Tag: novel

I Really Need To Buckle Down & Finish This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really need to change my mindset when it comes to this scifi dramedy novel I’ve been working on. I have got to stop just drifting towards my goal. I have to buckle down and see this as my job for the time being.

Until circumstances change and I have to, at last, grow up (again.)

I continue to try to wrap this novel up and begin querying it by late spring 2026. But that might be something of a struggle. It could be closer to autumn 2026, which would suck.

I hate how old I am.

But, really, all I really want with this novel is to finish it and have someone, anyone read it and enjoy it — preferably someone not related to me. If someone actually finished the entire thing and gave me even a lukewarm review that would be astonishing, all things considered.

AI has helped a lot, but it has also made things more difficult in some way. I keep feeling like I’m spinning me wheels because my vision for this novel and AIs vision for this novel sometimes are dramatically different and I have to go in and force things back to where I want them.

Anyway. I really, really need to change my mindset about working on this novel. This unique, weird, surreal moment in my life is not going to last forever. And I’d prefer to finish a really good novel before I’m 80 years old.

I Got ‘Fire In A Bottle’ With This Scifi Dramedy Novel, I Swear — FR, FR

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For all half a dozen of you weirdly playing the obsessive home game with me and this blog, you will know I’ve been working on a novel of one type or another for a long, long time now.

And it’s taken so long, I’ve come to believe, because I had a missing ingredient — a collaborator. Someone to bounce ideas off of. And, most especially someone to tell me “No,” or look at their watch and tell me maybe I need to hurry up.

But I’m really pleased with the premise of this scifi dramedy. It’s really good. At last. Now, I just have to go through the outline I’ve come up with through some collaboration with AI and actually finish the damn thing.

I still have a huge amount of work to do. And given how obvious the premise is, someone might steal a creative march on me if I keep daydreaming and now working on this novel.

As such, I think I’m going to buckle down and try — try — to change my mindset about working on this novel. I need to see this novel as my job (for the time being) until events change and I’m forced to…gulp…get an actual job simply because everything in my life collapses and this weird, surreal moment in my life finally, at last, changes.

Someone Do Something Fun-Interesting

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are kind of meh right now. I wish someone would do something fun-interesting. It would be amusing if, say, I caught the attention of some minor celebrity. Or maybe someone with a really interesting URL pinged this blog.

As it stands, I’m just a rando living in the middle of nowhere with a tad more “potential” (as the late Annie Shapiro might say) than I otherwise should have. If I had the money, I would make my own fun-interesting and go to NYC.

Though, if I had enough money on me, I might say screw it and take a jaunt to LA instead. I think I probably would excel in LA given my extroverted personality. And, yet, I’m old(er) now.

So, maybe not.

Maybe that moment in time when I might get invited randomly to a cool party with a bunch of Hollywood stars and producers through sheer force of personality is long, long gone.

I’m just old now and I have to manage my expectations.

Once More, With Feeling (Redux)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I think — think — I have a stable first chapter of the latest version of this scifi dramedy novel I’ve been working on. What I need, of course, is a human collaborators to help me out. A reader, if you will. Someone like Helen from The World According To Garp to read over and over and over again all these different versions of scenes I keep generating.

But all I got is AI.

And AI does a pretty good job, most of the time. Sometimes, of course, it get a wild hair and does something really wonky. But that’s only occasionally. I’m really pleased, in general, with what I’ve managed to come up with.

I just wish I did not keep finding structural issues with the plot so I have to revise the outline. This happens way, way too often. Even with the help of AI. There’s a big difference, sometimes, between AIs vision for the novel and my innate vison. So I struggle.

And sometimes I feel like the whole process has gotten out of my grasp and I have to figure out ways to lock the creative process down some so I’m still in control. All this back and forth between myself and AI causes me to feel like I’m spinning my wheels.

I’m not getting any younger. I still really want to wrap up this novel and start querying by late spring 2026. But…I don’t know. It could be fall 2026 before I get to that point.

Which is, I fear, kind of depressing.

My Ultimate Fear About Writing This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My ultimate fear about writing this scifi dramedy novel I’m writing it that, by definition, I’m too old to get it traditionally published. Most people my age are thinking about retirement and here I am, hoping to start a successful traditional publishing career writing pop fiction.

While Stieg Larsson (RIP) did get published when he was 50, I’m even older than that now and by the time the novel comes out — if I win the lottery and gets traditionally published — I will be on the other side of 55 because of post-production issues.

And, yet, I’m delusional. I really am. I know what I want — to be traditionally published — and I don’t know for sure, 100% that my age is prohibitive of my ability to get traditionally published. So, lulz. I keep going.

And, really, all I want is just to finish a novel that I’m not embarrassed to show to a few people. And if I could get a few people to actually read the whole thing and give me an opinion. Wow. That would be a rather great accomplishment, given that usually my writing is so bad that I can’t even get people to either or 1) finish the novel 2) give me an opinion.

As far as I know, no one has finished any of the various novels I’ve tried my hand at writing. So, to have someone not only finish this novel, but give me an opinion, wow. That would be huge!

