novel – Page 139 – The Trumplandia Report

Thinking About The Influence of ‘Mare of Eattown’ on The First Novel In The 4 Novel Series I’m Writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While it’s definitely not a one-to-one, the heroine of the first novel in my series leading up to my “Female James Bond” getting her “00,” if you will, is greatly influenced by Kate Winslet’s character in “Mare of Easttown.”

The two characters are dramatically different in some respects, but Mare is the vibe I’m looking for. Or, maybe if Mare was younger, a lot less bitter, brunette and a lot more fit. But the vibes of the two women are very similar.

Mare of Easttown greatly influences my goals and vision for the heroine of the first novel in the female James Bond “exgenesis ” series I’m working on.

I like how writing four novels at once allows me to see the macro arch of the series in my mind. It’s a lot easier to plant things here and there in the novel as needed to give it a cohesive unity.

At the moment, Alexa Chung (sorta) is what imagine the character looking like, for no other reason than she’s Amerasian in ethnic background. But I think Phoebe Waller-Bridge could probably play the character if somehow, I manage to not only get the novels published, don’t die of a heart attack like Stieg Larsson and they’re miraculously enough popular enough that Hollywood grows interested.

But I’m still in the very delusional stage of all of this. I have to allow myself to be delusional because that’s the only way any of this will get done. I will note, again, that it’s interesting that other people read the Millennium series and saw a totally different set of books than I did.

It’s pretty wild how different my take on Stieg Larsson’s stuff is relative to at least one book I’ve read. The first book, especially, is far more character driven than this one book I’ve been reading that wants to be a successor to Larsson.

I’ve given myself a few days for something of a reset on all of this. I really need to do some reading, especially about character building. Seeing Mare of Easttown was a swift kick in the creative ass — I saw it and realized I needed to up my game.

Looking Forward To Seeing James Bond In ‘No Time To Die’ To Get Some Inspiration

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m notorious for walking out of movies before they’re over. I usually do this because, as someone writing four novels, I know bad storytelling when I see it and I get fed up. I’m hoping I will make it all the way through the next James Bond movie, which as best I can tell from early reviews is pretty good.

What I find interesting is how conflicted the British seem about the character of James Bond, with the hot takes flying fast and furious. One person called him a “rapist,” while another called for him to be killed off altogether. Americans, meanwhile, I stoked to see a new James Bond movie.

I have to say — Daniel Craig is my favorite James Bond to date. It’s too band he’s leaving the franchise. I think he’s leaving because the character of Bond and his own character are probably so dramatically different that it’s difficult for him to personify the character much longer. Craig seems, at least to me, to have a very Jason Momoa personality. He’s a pretty laid back, normal guy who women love and men respect.

Another reason why I’m really looking forward to seeing No Time To Die is inspiration. I’ve developed my own personal take on the ever-elusive concept of the “female James Bond” (mixed with a lot of Lisbeth Salander influenced elements) and I want to study what makes James Bond so popular. I’d also like to see what makes him so appealing to mass audiences.

The world is ready for a female James Bond, I think, and I’d also like to think I’m the guy to introduce her. The major difference between my heroine and Lisbeth Salander is I don’t intend for her to be some sort of vilante avenging angel. She’s much closer to James Bond in her goals and motivations.

My personal attempt at a “female James Bond’ looks like Zendaya in my mind’s eye.

But I do understand why it’s so difficult to create a “female James Bond.” He’s supposed to represent what it means to be a modern male at any particular moment and, as such, that doesn’t really translate very well to a female character.

My heroine — that I’m writing four novels to give a pretty huge “becoming” backstory to — is meant to be really appealing to both men and women and be so unique and interesting that people will want to see her in book (and movie?) after book.

That’s really the dream at this moment, however. Just a dream. I also am well on my way to having a second creative “track” of (fashion) photographer soon enough and it will be interesting to see the dynamic between the two tracks.

Every moment of your life is precious. We live just a brief moment. Use all your talents while you exist.

