Tag: novel

An Update On The #Novel I’m Developing



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The last few weeks I’ve felt a little tired. I’ve been working on this novel for so long, it’s warped the way I look at the world on an existential level. But I think I may have come up with a solution to this feeling — literally look at working on this novel as a job in the sense that I give myself a “weekend.”

The “weekend” that I give myself isn’t Saturday – Sunday, but more like late Wednesday through Saturday. But when I do work on the novel, I sprint. I’m like the least Type A person ever, so any work I do on anything is done in an erratic and eccentric manner — but it is often done in a very intense fashion when it’s done.

The next big step I have to get into is the outline of the second half of the novel. A lot of things happen during that portion of the novel, a lot of them I currently have no idea how to articulate. But I can, like, read. I can figure it out. It just may take me going outside my comfort zone to do it.

But I will, in fact, do it.

Developing and writing a novel is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

I have no idea how anyone does it without a huge amount of methodical developing and plotting. Things have started to move faster with this novel because I understand development and plotting a lot better — and I’m reading a massive amount as quickly as possible.

And this is just the first book in a two book story!

May Actually Overshoot My Goal With This Novel



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The novel I’m developing is turning out to be be really, really good — at least in my eyes. Yes, there’s that Jessica Alba vehicle Trigger Warning lurking out there, but the more I think about it, it seems any resemblance between it and what I’m working on comes more from where my head is as I develop my novel than anything else. Or something.

I guess, in a sense, all that is first child jitters. Though I will admit that now that I finally have the hang of writing a novel, I’m likely to just keep writing them no matter what. All I want is to write a novel where someone who doesn’t know me reads it and asks, “So what happens next?”

The novel I’m developing definitely has franchise written all over it. Though, if I did manage to sell the first two books, I would go back in time and write two prequels. Those two stories are pretty well thought out in my mind and would be pretty easy to write given how much I had to think them to through to write the novels I’m working on now.

But a lot of all of this comes from simply not only not knowing what I’m doing, but not having anyone to tell me “no.” Or, put another way, if I had, like, friends and stuff — or maybe a wife or girlfriend — it’s unlikely I would have gotten this far with this project because everyone would have gotten so frustrated with me that they would have finally successfully told me to “just write a short story.”

Fuck such thinking. Fuck short stories. I want to write a novel.

It’s wild how little support I’m getting from anyone about writing a novel. Everyone wants me to write a screenplay or a short story or whatever the fuck else they think I should write. But no one is like, “Hey! You’re writing a novel after talking about writing a novel for years, good for you!”

I can’t help how extroverted I am. That’s just who I am.

Nervous About That Jessica Alba Vehicle Being Produced



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Movies and TV have a different internal logic than a novel because you have the opportunity to show things on the screen while with a novel you have to show it on the page — and explain it.

Anyway, Jessica Alba has a movie coming out called Trigger Warning that is making me nervous. It’s very, very different from the novel I’m developing, but close enough that I worry it will steal a creative march on me. And, yet, from what I can understand of it, I don’t have TOO much to worry about.

My novel is far more elaborate and ambitious than Trigger Warning. And, yet, given how the world really works, I could see it sucking up all the wind for my project. All I can say is should the worst happen, I’m far enough long in this project that I can — having licked my wounds — use the development I’ve done to think up a new plot. (How much I have to change will depend greatly on how close the production is to what I’m doing.)

Another way to look at it is, maybe I’m fitting the modern conventions of the genre I’m trying to compete in? Or, at least, that’s one way to make myself feel good, to rationalize my unexpected defeat from unexpected source.

But it all definitely gives me reason to work as fast I can to produce something, anything, that I can try to sell. No one — not even me — can predict the future.

Hit A Major Milestone With The Novel’s Outline



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While things aren’t perfect, I’ve finally reached the the midpoint of the novel’s outline. As such, I’ve left the “Fun and Games” aspect of the story and am now in the ‘Bad Guys Close In” part of it.

As such, the whole dynamic of the story has to change. Another issue is I’m into the part of the story have no idea how to develop — the police procedural portion. So now, I have even more reading than I had before. I have so, so very much reading to do. I wish I could have a research assistant of some sort help me with development, but I just don’t see that as possible at this point.

But the reading will do me good, I suppose. I’m hoping to wrap the outline portion of development by the end of June. I hope to start writing again on the novel one way or another just after the July 4th weekend.

I am the first to admit that I’m going into all of this rather oblivious and clueless as to how one might actually get a novel published. I barely even understand what’s supposed to be in a query letter. But all of that will come, I suppose, given time. That’s part of the point of it all — to learn how far I can get in this entire process before I have to self-publish.

We’ll see.

Idle Musing About Dave Chappelle & The Novel I’m Developing



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I daydream a lot. I say this especially now as I develop a novel. And, truth be told, the more serious I get with this novel, the less I care about what happens to it once I should happen to sell it.

I just want to go through the traditional route of trying to sell a novel. If that doesn’t work, then, and only then, will I self-publish. Anyway, I do, however, on occasion, daydream about who would play certain characters in this story I’m developing.

I always had a vague notion that maybe I could come up with a Dave Chappelle-type character for the novel and it appears as though I have. The character comes in during the second act and is something of a mentor to the Hero. There’s a twist to the character at the end of the novel which makes it all the more interesting.

