Tag: literary agents

Just About At The Midpoint Of The Second Draft Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m cruising towards the midpoint of the scifi dramedy novel I’m writing. And, I have to admit, the speed I’ve had doing all of this comes in no small part to being “AI First.”

I’m doing a lot — A LOT — of work, but I am amplifying and enhancing all that hard work with AI. I continue to do most, if not all, of the actual writing, but on a structural basis AI has really helped.

And that doesn’t even begin to account for the fact that I’m going to make one last pass on the second draft to make sure absolutely as much as possible of the actual written text of the novel is mine and now AI.

I’m already feeling a little insecure from everyone who’s read the first chapter saying how great it is. Usually, people either don’t tell me what they think or say it sucks. But, like I said, I am actually doing all the heavy lifting and AI is more like an enhance spell checker than anything else.

I think very soon, once Christmas is actually here, I’m probably going to be in neutral for a few days then bounce back into writing again. But I really am going to have to work hard in the second half of the novel — the second half is not nearly as actually written out as the first.

So that is going to slow me down.

I still hope to wrap the beta draft of the novel up by spring 2026, and, yet, even if I do that, because of post-production issues, it could be Sept 1st, 2026 before I actually start to query.

That will suck, but, lulz. I just want to see how far I can get in the querying process.

I Fear The ‘Woke Cancel Culture Mob’ May Dislike This Scifi Dramedy I’m Working On (Ugh)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The next novel I write after this scifi dramedy is going to be as absolutely safe as possible. No sex workers, no strippers, no anything to bother the “woke cancel culture mob.”

But, having said that, I really do like this novel I’m working on right now. It’s really interesting and really gets into the nitty-gritty of what it would be like to have Replicant-like people in society.

So, I’m hoping the snooty woke people who will object to the sex worker elements of this novel will hold their nose and give me something of a pass. I hope. But this novel is compelling and all the sex in it has a point, if nothing else.

Yet, like I said, the next novel I write is going to be a lot more wholesome. I’m tired of writing something interesting, only to have it dismissed as “trashy” because literary types take themselves too seriously.

Moving Scenes Around In The Second Draft’s ‘Fun & Games’

Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I made a structural change to the novel at the end of the first act that has caused a cascading series of changes that need to be done. So, I’ve been forced to move some things around in the “fun and games” part of the novel.

I was really worried it would be a bigger pain in the butt than it has turned out to be. It is — so far — not so bad. I’ve deleted some scenes and moved up a few others, but overall things have been a lot smoother than I expected.

But I’m still going to probably have to rewrite a number of scenes for the second draft. I can’t just hand wave things. I really need to do a stress test for the second draft to make sure things are good enough to produce a version of the story that could be queried.

My new deadline in my mind is my birthday in February to start the beta reader process. But the second half of the novel isn’t nearly as written out as the first, so it could be a real slog. I’m going to have to actually write out a number of scenes that I just wrote a few paragraphs for.

Anyway, I continue to be really, really nervous about what the liberal white women of the literary agent world will think of my efforts. My political views are generally in line with those of liberal white women, but I’m not perfect, man. I’m not only a big old screw up — and a kook — I’m a loudmouth crank who is prone to getting really excited over dumb things.

So, I suppose, there’s still a good chance I’ll get “canceled” even before I sell the novel because when literary agents do their due diligence on me they will freak out at what they see here on this blog and in general on social media.

Ugh.

A Little Uneasy

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m a little uneasy that my dream of being a traditional published author just is not possible. It’s may just not be possible because I’m too old, live in the middle of nowhere and am a self-avowed loudmouth crank.

I used to think I had enough “rizz” that “normal” people would at least humor me. But, now, I’m growing concerned that I could write the fucking Bible and the “normal” “serious” liberal white women who probably make up (or at least do in my imagination) most literary agents will take one look at places like this blog and run away from me as fast as possible.

I’m not picking on them. And it’s not really there fault — I just can’t help that I’m a kook. I am who I am and it’s taken me way too long to get where I need to be with this novel.

But, while there’s life, there’s hope, I suppose.

Getting A Little Excited

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m breezing through the transformation of the first draft of the scifi dramedy novel into the second draft. At least at the moment. That’s because I’m able to reuse a lot of text that I generated in the first half of the novel.

Things are going to get much, much more difficult when I reach the second half of the novel because I just was more interested in stress-testing the outline that actually worrying about making sure scenes were long enough.

So, I’m going to have go through and really work to make the scenes of the second half proper length and that is going to slow me down some. But, and this is a huge but, I think I’m still on track — maybe — to query this novel in spring 2026.

Maybe.

If that is the case, then I have to start thinking about post-production stuff like querying, getting and agent and…a lawyer? I am totally broke, so unless I can figure out a way to get someone I’m related to do spot me for the costs of a lawyer to look over a book contract…oh boy.

And, yet, on a psychological basis, this is the farthest I’ve ever gotten with a novel so far. I really think I may wrap this baby up sooner rather than later.

Hopefully. Maybe.

But I continue to worry about my bonkers social media output being enough to either make “serious” liberal white women literary agents run away in dismay when they do due diligence on me.

