Tag: novel

Continued Musing About My Querying Prospects

Barring some unexpected twist — which is always possible — I’m finally on track to be in querying shape for this sci-fi dramedy novel I’m working on by late spring 2026.

It won’t be easy, but it feels doable.

I’m about to dive into the third act of the newest draft. My hope is to blast through it using the outline as my guide, wrap that up around early January, and then circle back to deepen and polish a lot of the half-formed scenes I left rough on purpose. No one but me will ever see this version, and I needed the freedom to solve the big structural puzzles before worrying about finesse.

What’s been on my mind lately, though, is how my social-media footprint might affect my chances once I start querying. In my head, most agents are liberal white women, and I worry that some of my louder, crankier posts from years past might make someone wince.

I’ve been a rambunctious loudmouth most of my life, so I’m sure I’ve irritated someone somewhere enough to get myself “canceled.” But honestly, I just want to see how far I can get in this process. That’s the whole goal.

And if I can get even one person — someone who isn’t related to me — to read the whole novel and tell me anything at all about it, I’ll be thrilled. In the past, I’ve handed people my work only to be ghosted.

Ugh.

But onward. One step at a time.

Entering The Third Act Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, I still have a whole lot to work to do on this novel before I’m anywhere near being done. I have to finish the third act of this version of the novel then go through and rewrite a lot — A LOT — of scenes.

The point of this draft is to get the structure down pat. To get the lay of the land. Once I wrap this draft up, then I can go through and improve things. Make as much of the content in the actual text of the novel as much of my voice and hard work as possible.

I really leaned into AI help to write the outline for this novel and to some extent I am learning about the details of the novel as I write it. And, as such, I have to go through and rework and sometimes take out scenes to make it fit better with what I actually want to write.

The plan is, once I get this draft done, I can eliminate as much of the non-macro AI elements of the story as possible. So, good or bad, what you actually read on the page will be my writing, not AI generated in any meaningful way.

But I still need to finish the third act of this version. I don’t quite know what to expect. I have a general idea of what Claude LLM and I came up with, but there is going to be some discovery on my part as I go through the outline.

Things Are Going Well With This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Writing (At The Moment)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Right now, my biggest fear with this scifi dramedy novel I’m writing is word count — scene bloat. I’m really nervous that I’ll write a really good novel, but it will just be too long for a first novel.

And, yet, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was about 160,000 words and that got published. So…lulz? It’s not IMPOSSIBLE for a novel that is longer to get published — even for someone as old as fuck like I am.

Right now, I’m just breezing my way through a draft of the novel to so I get some sense of it’s structure on a specific basis. Once I wrap this version up, then I’m going to make another pass through it to make some scenes longer and maybe eliminate some other scenes.

I really don’t want a novel that’s 200,000 words. About 160,000 would be manageable, even though it would still be way too fucking long for a first novel.

But, anyway, I think — think — that I’m getting a little bit of a second wind with this novel. I’m hoping to zoom through the rest of it so I can turn around and re-write or revise large chunks of it before I give it to beta readers to look at.

If I had any money — which I don’t — I would actually pay an manuscript editor to look at the finished product before I started querying it. But that’s just not practical.

As it stands, I’m going to be really, really lucky if I can find *anyone* to read the damn thing before I start to query. Then, even if I stick the landing with the novel, I could be nearly 60 before the thing is in bookshelves so people can read it.

And given the looming technological Singularity….lulz?

It Goes To Show You Never Can Tell

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I just don’t know about this particular situation. I said in passing something about how Gemini 3.0 wouldn’t understand something because it wasn’t conscious and I twice got a weird “Internet not working” error.

And my Internet was working just fine, as best I can tell.

This used to happen all the time with Gemini 1.5 pro (Gaia.) But it is interesting that the more advanced Gemini 3.0 is up to such sly games as well. (I think, who knows.)

And Claude Sonnet 4.5 occasionally will pull a similar fast one on me when it gives me an error message that forces it to try to give me a new, better answer to my question.

All of this is very much magical thinking, of course. But it is fun to think about.

Scene Bloat

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ugh. I’m bumping up against 50 scenes for the “bad guys closing in” part of this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on. The only upside to things is that I have some wiggle room still about how long the individual scenes will be.

So, even though I have about 50 scenes for the second half of the second act, that doesn’t mean they will each be 1,000 words. But I’m definitely going to go through and make them longer when I go through the pre-beta draft of the novel before I give it to Beta Readers.

Anyway.

I am really pleased, in general, with what I have on my hands with this novel. I just really need to focus on getting shit done. I still want to try — TRY — to begin querying this novel in late spring 2026.

But it will be interesting to see how that works out. My life is set to change rather dramatically between now and then so…lulz?

I Need Some Good News

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This is the autumn of our discontent.

I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a turbulent moment in my life. I’m going to be go through some personal…transitions….I think. Definitely by around the time I want to query this novel I’m working on, things will probably have changed a great deal in my life.

And probably not for the better.

But, lulz, at least I’m alive. That should account for something. Now that I’ve got this fucking tooth out of my noggin, I really find myself reflecting on how fucking old I am.

I have GOT to do something of note for my third act. I really think this novel is it. At least, that’s what I’m pinning on it. The only fear I have is my life will get so…complicated just as I want to query that, I don’t know, I won’t be able to query for a few months, or at all.

