Tag: novel

Of Race And Androids

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In the past when I was writing a novel, I would really try to go out of my way to have representation. Not for any woke cancel culture mob identity politics reasons, but just because I think if you’re going to write an American tale, you have to address race.

With this most recent novel attempt, it’s been really, really difficult to have representation because every variation I could think of when it came to human-android relations seemed…loaded and problematic.

But just recently, I came up with a variation that was ok. Barely. But close enough. And that really helps me feel better about the novel because it’s not just a bunch of white people talking to each other.

Anyway, I’m still hoping to wrap up the first act of the latest version of the novel in a week or so. I SHOULD be able to zoom through the “fun and games” part of the novel — the first half of the second act — and even, to some extent the “bad guys closing in” part of the second act as well.

But the second half of the novel just is not as well written out as the first half. Some scenes are just a few lines. The point of that was I needed to get through the outline, to stress test it.

What Am I Going To Do

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I find myself in something of a pickle. I’m an “AI First” novelist, and, yet I’m growing concerned that any improvement in my actual writing ability with be credited to AI.

This is really beginning to eat away at me, Tell-Tale Heart style.

I suppose on solution would be to tweak my workflow some. I might have to rewrite the extended scene summaries that AI generates in my own words so I won’t be tempted to use them directly when I write the scenes.

I want the text of this novel to be judged on its merits, not whether it was “helped” by AI or not. I must say, however, Claude is great as a manuscript consultant. It has really helped me in writing and developing this novel to not be doing it all in a vacuum.

That was one of the reasons why I have drifted for so long when it comes to working on a novel. In the past, I couldn’t even pay people to help me with my writing. They either thought I was a drunk, fool and a crank or they thought what I was writing was trash.

Ugh.

But Claude LLM — and to a lesser extent Gemini LLM — are really helping me improve my writing. As I keep saying, I compare it to how spell checking has really improved my writing as well.

I do a lot — A LOT — of work on this novel and the idea that people would just think it was AI slop because I’m an AI First (aspiring) novelist really grates on my nerves. But everything and everyone is horrible, so, lulz?

I Hope To Wrap Up The First Act Of This Scifi Dramedy Pretty Soon

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I still have three books on querying to flip through, I’m hoping to wrap up the first act of this novel fairly soon. Maybe in a week or so. If I’m really lucky. I’m so fucking moody when it comes to actually sitting down to write that I never can quite tell how long it will be.

But, in general, I have pretty good vibes for this novel. The only thing that makes me wince a little bit is the sex worker part of the novel. And, yet, that gives the novel stakes and, well, it’s point.

While *I* really like the sex worker element of the story, I’m afraid there will be a vocal minority in the audience that will hate, hate, hate it. But it’s too late now. Unless, that is, Black Mirror does an episode that steals a creative march on me and I have to piviot to a different story.

That would really suck, but it’s a real possibility — especially if I don’t get my act together and hurry up to wrap this damn thing up ASAP.

Of Being An ‘AI First’ Author: Spellcheckers & AI Slop

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I gave the first scene of the novel to someone else and they were generally praise worthy. But one thing kind of bothered me. They essentially effused over my writing being better on a practical basis.

This made me blanch because what they were noticing was me leaning into AI to write the scene. So, in essence, what they were saying without realizing was: my native writing ability sucks.

This is enough to throw me into intensive psychotherapy. But maybe not. Not only am I going to make a one final pass of the novel’s text before I query to make sure it’s as much my own style and tone as possible, I also look at it this way: what’s the difference between using AI to help write a novel and using it to spellcheck?

I am a horrible, horrible speller. I always have been, always will be. So bad that the only way I ever got any journalism gigs was…because of the existence of spellcheck.

So, as long as I do as much hard work as possible, I don’t really see there being *that* much of an issue when it comes to leaning into AI when working on a novel. And I do a whole lot of work. I really do.

One thing I probably need to tweak when it comes to my workflow is to totally not use the expanded scene summaries that AI generates for me directly. What I need to do is read those expanded scene summaries…and then do my own writing. I have gotten into the bad habit of using going through and directly using the expanded scene summaries as the basis of scenes.

Bad author, bad. Don’t do that!

Another observation the guy I sent the first scene of the novel to is that my hero was quite “likeable enough.” I hate that. Given what happens in the novel, I fear that is a problem that will only grow. And, yet, who knows.

The key thing that is going to delay me querying this novel is going to be the one last pass I’m going to make of the text to tweak things like hero likability and the vague “AI slop” quality of some of the writing. I’m the writer, I have to actually do as much of the writing as possible.

Ugh.

The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good: ‘AI Speak’ Edition

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am just about to wrap up the first act of this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on and, as such, I’ve looked over some of the beginning scenes. And I’m pleased but for one thing — they definitely are a bit…too…polished.

They suffer from “AI speak” a little bit too much for my liking. I just hate the idea of people rolling their eyes and saying the only reason why my writing is any good is I used AI. (This, despite me still thinking that the way I use AI is simpler to how I might have used spell check a few decades earlier.)

Regardless, everyone and everything is horrible so to prevent me from having to endure the slings and arrows of people accusing me of producing AI slop, I’m probably going to go in and simply rewrite scenes as necessary completely in my own hand.

That way, even if the end product is “worse” at least it will be my writing and not AI.

Evaluating Comments On The First Scene of The Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Over the holidays, I showed the first scene of the novel I’m working on to some relatives. They gave me generally positive comments and we’re generous and supportive, but here are the comments that caught my attention.

