I hate to break it to you, guys, but I’m afraid Trump is prepping Ivanka Trump to be Secretary of State in this second term. That’s the reason why she keeps running around the globe for no apparent reason. That’s the fucked up rationale MAGA will use to cram her nomination through the Senate. “But she knows everyone in the world!”
Now, it’s my impression that State is ruined for the foreseeable future. Trump’s administration has done everything in its power to destroy Foggy Bottom. What’s worse, it’s not like the partisan dipshits Trump put in place there are going anywhere should we ever get another Democratic administration. They’re going to hunker down and do everything in their power to make life for a president they don’t like hell.
So, Ivanka will be at State in Trump’s second term. I’m little nervous that it will be her, not Don Jr. who runs for POTUS in 2024. It would be just like MAGA to do everything in their power to make sure Ivanka is the first woman president so she can be so bad that we never have another female president.
I feel so bad for State. They deserve so much better.
Several metaphors are appropriate for a big creative project like a novel. Being pregnant or being an explorer are just two.
Writing a novel is like being pregnant because inevitably if you tell someone you’re writing one, they will tell you all their own horror stories. They will tell you it should take seven years. They will tell you should “just write short stories.” They will do everything in their power to make you feel like shit, to discourage you.
Also, if you’re 100% extroverted like me, the more you talk about writing a novel — especially in the beginning — the more people assume you’re almost finished and that they can read a finished product right now. This is frustrating on many levels, one of them being just because you talk about being pregnant doesn’t mean you can hold the baby.
Meanwhile, writing a novel is also much like sailing a ship across the horizon in search of a new world. I have no idea if all this work is going to produce anything of note. I have been working on this novel for almost a year now and things are only now beginning to click.
With all that said, let’s run the numbers.
As we enter the first part of the second act, we are about 40,000 words. The sweet spot for a popular novel apparently is about 165,00 to 185,000 words. If your first act is supposed to be about 20% of the total work, then I’m a little over the mark, but not too much. And, remember, this is just the first draft. I’m going to have to write it all over again several times in the coming months (if everything goes according to plan.)
Right now, I’m wrapping up the first layer of sketching out the first part of the second act. I know the story so well that this is flowing really well — so far. I believe I can wrap it up today. I might even be able to start writing again. I’ve found doing all my development in longhand works well with my personality.
In my head, my “midpoint switch” is likely to happen a little later than it should. I’m assuming that each scene is about 1,000 words, so I’m using that as a rough guide. But I’ve found that scenes are often short than that — especially when there’s a lot of face-paced action.
One little thing is I need to flatten the story out some. Right now things change gears after the midpoint and I have to prepare the audience for it. I don’t want it to be seen as a hodge-podge of genres.
Making it obvious that this story is an exploration of the Trump Era without coming off as too preachy is also a big deal for me. As I’ve said before Hobbs & Shaw was a political move, in a sense, but it did it on the sly. My dream is to write an fasted-paced summer read thriller that the center-Right part of the audience won’t even notice is me ranting at them. While the center-Left portion of the audience will see it right away and get excited at a little bit of catharsis.
That’s the dream. A lot depends on luck, luck, luck and if my actual writing ability is up to the task. Trump is such a specific person — and my writing not good enough to replicate him as a character — that I’m not even trying. I’m using someone else as the basis for my Villain’s personality.
The more serious I become with the novel, the less I care about the fantastical idea that it will not only be published, but become successful enough to catch Hollywood’s eye. I just don’t see that happening. And, yet, I do daydream sometimes.
This comes up the most when I think about the age difference between my Hero and Heroine. While it helps a lot for me on several different levels if my Hero is in his 40s and my Heroine in her early 20s, ethnically it makes me uncomfortable. But given the exact nature of the romantic involvement, I think I might be able to convince myself to let it happen. There are too many great actors in their 40s — and I can relate to a Hero in his 40s.
One thing that really grates on my nerves is I’m going through all this work to hopefully write a Heroine that women like and yet I know even that won’t placate people like Olivia Wilde and Jessica Chastain. They complain when men don’t write good characters for them, then they complain that a woman didn’t write it to begin with.
But I’m very aware of the need for strong female characters — painfully aware. And I’m also aware of the need for representation in pop art. All I can say is I’m trying my best to square the circle on that one. And, yet, in this age of identity politics me being a middle-aged white male is doing me no favors.
So, that’s it. That’s where things stand with the novel at the moment. Best case scenario is I wrap up the first draft by Dec. 1st. I give myself a month to reflect on it and start the second draft Jan. 1st. I have a feeling my life may grow rather chaotic in early 2020, so that may delay things a little bit.
But if I happen to get through early 2020 unscathed, I think I should be on track to finish the second draft — the draft I’ll show beta readers — by maybe April or May of 2020.
I’m working on the first part of the second act right now. Things are going well, so far. I am beginning to realize, however, that my decision to finish sketching out this part of the novel first before actually starting to write again is a good decision.
