Be The Power
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Well, I have another “comp” novel for my novel — Klara & The Sun, which is now going to be a big-time Hollywood movie in October.
It seems like the book and novel are a lot different. The novel — from what I have learned of it on Wikipedia — is a lot more serious than the movie. At least that what it seems like.
Anyway, seeing the promos for the movie adaptation really get my juices flowing to query this novel and to get back to writing in general.
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.
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.
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.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m slowly, ever so slowly, starting to think again about the issue at hand — querying my novel. But I’m still at a loss as to how exactly to go about it. I have a few novel ideas that I might be able to focus on instead of immediately going to querying is a possibility.
But…I don’t know. I just don’t know.
I also have a few short story ideas that I might work on as well. But…lulz? I still want to try to query by Sept 1st. That’s a real goal. I just need to get into the right mindspace.
I’m slowly, ever so slowly, getting there…but it’s taking a lot longer than I expected.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m working on a short story, but what I really want is a new novel to start working on. I have two strong contenders, but neither one of them is fleshed out enough to actually start working on them.
One is an homage to Stieg Larsson’s stuff that is in the same universe as the series of novels I’ve struggled with for some time. The only problem with it is I’m afraid it’s too complex — even with the help of AI — and I’ll be 60 years old still working on it.
Meanwhile, there’s another one that is much more clear cut. In some ways. In some ways it’s a real pain because I don’t know the plot yet. I just have a general flow of the story. And I *definitely* know how it ends.
But what I should be doing is working on querying the novel I’ve finished. I think what I’m going to do is sit down and read it one last time before I query to fix any last minute screw ups.
I’m really impressed with myself for having written a novel over 100,000 words long — even if that’s too long, in some sense — for a first time novelist’s first submission.
But the whole point of the novel was to just see how far I could get. This is by far the farthest I’ve ever gotten.
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.
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.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
A part of me is growing really nervous about how spicy this novel I’m working on is. There will be some people who dismiss it out of hand once I describe the premise. In fact, it got a chuckle out of someone just a few days ago and that took me aback.
But it was a young woman, so maybe…that’s not as bad as you might think. And that chuckle only made me feel like hunkering down even more to finish this thing. I know there’s an audience for it, somewhere. I know it’s good enough to at least query.
It being sold is a different issue altogether.
Having said all that, here is what I have to do next:
Finish The Novel
This goes without saying. I’m well into the third act of the novel now. I just need to get it over with. I need to focus and stop drifting towards my goal. I’m really growing nervous that some disaster will strike ASAP that will make it a lot more difficult to finish the novel sooner rather than later. So, I need hurry up!
“Color Correct”
This is where I will just go through and change a few names and maybe rewrite a scene here and there just to make sure they either don’t seem like AI wrote them or they suck. I have done everything in my power to prevent this novel from seeming like “AI slop” but I’m paranoid I may have missed a stray paragraph or sentence here or there so part of color correction will be to re-write such things out of existence.
Beta Readers / Read Annie Bot
This is going to be tough. No one likes me and I have no friends — other than the few stalkers who read this blog religiously, apparently (grin) — so, man, is it going to be tough to figure out how to get someone, anyone to spend the time necessary to finish an roughly 100,000 word novel. (I still don’t know how long this novel is, yet. That’s another thing I have to do. I’m guessing it’s between 80,000 and 100,000 words. But I’ll find out soon enough I guess.) I also need to read the “comp” novel Annie Bot. I just don’t wanna. I want to play and daydream, not read a novel that is apparently a feminist screed that comes to dramatically different conclusions about sexbots than I do. But, lulz, I gotta do it!
Query
This is the big issue going forward. I have eyeballed September as when I want begin to querying process….but it’s possible that for no other reason than how difficult it is to find beta readers…I’m either going to have to forgo beta readers altogether (or at least in part) or I’m going to have to punt querying to January. I say this in the context of their apparently being two “seasons” for querying — fall and spring.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Because I’m so fucking moody, I won’t say I’ll be done with this novel I’m working on anytime soon. It could be two or three weeks before I finally wrap things up and piviot to the “color correction” part of the process.
“Color correction” in this sense is just rewriting scenes here or there that really need it and also some last minute name changes for characters who had placeholders.
I’m also really paranoid about there being any “AI Slop” lodged here or there in the text itself, so I am going to be really aggressive to finesse things so that’s not there to be read. I really don’t want to do all this hard fucking work only to be told “AI wrote it” and it can’t get published.
I have written this damn novel. I have used AI as an “AI first” novelist, however to develop, etc things. But the copy is mine. I recently saw someone on Tik-Tok essentially call people like me literary traitors for having anything to do with AI at all.
Shrug. I know what I’ve done and I know this is a novel good enough to query. But I have another novel that I will write after this one I’m working on that I think maybe the one I actually sell, for no other reason than it’s not as “spicy” as this novel I’m working on.
Even without the spice, any novel I write will have problems selling because of, well me. I’m a fucking kook. I’m old(er). You name it. Liberal white women will find some reason to “cancel” me before it’s all over with, but it’s better to have loved and lost than never loved at all.
I am looking forward to seeing literary agents poking around this website in my Webstats in a few months. That will be both fun and unnerving.
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