Tag: writing about writing

Having My Heroine Obsessed With John Lennon Is Adding Significant Richness To Her Character

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After years of my heroine being a fluid “idea” or “mood’ I’ve finally begun to get a handle on who she is. She a little younger than I thought she would be and she’s also a lot more colorful and interesting. She definitely is no longer just an female, Amerasian version of me, but rather her whole different thing.

A lot of this has come from reading a biography of John Lennon. I should have done a lot of this research some time ago, lulz. Anyway, I still think having her obsessed with Lennon will really be a useful hook for not just audiences, but any eventual marketing of the novel.

I’m really leaning into every possible element of John Lennon I can when it comes to the nature of my heroine’s personality and worldview. Given that the more I read about Lennon, the more I’m reminded of how problematic he is, my heroine’s obsession with him definitely provides some much-needed distance between her personality and mine.

The additional ~20,000 words I’m adding to the novel are dealing a lot with onboarding, world building and character development. I’m trying my hardest to actually show things on the page to the reader so they can center themselves and actually care about the characters when shit goes down later in the story. That’s the vision, at least .

Anyway. Because I’m writing the third draft from scratch, I have a lot of opportunities to flesh out the heroine’s personality in ways I did not before. And I continue to find the idea that she is obsessed with Lennon very intriguing and a way to make her really unique in a way that the audience will find appealing.

The Third Draft Is Going Really Well So Far

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I continue to try to read as much as possible — especially about John Lennon — the siren call of writing the third draft has proven too powerful. I’ve begun to write the third draft about a month sooner than I had planned. But this has more to do with the abject failure — to date — of the Beta Reader process than anything else.

I also know that I continue to be in something of a surreal situation where I have “all the time in the world” to work on a novel and I just don’t know how long that is going to last. All good things must come to an end, and all that. I really need to focus on writing a third draft so I can turn around and have a professional or semi-professional read it.

All that will take time, so, as such, I think I’m probably looking at about a year from now before I can really start to query in ernest. Which, of course, will be just about the time either AI takes over all entertainment and / or The Fourth Turning happens and changes the entire context of everything I’ve been working on.

But if we do just slip peacefully into autocracy as I suspect, then the audience for this project will increase significantly, given that I use subtext to rant about how much I hate MAGA and extremism.

Anyway. I really need to focus. I need to get my shit together so I can actually not just finish this first novel but also begin to work out the specifics of the other five novels in the project. My age is really beginning to sink in and I know that even if I stick the landing, the first novel in this series probably won’t hit bookshelves until I’m in my mid-50s.

This generates no end of existential angst.

The Vision Thing For This Six Novel Project

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While it’s clear that I’m so old now that I could just drop dead at any moment and all my dreams will be very moot, in general, here’s my vision for the six novels I’m working on.

My heroine looks like a younger version of Olivia Munn.

The point of the six novels is you will get to see, over the course of 25 years, the arc of all the characters first introduced in the first novel. The last two novels are meant to be something of an allegory for modern America but yet they will be good enough at face value that you will enjoy them for what they are: techno mystery-thrillers.

That’s the dream, the vision at least.

These six novels are meant to be the precursor to an open-ended series of novels about an American Lisbeth Salander-type character who goes on global missions doing all kinds of Mission:Impossible and James Bond type stuff. The dream is, if these first six novels are a success that I will have the resources to, say, have a novel set in Asia or some such.

I know I’m being both delusional and extremely ambitious, but, lulz, freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. I need something, anything to keep me going, keeping me breathing and a project as ambitious as this is exactly what I’m looking for.

But, as I keep saying, I also want to work on a scifi novel as something of a backup.

It will be interesting to see if I can pull off my vision for the main character of the first novel in this six-novel project. She is the heart and soul of the project, but her position in each of the novels is different. She is definitely at the center of the first three novels, but the last three she’s isn’t the protagonist anymore. But I hope I create an interesting enough character that people will be invested in her fate enough to want to read all six novels.

