Tag: novel

The Struggle Is Real: Developing My Novel’s Female Romantic Lead #AmWriting



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m using Alexa Chung’s appearance, public persona (and style) as something of a cheatsheet for my novel’s female romantic lead. In fact, whenever I can’t think of an aspect of the character off the top of my head, I pull up Wikipedia or YouTube and see what Alexa Chung does.

It really helps to have a public figure to inspire you when it comes to such an important character. The character, though, isn’t NOT “based” on her, so much as it is simply influenced and inspired by her. The character is an amalgam of several women I’m fond of, including Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jennifer Lawrence, Liz Plank, Erin Ryan, Jodi Kantor and the odd woman I’ve dated here and there.

I finally understand what an author means when they say one of their characters is “an amalgam.” I really need to do a formal personality profile of several characters, but I find actually writing the character out in the copy is more in line with my personal needs as a writer.

I will note, however, that my general fondness for developing female characters is making me self-conscious about not having enough MALE characters. But I think I’ve fixed that. I’m going to have to break the rule about only six POV characters to do it, but lulz.

Trump Never Ceases To Enrage Me — And Help Me Write This Novel #AmWriting



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

At its core, this novel is pretty much just me ranting and screaming at the top of my lungs about the Trump Era. A combination of that and a unique situation that give me a lot of time to develop and write is causing this novel to pick up some momentum.

I am not taking this for granted, however. This is kind of the ideal situation for someone like me to actually finish the two books I want to write (two books, one story). Though for a long time I was ambitious without any motivation, that has changed now and I am feeling the insecurity associated with being not only ambitious but motivated to do something about it.

So, I’m going to rock the ROK as I used to say in Seoul.

The thing about writing a novel is you have no idea what the context will be once you come out the other side of it all. Will Trump still be president? Will anyone want to read a 145,000 to 165,000 long thriller that’s really just an extremely diffused rant about how much I fucking hate the Trump Administration and MAGA? (Though, to be fair, I do rant a lot about “Twitter Liberals.”)

Anyway, there’s a chance I may wrap up the first draft of the first chapter within the next 24 hours. Then the July 4th weekend will be something of a “Writer’s retreat” pause while I reflect on the project and how I can make it the absolute best I can make it.

Then on July 5th, I’m going to throw myself back into things with quite a lot of gusto.

Wish me luck.

Idle Mulling of Phoebe Waller-Bridge & The Female Romantic Lead of The #Novel I’m Developing #AmWriting



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really hate it when people like me talk about who they imagine would play this or that character in their “WIP.” Ugh. It’s just so preening and cloy and fucking annoying.

Pretty much what I imagine my novel’s female romantic lead looking like.

And, yet, here I am, doing that thing I, myself, hate when other people do it.

My only excuse is I’m a drinking and writing and absolutely no one reads this blog (in real terms) so, lulz. The only reason why I keep coming back to this notion that Phoebe Waller-Bridge would be great to play the female romantic lead of this novel is who the character is inspired by — Alexa Chung.

Ms. Waller-Bridge’s phenotype would be perfect to make my vision for the character a reality. She’s also British, which is something I imagine for the character to be. Or, put another way, she’s got a British accent, even if the exact nature of that Commonwealth accent is never fully explained (or at least understood) by everyone else in the novel. In all honesty, the character isn’t even really inspired that much on Alexa Chung as she is by a South African woman I dated briefly in Seoul who had some very endearing verbal ticks. And, yet, the more serious I become with this novel, the less, in real terms, I care about even worrying about Hollywood or any type of adaptation. The point is write the best damn novel (one story, two novels) I can and worry about everything else later.

It’s just so unlikely that I will ever actually sell this novel, all of that seems not only a lot of useless preening, but also a waste of time. But, like I said, I see this blog as more me talking to myself than anything else.

So, lulz.

Things May Be Moving Fast Now With The #Novel



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s possible that, in a sense, things are going to move VERY FAST now. I still haven’t finished the outline, but I am working on the scene summary (with a lot of help from the book Scene and Structure.)

My goal is to have “Part 1” sketched out pretty soon then start writing on it soon afterwards. I’m hoping that simply by stabilizing Part 1 that building out from that going forward will be pretty easy (or at least easier.) The story itself is really strong. The problem has always been my storytelling ability hasn’t been up to making a fairly complex situation implemented in a simple enough fashion that an audience could understand it.

There are some really, really great easy-to-film scenes (or at least scenes audiences would LIKE to SEE on the big screen) in this story and that’s one of the things get keeps me going. I keep putting all this work into this project because I really, really, REALLY want to write a few scenes.

Anyway, I hope to throw myself into development this evening. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I’m Obsessed With The Outline To The Novel I’m Developing



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Every day, I look at the outline the novel I’m developing and throw huge chunks of it in the trash. But it’s definitely getting better. I think, however, that I need to think outside the box more.

