Tag: novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I write yet another version of this novel, I find myself thinking about how it fits in the market place as well as how strong the story is. The story, at the moment at least, is interesting, easy to read page turner. But I have to admit to myself that some of the characterizations are rather weak because the characters are more “vibes” and “placeholders” than real people.

But, as I love to tell myself at these moments, “You can’t edit a blank page.”

So, I’m going to go through my latest outline and write the best draft I can. I know this story and the universe so well that things are really beginning to fall into place.

But, I have to admit, even I am growing tired of me talking about this project. I feel like shutting up — but I’m 100% extroverted and I tend to get drunk and feel like talking about the main thing going on in my life at the moment: this novel.

As such, I keep talking and writing about this six novel project because at the moment it’s pretty much the only thing going on in my life at the moment.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things fell through with the manuscript consultant because I’m a broke ass motherfucker. I just couldn’t afford what she was asking when it came to looking over my outline. And, yet, I’m actually writing a solid draft now and I don’t really need any help until I finish it.

When I finish this draft, then, THEN I’m going to need some help.

I still don’t know if this is a first or second draft. In some ways, it’s a first draft and in some ways its a second draft. But I’m reasonable sure that I’m going to be able to zoom through this latest outline and wrap up a draft of some sort in a few months.

Then I will size things up and decide if I feel comfortable with looking for beta readers (and being a beta reader) or if I need to re-write everything again before I do that.

And, of course, in the back of my mind, there’s the five other novels I want to write in this same universe. I may dabble in working on those other novels should it become clear that I’ve actually produced a really good second draft and not a really good first draft of the first book in the series.

One thing I definitely need to do is read more. A lot more. But I’m so busy producing content that it’s really difficult for me to consume it. Yet I need to do that. I really do.

Anyway, I’ve come up with a really interesting universe. I think the overarching arc of the planned six novels on a macro scale is really, really engaging. But I have so much work ahead of me. Wish me luck.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

All systems are go for things to go really fast with this novel now. I still need to do a lot of reading and re-reading, but I’m well on my way to simply finishing a solid draft of A Novel. I’m a little insecure about how I haven’t done enough research or don’t know the motivation of my characters well enough, but the basic framework of A Novel is complete.

So, I really need to just shut up and write. I need to just get this thing done. I am well aware that I have written and talked way, way, way, way too much about this project but I’m 100% extroverted and have no one to talk to. So, lulz, you get this.

Anyway, I feel like I have something of a deadline so I need to throw myself at this work and try to get as much done as possible within the next month. It’s a huge challenge, but I like the idea of pulling off something that might seem impossible.

Of course, I have a planned five additional novels to work on, but that’s part of a very delusional dream on my part. But the key thing is — once I finish a sold second draft then I will definitely have the self confidence to think I can write five more novels in the same universe.

But, I’m not getting any younger. I need to hurry up. Even though I know I’m now old enough that if I should happen to get the success I feel I can, all the stories about being a big time novelist will be framed in the context of, “Jesus, this guy was old when he became famous.”

Fuck.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Two things are working towards speeding up the process of writing this either really good first draft or modestly good second draft — I have a really stable outline that’s finished and fleshed out and I have something of a deadline now.

I have given my working outline to a manuscript consultant, but she won’t be reading it until mid-August. So, I have a lot of incitive to wrap up this draft of the novel as quickly as possible.

If I could finish this draft in about a month so I could have it finished when I find out the manuscript consultant’s opinion of the outline, that would help sooooo much when it came to figuring out what happens next. My fear is, of course, that through the process of working my way through this outline that either the whole thing collapses again or it changes so much that it won’t be anywhere like what she looked at.

But I hope to sprint as fast as I can over the next month. I like having a deadline and writing a whole novel in a month isn’t impossible. Philip K. Dick did it all the time, but he was on crank. And I’m still very delusional about this whole process so it would make a lot of sense for me to focus on seeing if I can finish the novel that fast.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

During the course of working on these now six novels, I’ve made many, many, many mistakes. One of the many mistakes I made is I’ve been way too vocal about the fact that I’m writing a novel (or novels.) I compare the reaction to this to when a woman at a church tells everyone she’s pregnant and all the old wives come out of the woodwork to scare the shit out of her with their breach birth tales.

Anyway, a lot of people have a lot of opinions about how you’re suppose to write a novel, or screenplay or whatever. And it’s usually people who are the most full of shit who have the strongest opinions. I’m writing my novels in third person intimate with rotating POVs like Stieg Larsson and I’m also referencing people by their surnames like he did. Both of these decisions have made people get really mad at me and tell me that it’s just not how things are done.

It gets even worse when some people learn that I’m at times I’m going to be a man writing as a woman from a third person intimate POV. The fact that a middle aged CIS white male might do such a thing makes some woke people EXTREMELY ALARMED.

They can fuck off, is what I say.

