Month: April 2023

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m finally beginning to get some sense of things with this second draft. It’s a real struggle to keep the first act down to a manageable size. At the moment, it’s flucuating back and forth between ~40 and ~50 scenes, which is just way, way too much.

One possible take on what my heroine might look like.

If I could get it down to ~30 scenes, I would feel very content. But, alas, it looks like to tell the story I want to tell, I’m going to hover at ~40 scenes. This reminds me that I need a second creative track. I need another novel I could potentially shop around as my first (sold) novel should it become clear that by blowing past the sweetspot of ~100,000 words that I’ve sort of “priced myself out of being able to be sold.”

I think writing a novel that’s too damn long is a problem a lot of first time novelists face for some reason. It’s easy to write long, hard to write tight. There is a reason why The Great Gatsby is very short relative to some modern tomes.

Anyway, the issue is I’ve established stakes and continue to flesh out my characters. My male romantic lead is now a really great guy in the sense that he saves my heroine in her time of need. That, in a sense, is that character’s “save the cat” moment.

I’m now working on the third chapter. This chapter is different because I have the detris of various other attempts at second draft to work with, though I have come to believe that I actually write faster when I start from scratch. Sometimes, it’s a lot more easier to just think up an entirely new scene than it is to root around in a bad scene that you’ve edited and re-edited over several months.

But I have to admit that sometimes I grow jaded and tired of re-writing a scene completely, so I decide to use what I’ve already written as the basis of a new scene, rather than starting from scratch.

One thing I’m a little uneasy about is the amount of spicy scenes I have in the first act. And, yet, they do move the plot along. But it all boils down to not only do I have no idea what I’m doing — I’m doing it all in a vacuum, too.

So, lulz?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve finally gotten into Chapter 2. I’ve really been struggling with the contents of the chapter. On one hand, I wanted to jump forward in time so I could try to keep the word count a bit lower.

But I’ve decided to linger for one chapter — the second chapter — on the consequences of a setback to my heroine. This additional chapter also gives me an opportunity to flesh out the character of my male romantic lead. I’m going out of my way to make the audience like my male romantic lead as well as to get some sense of why the male romantic lead is the male romantic lead.

The only reason why I’m not going to agonize too much over this is that since this is the second draft, I’m beginning to get to a point where all I can do is create my vision and then see what not just Beta Readers think, but also an editor if I manage to save up the money to buy the services of one.

So, here I am.

The second chapter will focus more on the male romantic lead and the self-destructive things my heroine does to herself because she believes she has failed to get something she REALLY wants.

I’ve actually already finished the a really spicy scene in the second chapter. It’s really good! Of course, there will be squeaky wheels in the reading audience who are enraged that a male author is writing a sex scene from a female POV. But, lulz, that’s part of my vision so I’m willing to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

In fact, I’ve fleshed out a scene summary for ANOTHER “spicy” scene, but this one is a lot darker and would help a lot when it comes to making the novel provocative enough for modern adult audiences.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Today, I finished scene two of the second draft. I spent most of the day pondering what to do about scene three. I pretty much just stared out into space dwelling on the details of scene three which was supposed to be the first switch of POV in the story. But after hours of contemplation, I realized I would punt that switch in POV one scene, staring with scene four.

As such, the new scene adds yet another scene to an already too-long story. But even though this is the second draft, I’m still early enough in the process that I can afford to write long then figure out how to cut back words later. Also, all of this is happening organically to the story, so as long it the added words make for a better story, so be it.

I continue to be interested in a second creative tract of some sort that would be my fall back story in case this novel is, on an existential basis, just too long.

This new third scene is important because it shows, from the protagonist’s POV the origins of the Daisy Jones – Billy Dunn-style hostility between herself and the character who will become the romantic male lead. In the next scene, from his POV, we will see why HE doesn’t like HER.

One thing that I continue to be reminded of is how important it is to distract myself on occasion. Some of my best ideas for this novel have come with I’ve been so busy thinking about something else that a great plot point just pops out of nowhere without me even working at it.

My immediate plans are to try to wrap up the rest of the first chapter ASAP. If I’m very lucky, I might even do it a lot sooner than you might think. I would prefer to finish the first chapter by no later than Tuesday, but that might be pushing it for various reasons.

But I have hope. I am still on track to finish the second draft no later than July 1st. Yet, I’m going to have to — HAVE TO — go outside my comfort zone at some point and push myself to write faster even when maybe I don’t really want to.

That’s the only way I’m ever going to finish this thing.