Tag: novel

I’ve Wrapped Up The First Act (AGAIN) Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’ve Been Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve finally, yet again, wrapped up the first act of the scifi dramedy novel I’ve been working on. Now, I’m going to stare out into space for a little while before I throw myself into the second act again.

The key thing — as always — is to make sure that my hero isn’t passive. I’ve had a real problem with my protagonist being reactive to the point that the AIs I’ve been using to develop the novel keep pointing it out. It’s all very frustrating.

Another issue is I really, really need to avoid leaning into using AI to actually write the scenes. I want as much as possible of this novel’s text to be written by my hand, even if it means the novel isn’t as good as it might otherwise be.

All this praise I’ve been getting from what little pieces of the novel I’ve given people to read is making me feel a little insecure — ok, maybe a lot insecure. It’s starting to eat away at me that maybe my writing…just sucks? And the only way for it to be good enough to get a literary agent is…to use AI to sharpen it to publishing quality?

I don’t like thinking about that.

Imagining Post-Querying Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As far as I can tell, querying a novel is pretty tough. It could be months, years even, that I linger in querying limbo. I think once I wrap this novel up, I’m going to start working on a new novel while I query.

That way, I stay busy.

The biggest fear I have is I’m not getting any younger. As such, even if I’m in querying limbo, I am going to have something creative going on in my life. I have at least three ideas that I can start working on after I wrap up this novel.

One thing I’m really going to be focusing on is no sex worker in any of the new novels I’m going to work on. I’m tapped out after this novel when it comes to a subject that some people, by definition, thinks makes my text “trash.”

Not that I won’t have sex in any new novel, it’s just the context will be dramatically different.

Anyway, damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.

The Shifting Tides Of Using AI To Work On This Scifi Dramedy Novel Of Mine

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. Every time I hard reset my chat window with the AIs I’m using (Claude LLM and Gemini LLM) I never quite know what to expect. The last time I did it and fed my outline into the chatbots, they were universal in their agreement on one subject: my hero was too passive.

That gave me such consternation that I threw everything up in the air and tried again. THIS TIME, I THINK my hero isn’t as passive. But I’m still just in the first act.

But I think — maybe — that I might be able to zoom through the “fun and games” part of the novel for various reasons.

Yet, let’s go back to the AIs.

This go round, they aren’t giving me as much help writing actual text, which is a good thing. But I haven’t asked them for extended scene summaries, so I could still find myself in a position where I lean a little too much into using what AI gives me when it comes to the actual writing of text.

I hate that. I hate it so much what I might to do is use the AI to write extended scene summaries THEN use THAT as inspiration for a new, rewritten version of the extended scene summary so I won’t feel tempted to generate AI slop that everyone will make fun of.

Anyway, I am just about to enter the second act. Probably in a few days. Then the dynamic of things will change some. It’s not until I get into the second half of the novel that things might slow down significantly.

I really didn’t write very much in each scene because I wanted to keep momentum and I wanted to stress test the outline.

Ugh. What Is Stopping Me From At Least Flipping Through My ‘How To Query’ Books

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have three books I need to look over now that I’m getting a lot closer to querying and…yet…I just can’t bring myself to do that just yet. I guess the key reason is I’m not done with the novel yet.

My fear is that I’m going to read something in one of the books that will stop me cold in my tracks. Something on a fundimental basis about how I’m writing this novel that will make me re-evaluate everything.

I would much rather actually have finished the novel to learn something so dire. That way, at least, I will have a finished novel under my belt.

Ugh. I’m probably being paranoid for no reason. But I am prone to overthink things.

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.