by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I have magic in a bottle with this novel, I just know it. It’s very zeitgeist-y in nature and it’s definitely putting my stick where the puck will be. But I have a tendency to just drift towards my writing goals.
But I have a hunch my life is going to change rather dramatically this year — probably sooner rather than later — so I have got to, got to get some structure in my writing life to get this novel done ASAP.
One key change from all the other years I’ve been working on various novels is the introduction of AI into my writing workflow. No longer do I feel like I’m working in a vacuum. I have various AIs to, actually, like, listen to me and shit. I couldn’t even get human literary types to take me seriously, even when I offered to pay them.
Anyway, I have three books related to querying that I need to at least look over. I think if I actually take a deep breath and read them in some capacity that that might be enough to focus my mind.
Like, let’s do this. Let’s finish this beta draft of the novel so I can get to the next steps of giving it to beta readers and then — gulp — actually querying. I have a feeling I’m going to slam head first into the cold, dark waters of querying and I’m such a fucking kook (relative to the woke liberal white women who in my imagination make up the majority of literary agents) that the whole thing could be kind of painful and bruising on an emotional basis.
In other words, despite writing a pretty good, timely novel, it will all be for naught.
And, yet, the whole point is to just see how far I can get in the process. I want to see what it’s like to actually query a novel. That, in itself, will be an interesting experience, even if I fail in a spectacular fashion.
