window of opportunity before either The Fourth Turning destroys the country and / or AI makes all human generated entertainment moot. So, I have to hurry. At this point, finishing this novel is now existential and, to some extent, irrational.
I should just give up and stare at my ceiling all day until I die of boredom. I suppose that’s what a “normal” person would do — just give up.
But fuck that. I’m not normal. Never have been. So, once more into the breach. Now that I’m sober, I feel in a better position to sprint. All I want to do is to express my humanity by telling a great story that one — one! — person who isn’t related to me or who doesn’t know me personally finishes and really likes and wants to read more.
That, in my mind, will prove that I don’t suck as a writer.
I have stopped drinking. I’ve just reached the point where I would prefer not to die of an early death as the result of some alcohol-related illness. The biggest change all of this causes is I’m not in an alcohol-induced haze most of the time. As such, I hope I’m going to be able to focus and get much, much more work done on the novel.
No more barfly.
Hell, maybe I’ll even force myself to read and watch more content produced by someone other than myself. I hope. I really do. That’s the goal. I may have finally locked the first chapter of the third draft of the novel. I can use that as the cornerstone of the rest of the novel and, as such, things should move a lot more quickly.
That’s the dream, at least.
I’m hoping this new era in my life will stick. I really want to get this novel done as quickly as possible so I can at least get the next stage which is figuring out what to do with it, once I finally know how long it is.
I really hope it’s not 160,000 words. I really, really hope it’s no more than 140,000 words. That’s about how long The Girl On The Train was and that was a success, so, lulz. But I still need work on a back up plan. I need some sort of back up creative plan in case something happens that screws everything up with this first novel.
My gut tells me this novel is getting a lot better — a lot better. And I’ve started to get at least not-bad impressions from people I’ve let read the latest version of the first chapter. Some people have ghosted me randomly without giving me any kind of input, which is unnerving.
I get if they thought it was too bad to give me a response, but to agree to read the third draft of the first chapter then ghost me when I know it’s good….I dunno. It’s a mystery.
It’s times like these when I wish I had a wife or a girlfriend like Garp’s Helen in The World According to Garp. But I got squat. No one and nobody. All I got is my own views on what makes a good story. I have some very high — if arbitrary — standards.
Working on a novel all these years has all but ruined my ability to enjoy anyone else’s story. If a story doesn’t meet my standards, it’s really, really difficult for me consume it.
I have handed out the first chapter of the third draft of the novel in an effort to sort of force my hand. I have to lock down things sooner rather than later or I’ll wake up in a year an be exactly where I am now.
My goal is to write a novel as popular as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
So, I am going to chill out for a little bit today then sit down and see if I can flesh out chapters two and three. Then, I can use the first three chapters as a cornerstone for the rest of the novel and things will go really, really fast. That’s the hope.
The big issue is word count. At the moment, I’m hoping to come in at no more than 140,000 words. My fear is that I’ll be closer to 200,000 words. If that happens, then I’m going to split the novel into two.
A first novel with 200,000 words is just too fucking long. I would never be able to get a first novel of that length published. So, like I said, splitting the novel into two would probably be the best option.
And I also need to start working on the various scifi novels I have floating around in my mind. I really need to stop daydreaming about these stories and start writing them.
I am so close to stabilizing the first three chapters of this novel to the point that things might start to go really fast. One huge problem I face is I’ve so forked the story from what it was intended to be in the second draft that I have a huge amount of writing, rather than editing, ahead of me.
My dream is to write a novel as popular as Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
I’m going to have to just throw everything up in the air and reimagine a lot of the novel on a specific basis, with the third act really being something I have to work on. The third act of the second draft s u c k e d. It was horrible. So these days I spend a lot of of my time thinking in the back of my mind about how I can straighten out some serious problems in the third act.
Anyway. My storytelling and writing ability have both gotten significantly better. Some of it is I’ve being using AI some to help develop the novel — but not write it — because I’m doing everything in a vacuum and I have nothing to go on but my gut.
And sometimes my gut just doesn’t cut it.
But, in general, I’m very pleased with what I’ve managed to come up with. One key thing I have to do is stop being such an absolute perfectionist. The point is to finish a third draft THEN go back and edit it some. This business of forking the Goddamn thing all the time has got to stop.
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