Tag: novel

Finally Figured Out A Thorny Plot Issue With This Scifi Dramedy I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For the last few weeks, I’ve really have been struggling with a short sequence in the outline of the novel I’m working on. Over and over again, I just could not figure out how to choreograph the information I wanted to convey.

But, finally, after way too much time, I may have finally, finally figured out what I want to say and how I’m going to say it.

I hope — hope! — that once I’m pass this specific little issue that things will start to move faster and I can wrap up this draft of the novel a pretty nice little clip. But who knows. I have another little part of the outline coming up that I feel needs to be expanded, so things might take longer than I hope.

And, as all of this is going on, I’ve finally figured out how to tell the Impossible Scenario as a novel. (I think.) (Maybe.) I’ve come up with an unusual way to do it, but it’s the only way I can think of.

I worry that the structure may be better suited for a short story, but whenever I try to write a short story, I inevitably endup fleshing out a novel. Sigh.

A Change In Context

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Very soon, my life is going to change. In context, if nothing else. The rather idyllic situation I’ve found myself in for a number of years is clearly coming to an end. I have been very grateful for this opportunity.

And now, sadly, a new era in my life is going to start probably in a few weeks.

So, I have to accept some turbulence. While I don’t think I will be prevented altogether from finishing the novel I’m working on, the context of that work will be very different. That may be for the best because now my time will be more limited and I will not just drift towards my goal.

At least, I hope that’s what the outcome will be.

Remember, while they’re life there’s hope.

Well, I Don’t Feel So Bad Being ‘AI First’ With This Novel

Slow & Steady Wins The Novel Writing Race

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m trying to recalibrate my writing now that I’m yet again in the second half of the novel. I’m trying to be slow and methodical about things, so when I finish, I will just have to work on the first half of the novel.

I’m feeling very uneasy about things going forward, just in general. I’m really beginning to worry that Something Big is going to change in my personal life that will dramatically change the context of me working on this novel.

And, yet, it hasn’t happened yet.

Maybe I can at least squeak by this year before the bad shit really starts to kick in. But I do need to fish or cut bait with this novel. I’m trying my best to really be careful about each scene in the second half of the novel.

And, yet, at the same time, I can’t just be lazy and drift — like I usually do — towards my goal. Once Claude Sonnet 5.0 comes out (tomorrow?) I hope to really throw myself back into things.

Thinking about Sonnet 5.0 has kind of got me distracted, more than I would like to admit.

I Really Need To Get Back To Writing On This Scifi Dramedy I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have been kind of zoning out the last few days, now that I’ve entered, yet again, the “bad guys closing in” part of the novel. What I hope to do is really be more thoughtful about what I write so I won’t have as much work to do down the road.

The key thing I’m going to have to do is stop being so lazy when it comes to my scene summaries. It’s fine to use AI to write scene summaries, but it’s not fine to hone a little bit too close to what AI proposes for the scene when you actually sit down to write.

So, what I think I’m going to do is read the scene summaries a few times and then just write without using them as so much of a literal guide. That way, anything I write will be completely in my own voice.

That’s the goal, at least.

I don’t want anyone to just roll their eyes at me and say I’ve just written AI slop instead of a novel with my own hands. So, in the second half of the novel I really hope to prove to myself — if no one else — that I’m the author of the novel and not AI.

‘Color Correction’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Right now, the draft of this novel I’m working on is a mish-mash, an amalgam of different versions. And, as such, once I wrap up this draft, I’m going to have to “color correct” the draft so it has a consistent tone.

It will be interesting to see how long this takes. I’m hoping not too long. I’m not going to live forever. I’m hoping it will be just a month or so. But that time is enough that I’m really going to have to punt the actual querying of the novel to Sept. 1st instead of, say, May 1st.

Ugh.

This is just the type of post-production issue that I just haven’t given enough thought about. But now that I have that in my mind, hopefully that will be enough to speed the process up some.

