by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Not only am I living in oblivion, I’m totally alone. I’m working on six novels without anyone to talk to. And, what’s worse, in the past when I’ve attempted to pay someone to talk to me about what I’m working on there is a 50 / 50 chance that they won’t do it because they think I’m sort of crank. In short, they don’t want to help me because they don’t take me seriously.
“I’ll put a move on you,” is all I have to say about that.
But something that is at the forefront of my mind these days as I decide to bounce around the six novels is a real concern that just because I’m willing to write six novels about this particular universe I’ve come up with, doesn’t mean anyone else wants to read it.
And, yet, every time I think this, I have two thoughts. One is, the stories of all six novels are very compelling. I may not know at the moment exactly what happens during each story told, but the conceit of each of the novels is really strong. They all lead to something — the events of the last two novels. The second is, I love the challenge. I love how ostensibly overwhelming all of this is. At a minimum, I’m setting myself up to write over 600,000 words. But I do love to write and I love to develop.
So, it’s both a challenge and a lot of fun to think up how I can show these characters change over the course of the 25 years depicted over the course of six novels. I would rather fail in a very spectator manner than “write a few short stories” and get discouraged because I can’t get any of them published for this or that reason.
I’m well aware that I’m a very, very flawed person. I have made, and continue to make a lot of mistakes. But I just try to be the best person I can possibly be. And writing these six novels is part of that world view. I just want to tell a story — my story — and anyone who reads all six of these novels is going to come away knowing WAY TOO MUCH about my personal history.
But they say bleed on the page if you want to be a writer, so there you go.
