Tag: Hollywood

Going To Focus On Development Of These Four Novels For A Few Days


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have been using brute creative force on these four novels to a great deal of success the last few days. I may finally have an outline for the first novel that is stable enough that I can begin to focus on the next steps of the individual scene summaries and actually writing scenes as well.

It’s been a whole lot of work getting to this point. I must have worked a solid five or six hours today figuring out how to make the first novel’s outline sea worthy.

Having said all that, however, my personal life is going to get in the way for a few days as part of an extended weekend. As such, I’m probably just going to read and watch movies and TV shows to psych myself up for a huge push back into writing early next week.

In some respects, this is really annoying because I was hoping to start writing again on August 1st. But, lulz, that’s obviously not going to happen.

Come to think of it, in an effort to prevent my mind from overheating, I might spend this forced pause also trying to punch up the outline of the second book in the series. The third book’s outline — which was originally the first novel — is pretty much finished. The fourth book’s outline, however, is not.

I have made great process with these four books. And I really regret talking so much about this whole thing over the things. And, yet, I’m so extroverted, what else did you expect would happen?

But one thing that writing these four novels at the same time is really helping with is as my writing improves, I’m able to improve all the novels at the same time.

Anyway. I have a huge amount of development and writing to do.

The Benefits Of Writing A Four Novel Series At Once


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

By writing these four novels at once, I get to flesh out everything in a way that makes sense. In a way, I get to write one huge fucking novel that happens to be broken into four pieces.

With this first novel, I really like how I have strict conditions I have to work within. I know what is going to happen in the next three books and, as such, some things are out of my control. In a way, that makes writing the novel a lot easier.

I still have no idea what I’m doing, so I still feel as though I’m spinning my wheels at times. But these days, I’m using brute force to get myself where I want to be.

I really — really — want to have something finished in a big way by around the end of August. That is an arbitrary deadline that hopefully will force me to work a lot harder for a lot longer when I have the mood than maybe otherwise.

It’s a lot of work and a lot of fun. I am growing embarrassed by how much and how long I’ve written and talked about this project. I would just shut up, but I’m too much of an extrovert.

The Outline For The First Act Keeps Collapsing (But Getting Better)


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, after having looked at a few more episodes of Mare Of Easttown, I’m beginning to figure out how to fix my first act. That doesn’t, of course, prevent the outline I’m working on from collapsing again and again. But every time it collapses, it gets better.

I’m getting closer and closer to wrapping up the outline so I can get back to writing again. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a three step process to development — outline, scene summary and then writing. During the course of each of those steps, things have a tendency to collapse on me, sometimes in a rather spectacular fashion.

But I do have a huge amount of forward momentum, which helps.

And I’ve figured out that if I aggressively distract myself by watching something like Mare of Easttown or reading a book about writing — or, even better, another thriller — it figure out the solution to my problems.

I’m Studying ‘Mare Of Easttown’ In An Attempt To Solve A First Act Problem


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are going well with the first novel in the four novel series I’m writing all at once, but for one thing — I’ve got a first act problem. But things have grown so overheated in my mind about the struggle to figure out how to get from the beginning to where I know I want to end the first act that I’m just going to cool it for a few hours.

One issue that I have to keep at the forefront of my mind is who the protagonist of this novel is. Because I know what happens over the course of the four novels, I know who is REALLY IMPORTANT to the macro arc of the series — but that person isn’t the protagonist of this novel.

So, I have to think about the character and motivations of the person who is the protagonist. That is helping a lot to figure out — now — what goes on in the first act of this particular novel. But the more time I distract myself with other things, the more I realize that I need to really prep the audience for the dramatic events that take place at the beginning of the second act. As such, I’m having to think outside the box some from things that I have taken for granted would be in the first act.

Anyway, I’m distracting myself right now watching Kate Winslet’s Mare of Easttown and studying it. It is very much a character driven story and that’s something I need to lean into with the novels I’m working on. The better I know the motivations of the characters I’m working with, the either it will be to fix some lingering issues that are currently an obstacle.

