Welp, I Guess I’m Going To Edit & Re-Write The First Act Of The Third Draft Afterall

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After a lot of brooding on my part, I finally sat down to start work on the “Fun & Games” part of the third draft of the mystery-thriller I’m working on. Well, it instantly occurred me to that I was in no position to jump right into the second act.

So, I started to read the novel from the beginning and I, of course, instantly became sucked into editing and re-writing everything. Ugh. This is going to slow me down so much. But, the point is, if I go through the first act and straighten things out then I will be in a position to zoom through the second act.

That, at least, is the hope.

I just don’t want to get bogged down by trying to make everything “perfect” in the first act. But I can’t help myself. It’s just not been as easy as I had hoped to simply start from the beginning of the second act.

I think I may give myself the end of the month to sort everything out with the first act. At least that way I will have a deadline. I have to stop drifting towards my goal. I say that then turn around and do exactly that.

Squaring The Circle

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I had a bit of a conundrum on my hands today about how I was going to proceed with the development of the third draft of this novel. I finally figured out what to do — I’m going to start from the very beginning of the second act.

Maybe I’ll write a break out hit novel and it’ll be adapted by Hollywood.

I’m going to go through and read everything and fill in those scenes that I have to fill in. This way, I have some sense of where the act is beginning and don’t have to risk getting waded down in the first act. I won’t waste a month trying to make the first act “just right” before working on the second act.

Anyway, I’m pleased with the plan I’ve come up with. I have to not think too much about the convergence of AI and XR technology that may make all my hard work on this novel….quaint and moot.

I think I have a pretty good chance of at least being able to query this novel before America either turns into an autocracy or has a civil war / revolution.

If You Ain’t Got Haters, You Ain’t Poppin

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I usually make at least one person REALLY MAD randomly and by accident at least once a year. I’m overdue for someone to scream at me in a really personal way, as if they take personal offense to me being a listless daydreamer.

I assume whomever this person is, will be mad at me writing for years about a novel that I’m writing. That seems to be just the type of thing that some rando stranger who is paying attention to my life would get mad about.

And that doesn’t even begin to address what might happen if I magically somehow sell this novel I’m working on and I get even the barest amount of attention. There might be a LOT of people angry about my drunk ramblings. Or, maybe not.

Most of my drunk ramblings are center-Left in nature, so it’s probably going to be some drunk thing I did in Asia that ultimately destroys whatever success I might have because I wrote a novel that is as popular as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. (That’s a delusional dream at this point.)

And, yet, who knows.

Maybe, just maybe, it will all be a lulz and people will breeze past my colorful life in Asia.

I Have No Idea What I’m Doing With This Novel, Redux

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While things feel like they’re doing pretty well, I honestly have no idea what I’m doing with this novel. But I continue to press forward. I also continue to think about how I need to give my life some structure.

Maybe my novel will be adapted into a movie one day.

I’m very grateful for this peculiar situation I find myself in that affords me the ability to — essentially — be a professional aspiring novelist, even if I have to live in poverty to do it. Of course this particular situation won’t last forever and any number of things that could happen that will, if nothing else, dramatically change the context of what’s going on in my life.

And I continue to grow unnerved with political events that are totally out of my control. Way too many people believe that if only we can defeat Trump at the polls that magically that will be enough to end the threat of MAGA.

My heroine looks a lot like this woman in my mind.

The events of January 6th, tend to make me believe that Trump could very well demand a National Divorce, and as such, prompt a civil war even if we defeat him at the polls fair and square.

As all of these thoughts fill my mind, I also worry about the possibility that AI will make all my hard work…moot…just as I’m preparing to query in late 2024, early 2025. But there would be something poetic if, rather than querying my novel, I’m dodging bullets from MAGA fascists.

But, who knows. It could go a lot of different ways. And, as such, I need to buckle down and work hard. Or, at least, a lot harder than I am at the moment.

Now, To Flesh Out The ‘Fun & Games’ Portion Of The Third Draft

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have finally, tentatively, gotten to the point where I can begin to flesh out the first part of the second act. I may begin to work on the second half of the second act pretty soon, too.

I don’t know yet.

But I am pleased with what I’ve come up with. But, as always, everything is very very fluid until I lock things down once and for all. So, I don’t know. It will be interesting to see how, exactly, things work out.

Yet, I’m very pleased that I continue to be on track to wrap this third draft up on schedule, which would be around April.

