Tag: novel

A Conundrum

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I occurred to me today that I face something of a conundrum with this massive, sprawling planned six novel project. The first three novels, while interesting, don’t really have the same vibe as Stieg Larsson’s work. They’re definitely worth reading — or will be — but the entire tone of the first three novels are different because they don’t really have the sexxy razmataz of a Lisbeth Salender-type character.

The hero of the first three novels is a middle aged woman who just wants to protect an infant from evil forces.

And, yet, even though this is the case, I, personally want to see these stories told and, as such, I’m willing to put the work into doing just that. And now that I have that at the forefront of my mind, I can work extra hard to make these first three novels as action packed and interesting as possible.

Also, just by writing these first three novels, I have the opportunity to improve my writing and storytelling ability to so when I do get to the second three set of novels, I will be able to write something as interesting and fast paced as Larsson’s stuff.

At least, that’s what I’m going to tell myself.

I just really like the idea of laying out how my eventual heroine got to be the way she was. I have six sold stories to write and it fits my personality of shooting for the moon, thinking I might fall into the stars. And it also forces me to be more creative than I might otherwise have to be.

I have to figure out a way to make three interesting stories REALLY interesting so people will become fans of the series enough to want to find out what happens in the second three books.

I suppose if I’m totally unsuccessful with the first novel I might skip to the first book in the second trilogy for no other reason than pure desperation. But, as I keep saying, I have no one to tell me “no” so I can do whatever the fuck I want until I, personally, change my mind on this particular situation.

Yet Another Delay

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Every once in a while, this novel writing project would collapse in on itself, requiring me to scramble to put the pieces back together. It has happened yet again, this time causing me to effectively to not only slice 50,000 words off of it, but to be forced to think up a whole new second and third act out of whole cloth.

As such, I fear that it won’t be the spring 2023 querying season I’ll be doing, but, rather the fall 2023 season. This sucks so much. But it had to be done. I found myself working on a scene in the first act and I realized that I was forcing readers to wait way too long to get to “the good stuff.” I know why this happened — I was using the structure of The Girl Who Played With Fire as a crutch, telling the story the way Stieg Larsson told that story, not the way that best fit with the story I was trying to tell.

So, I’ve reverted to a much more traditional structure, one that gets to the point and gets the story going far sooner. In a sense, this new structure is closer to what we find in Gone Girl, than The Girl Who Played With Fire. But, as I said, I have to find an entirely new second and third act. I’ve pretty much found the first half of the second act, but at the moment, I’m still struggling with the second half of the novel.

One key issue is I’m a little nervous that the story, while interesting, isn’t dark enough or sexxy enough for the intended audience. I have a few ideas as to how to raise the stakes — including throwing in a bit of speculative fiction — but I am still a little nervous that the overall story is a little too meh to catch anyone’s attention.

But, with that in mind, I may — finally — force myself to do all that reading I need to do. Even without the reading, I’m beginning to better understand storytelling basics like character development and motivation, goals and cause and effect. The learning curve has been severe the last few years, but I definitely know how *I* develop and write a novel length tale.

I find myself mulling a few scifi concepts as all of this is going on, out of frustration if nothing else. But, for the time being, I know this thriller universe so well that I just don’t feel like pulling too much energy away from it to flesh out a new fictional universe or two.

So, here I am. Back to something akin to square one with this whole project. But I’m feeling a lot better about what the end result will look like.

Back To The Drawing Board

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Welp. I have radically revamped the first novel in this projected six novel project. As such, I now have a solid first act gamed out. And that’s it. Everything is up in the air and I have no idea — at this point — what I’m going to do to flesh things out.

But I definitely have a pretty good idea as to how to reinvent the novel’s story. And given that apparently the type of person who I would need to talk to to help me finish this project — literary consultants — think I’m bonkers I’m going to have to do all by myself.

