Tag: novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s still sinking in that I’ve (essentially) written the first draft of a novel. It’s not perfect, but it is, at about 87,000 words, a novel. Since it’s a first draft, I’m going to soon throw myself back into the project in a big way. I’m trying to use the very end of the year to do a lot of reading, development and mulling how to take this first novel, in what I hope will be a series, to the next level.

I’m scheduled to talk to a manuscript consultant this evening and I’m really looking forward to it. I hate how, because I have no friends and no one likes me, I have had to do all of this hard work in what is essentially a creative vacuum. So, every once in a while, I’m willing to pay someone so I can get some sense of if what I think is going on, is, in fact going on.

Anyway, I really do need to do a lot of reading right now. I’m feeling a lot of pressure within myself to read the book on Hitler’s ascent that I have. It’s a huge, deep tome, but I have to read it if I want to understand what’s going on in the United States right now.

On the development front, once my ankle situation is finally worked out in a few more weeks, I’m going to begin to switch things up every once in a while by dabbling in development with the other four books I’ve come up with.

I have a huge amount of work to do. But after three years of hard work, I’ve finally, finally come up with a first draft that I can be proud of.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’ve cut the first novel in two, I find myself with an interesting situation on my hand — I can now simply focus on the first book and try to sell it ASAP.

Here’s my thinking — while I’m going to continue to develop the other four books in this massive series, I’m going to work mostly on the first book with an eye to using it as the basis to sell the other books. I’ll try to wrap the first book up — it is an independent story, after all — and I’ll use it as the basis of my attempt to get a literary agent.

So, instead of facing two more years of not having a finished product, I find myself with something in maybe six months? This would be non-exclusive. I could still work on the other books in the series as I was doing all of this.

The looming (enjoyable) issue at the moment is fleshing out character profiles and studies so when I do sit down to work on the first book again I have my canon all figured out.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m finally — finally — going through each of the characters in these five novels and really doing some nitty-gritty character development. The thing that is happening because of this is I am making some basic realizations about the exact chronology of these five novels that I had missed to date.

Now that I have split the first book into two, I don’t have to have such a tight sequence of events. I skip forward a few months and lean into how that changes what is going on around the characters in different ways.

I’m now kind of obsessed with fleshing out the backgrounds and motivations of all these different characters. And I have a hunch that things will move very, very fast now that I have a better sense of how this series starts.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Part of what makes the Impossible Scenario impossible is there’s just no way to balance all the needs of all the different types of nations and peoples of the world. And, yet, a story’s plot needs conflict, so there you go — that’s what you need.

One possible solution to the Impossible Scenario is you actually lean into that conflict and say something like this — the aliens from the Galactic Empire who give us this great opportunity say they only want English speakers because they want people with some common link.

So, that’s over 1 billion people.

And, yet, if you limit the people to be saved by the Galactic Empire to only English speakers, it becomes pretty obvious that from a storytelling standpoint, using the USA as the basis of your new “homeland” for humanity is your best bet.

So, in a sense, I think American audiences would really love seeing a Planet America where there were 50 nation states named after the 50 states and, etc. The conflict would be how much people who were NOT American would absolutely loathe this solution.

Or something. I continue to struggle with any solution that makes sense.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I struggle to find the energy to blog anymore. Now that I’ve gotten to the point where I can, in the distance, see the Promised Land of potentially selling at least one novel…blogging for about a hundred people doesn’t engender a lot of interest. But, occasionally someone interesting coming from, say, New York City or LA, will read this blog and I have a sudden burst of interest in blogging again just because.

Anyway, as I’ve written a lot before, there are two major creative works that have influenced these five novels I’m working on. One is Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, or, more specifically, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and, second the limited series Mare of Eattown.

When I saw Mare of Easttown, I instantly knew I needed to up my game. The reason is — it was exactly what I wanted in these novels. It was character driven and had a lot of twists and turns. A character driven series, rather than a pulp police procedural is something I can do. I love Larsson’s work and have read The Girl Who Played With Fire over and over again, but when it comes to a police procedural, it’s going to be a real stretch. That type of writing just isn’t in my skillset.

But a character driven mystery based around an older woman, I can do — even though I’m an older man. Wink. The first two novels of these five novels really deal with a Mare Of Easttown-type woman. She’s a little older and has a fractured family situation to deal with. Other than that, however, the two characters could not be more different.

The most important thing is, I have some sense of the motivation of my major characters AND I know the macro elements of these five novels well enough to be able to sprinkle things I’m going to need during the course of the macro story in the first book.

