Tag: writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

How much do you need to know about your characters in order to present them to the reader? I find myself thinking a lot about that these days. First, I think every storyteller’s journey is different. So, lulz, you do you.

If you need to know an absurd amount of information that is never seen on the page to tell your story, have at it — though I would recommend you spend some of your time actually writing the fucking novel.

Anyway, my characterizations have gotten a lot — A LOT — better as I come to understand the relationships between my characters. That was probably the hardest thing to figure out, and the biggest reason why I kept writing and re-writing the beginning so many times.

Not only did I not know my characters very well, but I did not know their relationships very well.

In fact, I was having a real struggle with one relationship and the answer came to me out of the blue. Now, that specific change in relationships is probably one of the biggest differences between Draft Two and Draft Three.

One thing I’ve been a little worried about of late is in my new second chapter, I don’t really show things from my heroine’s POV that much. And, yet, in a number of those scenes, my heroine remains the focus. Having her seen through the eyes of an outsider is, in fact, the entire point of these additional scenes.

This placates my inner critic enough for me to keep moving forward.

But, in general, I’m feeling pretty stoked about the third draft of this novel. I am willing to deluded myself into thinking that there’s a decent change that the third draft will actually be something akin to professional.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, I’ve added at least 20,000, maybe 30,000 words to the beginning of the third draft of this novel. One struggle I’ve had is being able to not make it so clear that I’ve added to the beginning. My fear of course, is, that the moment I hand this novel to a manuscript consultant, the first thing they’re going to tell me is to cut…about 30,000 words.

But you have to believe, I guess.

You have to lay out your vision and see what happens. While sometimes, it helps to overthink things a lot when writing a novel, but you can be in your head too much. Sometimes, you just have to do what you want to do and see what happens.

I’ve come up with a way to ease people into the story instead of just throwing them into it without much explanation.

But, in general, I’m very pleased with what I’ve managed to come up with. There are many, many known unknowns. Things that I just don’t know the ultimate significance of.

I just have to be patient. But I also need to buckle down and give myself some clear metrics to meet, otherwise it will be a year from now and I’ll still be spinning my wheels.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have just about completed a three chapter addition at the beginning of the novel that helps lay out the universe of the novel and also builds out characters. And, yet, my fear is the first thing that any manuscript consultant will do the moment they look at what I’ve written is lop those three chapters off.

As such, I continue to vacillate wildly between thinking I should do the lopping myself and thinking that the three additional scenes serve a really important purpose and I need to keep them.

I just don’t know.

At the moment, I’m going to wrap up the these three new chapters and start work on the rest of the novel. I also need to start giving myself some clear metrics.

If I don’t start setting some deadlines, I will just continue to drift towards my goal and it will be 2036 by the time I actually reach it. There is, of course, the issue of everything seems to be falling apart at the same time, which is probably going to delay things some.

Or not. I don’t really know yet. It could go either way. But I do need to get into put up or shut up mode. And I also need to take seriously the idea of reading more and also working on other creative projects that would serve as my “back ups.”

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I finished “Part 1” of the novel, which I added because I felt I needed to establish character and world building more, I am going to turn around and read it all so I can edit it. This is probably going to lead to me rewriting a few scenes entirely.

In my mind, my heroine looks sort of like a younger Olivia Munn.

As such, there are some new elements to my heroine that I have come up with that I will be adding. One such element is risky for a number of reasons, but I feel compelled to at least put it in. If, when I show this third draft to a professional manuscript editor, they suggest I remove it, I will.

I just feel this addition to my heroine adds to complexity to her personality that people might find appealing. But, like I said, there are some problems. I can totally see how it might come across as gratuitous. And I can totally see how it might seem a bit like I’m trying to hard to have my heroine be like Lisbeth Salander.

That last potential problem really rattles around in my mind some because that is something I definitely don’t want people to think. And, yet, this particular thing is such an interesting addition to my heroine’s past that I can’t help myself. I want to write it into the novel and see what happens.

I am being vague because I’m embarrassed that this particular addition to my heroine’s life might seen a little too much like Lisbeth Salander. But I *think* I’m overthinking things. My heroine is so different than Salander in every other way that it’s one of those form follows function type situations.