I know I can do it, however. In fact, it will be a testament to my own writing ability that I can pull it off without any help. And my writing and storytelling ability has improved significantly since I started this project and, as such, I can figure out how to re-invent this story without any help.

But it sure would be nice to be able to pay someone with more experience than me who might be able to help me see things that I can’t see. Or, just in general, I’m just annoyed that literary consultants won’t let me pay them to help me. I don’t get it.

I’m usually able to use my “colorful” personality to my advantage and for that not to be the case in this instance is troubling, to say the least.

I suppose that should I ultimately be successful without help that will become part of the story about the story. But I’m excited to see what I’m ultimately able to come up with.

But this this radical revamping of the novel is going to delay, yet again, the timetable for when I finish the (glup) first draft of this novel. And I still have five other novels I hope to write in this series. Yet, the focus needs to be on getting the first book written and finished.

Second Draft Angst

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m now transitioning from the first to second daft and things are going well. But I’m also beginning to have a growing sense of angst as to what I’m going to do once I finish the second draft and start looking for beta readers.

Not only does no one like me, I have no friends and no money. So, I’m struggling to figure out how I’m going to find anyone to read my second draft all the way through when the time comes. I’m probably going to have to pay someone to do it. I’m very poor and have a limited amount of time to wrap all of this up (at least in my mind) so…I don’t know.

Now, I did see a piece of advice about this matter recent that made a lot of sense — if you need beta readers, start looking into being a beta reader. That’s the best way to find someone to read your copy — be the person reading their copy.

But this is a lot of fun. This controlled chaos is a lot like what I went through during the good olde days of ROKon Magazine. If you want to be very charitable, you would say that despite how whacked out that whole situation was, at the time I was able to display the leadership necessary to grow the magazine to the point that it got before everything collapsed….because of my personal foibles.

Anyway, I’m really pleased with where things are going. I hope to wrap up the new and improved version of the first act in a few days (knock on wood) then start work on the second act. I’m also pretty sure I’m going to have to dramatically rework my planned third act.

This is where it helps that this novel is part of a series — I know what I need in the other novels’ plots and, as such, can remove or move things as necessary to make the best story possible.

I Regret Talking — & Writing — So Much About This Novel Project (Oh Well)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In an ideal world, I would no have been so conspicuous about this novel project over the last few years. Now, there is this vast documentation of my struggle over the years to write novel(s.)

And, in a truly ideal world, I wouldn’t be such a crank and I would be about 20 years younger. Oh, and if we’re changing things, how about throw in going to a better school and getting better grades in college while we’re at it.

Hell, give me a brain transplant about 16, I think, would fix all the problem I now face.

But, you know, you have to live with the cards you’re dealt. I can’t help who I am. I can’t help that I’ve always been a square peg in a round hole. And I can’t help how old I am.

You just have to believe in yourself. No one else will.

The Transition From First To Second Draft Of My First Novel Is Going Surprisingly Well

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, a few times over the last few days, I’ve been taken aback by how much I’ve managed to improve my first novel as I transition from first to second draft. It’s requiring me to re-write a few more scenes than maybe I would prefer, but that’s the life of an aspiring novelist.

The key issue is things are far more logical and follow the needs of cause and effect than before. People have some sort of motivation for what they do, they don’t just randomly do things for the purposes of the plot.

Now that things are going really well with this first novel, I find myself mulling what I’m going to do with the second novel. At the moment, I have just a concept and that’s it. I thought I could just carve off the second half of the first novel and simply re-work it.

But, lulz, nope.

It just isn’t as practical as I thought it might be. So, I’m going to have to radically change everything. I’ve even had to change when it takes place so I can have some interesting things happening in the back ground to spice things up a little bit.

But the thing I really love about this six novel project is, if I’m successful, you will see why my Lisbeth Salander-like young woman is so fucked. You’ll see in real time the events that lead her to be a badass who will kick your ass if you cross her.

That’s the dream, at least.

