Be The Power
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
My novel is growing far more scfi in nature far earlier than I predicted. Or, put another way, my heroine’s interaction with advanced technology is beginning to become a central part of the plot sooner than expected.
Right now, I have two major issues to deal with — how often we get to see the heroine’s POV and how often the “embraced and extended” gadgets of James Bond I’ve given her influence what she does as part of the plot. I also have the issue of the nattering nabobs of negativism at VOX waiting to pounce on my pop-lit novel if it doesn’t fit their corporate liberal metrics.
But I’m being both “delusional and stupid” about even selling this novel at this point. I’m an untested, unknown male author who probably comes off as just a well-meaning Internet crank if some lit agent looked at my online ID at this point. I can always self-publish if need be.
Anyway, I’m very pleased with the gadgets I’ve come up with for my heroine. They’re very innovative, next generation and kick ass. And, in the second book, some REALLY cool things are going to happen because of them. I’m really into flipping the script as much as possible, so a lot of themes one might expect in a novel such as this are implemented in an unexpected fashion.
I at least hope so.
The point of all of this is I feel the folks at Eon have let James Bond — and us — down. Bond is about girls, gadgets and guns. While the girls are still hot, the gadgets these days are so so. Just turn on the TV for your inspiration. There’s some seriously cool things being cooked up in tech right now, why not use it?
I guess some of it is producers and screenwriters just aren’t woke to some of the cooler things being designed right now. So, I guess, in a sense, I have my in to entertain readers in an unexpected fashion. I’ll put a move on you, as they say.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m beginning to wonder if, by definition, a man writing a story involving women is “problematic.” I say this as someone you is center-Left and extremely empathetic to many Leftist causes.
idle incoherent rambling about the #novel I'm developing and #writing #hollywood #aspiringnovelist #aspiringnovelistproblems #amwriting #storytelling #writinglife #writingcommunity https://t.co/BWcV6jhnsj
— Shelt Garner (@sheltgarner) November 28, 2020
It’s just when I see that there are actual people who like crap like “Booksmart” it makes me wonder if I just have to suck it up and do whatever the fuck I want with my novel, damn the consequences. I hated Booksmart with a white hot rage for a number of reasons. One was out Olivia Wilde went way, way, way out of her way to make sure her heroine was a plain Jane. I felt this selection was an insult to the audience.
We go see movies — or novel — for escape. We want to see hot people do hot things that make us laugh, or cry, or have personal catharsis. When someone who is hot like Olivia Wilde specifically picks a plain person in an effort to prove a point about Hollywood and beauty it really fucking grates on my nerves
Hollywood is an industry. “Doubledees, doubledees” as the old SNL skit goes. Or, to put another way, sex sells. I really like Olivia Wilde. She’s smart, attractive and talented woman. But give me a break, lady, you could not possibly have been so naïve as to think the moment you started your career in Hollywood it wouldn’t be more about T&A at some points than your acting ability.
The reason for the above rant is the novel I’m working on. I just want to entertain people. I just want to give them a thought-provoking, allegorical thriller that wallows in Trump Era tropes. But I often find myself mulling some pretty dumb things. Like, why can’t I have a hot heroine? Why can’t she be sex positive? How do I have a really interesting woman without haters at VOX simply telling me I’ve created a thinking man’s “sexy slutty assassin?”
Ugh. Fuck Vox. They’re why we can’t have nice things.
It’s very frustrating. I just can’t win because I’m a member of the patriarchy. Or, put another way, I’m self-aware enough and look at enough Twitter to know that even if I do what I want to do — create strong, interesting female characters — that because I’m a man who hasn’t — uh — lived my life according to the media narrative that I’m inevitably going to be “canceled” for some bullshit reason.
And, yet, all that’s just me venting. I’m really sensitive at times, especially when it comes to my art. I know I’ve come up with a great, great pop-lit novel. If that means I have to endure the slings and arrows of outrageous woke fortune, so be it.
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by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I have a huge amount of reading to do. But just in the last few days, things have finally clicked with this novel. Things are going to go very, very quickly now.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m shocked how great the music Miley Cyrus is producing right now is. It blows my mind. It’s actual…gasp…pop rock! She seems to have finally figured out how to use her particular vocal style in the pop rock genre. I call this New Sound, “Rona Rock” but that’s just me.
In particular, I really like her duet with Dua Lipa “Prisoner.” That’s what I’m talking about. That’s a pretty traditional pop rock banger. It’s got a beat and you can dance to it, as they say. Keep doing that! Go that direction!