I really want to have a lot of representation in this novel on an organic, not self-conscious level like, say, Glee. This is meant to be a very American story — an answer to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series and, as such, it has to have a wide-spectrum of people in it to achieve that goal.

Anyway, I have several stars in my mind for different characters. I only do that simply to have a reference point, not because I think the novel will ever be optioned. But it is fun to think about during the long trudge through development and writing.

This Novel Has No Literary Aspirations


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have a small library of books I want to read as part of the development of this story (one story, two books.) I have so much I want to read — and learn — that I’m a little nervous (but not too much) that I’m going to come out the other side over shooting my goal rather significantly.

It’s all rather amusing. Everyone — EVERYONE — thinks I suck. That’s all I hear about every aspect of anything creative I want to do: you suck. So I have something of a creative chip on my shoulder. But I’m working as hard as I can to at least not embarrass myself.

This novel pretty much wades into every major cultural wedge issue with guns blazing. My vision is to wade into a number of extremely controversial subjects in a way that is at least palatable to people from a wide spectrum of political views. Except MAGA. They can fuck off, those fucking American Nazis.

What I need is an editor. I need someone to help me figure out what’s important if I have two ideas that are of equal value in my mind. But I’m flat broke and pretty much everyone has an agenda if you’re not paying them, so lulz. It’s comical how poor I am at this point in my life and no one is going to help me unless I pay them.

And, from what I can tell, editors are extremely expensive, even to look over a small portion of a work-in-progress.

Anyway, this novel is meant to be a fun, breezy read. That’s it. I want you to be able to pick it up and read it straight through over about three days. I want you to read these two novels so fast you lose sleep, maybe get to work late. That’s my dream, my goal.

I’m nervous that if the novels accidentally get too literary that that aspect will slow down the reading experience some.

But, really, that’s just me daydreaming, pysching myself up.

Lulz!

Music Is At The Heart Of This Novel



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m listening to a lot of soundtracks of serious, dark thrillers these days, hoping that some of it will rub off of me as I develop this novel. I simply don’t take myself all that seriously, so I need to get into that vibe as I develop the novel.

At the center of this story (two novels, one story) is music. I’ve come up with a rather unique way to use music in this novel. I only use titles of songs because, well, the medium is the message and all that. But I’m hoping people like me who like the type of music I like will dig it, as they say.

One of the layers of this novel is me reminiscing about those few, brief — but extremely exciting — months in Seoul in late 2006, early 2007. I simply can not tell what really happened in a way that anyone would want to read because it’s a tragedy with a forgone conclusion.

But I can, essentially, hide that story inside another story.

As such, I’ve spent a lot — A LOT — of time figuring out how to re-create the dynamic in my personal life during late 2006, early 2007 when I was publishing a magazine and DJing at a expat bar. Pretty much the entire novel, by accident, is simply an excuse for me to remember how cool I briefly was a long time ago.

I’m going to try to work music into every aspect of the novel. This, of course, hopefully, will make it easier to adapt into a movie should somehow I manage to sell this thing after all is said and done.

We’ll see.

My life in Seoul, 2006-2007.

Writing A Novel Is A Marathon, Not A Sprint



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m hard at work no the outline for the novel I’m developing and I’m quite pleased. It’s going at lot faster this month. I have given myself a deadline of just past the July 4th weekend to wrap the outline up.

The story (two novels, one story) is extremely ambitious. I’m trying — at least in my own mind — to tell the allegorical tale of the entirety of the Trump Administration (or at least, maybe, the first term). I have no doubt House Trump is going to steal the 2020 election, so I’m extremely safe in making some pretty basic assumptions about the next four years.

I believe people are going to be so upset with how House Trump stole the 2020 Election that they’re going to be willing to read a novel that rants about House Trump in not-so-hidden terms. Even in the unlikely event that House Trump doesn’t simply burn the Constitution on FOX News around Jan 20th, and we actually are able to physically remove Trump from the Oval Office without him nuking us into oblivion the story is good enough that people will still want to read it.

Now, of course, this is the point where I have to let myself down easy. A lot of writing a successful novel, a “break out” novel, if you will, is simply dumb luck. You are able to throw a rock into the dark after several years of development and writing and strike something.

But I’m still not quite at the point where I have to let the “real world” into my fantasy world. I can still simply daydream my way through development, hoping that maybe I will, in fact, strike gold.

Idle Rambling About The Novel I’m Developing


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are going well with the novel I’m developing. I just have to focus on what I’m doing and not worry so much about what the context of it may be when I try to sell it.

I need to finish the outline and start writing by July 1st or at least just past the July 4th weekend.

That is, at least, the current goal.

I’m doing a huge amount of reading so I can flesh out the characters. I just need to close. I need to wrap this up sooner rather than later.

Screenwriting And Webstat Paranoia



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I saw in my Webstats that someone looked at — out of the blue — a post from about two years ago about a screenplay concept I briefly had. This makes me nervous because:

  1. They were from Brooklyn.
  2. They obviously got it as a link (how did the person who send it to them find it?)
  3. Are they going to “steal” that idea?

Some of those are just me being paranoid in general — I have a pretty well developed novel on my hands and even if someone “stole” that concept, it has nothing to do with what I’m working on right now.

I guess I’m more nervous about people being able to poke around my Website without me knowing about it one way or another. But you can’t change the past. You can’t have absolute control over who sees what you post online.

And, given that me talking online is, in itself, part of my development process, lulz.