Writing 4 Novels At Once Means A Huge Universe to Game Out

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So. I have four novels to develop and flesh out. Things are going pretty well, all things considered. One thing I’ve noticed, however, is how desperate I can grow to find things, people and ideas to populate the massive universe I’ve created.

In this first novel of the four that I’m working on at the moment, I have to sort of sheepishly say that the novel’s protagonist — in my mind at least — looks a lot like Alexa Chung. (This is where I wonder if an FBI agent in D.C. is going to swoop in and print this post out for my file or something. Ugh! I’m harmless, stop bother me.)

Alexa Chung is how I imagine the heroine of the first novel in my four novel series…sorta.

This did not happen on purpose, but I think some of it comes more from my personal proclivity towards brunettes than any lingering celebrity crush on Ms. Chung. Or, if you really wanted to get specific about what’s going on — in my mind, the protagonist of this first novel kind of is a mixture of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown. Sorta. In a fuzzy, general way.

My heroine actually looks like Phoebe Waller-Bridge if she was styled like The Mare of Easttown.

And, yet, I continue to be pretty surprised how deep I have to scrape within my personal history to flesh out this universe. It’s a lot of fun, I have admit, however. It’s fun to figure out different ways to use things I know to be true in a totally different context.

I will note how dramatically different this first novel has become from what it was when I pretty abruptly decided to write four novels, not just two. The story has gotten, far, far better than I could possibly imagine.

They Shoot Writers, Don’t They?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve been hard at work on this novel project for about three years now. Probably the biggest surprise I’ve discovered through it all is how much I need to have absolute control over everything before I even start writing.

How anyone writes a novel “seat of their pants” is beyond me.

I want to know the entire story so well that when I actually sit down to write, all I have to do is, well, write. I follow my scene summary in front of me and just write out the scene. The problem to date, has been, repeatedly, that as my storytelling ability has improved, everything collapses and feel compelled to start all over again.

But I just can’t keep doing that forever. I’ve finally come to the point where I’m going to finish the four outlines as need be, maybe write a summary for each scene in the outline (and a scene summary) and just write.

It doesn’t matter how bad the first draft turns out being,I just have to finish a first draft sooner rather than later. If I don’t finish something sooner rather than later, it’s going to be four years from now and I still won’t have anything finished.

As such, I hope to just start writing on the first draft of the first novel in the four book series very, very soon. I still want to brood on some elements of it — and do a lot more reading — but I’m only going to give myself a few days.

And once I start writing, I hope I can stay focused on what I’m doing. I know that 1) this ideal situation I’m in can’t last forever and 2) I’m going to start my second creative track of (fashion) photography in the next few months.

So, I’m going to “just write” something, anything using the outline I’ve come up with, ASAP. I’m very pleased with everything on a creative level, but I’m very much in a put-up or shut-up situation.

I’ve been way too conspicuous with all this talk about development and I feel so sheepish about it. I should have kept what I was doing to myself, but I can’t help myself — I’m 100% extroverted and I have no friends.

So, you get all this talk about how I’m spinning my wheels with hope that maybe it will stop.

It’s going stop this time, right? I’m actually going to finish a first draft? Right?

I’ve Grown Obsessed With The Construction of ‘Scenes’ in These 4 Novels

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m giving myself a few days of a creative reboot with these four novels I’m working on. And things are going really, really well with them. I’ve decided to flesh out the second novel in the series and, so far, it’s going really well.

My life has become consumed by these four novels.

The more I read, the more I come to understand that to construct a good to great novel, you need to change things up. You can’t just have the same old, same old scene structure throughout your story.

You have to think things through with such things, especially, if you’re like me and the scene is the basic building block of your stories. So, I have a number of how-to books I’m reading about scenes. I have to balance my need to have an ebb and flow with how I structure scenes with the need not to grow too elaborate and, by definition, slow.

I’ve given myself a very — very — tight deadline to finish the first drafts of these four novels. I can’t dilly-dally. And, so, I’m trying to do as much reading and thinking as possible before I get back to writing so when I do write, I write as quickly as possible without any need to go back to the beginning and start all over again.

