An Update On The #Novel I’m Developing



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner


The last few weeks I’ve felt a little tired. I’ve been working on this novel for so long, it’s warped the way I look at the world on an existential level. But I think I may have come up with a solution to this feeling — literally look at working on this novel as a job in the sense that I give myself a “weekend.”

The “weekend” that I give myself isn’t Saturday – Sunday, but more like late Wednesday through Saturday. But when I do work on the novel, I sprint. I’m like the least Type A person ever, so any work I do on anything is done in an erratic and eccentric manner — but it is often done in a very intense fashion when it’s done.

The next big step I have to get into is the outline of the second half of the novel. A lot of things happen during that portion of the novel, a lot of them I currently have no idea how to articulate. But I can, like, read. I can figure it out. It just may take me going outside my comfort zone to do it.

But I will, in fact, do it.

Developing and writing a novel is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

I have no idea how anyone does it without a huge amount of methodical developing and plotting. Things have started to move faster with this novel because I understand development and plotting a lot better — and I’m reading a massive amount as quickly as possible.

And this is just the first book in a two book story!

‘Recalibration’ #WritingLife #AmWriting

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner


I’ve realized that I need to learn more about structure. What I have been doing — using Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl Who Played With Fire” as my textbook on structure simply doesn’t work with my novel for a number reasons on a number of different levels. I have an actual text book on scene and structure and I’m going to at least attempt to sit down and read that now. This has happened for a number of reasons. I can’t keep trying to do a one-to-one copy of The Girl Who Played With Fire’s structure. It just doesn’t work. I have to understand structure independent of that book.

I had an interesting conversation with an elderly woman who definitely had a very low opinion of my efforts to write a novel. But, ultimately, the chief take away was — I need to go faster and I need to realize I probably have a limited amount of time to get this done. I’ve been moving forward with development, yes, but this ideal situation isn’t going to last forever. I am going to at least try to re-double my efforts and be more focused on the task at hand. Hopefully.

Any normal human being would shut up about what he’s working on, but I’m not normal. I’m 100% extroverted and usually — unless there’s a specific reason to do otherwise — I pretty much just talk about whatever’s on my mind in as conspicuous a manner as possible.

Regardless, I’ve entered yet another new — if subtle — phase in development. I have a better understanding of how badly I miscalculated at the beginning of this process on more than one level. I thought this was going to be simple of a matter of casually studying The Girl Who Played With Fire and could happen all within maybe two years.

What happened was the whole thing was very poorly thought out at the beginning and as my storytelling ability has gotten better, my personal demands on myself have also gotten higher. And so there you go.

Some Theories On What Happens To Pop Culture Now

Shelton Bumgarner

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that we’re in the Fourth Reich after the acquittal of Trump, what happens to pop culture? I thought at first maybe a sizable chunk of the audience might want some sort of emotional catharsis. But I now think it may be a bit more complex than that.

What’s more likely to happen is we’ll enter a sort of second 70s in that a lot of people are just going to want to dance while other people want to see serious, gritty movies and TV show that address what just happened. I think. I don’t know.

Given what the novel I’m writing is about, I definitely have a vested interest in people wanting Trumplandia catharsis. But we’ll see. I’m writing a novel instead of screenplay because I live in the middle of nowhere, it affords me more nuanced creative universe building ability and just don’t want to write a screenplay right now.

V-Log: Vague #Novel Development Talk

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Some vague development talk.