Tag: Burn Hollywood Burn

Where Is Phoebe Waller-Bridge?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Last we heard of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, she was walking away from the Mr. & Mrs. Smith TV show that she was supposed to do with Donald Glover. She was also in the latest Indiana Jones movie (which I largely liked.) But other than that, she’s been pretty quiet.

She has such talent, it’s annoying that she’s decided to go radio silent for such an extended amount of time. The hope is, of course, that she’s hard at work at some really cool movie. I’d like to see her do an Annie Hall-like movie, but seen from a female POV. And have START in LA and END in NYC.

I think it would be amusing to have a Fleabag-like character chase after a guy she met in London. The culture shock of a Fleabag-like character living in LA then NYC would be a real hoot.

I still think she would be great to play Dr. Susan Calvin in an Amazon Prime limited series. She’s would be perfect for the role and the current mass popularity of AI would be a great hook for a bunch of stories about a “robot psychiatrist.”

Anyway. Only time will tell, I suppose.

Economics, AI & ‘Woke’ Hollywood

Let’s Rock

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are beginning to stabilize with the third draft of the novel. Though, I found myself talking about it today and I realized there was a huge plot element that I had not yet formalized and I felt rather insecure.

My heroine looks like Corrie Yee in my mind.

I *think* I have that fixed.

My fear is that the novel will be seen as a jumble of different genres to the point that it isn’t focused. And, yet, I also think my implementation of a variety of genres is interesting enough and seamless enough that there won’t be a problem with focus.

I hope.

I’ve decided to lean into a somewhat “supernatural” element to the novel that I think will make it really thought provoking. I am also flipping the script on some of the darker elements of Stieg Larsson’s stuff so while it may seem familiar to fans of his work, my specific interpretation of such behavior is totally different and not nearly as…problematic.

But the subject is so loaded that just using it as a plot point could cause some readers to either blanch or chuckle. But being a good enough writer that I can pull of such a risky move is why they pay me the big bucks, right?

I have *got* to lock down the first few scenes (or, even better yet, chapters) of this novel so I can start to progress into the second act. Things are getting much, much better and I’m just about to do just that — I am still on track to wrap up the third draft around April 1st, 2024.

But I have GOT to stop futzing with everything. It’s never going to be perfect. I have a great premise and if I won’t stop tinkering with it until it’s “perfect” the Fourth Turning could happen and I’ll be too busy dodging bullets or weaponized ICE agents to try to query the damn thing.

Once More, With Feeling (Redux)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Not only am I falling apart, but I continue to feel like I’m spinning my wheels when it comes to the first few chapters of this novel. This is the point in the past, of course, when the whole thing would collapse and I would pretty much lurch forward in the plot so I could at least start writing with some momentum again.

My heroine looks like Corrie Yee in my mind.

But this time, I’m not doing that. I’m going to press forward. I’m pretty sure that I have figured things out with the beginning of this novel. It’s just a matter of being really, really patient and methodical.

I’ve changed so much about characters and relationship when it comes to this novel that that, unto itself, is going to slow me down. But — hopefully — not too much. I am still on track to wrap up this third draft by about April 1st. That will give me a few months so do pre-flight things before I query to agents in the fall of 2024.

I still have no idea what I’m going to “comp” my novel to. In general, the novel could be compared to Gillian Flynn’s “Sharp Objects.” And I’m sure I’m going to make many, many mistakes as part of the querying process. But that’s part of the fun of it all, the thing that gives one a sense of adventure.

Being an aspiring novelist, you are bombarded with a lot of advice, all of it being contradictory. It’s enough to make your head spin. But I’ve come up with my own, personal, set of arbitrary rules that I *try* to follow as well as possible as I write this third draft.

I believe I have a stable first chapter. I believe I’m well on my way to having a stable second chapter. The big issue will be how quickly — or slowly — it takes me to get past just the first few chapters into the core of the first act and then into the second act.

I can’t keep writing and re-writing this portion of the novel forever.

Well, If You’re Interested in The Story Of ROKon Magazine, Here It is

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have noticed a bit of an uptick in interest in ROKon Magazine. What happened with the magazine changed my life. And I still think that there are only two people who could properly tell the story — other than me — Phoebe Waller-Bridge or Emerald Fennell.

If you want to know what happened with the magazine from my POV, here’s the below:

Somehow.docx-2Download

I’m Dreading The Due Diligence Of Literary Agents When I Start to Query This Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

You know, you take yourself wherever you go. And I’m at a point in my life when I can’t get rid of all the evidence that I’m a drunk crank kook and have been that way my entire life.