The whole thing is risky. But, there are a number of other elements to the novel that could be seen as pretty risky, so lulz, here I am.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am just about done with the new “Part 1” of the novel where not a lot goes on in real terms. But given the input that I’ve gotten from those few Beta Readers willing to help me out, it seems crucial for the sake of the story to give readers the lay of the land before something actually happens.

Once I’m done with Part 1, I’m going to print it out and do some aggressive editing to the point that I might re-write entire scenes to take things to the next level.

I have done my best to distract the audience with sexxy things happening now and again. The hope is, of course, that people will have so much fun imagining the sexxy time that they won’t notice that not a lot goes on for much of this Part 1.

That’s the hope, at least

My fear is, of course, that the first thing any editor will do when they look at this new version of the novel is to tell me to cut Part 1. They say, in general, that they’re supposed to start the story as late in the telling as possible and it’s easy to imagine that the entirety of Part 1 might be seen as unnecessary.

But, who knows. It could be that my hunch about the dynamics of Part 1 are right and it will serve the world and character building needs that led me to add it in the first place.

Only time will tell.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m pleased with the ~20,000 words I’ve added to the beginning of the third draft of the mystery-thriller novel I’m working on. It really fleshes out the characters and slowly builds to an event that I think people will really enjoy. The downside, of course, is not a lot happens in these new scenes.

But, as I’ve mentioned, I sort of distract people from this by having a lot of…interesting…things happen. My heroine is now in a very Barry-type situation where on one hand she’s a publisher of a newspaper and on the other she owns a strip club.

I’m well aware that for a small — but vocal — portion of the audience, I’m already committing a venial sin by writing from a female POV. Adding to this offense by having stripping involved might be the last straw for them. But, fuck it, I have my vision for the novel and I’m going to do it.

Meanwhile, as I continue to work on the third draft of the mystery-thriller, I realize there are some pretty big structural issues that I need to work on. Fixing those problems will slow me down some, but hopefully not too much.

It helps a lot, of course, that I have a backup novel I am now working on. I hope that because of all my time working on the mystery-thriller that the scifi second-track novel will move along a lot quicker. I hope to have a first draft done by the end of the year, maybe?

We’ll see, I guess.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I have the general plot of my time travel concept down pat, I am struggling with some basic details. The chief amongst them being, where the story takes place. I know when –what year in the past — but I don’t know where exactly where.

The most obvious location is on Manhattan Island. The reason is, if I really do a good enough job of detailing what is known about the island before the Dutch arrived, that would probably go over well with a lot of readers in big cities. And, yet, this comes with a downside — I would really have to do my research. I would really have to know exactly what the specific site that I’m thinking about looked like to a degree that the typical New Yorker would find the story interesting.

I’m early enough in the process that I could just as well plop my characters somewhere else and not have to worry so much about making sure specific sites look like what we know them to look like before Europeans arrived. I am tempted, in fact, to make that a plot point — that our Hero knows exactly where they are and wants to stay there, which causes a lot of conflict.

At the moment, I’m torn between these two possible locations.

I just don’t know. One has a hook that makes it more interesting to a powerful part of the audience, while the other is easier and would allow me to finish the novel a lot sooner.

But things are moving really fast with this novel. I think my “textbook” for this novel will be The Martian because that novel is really fun and character driven and deals with a similar problem, if in a dramatically different way. And my story is different because my hero has to deal with OTHER people, not just himself and that adds complications that greatly help with the development of the plot.

I’m very pleased with how quickly I’ve managed to plot out this new novel. It is interesting enough — and deals with themes that I love enough — that it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for in a “second tract.” It will be in first person, have one (male) POV and hopefully be short enough that all the metrics of modern novel writing will be met.

This is in contrast to my main novel project which, even though it’s meant to be an old brown shoe to Stieg Larsson fans, may be DOA because — among other things — I’m a smelly CIS white male who writes at times from a female POV. But I still love the novel enough to keep at it, despite the potential risks.

Anyway, I feel much happier now that I have a solid backup novel to work on in case The Worst happens with my mystery-thriller. I don’t know what that might be, but I having a backup definitely gives me some much-needed piece of mind.