Tag: liberal white women

July 2nd: Tangled Up In Indecision

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’m officially beginning the process of querying, I’m at a loss as to what exactly to do. I think what I’m going to do is keep reading about the querying process for a little bit with an eye to beginning the process of looking up actual agents who might be interested in me.

A “comp” to my novel.

I’m not exactly going the traditional route with this querying because I can’t afford an editor and I can’t afford to pay beta readers. But two beta readers I gave the novel to did give me positive feed back — and they actually finished it! — so that’s enough for oblivious, clueless me to plunge forward.

And, really, that’s always been the point of all of this — I just want to see how far I can get before it’s obvious that even though I did a good job, I’m just not going to get this novel published traditionally.

I do think this novel is good enough to publish traditionally. And I will admit that for structural development issues, I did lean into AI. But when it came to the actual writing I put in so much hard work that I’m going to pop a gasket if people just roll their eyes and dismiss everything I wrote as “AI slop.”

It’s not. I swear.

Anyway, I’m really struggling about what to do next as part of my quest to query traditionally. I think I need to read more about querying. I think. But also I need to maybe read some of the comps that Sonnet 5 helped me discover. Most of all, I have to realize that the clock is ticking for more than one reason.

I’m getting older, my life is probably going to…change…soon…and if I screw around I won’t be able to begin to query around Sept 1st as I hope to.

As an aside, my “friend” from Cuba is back and they still want to leave a comment, and yet don’t. If you really want to yell at me for some reason, you can track down my email address, you know. Or ping me on Twitter.

It Makes You Wonder

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Looking at my Webstats I noticed that someone searched for this blog then made a direct beeline to my post about beginning to query. They were coming from Cuba of all places.

More than one thing about all of this I find curious. How did they learn about my blog? Are they on vacation in Cuba? Why were they interested in that specific blog post? Why did they try to comment then decide not to? (They were probably going to write something nasty, but oh well.)

Anyway.

I continue to hope I can get some work done not only on querying, but the new novel I’m working on. And maybe do some reading and watching a movie or TV show as well.

Only time will tell, though. But I fear I have a little bit of a ticking clock. Not only am I not getting any younger, but very soon, my life is going to change in a rather dramatic fashion, I suspect.

July 1st: Finally Beginning The Process of Querying

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After several weeks of staring out into space, not doing anything, I’m finally, finally beginning the process of querying User Error. I’m giving myself essentially two months to prepare before I start sending out my query letters.

Now, obviously, what is going to happen is the literary agents I query — if are interested in me — are going to do due diligence on me and discover this blog, then God only knows what will happen then.

I fear a lot of them will run screaming into the night at how kooky and weird I am.

But, who knows. I am prone to overthinking such things.

One thing I’m afraid of is I will really struggle to continue work on my next novel because I’ll be so focused on querying. But who knows.

Another thing I have to watch out for is leaning too much on AI to do querying stuff. It really helps in some respects — like finding comps — but in other ways I really need to be careful not to replace my own writing with AI slop.

Literary agents are going to notice that kind of thing.

I Have Got To Get Back Into The Swing Of Things, Creatively

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have drifted for way too long. Time to get some figurative smelling salts and get back to business. I need to read Annie Bot and my books on querying. I need to buy two other books that are my “comp” books for my novel I’m querying right now and I need to throw myself back into very beginning of querying.

My goal is to start all of this before July 4th weekend. That’s the goal, that’s the dream.

I just refuse to keep drifting forever. One of the reasons why I’ve had such trouble getting out of this mental state is my age. I’m old(er) and I just want to drift until the end of my life because I know that I could be nearly 60 before I’m a published author, no matter what.

Anyway. I can’t think like that, right? I need to buckle up and get back to work. I still think something really dramatic is going to happen soon and throw everything out of whack.

What that is, I don’t know.

Now Getting Into The Nitty-Gritty Of Preparing To Query

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If Hollywood is any indication, we’re zooming towards a situation where someone writes a screenplay that steals a creative march on me. That, or I sell this novel and it hits the zeitgeist in just the right way and is a big success.

I keep seeing promos for movies that keep edging closer and closer to the premise of my novel and it’s making me a little nervous.

And, yet, I just have to accept that it’s really possible that my fear is going to come true and everyone will just roll their eyes and say, my novel is “just like that popular movie” even though I wrote my novel first.

That just comes with the territory of being a creative person.

And I do have a new novel idea — a comedy — that I may use to shoehorn myself back into writing on a regular basis. I’ve had some real trouble getting back into the writing groove since my novel is done. It’s kind of like creative post-partum depression.

But my need to create is slowly roaring back. So, as such, I suppose I will get back to writing pretty quick.

