We Have A Beginning!


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, if nothing else, I have a stable first few lines of the first novel in this series. It’s really, really good. Everything else the last few days, however ,has been in a severe amount of flux. I’ve rearranged the order of the first act a dozen times in the last 48 hours.

My literary hero.

What’s more, after making such a huge deal of how I was making the chronology of events tighter, tonight I turned around and made it exactly what it was to begin with. But at least I have a reason for doing so — I’ve realized that if I’m going to do bad things to character, I probably need to give them enough page time so you like, actually care about what happens to them.

That’s a huge flaw in a lot of thrillers — they open with a dead body and the reader hasn’t even had time to take their figurative coat off in the figurative theatre yet. So, my first act now gives a lot more page time to two characters that are going to have something bad happen to them.

My struggle for me as the writer is to make you character about these characters in a way that is interesting enough that you’ll keep reading even though in real terms Nothing Is Happening. (I’m being a little harsh on myself — a lot is going on, but if you had no emotional attachment to the novel going into it I could see you thinking that in some respect.)

I’m supposed to get my cast off tomorrow, so that will be something of a New Era for me. As such, I’m pretending to myself that I’ll stop fucking with the outline and actually get back to writing one a second draft. I’ve really, rearranged things. The story flows a lot better now and there’s a lot more room for character development.

But there comes a point when I’ve got to stop fucking around and get back to writing. Breaking my ankle has definitely reminded me that I have a limited time on this earth and death be no proud, as they say.

Anyway, I’m really, really pleased — with the first novel’s beginning, if nothing else. I’ve got to power through and wrap up this second draft as soon as possible. I think I’m going to continue to use the weekends to read and develop the other novels in this series.

I just have to keep an eye on the calendar. If I don’t get more serious, it will be year from now and I’ll still be struggling with the second draft of the first book. Ugh.

Author: Shelton Bumgarner

I am the Editor & Publisher of The Trumplandia Report

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