A lot goes on in the second half of the second act that needs some groundwork laid out for the reader. A big thing to me is making sure the audience, like, cares, that this or that thing happens to the characters. So, while I have some pretty cool things that happen in the latter part of the novel if the audience doesn’t care, then it’s a moot point.
So, I’ve decided to add a POV character at this point that I had no intended to use. Hopefully when the times comes, people will actually care that he pops up and shoves us in the latter stage of the second act when “all is lost.”
It definitely seems as though the Americans and the British are trying to on-up each other on political stupidity mixed with needless tragedy. Both MAGA and Brexit are, at their core, self-owns on a strategic level. I’m not British, but I would like to take this opportunity to make my own case for Remain.
As I understand it, one of the arguments of those who say “Brexit means Brexit” is that it’s the “will of the people.” And, yet, as is often noted, No Deal Brexit was not on the ballot. As such, that, in itself, I feel enough to negate any further push towards Brexit for the time being.
I would also note that given how close the vote was and how obviously the whole thing was passed on a series of lies, the need for the consent of Parliament becomes ever more obvious. So, to claim that not allowing Brexit to happen is against “the will of the people” is rather disingenuous on the face of it.
While all of this may be true on a theoretical level, there is problem that if you did put the brakes on Brexit the very forces that caused the whole thing to happen in the first place would pop out again. And that’s an issue that is extremely difficult for me to figure out how to fix.
It’s that a small, organize minority — much like MAGA in the United States — is more than willing to drive the entire country off a cliff for its own selfish ends that makes you realize it’s unlikely that anything but No Deal Brexit is going to happen.
I’ve idly mused about a Very British Revolution that would revoke Article 50. But the chances of that seem to be growing far less by the moment. Boris Johnson hasn’t made the strategic screw ups he would have to make for that to happen. It seems like either the whole thing will be punted down the road again or there will be No Deal Brexit and any catastrophes will happen after that.
It is eerie how similar MAGA and Brexit is. Spooky even. Both are based fundamentally on lies and a fear of the “other.” How either America or Great Britain will fix these chronic problems in real terms is anyone’s guess at this point.
The thing about MAGA is it’s based on a lie. The whole thing is bullshit. Really, at its core, MAGA is identity politics for white people. Throw in some base misogyny and nativism and amosexualism and Christian persecution porn and you have yourself a very powerful political movement.
What’s so astonishing to me is how easy is it to grift MAGA. Sometimes, the bigger the grift, the more popular you are. That, I think, explains MAGA. Trump is the biggest grifter of all. His grift has become so successful that it’s the basis of a cult of personality.
I have, on more than one occasion, thought about trying the grift myself. It would be very easy to abruptly change political views a la Dennis Miller. Within six months, I’d likely be having lunch with Trump himself. The need for grift is that powerful within the MAGA movement.
The whole thing has become so ridiculous — and is so based on hair-trigger hypocrisy — that wild things happen over and over again. The most recent example of this is the surreal attack on Debra Messing. She committed — as I understand it — a minor infraction on Twitter and the MAGA echo chamber is out for blood. But it seems pretty obvious that the whole thing is not being done in good faith and it’s being used as excuse to own a lib that Trump has attacked recently.
This is a prime example of how Trump is simply an avatar for a deeper, darker, problem in American society. We’ve reached the point where MAGA will do anything to get and keep power to such an extent that the “Resistance” simply can’t keep up. When your political opponent is an ideological zombie and you’re trying to reason with them using “norms” you’re setting yourself up for failure.
What might happen is sometime in the middle of Trump’s second term, the center-Left might realize it has to adopt the “new rules” of MAGA to defend itself. Unfortunately, while it has to be done for simple political survival, long term it’s the setup for nothing less than a civil war — or a military junta. There may come a time, I’m afraid, when Blue States begin to believe that the only way to keep any semblance of freedom is to leave the Union altogether. That definitely would put the Red States absolute desire to “own the libs” to the test, now wouldn’t it.
It’s kind of sad when the best case scenario you can think of to keep yoru nation together long-term is a military junta. But that’s some time down the road. For the time being the MAGA grift will continue. The center-Left is, sadly, a bunch of wussies in my opinion. I’ve mulled the need for, on an ideological level, a form of Radical Resistance. But in hindsight I realize I was extremely naive. MAGA is a cancer that is going to kill the patient and I can’t see that there is anything to do about it.
Lorne Michaels is a TV institution unto himself, but he’s no spring chicken. There’s going to come a point when he feels the need to retire. The only person I could possible see replacing him is, of course, Tina Fey.
Fey is at a point in her career where she might be enticed to take up running SNL. She’s the only person I can think of who has fits the sweet spot of having worked at SNL and also having the writing skill to take the show into its 50th decade.
