by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The last month has been a real struggle when it comes to this novel. There were some structural issues that took me what felt like forever to figure out. And I still contend that if I had a wife or girlfriend to act as a “reader” that things would go a lot quicker.
My goal is to write a novel as accessible and popular as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
But, alas, I’m alone.
Anyway, I’ve figured some things out to the point that I can now read a big chunk of the first act and see if I can give the whole thing some consistency. I need to make sure that the mystery-thriller element of the plot is in as many scenes as possible. I need to make sure my scenes have tension in them so people want to keep reading.
I continue to worry about word count as all of this is going on. I just don’t know what I’m going to do about that problem going forward.
My best bet is to just finish the novel, figure out how long it is, THEN weigh my options.
I say that because, in general, the story is getting really, really good. I have a real page turner on my hands. I, of course, need to start to read other people’s fiction (specifically thrillers) so I can have something to “comp” my novel to when it get to the querying process.