I can’t help who I am, so, lulz?

I May Have To Recalibrate When I Will Query This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Just musing casually about the chronology of how I might get to querying next year, it seems that it may be Sept. 1st, rather than, say, May 1st. I say this because even if I wrap up this version of the novel by Jan. 1st, it could take me three months to rewrite a lot of scenes that need to be worked on.

Then, I have find beta readers — who will do it for free! — and then revise from their suggestions. That would get me closer to June-ish before I could query. And, as I understand it, there are two “seasons” to querying — spring and fall.

So I just don’t know.

It will be 20 years since I started ROKon Magazine in fall 2026, so that would kind of be apropos in sentimental terms. I really believe in this novel, I really do. And I want to throw myself all-in.

I want to make it the best it can possibly be before I query. And, yet, as they say, the perfect is the enemy of the good.

So, things are still up in the air some.

Continued Musing About My Querying Prospects

Barring some unexpected twist — which is always possible — I’m finally on track to be in querying shape for this sci-fi dramedy novel I’m working on by late spring 2026.

It won’t be easy, but it feels doable.

I’m about to dive into the third act of the newest draft. My hope is to blast through it using the outline as my guide, wrap that up around early January, and then circle back to deepen and polish a lot of the half-formed scenes I left rough on purpose. No one but me will ever see this version, and I needed the freedom to solve the big structural puzzles before worrying about finesse.

What’s been on my mind lately, though, is how my social-media footprint might affect my chances once I start querying. In my head, most agents are liberal white women, and I worry that some of my louder, crankier posts from years past might make someone wince.

I’ve been a rambunctious loudmouth most of my life, so I’m sure I’ve irritated someone somewhere enough to get myself “canceled.” But honestly, I just want to see how far I can get in this process. That’s the whole goal.

And if I can get even one person — someone who isn’t related to me — to read the whole novel and tell me anything at all about it, I’ll be thrilled. In the past, I’ve handed people my work only to be ghosted.

Ugh.

But onward. One step at a time.

Things Are Going Well With This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Writing (At The Moment)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Right now, my biggest fear with this scifi dramedy novel I’m writing is word count — scene bloat. I’m really nervous that I’ll write a really good novel, but it will just be too long for a first novel.

And, yet, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was about 160,000 words and that got published. So…lulz? It’s not IMPOSSIBLE for a novel that is longer to get published — even for someone as old as fuck like I am.

Right now, I’m just breezing my way through a draft of the novel to so I get some sense of it’s structure on a specific basis. Once I wrap this version up, then I’m going to make another pass through it to make some scenes longer and maybe eliminate some other scenes.

I really don’t want a novel that’s 200,000 words. About 160,000 would be manageable, even though it would still be way too fucking long for a first novel.

But, anyway, I think — think — that I’m getting a little bit of a second wind with this novel. I’m hoping to zoom through the rest of it so I can turn around and re-write or revise large chunks of it before I give it to beta readers to look at.

If I had any money — which I don’t — I would actually pay an manuscript editor to look at the finished product before I started querying it. But that’s just not practical.

As it stands, I’m going to be really, really lucky if I can find *anyone* to read the damn thing before I start to query. Then, even if I stick the landing with the novel, I could be nearly 60 before the thing is in bookshelves so people can read it.

And given the looming technological Singularity….lulz?

Scene Bloat

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ugh. I’m bumping up against 50 scenes for the “bad guys closing in” part of this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on. The only upside to things is that I have some wiggle room still about how long the individual scenes will be.

So, even though I have about 50 scenes for the second half of the second act, that doesn’t mean they will each be 1,000 words. But I’m definitely going to go through and make them longer when I go through the pre-beta draft of the novel before I give it to Beta Readers.

Anyway.

I am really pleased, in general, with what I have on my hands with this novel. I just really need to focus on getting shit done. I still want to try — TRY — to begin querying this novel in late spring 2026.

But it will be interesting to see how that works out. My life is set to change rather dramatically between now and then so…lulz?

Just About To Reach The Midpoint Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One issue is I just don’t know what draft I’m working on with this novel. I think this is a beta-ish version, but it might be a first draft. But I think if I just don’t overthink things, this can be a beta draft that I just do a lot of work to on a technical basis before I show to other people.

Really, the only issue so far is sometimes I’ve gotten impatient and leaned into what AI has generated a little bit too much. That’s the thing I have to fix before I show it to anyone else.

I have to go in and rewrite all the “AI-talk” out of the text so people won’t just roll their eyes and assume that any of the good parts that exist AI wrote. Just doing that could take me a month or more of hard work to fix all the instances of em dashes and so forth.

But, in general, I really have written most of this novel myself. I’ve just used AI — specifically Claude LLM — to guide me towards what I probably would have written already.

One thing I’m a little bit uneasy about is how saucy this novel gets at points because of the whole sex worker element to it. That was a big obstacle to getting anyone to take seriously my previous novelistic efforts.

But, thankfully, the whole stripping part of this novel happens way, way, way later in the game in this novel than the other thriller novel I was working on.