Category: From The Editor

I Resemble That Remark

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
In another instance of Tik-Tok knowing a little bit too much about me, I got pushed a video of a female comic who essentially nailed my novel ideal down exactly and made fun of it.

This has rattled my cage on more than one level.

One issue is I really need to confront head on the criticisms of the comic as I write the novel, at least for own peace of mind. I know she was just joking around, but there was a serious undertone to the humor. I need to buckle down and really confront head on her observations in the text of the novel.

And, yet, I have to keep going. This is a really good idea and it’s just a matter of going through and writing the thing out. I have — with the help of Claude LLM — a general sense of the novel’s flow via an outline I just have to fill out.

It is going to be interesting to see how long it takes me to do that. I still would like to wrap this thing up by late spring 2026, but…I don’t know. I can’t afford to have the novel collapse in on me too many more times.

Trump Is Itching To Declare Martial Law

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really don’t want martial law or civil war. Really. I just want to be able to work on my scifi dramedy novel in peace and quiet and see if maybe I can throw it over the transom and get it published.

Ugh.

And, yet, it definitely seems as though we are careening towards some sort of politically volatile situation. Either Trump gets what he wants, which is someone throwing a Molotov Cocktail at some National Guard troops so he can declare martial law, or things really get out of hand and we have some sort of civil war / revolution.

Double ug.

I don’t know what to tell you. My best guess is if there is a civil war, it might happen either around the 2026 or 2028 elections. That’s when political passions are at their highest “the silly season,” and that would make the most sense for the country finally collapsing into civil war or revolution.

Jesus Christ, do I hope that doesn’t happen.

Collapse & Rebirth

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Welp, the Emrata-inspired part of the novel is no more, or, at least, its context is going to be dramatically different. The whole novel collapsed once I started working on the “fun and games” part of the beta draft.

My hero was was, way, way, too passive. He did not move the plot forward in his actions and there came a point when I realized the whole plot was collapsing in on itself. I just did not believe in what I was writing anymore.

So. Back to the drawing board. I have started an entirely new outline. I’m really leaning into the astonishing creative writing abilities of Claude LLM to help me develop this new version, to the point that I’m seriously thinking of subscribing to it. I don’t know if I’m prepared to pay $20 a month for ANOTHER LLM, but it’s so good at what I need it to do, that I’m tempted

Very tempted.

I’m just barely making ends meet at this moment and I don’t know if I’m prepared to incur yet another monthly bill. I think if I can get off my ass and cancel some of the streaming services that I never, ever use that I can better afford Claude. But, I don’t know, I’m not QUITE there yet.

But I’m drifting in that direction.

I still really enjoy using Gemini 2.5 pro, it just glazes me too much and while it’s really good at conversational stuff, it is somewhat lacking in creative writing.

Anyway. I’ve been down in the dumps the last few days since this plot collapse took place because it’s like, “Fuck. Not again.”

I’m running out of time. And, yet, I do have AI to help me, so will hopefully speed the process up some.

Ugh. A New Worry About This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I can be really insecure about my writing at times. And today is no difference. I am worried that me basing my novel, essentially, on how beautiful Emily Ratajkowski is will come across as…uhh….creepy?

Emrata

And, yet, it’s not fan fiction. I don’t use her literal name. Think of her as more of…a muse.

So, I think I just have to prepare myself for that possibly, while staying true to myself. I think it should be fine, but I guess I had to kind of get that particular fear out of my system.

The State Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On For October 5th, 2025

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m coming up on the 20th anniversary of a confounding, astonishing moment in my life. The brief period between July 06 and February 07 was simply the craziest, most interesting time in my life to date.

The female romatic lead of the scifi dramedy I’m working on looks like Emrata in my mind as I write things out.

With that in mind, I’m hoping that I can wrap up this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on and query it no later than the fall of 2026.

But. I was using Claude to help me with development recently and it said some shit that really gave me pause for thought. It made it clear it thought my protagonist was too passive. Also, it did not like that my “fun and games” portion of my story was a little too dark and tense, as if it was more the second half of the second act, not the first.

And THEN, later, it also proposed that I totally restructure the story altogether.

Once I gave it some pushback, however, it seriously backtracked from its criticism and kind of threw up its arms and said, “Whatever. Let’s get to work.”

But the experience has left me with lingering self-doubt and insecurity. And, yet, I’ve kind of gone too far down the path of doing things the way I have set up. It could take me months to reconfigure the novel to meet Claude’s demands.

So. I’m just going to wing it, keep going the way I am and hope that I can make my hero as proactive in the context of what I’ve already established. I’m also going to keep going and hope for the best.

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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