Tag: novel

Update On My Allegorical Thriller About The #Trump Era


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are going well. I’m going through and re-organizing my Google Docs of the novel. Once I’m done, I should be able to print it all out and go through it so by the time I get to the point where I stopped last time — just around the midpoint — I can zoom past it.

Really, the issue now is the fucking election and post-election problems. If I’m worried about the whole country imploding, it might be more difficult than I expected to wrap this first draft up by Thanksgiving.

I think some of what’s going on is this is my first time and I spent about two years trying to figure out how to tell the story I want to tell using my available abilities.

Anyway, I’m really pleased. The manuscript consultant I talked to was very helpful.

Everything Is So Dumb


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Seems like we’re cruising towards what I expected all along, anyway — autocracy. Biden is going to win the election politically, but Trump is going to steal it.

That definitely seems like what’s going to happen.

If anything, of course, it helps keep the novel I’m working on “timely.” I wish something “fun-interesting” would happen.

But, no, I find myself in an autocratic managed democracy because everyone is too lazy to do anything about it. Oh well.

The Big Reboot


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, I’m moving forward with taking the novel to the next level. It’s just a matter of doing a lot of hard work really quick. I also realized I need to study Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl Who Played With Fire” more, too. He really deals with the mechanics of structure that I can use to figure a lot of things out.

But I have a short amount of time. I can’t keep rewriting this thing forever. I need to move forward faster. So, it’s time to buckle down and start working. I still want to have something, anything, done by no later than Thanksgiving. I’d prefer it be Election Day, but that just doesn’t seem to be possible right now.

I really need to do something like go to NYC to clear my mind. I hope to do that this weekend. Maybe. It might be a bridge too far, but we’ll see. But I have a lot of great ideas as to how to make the first act far, far better.

The Struggle to Develop My #Novel’s Female Romantic Lead


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have something of a celebrity crush on The New York Times‘ Jodi Kantor because she’s hot and tough as nails. She has a very specific personality that I would like to adopt — in some way — for my novel’s female romantic lead. And, yet, I am well aware that it would be very easy to for me to slip into a characterisation that would belie my real thoughts — I know Ms. Kantor probably wouldn’t be thrilled to be anywhere near someone like me.

So, I have to be careful.

I want to make my female romantic lead smart, attractive and tough, but I don’t want to make her so much so that it’s unbelievable that she would fall for someone influence by, well, your favorite loser, me, so she comes across as extremely cold and unlikeable.

As such, I may make the character a muddled mixture of Ms. Kantor and someone like, say, Alexa Chung. Or something. Some sort of hook that will allow me an in to soften the character some so *I* like the character. I don’t want my need to be mischievous on this issue blind me to the fact that, well, readers have to actually like the female lead and want her to hook up with the hero.

Yeah, I guess you could say I have issues.

Today’s Agenda


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Since I can’t go to NYC this weekend and enjoy a nice fall day, I’m going to sit down and do as much reading as possible. I’m going to re-read, at least, some of The Martian and The Compass of Character.

I have a few other books I want to read, as well. It’s interesting how well this reboot of the novel is going. Really, after I write (or rework) a few scenes, I should be in a good position to enter the second half of the first draft of the novel. It may take me a little longer than I’d like, but I can still pull it off a lot sooner than you might think.

I wish I was younger. Then I’d move to LA and try my hand at being a screenwriter – actor — director. But that’s just not to be. I’m definitely too old to think about being an actor. Also, my mind isn’t properly wired to be an actor. Actors have to memorize lines. I would be like Joey on Friends if I had to anything like that — especially now.

But a novel I can do.

I just have some serious existential tinkering to do with this thing on a number of different levels. I’m going to work with at least one novel consultant in the next few days.

Reboot: Things Are Getting Serious With The First Draft of The Novel


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While it’s going to be a big old pain in the butt to do, I’m getting really serious with a fundamental reboot of the allegorical thriller of the Trump Era I’m writing right now. I’m rereading a book on how to develop characters. And I think I’m going back to browsing a lot of different books about the nuts and bolts of actually writing a professional-grade novel.

I have my dream of writing a novel that won’t embarrass me within my sights, if nothing else. But I have to stay focused. I really do. I can’t keep getting distracted by how stupid everything is. I just want to write a breezy, fast and plupy novel set in the “Before Times” of the Trump Era before COVID19.

I am well aware that things are moving so fast that some very important aspects of the novel might come off as quaint. But I keep thinking about how Apocalypse Now came out after the thing it was about — the Vietnam war — was over for nearly a decade.

