Category: From The Editor

The Real Danger Of Trump’s Insanity



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Trump is slowly going completely insane. I always thought he would either implode or explode mentally. But now I think something far worst is likely to happen — he’s simply going to take us places we never imagined might happen.

For instance, what if Trump tells Barr to indict Obama and / or Biden in October? That’s pretty insane — and would likely hurt Trump politically — but once you see those two being booked, there’s no going back. I guess Trump would try to make the point that you can’t indict HIM if he’s ever an ex-president, but, really, once the genii is out of the bottle, there’s no telling where things will go.

But that’s just one of a number of ways that Trump’s enablers might lulz his obvious insanity and bring everything down because he has no accountability. So, Trump may do insane things and there simply will be no going back once they’re done — even if somehow Biden manages to become president (which I doubt is even possible at this point.)

So, that’s the real outcome of Trump being insane. He will continue in office for years and years, setting up a new norm that The Kooch, or Tom Cotton, or Steve King or Mike Pomepo or Mike Flynn or whatever else racist autocrat manages to be his successor.

Autocrats Always Win



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ultimately, what is going to happen in the fall is if Trump loses in a landslide, he is going to begin to intemidate individual Electors on Twitter. He will dox them. He will sick MAGA on them.

The point is, Trump is never leaving office for any reason.

He could lose the popular vote in a huge landslide and “legally” win by simply scaring the shit out of Electors so they vote for him. I see no scenario where this does not happen.

Or, put another way, if somehow Biden DOES get the Electoral votes necessary to become president, his first 100 days will pretty much just be dealing with unprecedented, rolling political violence. Post-Election violence will be so severe that it will be THAT, not COVID19 that 2020-2021 is remembered for.

So, I just don’t see any way Trump doesn’t win. I just don’t see any way that the fascists don’t win and we’re little more than a managed democracy like Putin’s Russia.

Prove me wrong, people.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, #Hollywood, #JodiKantor & The #Novel I’m Developing & #Writing

Some thoughts.

I Have To Prepare Myself For Someone Stealing A March On Me Creatively



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but I get the feeling someone is thinking about writing something — probably a screenplay — inspired by the novel I’ve been working on for about 18 months now.

I can either give up or work harder and faster.

I’m going to work harder and faster.

There’s little more I can do. I guess, should the worst happen, I can console myself by saying at least I understand how to tell a story better. The reason why it’s taken me so long to get to this point is the story I’ve come up with is a lot of plot and I should have been thinking about character.

The story is convoluted and complicated and it’s taken me this long to figure out how to tell it is a simple way. I love this story and its characters. Even if I wake up tomorrow and a movie is being produced that is essentially my novel, at least I’ll be better off as a storyteller than I was when I started this process.

But that hasn’t happened….yet.

I can use this fear as a reason to work harder and faster and see what happens.

I’m Obsessed With Character



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve finally gotten to the most crucial aspect of developing this novel — character. I have about three books on character that I’m cramming as fast as I can so I can start writing again no later than June 1st. I need to understand these characters so I can control them absolutely. I don’t have time to let them play. They have to do what I want them to do, the way I want them to do.

I keep thinking about the brilliance of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag. The plot of that story is organic to the character. What in mind, I’m using what I remember of my bonkers self in Seoul from 12 years ago as the basis of my hero’s personality. I have to be really careful, though, that he doesn’t come off as so comical that the story doesn’t have the serious tone I need it to have.

But I do remember how interesting I was in Seoul, if nothing else. I had more than enough character to go around, that’s for sure. The thing about being a long-term expat in Seoul is you find yourself meeting people you would otherwise never meet. For instance, I met Pinch Sulzberger of the New York Times in 2004. Totally blew my mind.

I really like the idea of digging into how bonkers being a long-term expat in Seoul can make you. When I lived there, I could never figure out if South Korea drew bonkers people to be expats there, or if the place drove you bonkers by simply staying a long time. (It may be a little bit of both.)

Anyway, in a sense, this novel is simply me thinking about my time as the publisher of ROKon Magazine in Seoul, but in a far more palatable — and easier to write – fashion than I had in mind when I first tried to tell a very angry version of it about 10 years ago.

