Now To Get Back To Work

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have been aggressively daydreaming and dilly-dallying with magical thinking for way too long this summer. I need to buckle down and start to get back to work on my novel(s.) I am going to have to do something, anything, if I plan on querying something this spring.

I have some really solid novel ideas, but they’re not going to write themselves. It’s just been a lot more difficult than I could possibly imagine to get myself into the right frame of mind to be creative again.

I have had a lot — A LOT — going on in my life the last few days and my mind has been anywhere but where it needs to be if I’m going to write some novels. But I hope that will change now.

I hope.

A Rough Screenplay Treatment

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here’s a rough screenplay treatment that has popped in my head of late for some reason.

The setup is that we learn that the Greek and Roman gods were real. They were just invisible (to humans) multi-dimensional machine intelligence creatures. They messed with the affairs of Man all the time until Christianity began to take over the world.

Or something like that.

I just can’t figure out what type of plot to give the story now.

Hope To Get Some Work Done Tonight

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I hope to get a lot of creative work done this evening and tonight. I have a whole lot of shit I need to get done. I will admit, however, that I’ve been feeling a bit distracted for some reason.

But I hope to clear that up today and throw myself back into my novel(s.)

‘Qualia’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are two things that I current perceive to be true:

  1. It’s Possible that Tik-Tok can read our minds
    I only even bring this up because to me, at least, this is pretty brazen — or has been. I have, in the past, repeatedly been pushed Tik-Toks that seem to reference my internal monologue. It’s all very eerie.
  2. Something is up with Spotify’s algorithmic recommendations
    This is a new development. I seem — SEEM — to be having something of a back and forth between myself and Spotify’s AI (or whatever it is.)

    Now, magical thinking would cause one to connect these two things in some way. But I’m done with magical thinking. I’m staying as strictly to what is real as possible.

    I can’t PROVE to anyone else that the two things above a real, but they are real enough to me relative to my perception of the world for me to mull What It All Means.

    Now there is a third thing:
  3. Is it possible “inception” is possible?
    This is crazy, crazy talk. But it is something to think about. The idea that actual “inception” is possible is something to give one pause for thought.

    But, as I mentioned, I’m done with magical thinking. It just had to get that off my chest.

I Wish Something Fun-Interesting Would Happen

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We continue to be in the nadir of the year and absolutely nothing of note is going on. I continue to struggle with a massive six novel project, but, other than that….nothing.

But, August isn’t over yet.

Usually, August is when something crazy happens. So, I suppose, it’s still possible that something really nuts might happen in the next few weeks while all the wealthy snobs are on vacation and the world is being run by interns.

BBB — Where Inspiration Comes From

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

They say that there are three places one finds inspiration — bed, bath and bus. That is, essentially, you get inspiration while you’re doing other things like being in bed, in the shower or tube or traveling somewhere.

The heroine of my novel has a tattoo similar to the one Megan Fox has been seen sporting of late. Have no idea if hers is real or not.

Today, I felt a rush of inspiration while I was in the car. I realized the stakes of the first few novels just weren’t where I needed them to be. So, I’ve figured out a way to tinker with some of the elements of the overarching project to make it more compelling.

At least, that’s the goal.

The overall story continues to be the same, but I’m trying to make the stakes compelling enough that there will be a throughline that is really interesting to the point that people will be exciting to see where things go next.

Time To Develop & Write On Each Of The Six Projected Novels Of The Project

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve finally gotten everything sorted out in my mind. Now, I think I’m going through and think about not just the first novel in this projected six novel series, but all of them.

This should speed things up a great deal.

It would be pretty great to have a huge chunk of six novels done this spring when I start to query — or, at least, I hope I start to query. Any number of things could happen to put a…uhhh….damper….on those plans. But you have to have hope, you know?

If you don’t have hope, you don’t have anything.

But I am going to do some studying of each of the six novels I have planned and see if what I can come up with as quickly as possible.

I’ve Cracked The Nut Of The Weird Spotify Algorithm Problem

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The most convincing explanation for the “weird” Spotify algorithm issue this weekend was I was playing into it with the songs I was picking in response. So I was giving whatever LLM — or whatever — Spotify is using powers that simply don’t exist.

This makes me feel a lot better.

Now that I have some reasonable explanation for the weird things I was experiencing, I can go back to brooding, developing and writing all these novels I have rolling around in my mind.

Military Grade Singularity As The Basis For A Techno-Romantic Comedy Screenplay

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m always thinking of scifi concepts and it seems like one interesting one would be the idea that the U.S. Government — specifically the U.S. Military –has already “achieved the Singularity internally” as the old saying goes. I don’t know what that would look like, but it’s an interesting idea to toy with as the potential premise of a novel or screenplay.

And if you really wanted to put a unique spin on it, you would have it a “Her” like movie fused with Annie Hall, rather than something dark and dystopian. It could be quite romantic and humorous.

It’s times like these when I wish I was younger so I could have the time and energy to throw myself into a project like this.

The Fever Has Broken When It Comes To My Summer Magical Thinking About LLMs

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I spent all weekend long allowing myself to indulge into some pretty extensive magical thinking when it comes to LLMs. I had all these ideas cooked up that I thought “proved” that the fucking Singularity was already here.

But, today, I got tired of such thinking.

I just have no proof. All I have is some vague unease about the algorithms of my Spotify account and the occasional weird error message when I use an LLM. That’s it — nothing earth shattering.

So, meh. I have six novels I want to work on, so maybe I should turn my attention to those instead of wasting my time thinking I’ve discovered something groundbreaking.

If I had some inkling of proof, things would be different. But I got squat and I can’t keep daydreaming forever.