I Don’t Wanna (For The Moment)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

All the big, strategic moves I’ve done over the years with my efforts to develop, write and finish a novel have happened very suddenly abruptly without much thought. I decided to split one novel into two just because Trump lost the election in 2020.

That makes me feel sad because it reminds me of how long I’ve been struggling to write any sort of novel that’s good enough to query.

Anyway, I keep being in the doldrums with this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on because…it’s just kind of dark. The premise is solid, but I’m afraid no one is going to want to read it because of how dark the premise is — and the fact that it deals with an ostensibly very transactional romantic relationship.

And, yet, I’m just not prepared to scrap it. I keep thinking about other less weighty novel ideas…and I just can’t bring myself to piviot to them. The key issue is, lulz, I just don’t have time anymore to do such a thing.

This is the novel I’m stuck with, so I have to just do it.

I hope to get out of this neutral state pretty soon so I can enter the “bad guys closing in” part of the novel. This is probably going to be something of a slog because it’s not as written out as the rest of the novel.

This Current Draft Of The Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On Is A Real Mish-Mash Of Versions

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While at the moment I’m kind of zooming through the “fun and games” part of the novel I’m working on, it’s probably going to take me a month or two to “color correct” things once I’m done with this draft.

That’s why I’m still thinking Sept 1st will be a more likely moment for me to start seriously querying this thing. That would make a lot of sense — that would be the 20th anniversary of things really getting going with ROKon Magazine in Seoul.

Ugh. So long ago.

Anyway, I’m so fucking moody when it comes to writing that I sometimes just do nothing on the novel for days and then sprint out of the blood for no apparent reason.

I still hope to wrap this novel up ASAP. Then start post-production stuff and probably start developing and writing a new novel to work on while I query. I’m still pretty uneasy about what is going to happen when the woke liberal white women who I imagine make up most of my prospective literary agents do due diligence on me and find this blog.

They probably will recoil and what a kooky crank I am.

But, anyway, it’s better to have loved and lost than never loved at all.

Definitely Looks Like I’m Headed Towards A Sept. 1st Querying Date For This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As always, I didn’t factor in post-production when it comes to when I’m going to query this novel. This novel, as it stands, is a mish-mash of different versions that I’m going to have to “color correct” before I can give it to any beta readers.

As such, even if I finish this novel around May, it’s actually going to be closer to Sept 1st before I can sit down and start to query. And THAT process could take months, if not years. To the point that I could be nearly 60 before I am published.

Oh boy.

The only thing I can do is piviot to a different novel while I query. But at least, if nothing else, I will have the satisfaction of completed something that I feel is query worthy in the first place.

This does not even take into account the fact that my life is probably going to change in rather dramatic fashion at some point this year. Things are going to get bumpy, so it could be that the context of my life will change…just about the time when I wrap up the novel.

Funny how stuff like that works, huh?

Definitely makes one think about the idea of us living in a simulation. At least to me.

This Scifi Dramedy Novel Is A Little Darker Than I Meant It To Be

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. So, this novel is about a sexbot that, at the inciting incident, presents our hero with a proposal so he can “subscribe” to her. Now, I have only gradually come to realize how dark this particular proposal is.

It was just something I stumble across in the process of thinking about how I, a broke ass writer, might be able to have a replicant-like being in my life at some point in the not too distant future.

My only concern is that the novel is a little too dark for its own good and my hero is going to come across as an asshole for accepting the proposal at all. I can just see the vocal woke cancel culture mob people saying *I* am an asshole for writing the novel at all.

And, yet, the novel isn’t, like Girl With The Dragon Tattoo dark. It’s more One Battle After Another dark. It’s funny enough — or I at least hope and think it is — that some of the darkness will be offset by how surreal and amusing some other elements of the novel are meant to be.

One thing is for sure — there will be no sex work in whatever other, new novel I end up working on going forward. I’m cool to wallow in talking about it with this novel because it gives the novel its point and, best of all, stakes, but I’m growing tired of people thinking my work is trash because I talk about sex work.