by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I really need to get over myself and read the comp book for my novel, Annie Bot. I’ve flipped through it a little bit and I’m already rattled that it’s a much better written novel than mine.
And, yet, I think that my novel is still written well enough that people will enjoy it. And I do have a really strong backup novel concept that I can explore if something goes wrong with this novel.
My main concern right now is I worry that as I enter the third act of this novel that my characters just aren’t likeable enough. I’m worried that I have to characters who don’t like each other forced to be together and, as such, no one will actually want to finish the fucking novel.
So, as such, I keep daydreaming about this backup novel I have that is much more like Project Hail Mary — a positive protagonist that does something cool and extraordinary.
Now that I have one comp book, I’m worried this is just the beginning of a flood of novels that essentially tell the same story as my novel, just in a different way. But I have to focus. I have to keep going until something really dramatic happens and I have to stop this novel and work on a different one.
If all else fails, I still have my thriller trilogy to work on, but that one would require a lot more work and I simply don’t have forever. I’m not getting any younger.
One thing I wish I could do is focus on more than on project at a time. That would really help things. But, alas, that just isn’t very applicable.