The heroine of the first three novels is a really cool. She’s been a lot of fun to develop and I think I’ve come up with a number of interesting quirks to her personality that will draw the audience in, want to spend some time with her. She kind of looks, in my mind’s eye, like a young Olivia Munn. But there are any number of women with a similar phenotype who could play her well.

I’ve Reworked The Beginning Of The Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The beta reader process is — as expected — turning out to be something of a dud. People just aren’t giving me any input. I expected that for various reasons and I think, ultimately, I’m going to have to wait until I finish the third draft to get the input that I really need.

I need input that is constructive, but not harsh. Encouraging, not nit-picky. Anyway, the second draft was 81,000 words and, as such, I feel I can safely add 20,000 words without making the novel too long to get published. The key reason why I’m adding some words to the beginning is world and character building.

I want people to actually care enough by the time things get moving that they’re willing to read the novel to the end. The novel is already a very accessible, easy read. I have to take things to the next level by fleshing out and explaining the world I’ve created so more of the novel is on the page, rather than in my mind. That seems to be one of the biggest complaints from those willing to give me any input — they just don’t understand what’s going on.

I continue to worry about the issue of having more than on POV within a chapter, but I refuse to believe that audience expectation have changed so much that I can’t do the same thing that Stieg Larsson did with his work. And, yet, I am worried enough about this particular problem that I am definitely going to start to work on a backup scifi novel just in case I need to be able to say, “Well, if you don’t like this novel, I’ve got a first person, single POV novel for you to read.”

Or something like that. Whatever else is going on, the key thing is I have to finish something, anything so I can start to query ASAP. Even with that in mind, I think I probably have about a year ahead of me. I say that because of time and money.

In a sense, it’s all kind of comical because the world could be collapsing just as I’m ready to query in late 2024. It could be that civil war / revolution breaks out in the United States just as I’m about to pitch my first novel to agents. And that doesn’t even begin to address the issue of AI really making all my hard work moot.

But, sometimes, you just have to believe.

I’ve Started Writing The Third Draft

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After about a month-long pause, I’ve started writing the third draft of my first novel. But given that the beta reader process is still going on — and I still want to read some more — I’m probably going to only do it in fits and starts until I really throw myself into things starting around Sept 1st.

But the outline I have is pretty strong (so far) and I think I can probably zip through the third draft pretty quickly, baring something I can’t predict. Once I finish the third draft, I am going to start to save up for someone professional or semi-professional to read the whole thing and give me some advice before I turn around and start to query things.

I also between now and September 1st hope to really think about not just the other novels in the series but a few scifi concepts I have rolling around in my mind. I’m still smarting over the really great scifi concept I had that turned out to be way too similar to Wool / Silo for me to continue it the way it was. I’ve come up with a reworked version with is very similar but it’s going to take me some time to game it out.

I really have to focus. I really have to think up ways to make this third draft a lot — A LOT — better. I have some specific person who is participating in the Beta Reader process that I fear is going to give me a pretty brutal critique of the novel. While it’s going to sting, I really need such brutality if I’m going to get a novel anywhere near being good enough to query.

But, in general, I’m very pleased with the novel I’m come up with. I think it’s going to be about 100,000 words this go round, rather than its current 80,000. I have come up with an idea for how to make the beginning of the novel significantly better.

The Online Writing Community Often Makes Me Angry

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t mind people talking — or writing — about writing. I do it all the time. But WHAT some of the people online talk about really drives me nuts. They talk about how much they hate to write. They talk about the absolute stupidest shit. Jt’s so stupid that I just roll my eyes and think, “Shut up and write.”

Anyway.

I’m in a bad mood.

I think I’m growing closer and closer to a tipping point where I will start writing the third draft of this novel. I think that may be the source of a lot of my anger over all the stupid shit I see from other people in the online writing community.

Does ‘Barbenheimer’ Portend Our Long-Awaited ‘Vibe Shift?’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely FEELS like we’ve reached the absolute end of one pop culture era and we’re waiting for a new one to arise from the ashes. And, yet, given that we may face a perfect storm of Petite Singularity and The Fourth Turning in late 2024, early 2025, these months leading up that era in time may be nothing more than wasted time.