Anyway, I’m very pleased with how things are going. I’m just a little concerned that if I don’t buckle down and actually finish the first draft of these four novels sooner rather than later, it will be a year from now and I will be exactly where I am at the moment.

That a key element of giving myself a few days to creatively reset. I really, really want to wrap the first draft of these four novels up ASAP, like in a few months.

I Need A Muse So Bad

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I went on one of my regular writer’s retreats and came back with all these ideas. One is a time travel short story. The other is screenplay for a romcom dealing with the power of modern technology.

And, yet, I still have four novels to work on and saving up the money to buy a really good Nikon camera so I can make that my second “creative track.”

So, while I might give myself 24 hours to be somewhat distracted by the short story, unless something big happens, after that, I’m going to throw myself fully back into the novels.

But I definitely feel like if I had someone in my life to kind of manage my creativity, I might be able to knock out a lot more art. And, yet, the only way that’s going to happen to me is, well, if I become a sucess.

Otherwise, lulz.

I Have A Lot of Female Characters In These 4 Novels

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. Or, should I say…oh girl. Reviewing in my mind the male – female ratio character radio in my mind of these four novels I’m developing and writing and there appear to be a lot more female characters than male characters.

I know why this is.

First, I love women and if I’m going to think about a fictional person as is required to develop a “person” and not a “character,” I’d at least like that person to be a woman. Second, developing a female character is far, far more interesting and challenging.

But this also comes with amount of baggage. You can’t just “write a man then switch the pronouns” as is often suggested. Anyone who believes that is an oblivious idiot. The reason why they say that is so male writers won’t choke when it comes to writing from a female point of view.

And, yet, it gets worse!

Another problem is, by definition, there is a large segment of the female audience that hates the very idea of a man writing from a female point of view, no matter how well meaning they may be.

It’s all so problematic, conflated and annoying that all you can do is just figure out what your story is and press forward.

We Were Young Once, And Drunk

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I hope to return to Seoul before I drop dead. Everything changed when I went to Asia. Or, should I say, everything changed when I met the late Annie Shapiro. I have a very romanticized recollection of those years of my life. I mean, Annie was no saint and I was so crazy that they put me in a book about crazy expats. (That was fun, let me tell you.)

In more than one way, the bolts popped off my sanity while I was in Asia. And I was so kneecapped on an emotional basis by what happened with ROKon Magazine that I pretty much was in neutral for a decade. But I can feel things beginning to change now.

Now that the novel series I’m working on is beginning to take shape and I have my potential “second track” of (fashion) photography, I’m beginning to get my emotional sea legs again. I think back to how I was a man on fire in Seoul and how I was “famous” and overexposed within the expat community for being everywhere and nowhere at once.

A lot — A LOT — could still go wrong. But the reason why photography, specifically is so appealing to me is it makes me the protagonist of my personal story again. Something has to change in my life for me to use the camera I want to buy successfully. I can’t just stay in neutral. I’m going to have to hit the pavement and see if I can crack some doors somewhere.

I remember how exciting it was in Seoul in late 2006 when Annie and I were changing the world with ROKon Magazine. I would do it all different now, but it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that fashion photography is, like being a rock DJ, a sweetspot in my personality. And it was in Asia that I realized I was not a journalist, but, rather a creative person. In a way, being a DJ and fashion photographer are same same but different in my mind. I’m using a similar part of my mind to tell stories, if you will.

But, as I keep saying, I’m about 20 years too old to start a career in (fashion) photography — or any creative career for that matter. They say “age ain’t nuthing but a number,” but “they” lie. All I can say is I have a native, organic talent with it comes to a few things and photography is one of them.

Getting into photography, if nothing else, elevates my serotonin levels.

Bruh, Did We Read The Same Series?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, through Twitter, I got something of a tip about a thriller series much like Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Series. I was shocked once I started reading the first book in the series — the author, while obviously influenced greatly by Larsson, has a totally different interpretation of his work.