I will remind you, however, that all of these books are their own thing. If I do my job well, you will be able to pick any one up them up, read it to the end and be content without having to read any of the other books.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I see these five (3 +2) novels as one huge story cut up into five independent books. I’m in the process of doing a massive reset of the whole thing now that I’ve actually finished something akin to my first draft of a novel in my entire life. I’ve written a few other horrible novel-type things before, but this is the first time that I’ve written something I wasn’t embarrassed by.

I’m still having problems getting a crucial type of person to take me seriously, however — manuscript consultants. I’m supposed to have a meeting with one soon, which pleases me a great deal, but it’s been a real struggle to find one willing to ignore what a kook I am and just let me bounce ideas off of them. I can’t help I can come across as an Internet crank if you don’t know me in real life. Ugh.

I am who I am. And I’m too old to give a shit what anyone thinks about me.

Anyway, I’m doing some pretty basic development now. Sketching out character backgrounds and doing something akin to personality profiles. But the point of doing that is consistency. I need to establish what canon is so I don’t confuse readers by bouncing around with the specifics of any particular character’s qualities.

I am still on track to throw myself back into writing in early January. I’m trying to use the last few weeks of the year to just chill out, recharge my creative batteries and do some basic development that I should have done when I started this process.

But my storytelling abilities have improve to the point that I can tell a big, novel length story without embarrassing myself.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I have, in my mind completed a major restructuring of this novel project, I need to sit back and reflect some. I need to figure out different character’s motivation. I need to make sure all my names are consistent.

I think the issue of motivation — now that I have figured out how I could potentially try to sell a trilogy with two books waiting in the wings — that is going to be at the forefront of my mind for the time being. I have a much better handle on things than I did.

Everything works so much better now that I’ve split the first book in two. There are some structure issues within the first two books that I continue to struggle with, but over all, I’m rip roaring and ready to go.

I continue to hope I can use the last few weeks of the year to some of the reading I should have done years ago. But I do think, barring more freak accidents, injuries, tooth aches or whatever, that things should move far, far faster in January. I really have a far better sense of things than I did just a few days ago.

Now to build out characters, plot and motivation under the new division of books in the over all project. I have, essentially added another book to an already massive undertaking, but lulz, that’s what I wanted when I started all of this.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It has just dawned on me that while I have fixed a huge structural problem by re-arranging things, I have also increased my work load for this trilogy. But it had to be done. But it’s because of stuff like this that it’s taken me so long to actually produce anything.

I need to stop talking about any of this, given how easy it would be for someone to think I’m all talk. But, you know, this is a lot of fun and I love to talk too much to just stop talking about what I’m doing.

Anyway. I have a lot — A LOT — of thinking to do this holiday season.

Hopefully, by January 1st, I can throw myself back into writing.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While things are moving again with this now trilogy of novels, it sure would be nice to have someone to video conference with every once in a while about what’s going on with all of this.

I’ve been working in a creative vacuum for most of the time I’ve been working on this project and it’s really slowed me down. If I had someone, anyone who knew what they were doing to whom I could talk every once in a while that would really help.

And, yet, lulz.

I’m used to figuring things out by myself, so why should this be any different. While it would be *nice* to have a knowledgeable sounding board, I got words to write. So, onward.

The biggest issue of the moment is making sure that the first book has the structure of a novel. The first book deals with a very tight chorology of events so it’s growing difficult to shoehorn in things that are needed for structure. But I’ve managed to figure things out. I’m pleased.

Anyway, here goes nothing.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ugh. I just need to get this out of my system. I’m very empathetic when it comes to people who have problems with their writing. I really don’t have a lot of room to talk since I’m an aspiring novelist

But the point of my consternation is people on Twitter who get so wrapped up in the obstacles of writing that they don’t actually…write. I totally get it, though, I talk about my writing to an absurd amount. But I like to think I’m not preening and it’s very clear that all my writing and talking about writing is more simply talking to myself to work out problems I may have with what I’m working on.

And, yet, the more I think about my irritation about about the Twitter writing community, the more I don’t care. Whatever. I have more important things to do, like, say, write, read and develop. Everyone’s writing journey is different and I have no right to tell anyone else anything about their journey.

I should just shut up and write.

Writing is very personal. And a lot of very successful writers have a conflicted relationship to writing. Not everyone is like me and 100% extroverted and write without even thinking about it. I tend to write like shedding skin. (Photography, meanwhile, is a very different issue, that actually has long-lasting value that causes me to come back to it.)

I think the big issue is a lot of writers are, by definition, very sensitive and any time you challenge someone’s personal, internal narrative about their writing and how difficult it is to write anything at all, the more likely you’re apt to make them very angry at you.

So, lulz.

Do whatever the fuck you want. Just at least TRY to write.