Well, If Nothing Else, This Novel Is Very ‘Sex-Positive’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh, baby.

I may be a smelly CIS white male, but I do know that sex sells. Now that I’m in the first half of the second draft of the third draft of this novel, I’ve come to realize that maybe I need to lay off so much sexxy time.

I say that, then, of course, figure out a way to have more stripper scenes.

Ugh. What is wrong with me.

(Don’t answer that.)

But, if nothing else, at least the stripper element of the novel isn’t just a way to seduce readers into reading in the first act. It’s now something that lingers through the rest of the novel. The thing about strippers, in my experience, is they are very colorful people and, as such, they are great grist for characters in novels.

But, much to my surprise, things are actually going a lot faster than I thought they would for the re-imagined “Fun & Games” part of the novel. I think a lot of this comes from simply allowing myself to daydream rather than stressing out about it.

The 2024 Media Landscape

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Hmmm. If someone gave me, say, $1 million in startup media cash, how would I use it? If I had a choice, I think I would invest in it some sort of experimental media company for the Apple Vision Pro that would link it to AI generated entertainment.

But if I *had* to work with legacy media, then, I think I would setup shop in Manhattan and start a zine of some sort that was really weird and really conspicuous. I would go out of my way to all but stalk the employees of the major media outlets in the city and physically hand them copies of the zine.

I would then leverage the buzz from that to make a really popular network of podcasts that would point people to a series of blogs.

And, yet, I think I’m too stuck in about 2006.

The media landscape is kind of meh at the moment and it definitely seems as though some combination of XR and AI is where we’re going to see all the cool stuff in the next few years (months?) There’s just no space left for any sort of new media outlet with a print component.

Print is all over but the shouting, as best I can tell.

So, I dunno. It will be interesting to see what the next few years see.

A Woman Who Is A Bit Closer To What I Imagine The Heroine Of My First Novel Looks Like

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This lovely young woman below is a bit closer to what I imagine my heroine of my first novel looks like as I write the third draft.

Zoƫ June Zeegelaar

It’s not a one-to-one. But my heroine is somewhere between Ms. Zeegelaar and Corrie Yee.

Corrie Yee

Anyway, the point is I need to stop screwing around and actually get this third draft done. It’s just taking longer than I expected because I’ve had to re-imagine and rework the second and third acts, given how much I changed the first act.

We Need A Media Outlet To Believe In

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The potency of The New York Times comes from how many people believe in it. And, in its own way, that’s what made Gawker Media so potent at one point — it was easy to believe in it. Until it wasn’t because it was icky.

I have a tendency to draw attention to myself.

But I do believe that there is a market — and audience — for a media outlet that leans into the spirit of the old Gawker’s early days when it was a fun, snarky blog that rallied the troops every day with its call for droll common sense.

Of course, the obvious venue for this would be a podcasting network of some sort. And, yet, I think even podcasting is so mature these days that, lulz, why are we even talking about this.

This all makes me think about how if I somehow magically lived in New York City that I would start an old fashion zine that covered whatever borough I lived in. I really enjoy zines — obviously — and if I did a good enough job with the zine, I think people of note would take interest in it.

Put me in, coach.

Of course I would hand the thing out in person in front of offices of The New York Times in an effort to catch media attention for it. Even though I’m old as hell, if I was living in either NYC or LA for any duration of time, I could still draw a lot of attention to myself just by…being myself.

And, yet, lulz.

Anyway, there definitely seems to be something of a vacuum in modern media at the moment. Or maybe everything is so scattered and defuse at this point that since there’s no “center” anymore that it’s just not possible for there to be an alternative to it.

Oh well.

A Complete Reboot

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’m in the second act of the third draft of this novel, I realize that I have to totally rework both the second and third acts. Pretty much, I have to throw everything up in the air.

This is obviously going to slow me down, but I know the general story of this novel so well that I think I can still — maybe –hit my deadline of roughly the April — June timeframe.

I hope.

But this week I’m going to switch gears and focus a lot more on development than writing so that by the end of the week I — should — be ready to write again. I also hope to give me life a lot more structure so I can work on some secondary stories, reading and watching.

I really, really, need to stop being so fixated on producing media and start to think about consuming other people’s content — especially if I ever hope to figure out what novels to “comp” my novel to when I query (hopefully) in late 2024, early 2025.