by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Really, my only complaint at the moment about this novel is I keep letting myself drift towards my goal instead of hunkering down and actually working. I could probably wrap this draft up in a few weeks if I just did that.
But, as it stands, I keep drifting towards my goal and it seems like it will be probably spring 2026 before I get to the point where I ready to query. And even then, it could take months, if not years of querying before I get anywhere near to traditional publishing of this novel.
While I’m waiting, I’m going to work on a different novel, I suppose.
I’ve learned a lot about novel writing working on this scifi dramedy. And that has a lot to do with AI. I just can’t afford a personal editor or manuscript consultant, so I lean into the ability of AI to be those things for me. Claude LLM, in particular, is really, really good at being an editor.
Anyway, I think — think — I have the “fun and games” part of this novel figured out. The “bad guys closing in” part of the novel may be a lot more difficult to deal with for various reasons. But I have a pretty good sense of what I want to do with it.
And, I think, I may have the third act figured out as well.