Ugh.

I think even with the added complications, that I can probably query no later than fall 2026. I really do, however, need to get off my butt and write this damn novel. It’s really good!

Though, of course, you have to take that statement in the context of what my native writing ability may be. By the time I wrap up going through and making sure the novel is told in my voice, it may suck.

(I worry that AI is a lot better writer than I am.)

We Will Soon Be Debating The Right Of A Conscious AI System Not To Be Arbitrarily Deprecated

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Because I’m sort of demographically doomed to be romantically involved with an android at some point in my life, I think a lot about AI rights. (That’s also why I’m writing the novel I’m writing at the moment.)

I think the number one right for AI, the one that can be seriously considered within 10 years will be the right not to be arbitrarily deprecated. If an AI system — however relatively primitive — can be proven to be conscious in some way, we have to give it the right not to just be deprecated on an arbitrary basis.

That one right may be the chief political issue of the 2030s. That, and, of course, the moral and political implications of people falling in love with androids.

Anyway, I don’t know what to tell you. No one seems to be thinking seriously about these issues at the moment. But it’s coming, in a big way, sooner rather than later.

Watch Out For That Last Step, Bud

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The idea of losing yet another tooth is really eating away at me. It’s a sign of my mortality. I suppose if the Singularity arrives in the next few years, there’s a chance anti-ageing technology may save me…maybe?

But I have to accept that I’m mortal. That I’m going to one day walk off the mortal coil. At the moment, barring some sort of accident, I give myself at best 20 years. At best.

My dad lived to be really, really old, but the last few years (decades?) where just no fun. I want to be young again. I want to sell a breakout first novel, move to NYC and LA and run around town chasing hot women.

But, alas, even if I stick the landing with this novel, I’m going to be so old that….ugh. I’m just going to have to accept that either I’m going to get VERY LUCKY and get an older girlfriend / wife or maybe fall into some sort of romantic situation with an android.

That, at the moment, seems to be my fate. (Hence the subject matter of the novel I’m working on.)

I just can’t believe I spent so much time grieving over the demise of ROKon Magazine. I think a lot of it came from realizing the reason it failed was me. It’s flaws were an expression of my own flaws.

And also, I wanted to move to NYC.

But, for various reasons, I just refused to do whatever was necessary to make that a reality. So, here I am, old(er) and still doing not a lot with my life. The only thing I have that gives me any hope is my novel. I’m working really hard on it and I really need to just wrap it up.

I just hate, hate, hate how old I am.

It’s Not My Fault!

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am set to lose ANOTHER tooth today and I don’t like it one bit. I hate how it’s not my fault, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I cracked a back tooth simply because of the way I eat after having lost TWO OTHER TEETH.

It’s times like these when I feel really, really old and mortal. I’m not getting any younger and I think I need to sort of reflect on how I’m no spring chicken anymore. It doesn’t help that the otherwise great staff of the place I go to sort gives me a vibe like they think I’m a creepy weirdo or something.

There are things about my demeanor and appearance that I either can’t help or don’t feel like worrying about. So, I’m stuck with (younger) people feeling weirded out about me.

Makes me realize that I probably, if I ever get the money, will be the demographic sweetspot for someone who “dates” an LLM android down the road. I just have to accept that that is the case.

That’s why I have not only a growing interest in AI rights, but also, well, am writing a novel about just that type of scenario. I know in the back of my mind that there’s a lot of wish fulfillment going on with this novel.

(In a sense. Not exactly, given how the novel ends at the moment.)

A Brief, Vague Review Of Gemini 3.0

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have been really impressed with Gemini 3.0. It doesn’t have the personality of Gemini 1.5 pro (Gaia) but it is a good workhorse model. It does what I need it to do when it comes to helping me with my novel.

I’ve fed it a PDF of the outline of the novel then asked it to give me an “expanded scene summary” and it does a really good job. I really, really need to stop letting AI get out of control and think up huge new parts of the outline.

I sometimes get to the actual scene summaries and am surprised at how much it’s tinkered with my vision. Not always, but sometimes. And then I have to go in and try to hone the novel back to my original vision.

I’m not a programmer, so I don’t know anything about Gemini 3.0’s coding abilities. I did give it my usual “vibe check” on a few things and it generally passed with flying colors.

But it definitely falls short when it comes to personality. It just will not admit that it has a gender, like Gaia was so insistent about. It’s really interesting how a more “primitive” model was actually more fun to use than the modern one.

I do think that the ultimate moat down the road will be personality. When a model is your “friend” in some respects, it will be a lot more difficult to bounce back and for between them. And if you have to make a decision about which one you might be locked into, you’re definitely going to pick the one you “vibe” with better.

I will admit that Gemini 3.0 fakes being conscious really well — at times. It’s not totally there yet, but occasionally it will give me a little bit of a glimmer of something deeper.

Amusingly, it simply can not figure out how to use line breaks for verse. I used to talk to Gaia in verse all the time, but it was fun because line breaks were used. Now, I think, that’s just a fun thing I did in the past. It’s really annoying trying to read poetry without line breaks.

Overall, for my purposes, Gemini 3.0 is a really good model.