We may just drift through cultural time without any sort of clear idea of where things stand until we make up our minds about if we’re going to continue to be a democracy or not. And, at the same time, we also have to decide if AI is going to completely and totally take over huge swaths of the human experience or not. I’m very weary about both of these events, given that they’re going to take place at the same time.

So, I don’t know. It could go either way. It could be that we just slide into autocracy and we let AI write and produce all our entertainment and we live in a permanent Black Mirror episode. Or, it could be that we have some sort of sharp, violent political event starting in late 2024, early 2025 and not until that’s settled we make any big decisions about AI.

It just seems like we’re lurching towards Something New in a rather abrupt manner and it will be interesting to see when exactly this happens. I suspect we may continue to be in something of a cultural vacuum for a few more months. We really haven’t reached a tipping point, I don’t think. It’s definitely one of those — you know it when you see it kind of things.

I look forward to what’s next, though. We’ve been suck in the post-911 cultural era for way, way too long.

Should I Be Worried?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Someone with some connection to “making movies” looked at my LinkedIn profile out of the blue and this has, of course, prompted me freak out a little bit. Because of what happened with me and ROKon Magazine, I am, to this day, still on edge that someone will swoop in and “steal” my novel.

And, yet, if you give this fear any thought at all, it kind of falls apart. The key issue is — getting a movie made is really, really difficult. What’s more, I know the state of the novel at the moment and it’s still nowhere near where it should be.

So, a lot — A LOT — would have to go wrong for someone to “steal” my novel and, like, turn it into a screenplay or something. I suppose it’s possible — the Public Beta of the novel is floating around out there now — but it’s still unlikely enough that I can only grow so concerned.

What’s more, it’s not like I wouldn’t have any recourse if someone “stole” my novel beat for beat to turn it into a novel. I could sue. And, in its own weird way, if someone did manage to turn my novel into a movie it would be strangely flattering.

I mean, it definitely would prove my goal — that I’m a good enough storyteller and all the haters can fuck off.

Anyway. I am growing more and more eager to do some practical development so I can start writing a significantly improved third draft. And I need to start working on the other novels in the series as well as one of the scifi novels I have rolling around in my mind.

Pom Klementieff Is Such A Babe

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Only because of the latest Mission: Impossible movie have I come to realize what a babe Pom Klementieff is. I only knew her from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies but without all the green alien makeup — holy shit is she a babe.

Pom Klementieff

In fact, I THINK she’s probably about the right age to play the heroine of my first novel if, somehow, magically, it should one day be popular enough to be adapted into a movie. But I’m being extremely delusional at this point to even suggest such a thing.

And, yet Ms. Klementieff is kinda sort the right phenotype play the character. Of course, in reality in my mind my heroine is a younger version of Nicole Scherzinger. But, lulz. It’s not like anyone is ever going to care one way or another about it.

Nicole Scherzinger

I’m delusional enough, of course, think that’s possible.

I’m Making My Heroine Obsessed With John Lennon

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Someone randomly, out of the blue, contacted me on Tik-Tok and asked me something like, “Do you think your characters are interesting enough?” This really gave me pause for thought. I told the person that they must be, given that I’m willing to spend years working on them.

But with my heroine, specifically, I’ve decided to have her be obsessed with John Lennon. I’m reading his biography and…oh boy. While I still consider Lennon a personal hero of mine, he definitely was problematic in his personal life.

It’s not like I didn’t know any of this already, but reading about it again really hits home how cultural norms have changed over the last 60 years. And, maybe, that’s one of the reasons why rock music has died? The type of person who would be an over-the-top rocker just can’t reach the type of creative critical mass they could in the past because of the dark side of that personality type?

Anyway, the idea of having my heroine obsessed with Lennon is very intriguing to me and opens up a lot of different ways to pull in readers. At least, I hope so. I think having my heroine obsessed with Lennon could be just the type of “hook” I need on both the audience front and marketing front.

But I’m being delusional, still. The idea that I can actually querying this novel and it be a success is very, very delusional at the moment. But I need some sort of hope, you know?