I need to start reading weirder things or something, something, anything to provoke more creativity. I have the general story of the novel so well down pat in my mind that I have something of a rut going on. If I took drugs (which I don’t) I would drop some acid or something.

But all I got is books and some booze.

Anyway, I’ll try again tomorrow morning. At least I know some of the Big Issues I have to fix with the novel. I really, honestly, have no idea what I’m doing so it seems as though I’m determined to make every mistake you can possibly make as part of developing this novel.

But the over all story is getting much, much better as my storytelling ability improves gradually and significantly.

‘Wind Of Change’ & The Novel I’m Developing



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really liked Crooked Media’s podcast “Wind of Change.” But I must confess, I didn’t listen to the last episode because I was so engaged by the mystery that I didn’t want to be let down by finding out a downer truth. (If it was a downer.)

But listening to that podcast has, however influenced the novel I’m developing in the sense that it confirmed my general belief that spooky stuff is a far more human endeavor than you might think. The surreal scenario I’ve come up with for why spooks might be interested in my Heroine isn’t all that surreal, afterall.

Or, put another way, I’m within shouting distance of there being little, if any suspension of disbelief about what happened and why. I first came up with the spooky angle to this concept out of laziness — I had a problem I couldn’t solve without some high tech gadgets.

The rest took care of itself because it helped with the over-arching motive of my heroine.

But I don’t know. I have no idea what I’m doing.

I’m just trying my best, working in a vacuum and seeing how things work out.

The Outline Collapsed AGAIN



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, it happened AGAIN. I realized I could make the outline for the novel I’m developing better and by doing so, I realized there was a huge structural problem and the whole thing collapsed. So, I’m not back to zero, but I’m at maybe 45% right now.

But I’m reading a number of books that will make this a really cool story once I get over myself and settle on some basic elements of its structure. But I still have a few days before I panic. I have given myself until about the July 4th weekend to wrap up the outline. Whatever I have at that point, I run with and start using to write, even if it’s not perfect — or finished.

Anyway.

Now to print out the smoldering wreckage of the outline again and look over it, struggling to figure out how I can fix the biggest problem of all — in the “fun and games” portion of the novel (the first half of the second act) — I need some fun and games. I need some investigation of some sort. I can’t have people just sitting around talking to teach other, ignoring the number of dead bodies that are piling up around them.

Something’s gotta give.

An Outline Update



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are going well with the outline. I still have a massive amount of both development and reading to do. But a lot of what I have to do is simply not being scared, to overcome any fears I may have. I have to go outside my comfort zone on a number of different levels.

I had a big “click!” in my mind today when it came to the outline. I now am much closer to having the first half of the novel and the third act outline. All I don’t know anything about is the police procedural part of the novel which is the second half of the second act. That’s something I have to do some serious reading about.

The general story is really good. It’s going to be two books, one story. I love these characters and am willing to fight for them to exist in a way that fits my vision.

It will be interesting to see how things work out.

Reworking The #Novel’s First Act Outline, AGAIN



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m looking forward to getting back to work on the novel’s outline tomorrow afternoon. I’m going to start reading a lot again, as well. I have so much reading to do.

But, in general, as of right now, things are going well overall. I just have to keep believing in myself. No one believes in me. No one cares. I’m just an anonymous nobody in the middle of nowhere with a dream at this point.

The overall conceit of the novel is extremely compelling. The reason why it’s taken me two years to get to this point is, well, I’ve had to develop my storytelling ability. I just went into this pretty clueless.

If I had done what everyone suggested at the time, which is “just write” I would have failed. I would have gotten bogged down in rewriting everything a zillian times. With the development method I’m using now, I can do a lot of changes to the novel very easily and very quickly without having to write 30,000 useless words to discover that.

Anyway, that whole “just write” advice still bugs the fuck out of me. It’s even more annoying that it came from people who claimed to “know me better than I knew myself.”

Uh huh.

My Delusional Stupidity About ‘Woke Park Slope Moms’



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I posted a call for a “reader” on the NYC Craig’s List and all I got was grief from people about how I was being both “stupid and delusional.” This came in no small part from the fact that I said things like “no — or little — money” and how I wanted the novel to be a “guilty pleasure for Woke Park Slope Moms.”

I guess I WAS being delusional and stupid.

And, yet, no one cares about what I’m doing. No one believes in me. I generally have a very quirky — and obsessive — personality and this novel has officially consumed my entire creative life. Which is good. I’m using what little ability I have to produce something at the high end of my ability.

I still want this novel to be a guilty pleasure for educated, wealthy women. But not in, like, a 50 Shades kind of way. More a novel that is really thought provoking and has strong female characters in it in a way that educated women really like. But I absolutely no idea what I’m doing.

I guess I’m just kind of annoyed how Olivia Wilde and Jessica Chastain complain about how guys can’t write female characters and I want to prove them wrong. I don’t know how successful I’ll ultimately be, but this irritation definitely gives me incentive to do better than I might otherwise.

Shrug. No one cares what I’m doing. I can do anything I want.