‘Funny’ names
One relative said my names were too weird and that took them out of reading the novel. I validate that, but one man’s “funny names” are another person’s “interesting names.”

“Nuk”
I use “Nuk” as the nickname for a character and one reader didn’t like that because it reminded them of a baby’s nuk. I don’t quit know what to do about that one. I don’t think it’s bad to use “Nuk” per se, but…I may have to think about that some. No one else has mentioned that as a problem

Terminology
I have a very specific — and mildly humorous — term for my androids or synths that I use an one reader wanted the origin of that terminology expressed spell out. I think in the context of marketing that that won’t be a problem, but just to be sure, I stuck a sentence in that explained the nomenclature.

Just About To Wrap Up The First Act of This Scifi Dramedy…AGAIN

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I got well into the second act of this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on when I needed to hard reset my context windows with the AIs I was using and they both said when I showed them the outline again that my hero was “too passive.”

So, I hard reset the novel. Everything collapsed and I started essentially from scratch.

Now, after several weeks of hard work, I’m back to just about wrapping up the first act. I fear the “fun and games” part of the novel — the first half of the second act — might need to be re-imagined a little bit more than I would prefer.

But I don’t quite know yet. It might be that I just have to mess with the first few scenes and otherwise everything will snap back into place. If that’s the case, then this thing will speed up really fast.

I will be able to just hotsync all these scenes I’ve already written into the text of the novel and I’ll be back into the “bad guys closing in” part of the novel a lot sooner than expected.

This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On Is Shaping Up To Be Really Good

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This novel I’m working on is really good. So good that I keep expecting a movie or Black Mirror episode to come out that so steals a creative march on me that I have to piviot to some other story idea.

I will have lost valuable time, but, lulz.

I’m not getting any younger, you know.

And, yet, just because the premise is obvious to me, doesn’t mean it’s as obvious to other people as I think. But I’m definitely putting my stick where the puck will be. The premise of the novel is sort of like, “what would it be like, in real terms, for Pris from Blade Runner living her every day life?”

Pris from Blade Runner

That’s pretty much the general gist of the novel’s premise, even though that’s not exact.

Anyway, I still am on track to wrap this novel up around April-May 2026. Then I have to do some last minute editing before I give it to whatever beta readers I can scrounge up. Then I’ll probably have to go therapy because everyone will praise my writing and I’ll feel all this angst about how my writing was “enhanced” by being AI first, even though I did, in fact, write as much as possible of the novel with my own hand.

But because everyone and everything is horrible, people will just assume AI wrote everything and probably dismiss the novel as just more “AI slop.” Ugh.

I Have Three Books Related To Querying, Now To Force Myself To Read Them

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This time, I tell myself, will be different. Instead of just drifting — again — towards my goal of writing a novel that is query-worthy, I’m actually going to buckle down and focus.

With that in mind, I have not one, but three books devoted to the querying process to at least glance over. Two of the books are about querying, while the third is a big book of literary agents.

I really don’t want to think about the querying process because, lulz, I know there’s a decent change I’m going to fail in a monumental way. Like epically. I think this in large part because I’m a big old kook and “serious” “normal” that woke-liberal-white-woman-literary-agent who does due diligence on me is probably going to be aghast.

I’m just a loudmouth crank and always have been.

But, this is definitely the up-up or shut up moment of my life when it comes to writing a novel I plan on querying. If I don’t do something different immediately, I’m going to wake up at 60 and STILL not have queried a novel.

I just want to see how far I get through the process. I feel so old at this point. Even though I’m not, like, elderly, I am still older than Stieg Larsson was when he was trying to get his novel(s) sold. That doesn’t make me feel very good.

But this novel is really good. The premise is rock solid, if a little dark and pulpy. But, if nothing else, it’s “accessible.” I keep thinking of how I want to “comp” my novel to the works of Andy Weir who’s novels The Martian and Project Hail Mary are really, really accessible.

Anyway, no one listens to me and no one takes me seriously, so, lulz.

I Really Need To Take The Writing Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel More Seriously

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have magic in a bottle with this novel, I just know it. It’s very zeitgeist-y in nature and it’s definitely putting my stick where the puck will be. But I have a tendency to just drift towards my writing goals.

But I have a hunch my life is going to change rather dramatically this year — probably sooner rather than later — so I have got to, got to get some structure in my writing life to get this novel done ASAP.

One key change from all the other years I’ve been working on various novels is the introduction of AI into my writing workflow. No longer do I feel like I’m working in a vacuum. I have various AIs to, actually, like, listen to me and shit. I couldn’t even get human literary types to take me seriously, even when I offered to pay them.

Anyway, I have three books related to querying that I need to at least look over. I think if I actually take a deep breath and read them in some capacity that that might be enough to focus my mind.

Like, let’s do this. Let’s finish this beta draft of the novel so I can get to the next steps of giving it to beta readers and then — gulp — actually querying. I have a feeling I’m going to slam head first into the cold, dark waters of querying and I’m such a fucking kook (relative to the woke liberal white women who in my imagination make up the majority of literary agents) that the whole thing could be kind of painful and bruising on an emotional basis.

In other words, despite writing a pretty good, timely novel, it will all be for naught.

And, yet, the whole point is to just see how far I can get in the process. I want to see what it’s like to actually query a novel. That, in itself, will be an interesting experience, even if I fail in a spectacular fashion.