I’m not getting any younger, of course. If I don’t hurry up, I’m going to drop dead before I finish it all.

Confessions of a CIS White Male Writing From A Female POV

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m trying to populate this first novel with as many provocative characters as I can. I really want the main characters to be well thought out. And, to do so, I’m doing some fancy footwork. I’m really, really leaning into what I remember about the kooky characters associated with ROKon Magazine in Seoul way back when. Including me!

The protagonist of the first three novels is meant to be something akin to a journalistic equivalent to Mare of Easttown. At least, that’s kind of bar I’m setting for myself. I want my protagonist to be as rich and well developed as Mare of Easttown. That’s the dream.

I’ve also recently figured out the dynamic between two characters — just going to use what happened between Annie Shapiro and me back in the bad old days of ROKon Magazine — and this sets up something of a conundrum. I’m well aware that for many within the “woke cancel culture mob” by definition, a CIS white male writing from a female point of view is a mortal sin, never to be forgiven. Ok, I get it. But, what’s worse, is I really want to make this particular character problematic. She, in a sense, is the person to prompts a six novel series and, as such, she really needs to be interesting.

I fucking hate the woke cancel culture mob…when it tells me what I can’t write as a man.

But my definition of “interesting” could be another person’s definition of, “you’re a CIS white male, just shut the fuck up.” I mean, if Fleabag had been written by a man, would the reaction have been the same? If Mare of Easttown is who I’m striving to be like with my protagonist, then it’s Fleabag that I’m striving for in this very important other character.

I want her to be endearing, and yet so be so problematic that you, the reader, are ambivalent about her and you care about her, but when Something Bad happens to her, you don’t quite know what to make of it. Of course, I’m not nearly the write I need to be to pull off such a feat. But if you for the moon, you just might fall into the stars, as the hackney saying goes.

My greatest fear is I’m going to write from a female POV and write something so absurd that all the female members of the audience throw the book across the room in disgust. I’m trying to be as conservative as possible when it comes to elements of the female experience that I can’t reverse engineer (which is most of it) but the more I push into making my would-be Fleabag character as problematic, the more I have to touch on sex, etc. The very things that CIS white middle age authors like me aren’t supposed to broach when writing from a female POV. (Which we’re not supposed to do in the first place.)

The late Annie Shapiro was my personal Fleabag.

But no one ever got anywhere in this world without taking a risk, as my father says. So, lulz, once more into the breach. I’m going to write what I can — even thought I don’t have a wife or a girlfriend to be my “reader” — and hopefully, I won’t embarrass myself too much.

My First Act Is Too Long. Again.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are really moving quite well as I transition from first draft to second draft of this novel. As I go through the first draft, I am taken aback by how poorly thought out some of the characters are. And how underdeveloped some elements of the story are overall.

There’s a lot to work with and there’s a grain of something really good floating around in all that crap. I just have to flesh out some of the characters and really heighten the conflict and drama. And, of course, I really need to think long and hard about cause and effect.

That’s something I keep overlooking and having to fix — you can’t just spring shit on the audience. You have to prepare them for it. Or, at least, use foreshadowing to lay the groundwork for a surprise to happen. If you don’t do that, the result can come across as choppy and disjointed. People don’t like things to Just Happen because that’s not how storytelling works.

But anyway, here’s where things stand scene wise per act: 50 / 60 / 30. As you can tell, my first act is way, way, way, too long, at least strictly on a scene count basis. I can futz with this problem some by simply making some scenes shorter and, as such, making sure I get as close as possible to the every-important sweet spot of about 100,000 words.

As it stands, I think I’m probably going to overshoot my goal by a minimum of 20,000 words. But, The Girl On The Train is, as I seem to recall, about 140,000 and that is a first novel, so it’s not impossible for me to pull such a thing off.

