Tag: novel

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.

I’ve Wrapped Up The First Act (AGAIN) Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’ve Been Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve finally, yet again, wrapped up the first act of the scifi dramedy novel I’ve been working on. Now, I’m going to stare out into space for a little while before I throw myself into the second act again.

The key thing — as always — is to make sure that my hero isn’t passive. I’ve had a real problem with my protagonist being reactive to the point that the AIs I’ve been using to develop the novel keep pointing it out. It’s all very frustrating.

Another issue is I really, really need to avoid leaning into using AI to actually write the scenes. I want as much as possible of this novel’s text to be written by my hand, even if it means the novel isn’t as good as it might otherwise be.

All this praise I’ve been getting from what little pieces of the novel I’ve given people to read is making me feel a little insecure — ok, maybe a lot insecure. It’s starting to eat away at me that maybe my writing…just sucks? And the only way for it to be good enough to get a literary agent is…to use AI to sharpen it to publishing quality?

I don’t like thinking about that.

Imagining Post-Querying Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As far as I can tell, querying a novel is pretty tough. It could be months, years even, that I linger in querying limbo. I think once I wrap this novel up, I’m going to start working on a new novel while I query.

That way, I stay busy.

The biggest fear I have is I’m not getting any younger. As such, even if I’m in querying limbo, I am going to have something creative going on in my life. I have at least three ideas that I can start working on after I wrap up this novel.

One thing I’m really going to be focusing on is no sex worker in any of the new novels I’m going to work on. I’m tapped out after this novel when it comes to a subject that some people, by definition, thinks makes my text “trash.”

Not that I won’t have sex in any new novel, it’s just the context will be dramatically different.

Anyway, damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.

The Shifting Tides Of Using AI To Work On This Scifi Dramedy Novel Of Mine

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. Every time I hard reset my chat window with the AIs I’m using (Claude LLM and Gemini LLM) I never quite know what to expect. The last time I did it and fed my outline into the chatbots, they were universal in their agreement on one subject: my hero was too passive.

That gave me such consternation that I threw everything up in the air and tried again. THIS TIME, I THINK my hero isn’t as passive. But I’m still just in the first act.

But I think — maybe — that I might be able to zoom through the “fun and games” part of the novel for various reasons.

Yet, let’s go back to the AIs.

This go round, they aren’t giving me as much help writing actual text, which is a good thing. But I haven’t asked them for extended scene summaries, so I could still find myself in a position where I lean a little too much into using what AI gives me when it comes to the actual writing of text.

I hate that. I hate it so much what I might to do is use the AI to write extended scene summaries THEN use THAT as inspiration for a new, rewritten version of the extended scene summary so I won’t feel tempted to generate AI slop that everyone will make fun of.

Anyway, I am just about to enter the second act. Probably in a few days. Then the dynamic of things will change some. It’s not until I get into the second half of the novel that things might slow down significantly.

I really didn’t write very much in each scene because I wanted to keep momentum and I wanted to stress test the outline.

Ugh. What Is Stopping Me From At Least Flipping Through My ‘How To Query’ Books

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have three books I need to look over now that I’m getting a lot closer to querying and…yet…I just can’t bring myself to do that just yet. I guess the key reason is I’m not done with the novel yet.

My fear is that I’m going to read something in one of the books that will stop me cold in my tracks. Something on a fundimental basis about how I’m writing this novel that will make me re-evaluate everything.

I would much rather actually have finished the novel to learn something so dire. That way, at least, I will have a finished novel under my belt.

Ugh. I’m probably being paranoid for no reason. But I am prone to overthink things.