I have worked very, very hard to get where I am. Now, to close the deal. I have to keep cramming about how to develop believable characters. Wish me luck.

Now What



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, if nothing else, I’ve got my motivation to hurry up with the novel I’m developing. The novel deals with some “big ideas” that are quite provocative in the context of the rise of fascism in America.

I have a massive amount of reading to do, however, if I want to make my characters believable. Every time America lurches forward on its now irrefutable path towards an autocratic “managed democracy,” feel added instinctive to work harder and faster on this novel.

The only problem is it is something of an epic undertaking given the significant learning curve I’ve had to deal with as well as how I’m doing all of this in a vacuum. (For the most part.)

Anyway, this dark foreboding I feel about our nation’s future is exactly the feeling I need to make this political thriller as dark as it needs to be. I had worried that my natural fun disposition would make it difficult to find the darkness necessary to write a proper thriller.

Well, that’s not going to be a problem anymore.

On The Matter Of Word Count


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am well aware that the “sweetspot” for a published novel is about 80,000-100,000 words. But it’s not impossible for a novel to be published that is longer. In fact, the novel I’m using as my textbook, “The Girl Who Played With Fire” is in the 165,000 – 185,000 range.

That’s my vision.

I’m going to write a first draft that aims to be around 165,000 words and go from there. If beta readers think its too long, then I’ll do something about that. Or if an agent / editor tells me the only way it will get published is to cut its size, then I will.

Or, if all else fails, I’ll simply self-publish and be able to feel content that I did, in fact, write a novel after everyone told me I sucked and why am I even thinking about writing anything at all. (Fuck those people, by the way.)

One thing that is really beginning to hit home is how brutal the publishing business is in real terms. Nobody owes you nothing, as they say. But I really, really believe in the importance of my novel’s vision as-is. I believe the that I can pull off a novel that is such a fast read that you don’t even notice how long it is.

I’d rather fail in a rather spectacular fashion than limit myself and not even give myself the opportunity to excel.

Things May Begin To Move Fast Now With The Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After what feels like an eternity, I think I’m just about to see development speed up rather quickly. I have a script consultant now and he’s really helping me see some major problems with the story. I’m obsessed with character now. I feel like I’m getting much, much closer to filling my previously empty vessels of characters with some substance.

I continue to use Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire as my text book. But it’s growing more and more of simply a stepping off point. My personal ability to tell a story is improving dramatically. Or, put another way, I’m finally reaching a level of storytelling that placates my own brutal personal editor.

If I was better educated and a better writer, I would say I had a chance at writing something as good as Gillian Flynn’s debuted novel Sharp Objects. But I didn’t go to the right school and my actual writing ability is rather mediocre, so I am trying to lower my expectations accordingly.

But I think it’s at least possible that I may have figured out some existential issues with the story. If that is, in fact, the case then things should move a lot faster.

Wish me luck

V-Log: Idle Rambling About The #Novel I’m Developing

Some thoughts.

Of Trying To Make My Heroine More ‘Accessible’



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I love Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, there are a few weaknesses with it that eat away at me. One is while Lisbeth Salander is iconic, there are a few problems with her that are off-putting. One is she’s supposed to be some sort of dark superhacker with Asperger’s who is not very easy to get along with.

We fall in love with her in large part because of graphic, horrific scene that I hate. But it is so bad that you keep worrying about her fate as the books progress.

All of this has led me to want to create a heroine who is far, far more accessable. My heroine, like Lisbeth Salander, has a fucked up personal history, but she is, natively, essentially a manic pixie dreamgirl. But for events beyond her control, she would be more Natalie Portman’s character in “Garden State” than Lisbeth Salander. My inspiration for this is how you sometimes hear about a woman who went to law school specifically to free her brother from jail. I always wondered, “Now what? She got her brother free, but she’s still a lawyer.”

Anyway, now that I’m learning about character that concept is, at least, within my reach now. In the past, it was something of a daydream. I’m feeling pretty pumped that maybe I might actually pull this off. But I still have a huge amount of reading to do, a huge amount of work to do.

It will be interesting to see what this story finally looks like. But I have a feeling once I nail down character, the actual writing may begin to go far, far faster than it has to date.