Tag: novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m extremely moody when it comes to working on this novel, which is probably one of the reasons why it’s taken so fucking long to get this point. I went a whole year of not really working on it and now, all of a sudden, I feel a huge urge to finish a new version as fast as possible.

But, for the next few days — maybe until about Saturday – Sunday — I’m probably going to just stare out into space instead of get any writing done. A number of things have come together at the same time between now and then to the point that it’s kind of pointless to try to write.

And, yet, once all that stuff is wrapped up, I think I’ll come roaring back and write a lot.

One thing I have accept is I have a lot — A LOT of rewriting to do in the coming days. I’ve finally admitted to myself that I can’t just breeze my way through a lot of scenes that are just good enough — I’m going to have to actually rewrite them to take them to the next level.

Thankfully, I have AI to lean on. That’s really helping me a lot to speed up my writing as well as to write better scene summaries to use as a jumping off point to write scenes in the first place.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Before I write a scene of the novel I’m writing, I lay out the scene in a scene summary. Helping me improve that scene summary is where AI really shines. It really really helps me see things in the scene that I otherwise might have missed.

But using ASI does also, in a sense, slow me down some because I have to read all the advice it gives me, process it and then (sometimes) rework the scene summary.

What is annoying is how often the AIs want to write the fucking scene for me. That’s just not cool. That’s not the point. I’m the writer, I write the scene. And I can totally understand why some — lazy — people might just give up and let AI write some, if not all of their novel.

But that’s just not my scene.

I want the control of writing the scene myself. But, like I said, getting advice on the scene summary from AI really helps improve the product.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ok. Deep breath. I really need to rewrite some scenes in the first half of the second act. I can’t just coast through all of this and wait until I’m all the way through reviewing the novel to start rewriting.

My reluctance comes from the fact that the scenes are actually pretty good. It’s just…I feel like maybe I can make them better. So, I have two ideas of equal value in my mind 1) I don’t want to rewrite good scenes 2) I want to rewrite good scenes to make them great.

It doesn’t help that I can be moody as hell and I have to be in just the right mood to sprint through writing a few scenes, especially if they’re rewrites. But I like giving myself a deadline, so I’ve given myself a really tight deadline of September 1st (Really, August 1st.)

There is a basic issue that I just can’t really overcome — my native writing ability. It could be that I just suck. And while this novel is a murder-in-a-small town novel now, it’s barely a thriller. It’s more *interesting* than *thrilling.* The question is, of course, is it interesting enough to keep people reading all the way through.

I just don’t know the answer to that question at the moment. But I continue to believe this novel is existential to my mental well being to the point that I’m willing to throw myself into it like I did in the good old days.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m taking a deep, deep breath and rewriting scenes in the second act which are pretty good and stable….but I think I can do better since my storytelling abilities have improved since I wrote them a few years ago.

Meanwhile, there are three structural problems that are weighing on my mind as I do this. One is, the first act is a little long and — maybe? — I could lop off the beginning and start it later AND there are some scenes later in the first act that could probably be condensed.

Then, there is the problem of the beginning of the second act. It’s really interesting copy and it not only flows really well, but gets us where we need to go. And YET, given I don’t want this novel to be 200,000 words, I may have to figure out a way to condense or lop of some events simply to make the novel shorter.

I am well aware of what an anomaly Stieg Larsson’s success was, given how long his novels are — especially for a first time novelist — and so that is always in the back of my mind. But I’m not going to take any dramatic measures until I know exactly how long the whole thing is.

And that’s going to be a while — I want to go through the whole novel, rewrite what I have to rewrite then put it all together to see how many scenes it is. If it’s way over 100,000 words, then the condensing and lopping will commence.

The only reason why I suspect this version of the novel ay be a little longer than previous versions is I’m using AI to improve my scene summaries and, as such, the scenes are probably going to be more fleshed out — and so longer.

I think tonight I’m going to read carefully several scenes, write new scene summaries for them and then tomorrow sit down and rewrite the scenes. I just can’t dilly-dally forever. I still really want to start querying this novel no later than September 1st.

I know if I don’t start about then, I will probably have to punt things into early next year when everyone comes back from Seychelles where they partied like a rock star over the winter holidays.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have printed the novel out to the midpoint and so now I can do one of two things.

1. Read from the beginning
   This open would let me understand the context of things a lot better in the second act. But there is a risk I will really get bogged down in making things “perfect” and that will lead to delay, delay, delay.
2. Read from the beginning of the second act
   This is a good option because I can focus on what needs to get worked on — rewriting huge chunks of the first half of the second act.
   
   I don’t know which one I will do just yet. Both of the are tempting, very tempting. I think, think that I’m going to start from the beginning of the second act just so I can knock that part of the novel — the “fun and games” part — out of the way and actually feel like there’s some sort of progress as to the finishing of the novel sooner rather than later.
   
   I really, really want to wrap this novel up by August 1 to give me a month to prepare for querying. I’m kind of fed up with spinning my wheels and I want to at least experience the slings and arrows of outrageous querying fortune one way or another.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

When it comes to the nitty-gritty mechanics of writing a novel, I am sometimes at a total loss, still. And because I’m doing all of this is a vacuum — I have no friends and no one likes me — I just have to play it by ear.

And because I gauge everything by scene count not word count — at least not until the very end of the process — I just don’t know what to expect. It could be that even though I have too many scenes, the actual word count will be ok.

This happen with one version of the novel when I had way too many scenes, but actually came in at just about 85,000 words. That happened because I got so excited near the end of the novel that I wasn’t writing very long scenes — I just wanted to get things over with.

But, this time, hopefully, because of AI, if nothing else, that won’t be a problem. I’ll actually write fully-formed scenes and that, by definition, will make the word count longer.

So, I guess what I’m going to do is complete the novel, the do a word count THEN start to figure out what scenes I can do away with.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ok. I sat down today and went through the first half of the second act and things were not the disaster that I feared they would be. I’m still on track to wrapping up some sort of semi-final product soon enough that I can piviot to querying around September 1st.

Of course, actually getting a literary agent at my age and being the huge kook I am will be like winning the fucking lottery. I can already see literary agents searching for me online, stumbling across this blog and being aghast at what a fucking weirdo I am.

But, I need something to believe in. I need something to look forward to and to focus on instead of how America has turned into a fucking fascist state as well as how the Singularity may arrive just about the time I sell this novel, making all of it moot.

Ugh.

Anyway, I need to focus. I’m going to go through the first half of the second act and try to make it, the “fun and games” part of the novel (the part that causes people to buy it in the first place, usually) as engaging and interesting as possible. I’m trying to use AI to help with my writing, but, comically, sometimes the dumb-dumb AIs can’t understand context and get upset over this or that “objectionable” thing I simply want it to review and help me write about in fiction.

I’m getting pings from NYC and LA, which is either good (movie people interested in the novel!) or bad (movie people interested in using my ideas for movie without me!). I can’t overthink things. I need to just buckle down and rewrite things as necessary.