I could do without the allusion to period cunnilingus in the video. Jesus Christ, ladies. But the song itself is great. I love it. I’m probably going to listen to it a zillian times over the next few weeks.
The question, of course, is this just a blip or a trend? I continue to be astonished by the cultural ignorance younger people. It’s like they barely know any music outside of The Beatles that’s older than 30 years old. It makes you wonder what happens if they suddenly discover the entirety of The British Invasion. Or punk. Or whatever. Good music.
Anyway. Keep up the good work Miley!
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m obsessed with my Webstats. I’ve been obsessed with Webstats since at least the 1994-1995 timeframe. Anyway, someone looked at something I just posted on this site using the Internet Archive. It makes me wonder why they would be so interested in the post about why my novel is probably going to be relevant even though the Trump Era is (hopefully) wrapping up.
It’s all very curious.
I honestly can’t help myself when it comes to writing about writing. I’m such an absolute extrovert that I would just be really, really miserable if I went dark on the subject of what I was doing with the novel. So, let the chips fall where they may.
But I’m now moving EXTREMELY FAST with this novel. The first draft should be done — hopefully — a lot sooner than you might think. I keep expecting someone to steal a march on me at any moment. I would be devistated. But I now know how *I* develop a novel, so my replacement project — should it come to that — would not take 2 years to get to the point this novel currently is.
It would be a painful turn around, but it would be very possible to do it pretty quick once I recovered from having this particular dream squashed.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Things are about to go very, very fast with this novel. While things can obviously still go wrong, I finally have a system step up so I finish the first draft of this novel sooner rather than later.
If I wasn’t such a extrovert, I would go totally dark on the Internet and use all my time on the novel. But for me, communicating is part of the overall development so I just don’t see that happening.
But I really do hope to finish this first draft by my birthday. I still have a massive amount of reading to do. And I don’t know how much time it’s going to take me to write the second, “beta” draft where I really go out of my way to get people to look at the novel to test its premise, extra.
Anyway, wish me luck.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
If you were to have asked me a decade ago what novel I saw myself writing, I would have said some sort of scifi novel. But here I am, working on a thriller in the style of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I, of course, am actually using his The Girl Who Played With Fire as my “textbook.”
The only reason why this happened is I love The Girl Who Played With Fire so much that I can read it over and over and over and over and over and over and not get bored. The ironic thing is I haven’t even read it all the way through that much. I just read the first 50-100 pages a lot as part of my “study.” Larsson, in some ways, was far more ambitious in his structure than I am.
My novel is going to be a lot more straightforward in its structure. I just don’t know squat about police procedurals and was never that good a journalist, either. So I just have to try to fake it. This is going to be a far more journalistic oriented novel than The Girl Who Played With Fire.
Anyway, I keep being paranoid that the Larsson estate is looking at this blog in alarm for this or that reason. If you are — cool it guys, you have nothing to worry about. While my heroine is meant to be an American Lisbeth Salander, that’s where the similarities stop. I will, however, give myself credit – I’ve come up with a pretty good heroine, if I do say so myself.
I’m sure something will happen to make my dreams of writing a break out thriller moot, but I’m digging the endorphin rush of allowing myself to be delusional for an extended amount of time.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Things are moving fast. Really fast. I still have a huge chunk of the novel to figure out on a tactical level, but on a strategic level, this thing is zooming towards its first draft completion.
The key thing is, I figured out a way to have a ritual to stop revising everything forever. Now that that’s figured out, I’ve forced myself to actually lock things down and move forward.
Wish me luck.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Relative to the metrics of your typical Blue Check Twitter liberal, I’m at best a loser and at worst a deranged Internet crank. But I can tell a good story. And things are beginning to move fast with the novel I’ve been working on for way too long.
Everything is falling into place.
I’m hoping to finish a strong first draft no later than my birthday, if not sooner.
There are a few quibbly things I have to overcome, but overall I’m very, very pleased. Big unknowns: 1) will people want to ready anything set during not only The Before Times but also during (an alluded to) Trump Era 2) is my social media output too “problematic” for me to sell the thing 3) will there be an actual fucking civil war / revolution 4) should the Biden Era actually occur, will anyone want to have a cathartic read about the Trump Era?
This is not “A Confederacy of Dunces,” I have a limited amount of time to try to sell this. Anyway, wish me luck.
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