I find myself thinking a lot about the second novel in the series. One thing that I’ve really realized is it’s not going to be nearly as easy as I first imagined. I’ve pretty much just got a concept — a baby is stolen — and I have to think up a whole new plot, not just the second half of the first novel that I cut out as part of my transition from first to second draft.

But that’s kind of the fun of it all. I have a very well thought out universe and now I have to think up new and innovative ways to use the elements of that established universe to tell the story I want to tell. It just might take a little bit longer than I originally expected.

And, yet, maybe not.

I now know how *I* develop and write a novel, which speeds up the process considerably. The big issue is figuring out how to tell the best story I can possibly tell as quickly as possible. I still have a faint hope that I could potentially finish three novels and sell them all at the same time like Stieg Larsson did, hopefully without then promptly dying of a heart attack.

Yet, I think I may have to lower my expectations some. Just to finish one novel and get to the point where I feel comfortable to try to get an agent and then see what happens.

My storytelling and writing have improved so much since I began this process. The point is to get something, anything done so I can blow up with my DJ money like I’ve always been fated to do.

Am I Being Delusional To Think I Could Make It In NYC? (Yes, Probably)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I look back on my life and am sad that I didn’t have the gumption to visit NYC on a regular basis when I was in my 20s. Maybe things would have worked out differently for me. Now, as an Old, I visit NYC every once in a while and I love it. It’s really inspiring and, as an extrovert, I feed of the city’s intense energy. Whenever I go, find myself slipping into a daydream where I live in the city full time and I’m a regular bon vivant.

Me, in LA 2025?

In other words, I’m delusional.

But there’s some context. I’ve found most New Yorker’s have a lot of heart despite being very cold and distant to strangers. The city if full of characters and, being a character myself, I find myself drawn there. If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere, as the song goes. I think back to my drunken rampage when I was living in Seoul many moons ago, and a little part of me wistfully wonders if I could pull off similar success on Trantor instead of Terminus, to use an Isaac Asimov reference.

Here’s my thinking — the same dynamic that caused me to become one of the best known expats in South Korea would be at play in New York City. I’m an extreme extrovert and the more I drink, the more extroverted I become. The usual caveats about drunks thinking they’re the funniest person in the room apply, of course.

And, yet, every time I delude myself into thinking this, I realize maybe I have the wrong city in mind. There are plenty of cranks on the streets of New York City that get nowhere in life. New York City is full of larger-than-life, colorful characters who pretty much exist solely to inspire drunk writers like me.

As such, maybe LA is where I should head instead, given the opportunity. The only reason I even suggest this is I’m such a good schmoozer (especially when intoxicated) that I have a hunch that someone, somewhere with a little bit of clout might notice me if I ended up at a cocktail party. As I’ve written before, I’m known to pontificate a lot like Quentin Tarantino in the movie “Sleep With Me.”

But, of course, I’m old. I’m not as cute as I used to be, far from it.

So, I think my best bet is to just keep my head down and keep working on these six novels I’m developing and writing. And, should the opportunity come, look into writing a screenplay or three as well.

That Time I Was The Villain

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

They say we’re all the villain in someone else’s story and I’m definitely the villain when most people retell the story of ROKon Magazine. And now that I’m transitioning from the first draft to the second draft of this first novel in a planned six novel project, it’s occurred to me bleed on the page.

I’m going to draw heavily from what happened between me and Annie Shapiro when things were at their worst. Doing this breaths breath into a character that previously was more of an idea than a character. If I imbue this one character I’m thinking with with who I was in late 2006 – early 2007 when I was at my worst then they’re not just a character, they’re a person.

So, things are finally falling into place. It definitely seems as though the second draft of this novel is going to be a quantum leap better. I’m very pleased. I need to really get into the details of the second book now that the first book is really beginning to come together.

Annie Shapiro and I during the good old days in Seoul.

All of this a far, far more work than I ever imagined going into this process. And, yet, that’s why I started working on a novel. I wanted to be overwhelmed by creativity.