While I focus on the character aspects of Lisbeth Salander et al, this other author really honed in on the action-thriller part of what he wrote. He’s far more better educated than me and relative to the metrics of normal people, the type of guy who gets invited highfalutin cocktail parties. The closest I would get to such a thing with my current background, is a street urchin with my nose smudging the restaurant’s outside window.

So, I’m taken aback at what a poor artistic interpretation this other author has — in my opinion — of what made the Millennium series a success. Or maybe “poor” is too harsh. Maybe “dramatically different” is a better sentiment. To me, the story of Lisbeth Salander is of a woman who probably would have been pretty normal but for a very surreal and tragic upbringing.

At least, that’s how I see things.

But, I can dig that someone else would look at what I read and see that it’s the action-thriller aspect of the series that kept people reading. The three books in the original series are really action packed (after you get past the first 135 pages of the first book which are dull as dirt.)

Anyway. I wish my “rival” the best. I also want to crush him creatively by being far, far more successful than he is currently. I’m a loser nobody at the moment, yes, but I have a lot of drive and think Ii can pull another rabbit out of a hat before I drop dead.

Why I’ve Chosen Photography, Rather Than Screenwriting, As My Creative ‘Second Track’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Being a kook without any friends, you pay a social tax of sorts. People like me thrash around far, far longer than need be because we simply don’t have anyone to give us any advice. And, yet, there is a specific instance where this is helpful: when you decide to randomly do something because you feel its the best for you.

But given how messy the process of getting to the point where you know what you want to do is, people who are “normal” think you’re an idiot at best and a crank at worst. They just don’t take you seriously because you don’t meet the metrics of the “normal” world.

Or, to put another way, “It’s a creative thing, you wouldn’t understand.”

Anyway, for some time now, I’ve been very publicly and very conspicuously been thrashing around, looking for a second creative “track” to supplement my main track of writing a four novel series. A normal person, say, one with a significant other, would have probably either kept quiet about all this or have far less lofty goals.

But I’m old enough to know who I am. I’m 100% extroverted and I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing with my life. I can’t just “follow the rules” because I have no fucking clue with the fucking rules are. And, gentle reader, the concept of “personal responsibility” to me is bullshit. In general, the phrase in my experience is a code word for being racist. The absolute need for people to take “personal responsibility” doesn’t account for what do you do when there are things out of your control? That aren’t your responsibility? Then what? What are the fucking rules for that?

The net result of all of this is actual, normal adults think I’m a fool. They grow tired of my dreams because it seems like I do a lot of talking and not a lot of hard work. So, when things suddenly change, they are shocked that I actually had it in me.

But back to (fashion) photography.

Photography, along with being a pop-rock DJ, is organic to my personality. The thing that has stopped me from doing anything with my photographic ability has been a lack of, well, equipment. I’ve been so wrapped up in buying books for the novels I’m working on that I’ve not thought much about anything else.

But, recently, as I’ve grown frustrated with the slow pace of the novels, I decided I wanted a second track. I first thought it was going to be screenwriting. And, yet, there’s a problem.

First, the learning curve for screenwriting is so severe that I would have to draw a lot — maybe all — of my energy away from my main track of working on the novels. That’s just not something I’m prepared to do.

So, after a lot of conspicuous thrashing about with different options, I’ve finally settled on photography as my second track because I have an organic ability and I’m using a totally different part of my mind to tell stories in a different way. What’s more I have a real passion for photography.

The only thing standing in my way at the moment is I’m very fucking stubborn and want to buy the best possible camera I can. I don’t really have anything to take pictures of — there’s no rush — so I’m content to bide my time while I save up the money necessary to get the camera I think would be best for me for the type of photography I want to engage in.

But, as I mentioned, the process of getting to this point has left anyone paying attention thinking I’m a (drunk) (bonkers) fool who is all talk and can be safely ignored.

And, yet, as I like to say, I’ll put a move on you.

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