I See AI As Like A New Form Of Word Processor When It Comes To Writing This Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am doing everything in my power to make sure that all the actual writing of this novel is done by me, me, me. But one thing is also clear — writing a novel is easy, writing a good novel is difficult.

As such, I am leaning into AI to help me with the backend of writing this novel. It speeds up and streamlines a lot of the tedious elements of development, like scene summaries.

So, in a sense, it’s just a tool when it comes to writing this novel. But, I must admit, it’s also something of a collaborator. I sometimes get really good advice from the LLMs that I use on a regular basis.

That’s why I finally broke down and paid for Claude LLM. It’s a great manuscript consultant and I like how it challenges me more than some of the other LLMs I use.

Anyway, wish me luck, I guess. It’s fortunate that I actually usually really enjoy — even love — the act of writing.

2026 Will Suck

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For reasons personal and not so personal, I fear 2026 is going to suck and egg. For my part, my life is going to change in ways I just can’t control starting as early as late this month.

But I also think that 2026, because there’s a mid-term election, is a prime candidate for year we actually have a civil war or (Blue) revolution. I could totally see Trump doing something crazy in regards to the the 2026 midterms and, lulz, the country collapses into a civil war (or Blue Revolution.)

I say this in the context of Trump and MAGA clearly thinking they will never hav to either be held accountable or ever leave office. So, lulz. It could be that 2026 is kind of the very last fish or cut bait for Americans when it comes to what’s left of our democracy.

If Trump really does fuck with the 2026 mid-terms and…nothing happens, then, welp, it was fun while it lasted. We made it barely to 250 years of empire and then it all just faded away into tyranny.

I do hope, however, that I might as early as spring 2026 finish a novel worth querying. And, honestly, I just want to write a novel good enough that the people I send it to…finish it and give me an opinion.

That would be quite an accomplishment, given my history with such things!

At A Loss (For The Moment)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have been using AI to game out the outline of my scifi dramedy to reasonable success. But, as always, I run smack into a problem when I take the wheel, as it were.

When I start to go through the outline and change things relative to my own vision of the novel, sometimes I really have problems figuring out what to do. That’s what’s going on right now with the first chapter which I, yet again, working on.

I really feel like I’m spinning my wheels, yet again, on this novel, but lulz, the novel is getting much, much better because my hero is becoming a lot more proactive. That’s been a real problem with this novel — and all my novels that I’ve attempted: my hero has been too passive.

I think that says more about how I view the world than anything else, but again, lulz.

Anyway, so right now, things are like this one chapter of setup and then the inciting incident happens in the second chapter. I’ve finished fleshing out the first three scenes, which is good. But the next two scenes are really causing me troubles.

As an aside, I’m really annoyed at how leery of sexual content all the major LLMs are as I work on this novel. One of them even accused me of being “lazy!” But, I think they probably had a point. I do tend slip into writing spicy scenes when I’m bored or can’t figure out what to do with a scene.

But it really is a pain to move the creative ship of state from what I’m given by the AI for an outline and turning into something that interests me, or I actually want to expend the time writing.

Wish me luck

The Third Act Of My Scifi Dramedy Is Something Of A Mystery At The Moment

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have spent all day filling out the first and second acts of this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on. But, for the time being, I’m very uncertain about what the third act will be, even though I have written out a simple, tentative outline for it.

So. I don’t quite know what I’m going to do.

I think what I might do is simply start writing again on the novel and just punt the issue of the third act down the road. I’m really pleased with what I’ve come up with for the first and second acts, but the third at….oh boy.

I got Gemini 2.5 pro to help me with some form of third act but I’m not very happy with it. I know in my gut what I want to do for the third act, but it keeps getting shot down by various AIs that I use to help me with the novel.

Ugh. Technology.

But, like I said, I think I’m going to just write on the novel and not be so worried about the third act just yet. I still have lot of time. I fixed a major structural problem with the novel whereby I did not have a “fun and games” part of the novel.

Now I do, which is cool.

I think I’m going to just chill out for a day or so then start writing again after I’ve given myself some time to reflect.

Outline Collapse & Rebirth — AGAIN

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My outline collapsed AGAIN. But this time, I think I may, just may have figured things out. Maybe. The biggest issue that’s been fixed is my “fun and games” portion of the novel really is fun and games, not a dark spiral.

That really helps a lot.

At this specific moment, I’m at the midpoint of the novel’s outline. I am either going to keep moving along, or take a little bit of a break for the rest of the day. This fleshing out the outline has really taken a lot out of me.

But I continue to have lingering, chronic teeth issues and I’m afraid the jig will b up sooner rather than later and I’ll be in such severe pain that I can think straight, much less work on an outline. I’m hoping I can stagger along long enough for my dentist appointment later this month.

But, I don’t know.

Anyway, AI is really helping me a great deal with the outline. But it’s not perfect. It’s too easy to just use it all as a crutch, only to find out that the AI has totally fucked things up by hallucinating and everything has to be redone.

This has happened more times than I would like to think.

Wish me luck.