Anyway, I just have to stay focused. I have a really great idea I’m working on. I just can’t let my deadline slip too much. I really want to wrap the first draft up by no later than Election Day, or maybe Thanksgiving. Given how distracting the real world is.

But the key thing is, I have to stay focused on my vision. At this point in development (and writing,) this is not about what other people’s needs for the novel, it’s about mine.

Things Are Going Well With The First Draft Of The #Novel


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Even though it is extremely painful and difficult for me to do so, I’m going to have to accept that the United States is going to slip in a rather prosaic fashion into autocracy.

I may continue to write a lot about that process for no other reason than it makes me feel better, but I’ve finally — finally — achieved acceptance. There’s just no reason to believe the thing we need — the average American not on Twitter to be willing to risk their “lives and sacred honor” in the real world will pull through when we need them.

It’s over.

Something pretty spectacular that I can’t predict would have to happen for me to change that assessment. It didn’t happen with impeachment. So I feel comfortable to assume it won’t happen with the very fate, the very existence of the Republic, either.

As such, I’m going to throw myself back into the novel. It’s a real struggle not to doomscroll Twitter all day, but I have to. By every available metric, when I am in a position to try to sell this novel at some point in early-to-mid 2021, we’re going to be an autocracy and, as such, a lot of angry liberals will be interested in reading the type of novel I’m currently working on.

That’s the vision, at least.

A Heads Up To Hollywood — You Never Can Tell…..


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner


I’m working on the assumption that Trump is going to “win” the 2020 Election. The novel I’m working on right now is set in the “before times,” before the pandemic, but it’s meant to be (in a sense) an allegorical thriller about the Trump Era.

As such, while I’m sure plenty, PLENTY of other people are doing exactly the same type of thing I’m doing — there’s a decent chance that when I try to query my novel(s) I’m going to hit the zeitgeist just right because a lot of liberal (readers) are going to be fucking FURIOUS that Trump is consolidating power and turning us into nothing more than an American interpretation of Putin’s Russia.

Yeah, I’m being cocky. And maybe rather delusional.

But given the absolute certainty that Trump is going to lie, cheat and steal to win the 2020 Election, when I finally wrap up this novel early 2021, it’s at least possible it might strike the zeitgeist in just the right way to be a huge success.

Or not.

We may just have a civil war and so, lulz.

The Struggle Is Real: Writing Female Characters As An Aspiring Male Novelist


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There’s an old joke from the Usenet days which is relevant to the modern social media world. “Go thee not to Usenet for answers, for you will only get ‘yes,’ ‘no’ and ‘Try another newsgroup’ as your answers.”

So, often time, one can say something pretty innocuous (at least for you) and the next thing you know it goes DL viral and everyone is coming at you from different directions, telling you how much you suck.

I tweeted something under yet another video by a woman complaining about how piss-poor men’s descriptions of women in novels are about how I, for one, was at least TRYING not to fall into that trap. Everyone went bonkers, coming at me from every possibly direction.

It’s all very annoying.

Not only does it remind you of the old adage, “Never tweet,” it also makes you grit your teeth and think, “This is how we got Trump.” If you’re so blinded by identity politics that you think it is absolutely impossible for a man to be empathetic enough to write female characters that aren’t just poorly written bimbos, then you need to re-evaluate your priorities.

The last time I checked, women are, like, humans and it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch that imagine that a man — also being a human — could, with some thought, write female characters that are good enough that you don’t want to throw the book across the room in frustration.

Anyway. I just needed to get that out of my system. I couldn’t do anything more with the thread on Twitter because I would only stir up more trouble.

Things Are Moving Really Fast With The #Novel


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After about two years of development, things are finally being to lurch forward dramatically with the actual writing of a serious first draft. In large part, this is due to how well I know the general plot of the story as well as a crucial suggestion by a “script consultant” who I paid to help me out a few months ago.

I really hope to have a finished first draft no later than Thanksgiving and hopefully by Election Day. I would prefer it be Election Day because I’m notorious for being completely immobilized when major clusterfucks happen in the Trump Era.

One of the interesting things about writing an allegorical thriller about the Trump Era is I just don’t know what the world will look like when I try to query it. Biden being president would put a significantly different spin on its context than Trump still being president. But I keep thinking about how Apocalypse Now was produced AFTER the Vietnam War was over, so it makes sense that people might want to read something like my novel to help them make sense of what just happened.

But only time will tell.

I really, really need to keep writing as fast as I can. This novel has no literary aspirations. It’s just meant to be a fun read that in hindsight you might realize has some deeper meaning to it.