But I can feel my mind beginning to get some solutions figured out. I will note that the more serious I become with this series, the less obliged I feel to write about writing it. I’m tired of seeming to be all talk and not work. But sometimes I need to left off some steam, so I write about writing even though I am growing weary of it.

Burn Hollywood, Burn: My Hot Take On The ‘Death Of Movies’ Discourse


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There’s a lot of buzz of late about the “death of movies.” And, sadly, I fear some of it may be right. American culture is facing something of an existential crisis because the very idea of any sort of “mainstream” is now beginning to melt away. Identity politics is now so absolute that the legitimacy of any heteronormative story is up for debate in the overwrought conversations of Twitter.

I know I sound a little too Joe Rogan with the above, but it comes from a place of love — a love of movies as an art form.

You know it.

Here’s what I think is going to happen — movies are going to continue to drift into culture insignificance until one of a few things happen. If we stop being force fed movies about people running around in capes, then, maybe people might sit up and take notice. But this is unlikely to happen because you can make a shit ton of money with movies like that, so, lulz.

Another way to “fix Hollywood” would be to end “Woke Hollywood.” Instead of trying to make us more woke, tell us a good story. Don’t worry about identity politics — tell a good story. I want less Beanie Feldstein screeching about lesbian sex positions to a Plain Jane lead in Book Smart and more, I don’t know anything. I only keep ranting about how much I fucking hated Book Smart because I was shamed into seeing it by my center-Left echo chamber and the movie is the epitome of preaching to the audience about how being woke is so important.

But, as I always say whenever Book Smart is brought up — I wasn’t the audience. So if you’re a bi-curious high school girl in the suburbs of LA, you probably loved that movie.

Yet another way that movies may come roaring back is because of technology. It could be that once we fully transition to MX (VR and AR) or, hell, even some sort of Strange Days-like MindCap technology, that movies will, like vinyl, make a big comeback as young people grow disillusioned with immersive media.

The crux of the Hollywood’s current problem is a combination of industry dynamics and the need for it to suck its own cock when it comes to there being a “message” in movies. America is so tightly wound at the moment, that a huge segment of the potential viewing audience is turned off with Woke Hollywood, hence the popularity of message-free MCU movies.

I only get a little upset about this specific issue because I love movies. It’s not that hard to tell a great story in a movie. Hell, *I* want to tell a few of those great stories so bad that I recently bought Final Draft. So, lulz.

But are movies dead? Yes, in the short term. Long term, however, I believe they’ll turn out just fine. We just need a New Era of story telling that harkens back to the early 70s.

It’s So Nice To Have No One To Tell Me ‘No’ When It Comes To Writing These 4 Novels


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really have a very unique situation going on in my life. The key thing about it is –I have no one to tell me “no” when it comes to my creative life. If I want to go from one, to two to four novels, I can and I don’t have a wife or girlfriend to wince and say, “Honey, maybe you should get a short story published first?”

Fuck that.

As such, I’ve spend several years improving my writing and storytelling ability. The learning curve for writing a novel was far more severe than I could ever possibly imagined. But things have finally clicked for me.

I still have a shit tone of reading to do to flesh out my characters, but this first book in the series should go (hopefully) pretty quick now. I feel a lot of pressure because I have three more books to write as soon as possible.

This is a good thing, however, because snap, snap, I’m mortal and Stieg Larsson dropped dead within days of selling three — not four — novels. I feel like I’m tempting the writing fates at this point. Is the same thing going to happen to me if I get what I want (which is sell these four novels via the traditional publishing method.)

Anyway, I’m really enjoying myself. I do wish I could speed the process up some. To that, however, would require me not to be so hard on myself. But I have very, VERY high expectations for myself and, as such, the outline I keep working on collapses on almost a daily basis.