The point is to tell a great story. If you can accomplish that then you’ve written something that you can be proud of. I get really angry with people who tell me I can’t write the novel in the way I want to write it for this or that dumb reason. I know how to tell a story and so please shut up.

Anyway, things are going well with the novels I’m working on. At least for the moment. It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to wrap up the first novel and how long it takes me to finish all six novels. With this first novel, at least, I think I’m facing querying it not during the spring 2023 season, but the fall 2023 season.

Ugh. Anyway. Maybe I’ll have finished more of the novels by that point.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’ve finished the outline of this new draft of the novel, I’m turning my attention yet again actually writing it out. And, really, the only issue with this draft is I’m really self-conscious about making the story as interesting, fast paced and “thriller-like” as possible.

I keep flipping through the competition and those novels have an edge to them that my novel just doesn’t have at the moment. I’m worried about this issue to the point that I’m going to pay ANOTHER manuscript consultant to help me sex things up some.

And, yet, it’s possible that that just isn’t my writing style. It could be that while I can produce interesting, engaging, page-turning copy…producing a true thriller just isn’t my bailiwick. And, in a sense, these first three novels in this six novel series are far more Mare of Easttown than any of Stieg Larsson’s stuff.

Anyway, at the moment, at least, things are moving at a reasonably fast clip. If all goes according to plan, all I have to do is follow the outline I have and ta-da, finished first (or second) draft in no time.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I know, in macro terms, where this series is heading and, as such, I’m pretty much forced to establish that certain high tech gadgets exist in this universe. And I like the idea of throwing a curve ball at the audience that it might not otherwise expect.

So, I’m using a bit of speculative fiction to spice things up some. It’s not a lot, but it does play a crucial part in the overall plot. I’m really beginning to like what I’ve come up with and the speculative fiction isn’t so crucial that I couldn’t’ potentially remove it if beta readers don’t like it.

The only problem with adding speculative fiction to this universe is I run the risk of overwhelming the reader with too many genres. This happens a lot with first time authors who get so excited that they’re actually writing a novel that they throw everything they’re interested into the story.

But, like I said, there are specific reasons for adding a speculative fiction element to this universe. It increases mystery. It heightens the stakes. And it prepares the way for similar technology to be used later in the series. I want to make it clear to the reader that very powerful people are involved in this situation and they have access to highly advanced technology.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the reasons I love this universe I’ve come up with for these planned six novels is, of course, they are pretty much my personal history garbled and re-arranged for the purposes of narrative. So, of course I love this universe — I AM THIS UNIVERSE.

I’m not quite done with the outline — I still pretty much have to flesh out the second half — but what I have finished is shaping up to be a very breezy, easy read. It’s interesting and I think it will be such a fast read that you will want to finish it as soon as possible.

Now, I have to admit that because the first three novels don’t have a Lisbeth Salander character that they’re much more Mare of Easttown than Stieg Larsson’s writing. But the story itself is still really interesting. It’s just not the story I originally planned on writing when this project began.

But the sexxy stuff does happen later in the series — the last three books are very much closer to what Larsson wrote. But I want to show the reader how things go so fucked up in this place I’ve thought up. I think, in the end, if I can get people hooked with the first novel that the whole thing will have a very satisfyingly ending.

At least, that’s the goal of all of this. That the first book will be good enough that people will want to know what happens next with the characters and they’ll read all six books and see the macro arch of things. That’s the dream.

I, of course, have a massive amount of work to do to make that dream a reality. That was the whole point of this project from the beginning — I wanted to overwhelm myself. Now to finish the outline of the first novel and begin writing it.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, at the moment, I have the first half of this first novel sketched out. But the second half — for right now — is a big old blank. I have a general idea of how the story ends, but I need to distract myself to get some inspiration.

This is not the first time I’ve found myself in such a situation. In the past, of course, I’ve been able to go on little writer’s retreats to brood on things. But, alas, that’s no longer possible.

As such, I might read a book or watch a movie or something. Something, anything, to let me run in the back of my mind some way to flesh out the second half of the novel.

One issue is I’ve completed the “fun and games” element of the story and I have to figure out how both to keep the investigation going while also having the “bad guys close in.” I need to, maybe reimagine some of the details of the story instead of be stuck in a specific box of how I think things should work out.

But I have a limited amount of time. I have got to get going. I need to finish up this first novel’s outline so I can start working on writing again as well as start to work on the other novels in the project. Whenever I get past this type of obstacle and actually finish an outline I feel a great deal of accomplishment.

The only thing that is annoying is while I feel the new version of this story is a lot better, it pushes me back the timetable AGAIN. But I did what I felt I had to do to make the story as interesting as possible. The previous version of the story not only forced readers to wait way too long for something to happen, but also drained the “fun and games” portion of the story of any drama.

Now, with this new version, there is something of a literary onion element to how the story is told. We get to unravel a mystery and that keeps the readers reading. There is some dramatic tension that didn’t exist before.