Month: October 2025

It Is Better To Have Loved & Lost, Than Never Loved At All

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I look back over my life and I sometimes wince. I’m not perfect. No one is, but I worry that maybe my wild life in Seoul may come back to bite me in the ass if I should happen to somehow, magically “make it big” via this scifi dramedy I’m writing.

I didn’t do anything THAT BAD in Seoul (or otherwise) but we live in a very touchy world and some of the things I did do, if seen out of context, might…uhhh…not exactly help me going forward.

But the old Shakespeare quote about it’s better to have loved and lost than never loved at all comes to mind. I’d much rather have a taste of success and have it taken away from me for a dumb mistake in the past than never experience it at all.

The only reason why I even bring this up is I’m kind of pumped about this scifi dramedy I’m working on. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely shaping up to be good enough to query.

I just hope my life doesn’t collapse before I at least have a shot at querying this thing. It really is that good.

Tay-Tay’s New Album Really Sucks

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. I listened to Taylor Swift’s latest album some the night it came out and oh boy does it suck. The Life Of Showgirl is extremely underwhelming. If just a little bit more effort had been put into it, it could have been a pretty good dance pop album.

Your typical member of TaylorNation

But as it stands, it just sucks. It’s vacuous and ill conceived.

Though, it is interesting that it seems as though there is a tiny bit of deprogramming happening among some within TaylorNation. And I say this as someone who generally considers himself something of a fan of Tay-Tay’s.

I think some of how bad this album is comes from Tay-Tay simply has no grit in her life to inspire her. She’s got a bad case of billionaire brain rot, if you will. She’s just too happy, too surrounded by yes-men and women to be unhappy enough to produce any thing of note artistically.

Anyway. The thing about Taylor Swift is she’s probably going to be a Neil Diamond type character — someone who churns out popular, but mediocre pop music for several generations.

Sora 2 & The Singularity

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The case could be made that the advent of Sora 2 is a pretty powerful ping from a looming technological Singularity. The future could be pretty strange in some surreal and beautiful ways.

Which, of course, is pretty much the definition of a Singularity.

Anyway, we clearly are not ready for some of the quirkier elements of the potentially looming Singularity. I mean, high quality faux video really is the stuff of scifi. And it’s going to take a while for our culture to understand what the fuck we’re going to do with this next technology.

This happens in the context of there seemingly being a general lull in LLM development. I used to be convinced that the Singularity — in this case ASI — would happen in a few years, maybe 2027.

But now…I don’t know. I think there maybe a “wall” and, as such, the Singularity may be a lot more gradual than I expected. Instead of ASI gods walking around, telling us what to do, we will all just have Knowledge Navigators that lurk in our smartphones.

Who knows.

I Need To Distract Myself

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’ve finished what I hope will be the first act of the second draft of this scifi dramedy I’ve been working on, I find myself in a bit of a limbo. I know I want to throw myself into the first half of the second act, but…I also want to pause just a moment to collect my thoughts before doing so.

If I had *any* money I would take the Chinatown bus to NYC this weekend. Or something. Something like that. But, alas, I’m flat broke. As always.

So. I don’t know. I have been toying with the idea of seeing One Battle After Another AGAIN but…I don’t know about that, either. Seeing a movie twice typically isn’t my style.

I think what I might do is just cool my creative heels for the rest of today and then throw myself into writing and developing again tomorrow. That seems like a tentative plan.

Just About Done The First Act Of The Second Draft Of The Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On

After strategic expansion to improve narrative flow, I’m close to completing the first act of my sci-fi dramedy novel. The quality feels query-ready, though I’m experiencing some anxiety about the timeline and competitive landscape.

I feel urgency to finish quickly, driven by multiple concerns. The novel’s premise is fairly accessible, which makes me worry someone might execute a similar concept first. That said, multiple works can successfully explore the same territory—the execution matters more than the idea.

Part of me still wishes this could be a screenplay instead, but I’ve accepted that’s not the path forward. (Unless the technological singularity grants me anti-aging technology and a 500-year lifespan, but I’m not counting on it.)

I maintain my “AI First” approach to development while keeping a clear boundary: AI helps me develop and refine the structure, but I write every word of the actual prose myself. This distinction matters to me. I’d rather produce flawed human writing than polished AI-generated text. The novel’s quality needs to reflect my craft, not an algorithm’s output.

For story development, though? AI assistance has been invaluable.

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