My heroine looks like Corrie Yee in my mind as I write her.

My fear is, of course, that in about a year, when I start to query my first novel that I will see agents crawling around this Website doing due diligence on me and obviously being shocked at what a drunk crank I am.

I’ve talked about these fears before, but as I get closer to zooming through the third draft of this novel, I find myself thinking about it yet again. I just don’t know what I’m going to do.

I suppose, in the end, I do nothing.

Slings and arrows and all that. I just have to accept that I may suffer something of a “kook tax” yet again — the liberal white women who I believe make up the vast majority of literary agents may be aghast at what a freaky weirdo I’ve been as I written — and talked — over the years at great length, in vague terms, about what I hope is a six novel project.

Only time will tell, I suppose.

Emerald Fennell, Have I Got A Story For YOU

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m just being silly, but I find it interesting how people are spooging their pants over Emerald Fennell’s “transgressive” movie Saltburn when I lived a real life story that is just as fucked up (in its own way.)

Emerald Fennell
I have not seen Saltburn, but from what I’ve read of its plot — oh boy. But it *does* remind me of how totally fucked up the story of ROKon Magazine is. There are so many twists and turns — and it’s all so character driven — that there are only two people I can think of who could write and produce a movie that properly conveyed what a fucked up situation all that was: Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Emerald Fennell.

Even though I hate to admit it, the only way to tell the story of ROKon Magazine is to use a framing device like that found in Daisy Jones & The Six. And, really, *I* should be the one to tell the ROKon Magazine story, given how important it is to me and my very specific vision.

The closest I’m coming to doing that at the moment is writing six novels that draw heavily upon my experiences in Seoul, what I know to be true from first hand experience at that point in my life.

Somehow.docx-1Download

Things Should Now Go Really Fast With The Third Draft of My First Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My heroine, in my mind, looks a lot like Corrie Yee.
There are a lot — A LOT — of lingering known unknowns when it comes to the third draft of my novel. But I’m still pretty confident that I should be able to write much, much faster now. I know the general relationships of the characters and so now I have to root around in the specifics as I move forward through the story to write a solid alpha release of the third draft.

I hope to do that by around April 1st. But it’s going to be a real struggle. Sometimes, I feel like my life is falling apart and everything will be thrown up in the air at any moment in a way or ways that I just can’t predict.

I wish some of these people who read this blog on occasion from unexpected, exotic locales had some connection to the Hollywood industrial complex and would be interested in getting the novel published. It’s shaping up to be really good. With my luck, of course, they’ll just steal the idea and I’ll be forced to watch other people have some success from all my hard work.

Lulz.

S1-D13-_-Pang-_-mysterious-postcard-RCL-work-day-1Download
S2-D13-Pang-_-interview-surprise-tells-DM-they-need-to-talkDownload
S3-D13-DM-_-will-stay-away-from-Cargo-as-part-of-a-lapdanceDownload

Things Are Getting A Lot Better With The Third Draft Of My First Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My heroine has the general phenotype of Corrie Yee.
I’m giving myself about a day to kind of chill out before throwing myself back into the novel. I do this every once in a while. In the past, when I had more money, I would go to NYC for a little Writer’s Retreat.

Alas, I now live in abject poverty.

Anyway, here are a revised first few scenes of the third draft. I’m well on my way to revising them, but this will give you some sense of where things stand.

S1-D13-_-Pang-_-mysterious-postcard-RCL-work-day-1Download
S2-D13-Pang-_-interview-surprise-tells-DM-they-need-to-talkDownload
S3-D13-DM-_-will-stay-away-from-Cargo-as-part-of-a-lapdanceDownload

Things *Should* Move REALLY FAST Now With The Third Draft Of My Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s time. I have got to start to push myself when it comes to wrapping up this third draft. I have a fairly stable first two chapters of the third draft, now is time to zoom through the first act. Once I hit the second act, things SHOULD move even faster.

My heroine looks a lot like Corrie Yee in my mind.
I have written and re-written so much of this novel, that once I get the new beginning of the novel done, then, zoom, I hope to wrap up the third draft no later than maybe April. I know full well that if I don’t keep and eye on the calendar, it could be fall 2024 before I finish the third draft and the whole world could be being coming apart at the seams.

Anyway. It’s officially put up or shut up time. I have got to finish this third draft ASAP so I can piviot to the next step in the process – querying.