I’m Really Nervous About Literary Agents Doing ‘Due Diligence’ On Me Going Forward

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. I’m something of a kook and it’s going to be…interesting…to see literary agents poke around this blog when they do due diligence on me once I start to query. I just can’t help who I am. I’m a little bit bonkers and I just am not prepared at the moment to do what it necessary to properly hide how kooky I am.

So, come what may, here I am, accept me for who I am or not.

It will be interesting to see what happens. It really will be.

If I was younger, I think literary agents — who are mostly liberal white women as best I can tell — would probably be cool with my kookiness because I would be young and edgy.

But…as a middle aged man, I worry that literary agents simply will not be able to accept what a kook I am.

The Struggle Is Real To Get Back To Creative Work

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, I learned what I already figured to be true — about 85% of literary agents are, in fact, women. I learned that reading a book on how to get an agent that I’ve just started.

But the more important issue is how do I get back to writing just in general. I think there are three ways. One is to begin printing out pages from the novel I’ve written so I can edit it. Another is to work on the short story I’m working on. And the third is to work on a dramedy novel I’ve long dreamed about.

Now, one issue about the dramedy novel is it would be a much better screenplay than novel. But, lulz, writing a screenplay is just too sharp a learning curve. I know how to write a novel — or at least, how I write one — so I can dive right in and get going. Whereas to write a screenplay would be a serious, serious pain in the ass that would take too long.

Anyway, I hope to get into this book about getting a literary agent as well. I am still on track to get to querying by Sept of this year. That gives me roughly just over two months to position myself to do that as of this writing.

Psyching Myself Up To Query

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m definitely in the “now what” phase of things when it comes to this novel. My ability to count on my beta readers is iffy at best and as such I have to just bite the bullet and start the process of preparing to query — even if it means I haven’t had effective beta testing.

But the whole point of this specific novel is just to see how far I can get. It could be that this is going to be a disaster no matter what because I have no idea what I’m doing.

And, yet, at least I will push the edge of my experience with such things a little bit further than I have before. So, the next novel, which I hope to start soon, I will know a little bit more about what is expected of me when it comes to ultimately querying it.

I continue to worry about what literary agents — many who I assume are liberal white women — will think of my social media output. It could be that they will think I’m too big a kook just in general to even consider being my agent. But I am who I am, so, lulz?

Just thinking about querying puts me on edge because it will be me going from the realm of just being a daydreamer who likes to write to actually slamming into the wall known as “The Real World.” People who are normal. People who maybe will take one look at me as part of due diligence and either laugh or run away at what a fucking weirdo I am.

It’s all very possible.

But, if nothing else, it all gives me something to do I suppose.

Approaching The End Of This Draft Of My Scifi Dramedy WIP

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have about two chapters left before I will wrap up this draft of the novel I’ve been working on for about two years now. I’m confident that it’s good enough — another one last pass for “color correction” to at least query without being laughed at.

I continue to have two lingering worries.

One worry is it’s too spicy. Given that GenZ is so prudish the idea of a man who subscribes to a stripper android so they can be together may be too much for them. Hell, it may be too much for a lot of people. And, yet, I continue to believe in this idea. I believe in it enough to at least test the waters of querying.

The other issue I have is it has taken me some time to figure out how to properly use AI in my workflow and I’m a little nervous that maybe a few instances of “AI slop” have slipped past me. So I’m really self-conscious and paranoid about that and in the “color correction” pass I’m going to rewrite scenes as necessary to get rid of it.

I still don’t know if it’s going to be this fall our this January when I query. I just don’t know yet. I think — maybe — it’s going to be January before I can query simply because it may be more a struggle than I’d like to find beta readers. Or, I could grow bold and say “who needs beta readers?” and just go without them so I can meet my September deadline.

Anyway, wish me luck.

Is My Scifi Dramedy WIP Novel’s Comp…Euphoria?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, if nothing else, I suppose this novel might catch the eye of Sydney Sweeney if it actually gets published. There is a lot of spicy content in this novel, but I’d like to think that it’s done in such a matter-of-fact, droll fashion that it won’t turn off too many people.

I hope.

At the same time, there’s a chance that despite the spicy content, some starlet like Sydney Sweeney may be willing to be an android stripper in a Hollywood movie inspired by my novel.

But, I don’t know. It’s one of those things that could go either way. It could be that this novel is just too spicy to even past muster to get published since most literary agents — at least in my imagination — are liberal white women who might blanch at all the spicy content.

Or, at least, that a man is writing it.

That’s why I see this novel as a exploratory novel. I’m going to test the waters of how, exactly, I will go through the querying process. Then the NEXT novel, maybe, the one that has less obvious sex in it, might be the one I get published. But I’m kind of running out of time.

If I don’t hurry up and get something, anything done, I’m going to be in my 60s before I might be able to hold a novel in my hands that actually was found on bookshelves. And all of this is happening in the context of the fucking Singularity rushing towards us.

Ugh.