I struggle to think of anyone else who could fill Michaels shoes. I doubt they would want to bring in an outsider, no matter how talented or powerful they might otherwise be. But if Fey wasn’t available, I guess they would have to find someone. They would need someone who was a name brand person who was just as networked in showbiz as Michaels.
I dunno. I’m stumped. But much like Queen Elizabeth, Michaels may surprise us all and simply keep going long, long, long after we assume he would otherwise retire.
To date, I’ve been very strict with my structure because I really want to stay in the 165,000 to 185,000 word sweet spot. But looking at the macro structure of the story, I realize the time has come not to be so tough on myself.
I need to let the story breathe some structurally. So, things should move a lot faster, hopefully. The structure isn’t going to fit the “rules” absolutely. It’s going to be a little different than it’s “supposed” to be. But it still fits the general rules, just not as strictly.
So over the course of the next few days, I’m going to flesh out scenes on a tactical level. I hope to start writing again no later than early next week, if not sooner. I just have to believe in myself.
The story is strong enough and I know the universe well enough that I should not be absolute in some of my “rules” that I have previously placed on myself. And, yet, I needed to that earlier because it gave me some guidelines. Now that I feel a little bit more comfortable with the story, I think I can simply go where I feel the story needs to go.
As such, the first part of the second act is likely going to be a little longer than the second half. Or, to put another way, I can allow there to be more scenes in the first half knowing the second half can have the same number of scenes but actually fewer words.
I believe with 200% certainty that Donald Trump will have a second term. Whatever you think the worst case scenario with Trump might be, we’re going to see that and worse. At this point, it’s really just a matter of decree. Will Trump declare himself president for life? Will he abolish the House? Will he actively work to degrade norms and laws to such an extent that any president who isn’t MAGA at some point in the future is not seen as legitimate and is completely neutered?
Or put another way — it’s growing pretty apparent that America is hurdling towards some mish-mash of Apartheid South Africa and modern day Venezuela. America is going to a third world country with an obscene amount of WMD. Or, put another way, the 1% will prosper and everyone else will sink into poverty, sickness and ignorance.
I say all this because Trump is an avatar for systemic, existential problems in American society and governing. Eliminate Trump as political force and someone else will pop up to fill the need. A series of groups who follow the “new rules” system of politics will do everything in their power to make sure Trump gets a second term. They will break laws, they will lie with abandon, they will hack the election, you name is. Whatever they have to do see a second term, they will do.
And the so-called “Resistance” is so busy with identity politics that they’re going to let it happen from sheer incompetence, if nothing else. The worse part of all of this is it couldn’t be avoided. People might bitch and moan about how if only Hillary Clinton had won in 2016 all of this might have been avoided, but they’re deluding themselves. The racism of the Obama Era would have become the misogyny of the Hillary Clinton Era. Trump or someone like him would have run in 2020 and won.
I honestly don’t know what can be done at this point. When one of the two major parties fundamentally is not operating in good faith and is wilful in its refusal to accept any fact that hurts them, then, well, that’s it. It’s over.
What’s worse is, ultimately, I think, either the Blue States bolt from the Union at some point in the next 20 years or some successor to Trump will abolish them altogether. Blue States will be run by MAGA appointed governments. In fact, the best case scenario is the military will step in and rule via a junta. That’s the best case scenario.
People who get too wrapped up in Trump miss the point — Trump just fills a function. It could be anybody like Trump. In fact, if you wanted make yourself feel better, you could say in a way Trump’s criminal incompetence has actually slowed the inevitable progression into tyranny. In his second term, Trump’s mental deterioration will only increase. So it might be a little bit more difficult for him to full-fill is despotic dreams.
But at some point after, say, 2025, someone younger and more focused will do what Trump could not do. I would say it will probably be some sort of wide-spread civil disturbance in Blue States that will be the excuse. Or a major terrorist attack. Only Red States will be allowed to have any form of functioning democracy and even then it will be strictly monitored and controlled.
There’s no turning back. Nothing we can do other than vote. I’d like to think freedom of speech might linger long enough for me to die before it’s completely extinguished, but I’m probably fooling myself.
I am again in the second act of an intended first draft. I have been at this point so many times that I’ve lost count. But I’m going to give it another go. I think, maybe, this time will be different.
The structure of the story is stronger than ever before. I’m also kind of worn out from rewriting so much. As such, my desire to finish first draft is strong enough that I hopefully will just do it, no matter what.
You can’t edit a blank page, as they say.
One issue is structure and the duration of time involved. The first act dealt with days. This second act deals in weeks and months. So, it’s going to take a little while to lay scenes over the time allotted. But I’ve tried before and it worked out. Now, to take a deep breath and do it again.
The first half of the second act is called “fun and games” in Save The Cat Writes A Novel. It’s the portion of the novel you often times buy the novel for in the first place. I have everything laid out in my mind. Now to do the hard work of making my vision a reality.
It will be interesting to see how everything works out.
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