Wish me luck.

My Career Advice For Miley Cyrus


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing I notice about Ms. Cyrus is she loves to belt out songs. So, it would make a lot of sense for her to do at least one Meatloaf “Bat Out of Hell” type album where the songs are so over-the-top and theatrical that when she belts them out at the top of her lungs they’re really good.

Ms. Cyrus seems to be thrashing around a lot with different styles and genres of music. It’s like she wants to be a modern Joan Jett, but hasn’t quite figured out the right combination of songs and producers to do it.

Having said that, I think its inevitable that Ms. Cyrus is going to dabble in Amy Winehouse retro music at some point in the near future. It seems a rite of passage for your typical female pop singer that they do at least one throwback album where they get to dress like a woman in the 40s to early 60s.

I wish Ms. Cyrus would form a all-girl rock supergroup for at least one whole album. That would be cool.

The Agony & The Ecstacy of Developing & Writing 4 Novels


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have been way too vocal about working on what is now four novels. I need to just shut up and do the work. The more I talk about all of this, the more people roll their eyes and tell me to just “write a short story.”

Fuck that.

Hell yeah.

But while I’ve gotten a huge amount of work done over the last few years, it’s been more of a drift than any organized, disciplined thing. That’s why it’s been difficult for me to write short stories to shut the naysayers up. I would rather fail in an outrageous, spectacular fashion than write short stories that obviously would never get published.

What people really mean when they say “write a short story” is they’re tired of hearing about a novel that seems to be taking forever to finish. But, in all honesty, if they think that way, if they lack the ability to support my long-term dream of writing a novel they’re not my friend and I don’t want them in my life.

I’d rather be alone and a failure than have friends and have them think I’m a failure because I could not pass their “test” of getting a short story published. If that did happen, it’s not like I would shut up about the very thing they find so annoying — writing.

If they don’t like me talking about writing, then they don’t really like me and they can fuck off.

Anyway, I just had to get that off my chest.

Now, To Start Reading Movie Scripts


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Our time on this planet is brief. I’ve finally begun to reach the existential angst of someone who knows this is just about the time when my age group begins to fade into non-existence. We have a solid 20 years ahead of us if we’re lucky, but the process of demise has just about begun.

As such, I’m going to slow drift towards figuring out how to flesh out a second creative “track” of working on a screenplay or three. I have a lot of movie concepts rolling around in my mind, but it’s pretty obvious that the learning curve is far, far sharper than I thought when I finally swallowed my pride and bought Final Draft 12.

I was thinking it was going to be a WYSIWYG-type editor.

Boy, was I wrong. I have to figure out how to use it format my screenplays. It doesn’t hold one’s hand at all. Which is something of a shock. How something that doesn’t really make it easy for a novice to format a screenplay to become the industry standard is curious to me.

And yet, I still have four (four!) novels to develop and finish as quickly as possible. But I’m feeling pretty good about that “main” creative track. Things are going really well in real terms, it’s just a lot — a lot — slower than I would prefer.

But I’m going back to writing again pretty soon now, even though I haven’t filled all the holes in my outline for the first book.

Wish me luck.

I’ve Got Lightening In A Bottle With This Thriller Series


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m really struggling with the (new) first book in this four book thriller series I’m working on. But I definitely get the sense that there’s something there. I just have to be willing to put the work in to make this as great a yarn as I know it can be.

But it’s not going to be easy, just as it hasn’t been easy the last several years I’ve been working on writing a novel. I’ve redoubled my studying of Stieg Larsson’s stuff and I noticed something: he doesn’t cover every single solitary day in the chronology of events.

He focuses on one or two important days. I used to think that The Girl Who Played With Fire was the perfect textbook for me to use to write my own novel, and now I realize, on a structural basis, it’s not

It doesn’t really follow the structure I need. So,lulz.

But I do still study it a lot to get some sense of how to write A Novel, just maybe not My Novel.