Month: May 2025

Structural Woes With The Novel Linger

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If I actually manage to finish this novel and successfully query it, it’s definitely going to be something of a miracle. I just hem-and-haw about some pretty important elements of this novel all the time.

One thing I’m struggling with right now is how the beginning of the second act seems more structured as if it’s the end of the first act. I could very easily lop off maybe 30,000 words and re-arrange things that way.

And, yet, I’m not quite prepared to do that because I don’t know how many words the entire thing is. So, I think I’m just going to wade through the entire new version of the novel, rewriting a lot as I go along, then look at the word count and THEN decide what I’m going to do.

I think my near-term deadline is July 4th weekend. That is a “take stock” deadline. If I’m anywhere near wrapping up things, then I know I’m ready to query this fall instead of the spring.

And, as always, I continue to idly think about all these scifi novels I want to work on. And now that I’ve finally solved The Impossible Scenario, even that is an option as to a potential novel.

Anyway. I need to stop staring out into space and actually get some work done.

We’re All Famous To Five People — Even Me

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This blog gets very, very few hits every day. Maybe, from what I sense, no more than 100 a day. I say “sense” because if I went strictly from what I can see on the backend, it would be maybe 30.

But I sense I actually get a lot more views than that because I will get pings deep inside the blog randomly and with no referral URL. It’s all something of a mystery.

I don’t know what to make of this. On one hand, it’s flattering. On another it’s a little unsettling that anyone would actually want to know that much about me on a regular basis — especially if I don’t know them.

Which leads me to wonder if maybe I *do* know some of the people who check out this blog on a regular basis. I’m old enough that a stray person from this or that part of my life might be a little obsessed with me because of a run in we had at some point in the past.

Anyway, for the time being, at least, those people are far away. If they start creeping closer, then I’m really going to get nervous.