Things Keep Getting Better With This First Thriller In A 5 Novel Project



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My pause in writing continues to provide benefits. Things are getting a lot better with the latter part of the first novel in this planned five novel project. There’s going to come a point when I’m going to use this pause to work again on developing the other novels.

I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed by this project, but that’s what I wanted. And, yet, I have to manage my expectations. There are so many things that could still go wrong. And I have to be realistic — I can’t very well will five novels into existence, and sell them, if I can’t even finish a first draft of the first novel.

I’m hoping this is my third hat trick. My first hat trick was at the VPA. My second was while I was in Seoul. I figure I can manage a third. I just have to buckle down and actually do the work.

And “doing the work” involves doing a lot of reading and re-reading. I’ve done some reading already, but I have to keep at it. I hate how fast time goes when you’re 39 and holding.

Raising The Stakes


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m taking a little bit of a pause in writing — a few days — and I’m already beginning to see results. It reminds me of how I was inspired all the time when I was in Seoul. But, then, of course, I was pretty unstable because of the pressure from being A Public Figure in the minds of my fellow expats.

The late Annie Shapiro and me back when I was a man on fire in Seoul.

But, anyway, it has occured to me that I have not really thought out the latter half of this first novel very well. It’s just not very dramatic. Things just…kind of happen. Things are wrapped up way too easily. There isn’t the necessary sturm and drang that a thriller climax deserves.

So, lulz, back to the drawing board.

I think I may have come up with a solution. It’s such a great solution, too. It not only raises the stakes, but makes the story’s climax far, far more dramatic. And, in a sense, things make a lot more sense. As it stands, the reader goes through the trouble of buying the first novel, reads all these words and then…meh? Everything is just wrapped up with no boom or bang.

Develop, develop, write, write, write

Now, at least, I have something to work with. The ending now potentially not only is far more climatic, it sets the stage for the opening scene of the next novel in the series.

I’m really going to have to stretch my writing ability, though. I will note that I’ve always wanted to be a popular writer, not a good writer. Wink.

Of Marketing These Five Thrillers


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m just daydreaming here, but I often find myself thinking about the marketing of these five novels and how that should change the novels themselves. One issue is, as it stands, the Olivia Munn-type character is the protagonist of only two of the novels. Then her son is the protagonist for two novels and then my Lisbeth Salander-type person is the hero of the last book.

This works, at least from a creative standpoint because I see the first three novels as a trilogy and the last two novels as the beginning a new series based around my personal interpolation of the Lisbeth Salander trope.

And, yet, at the heart of these five novels is the relationship between the Olivia Munn-type character and my Lisbeth Salander type character. But I sometimes find myself struggling with how all of this would be marketed. People want a character they know they’re going to come back to once they grow familiar with it and I wonder how marketing would deal with the shift in focus over the course of the series.

I personally think I’m overthinking things. The point is to tell a series of great stories that have an overall theme to them. I can’t get too worked up about the marketing of the stories if I do a good to great job telling the individual stories. And it’s not like people’s favorite character — if she becomes one — will be missing. She’ll still be there, it’s just the focus will be on her son, and, then, later a fucked up woman about Lisbeth Salander’s age in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Imagine Olivia Munn playing this type of character (to some extent) and that would be the protagonist two novels in this series and the series’ overall heart.

And, I want to be clear, my interpolation of the Lisbeth Salander trope is a variation on a theme. The two characters are dramatically different, to the point that, again, only for marketing purposes might their similarities be enough to highlight.

Anyway, I have a long ways to go before I have to worry about such things in real terms. I have to fucking finish an actual first draft, for Christ’s sake. But every time I get closer to a serious first draft, I get closer to not embarrassing myself.

It’s just taken much, much, much longer than I expected because apparently my storying telling ability sucked a lot more than I realized when I began this process a few years ago.

Olivia Munn, Call Your Agent (Maybe, Eventually?)



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Feeling rather sheepish about this. Rather than talking about this change, I should keep it to myself. But, alas, I have no friends and no one likes me — and I’m 100% extroverted! — so, lulz, here we are.

So, the newest version of this first novel in what I hope will be a five novel series has me go back to what I had before — a female protagonist who in my imagination looks a lot like Olivia Munn. I really need to stop doing this. I really need to, like, finish the first novel so I can, if nothing else, try to get to the next step in the process — have beta readers.

But here I am, starting all over again.

And, yet, at least I’m starting from scratch for a reason. I hope to do some reading — and development — before I start writing again so when I do I’m going to knock what I do write out of the park.

That, at least is the vision.

And, yada, yada, yada, I sell the novel or novels, the series a huge success and Olivia Munn plays the heroine of these first few novels in the series. You gotta dream, man. Dreaming is free.

Time To Do Some Reading


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve reached something of a milestone — I’ve completed something akin to a pretty decent first act of a first draft of an actual, honest-to-God thriller novel in the tradition of Stieg Larsson.

This is the point where I sheepishly admit that I have about 50 scenes for this first act, which is way too long if each scene is about 1,000 words. Your novel is supposed to be 25% first act 50% second act and 25% third act. If I held to that, I would now be looking at a novel with around 200,000 words.

There are a few solutions, given that the sweetspot for someone in my situation is 80,000 to 120,000 words. One is, the individual scenes aren’t all 1,000 words, but only average 1,000 words. The other is, the rest of the novel isn’t strictly setup the way it’s “supposed” to be and so it’s more like 40%, 40%, 20%. That’s not too bad. But right now, I’m looking at just about 80 scenes for the Second Act so…I got a problem.

Another way to look at this is, I’m just working on a first draft. I can always hack away at things when I work on the second draft. I’d rather have too much than too little copy going into the second draft so, lulz.

As I keep saying, this is the first novel in what is planned to be a five novel (3 + 2) series, with the last two novels hopefully starting an open ended series with my own interpolation of the Lisbeth Salander trope.

At least, that’s the dream.

But I still have a huge amount of work to do. As such, I’ve decided to switch gears for about a week and concentrate on doing a lot of the reading that I’ve not done since I started this project. The second act is where the police procedural element of the novel comes to the fore and I have to figure out how to at least not to embarrass myself.

So, throwing myself into reading it is. There is so much reading I have neglected. Giving myself a sold week of just reading should not only inform things going forward but also refresh me so when I throw myself back into the novel I’ll see things with clear eyes again.

It sure would help if I had a muse, or a girlfriend or a wife.

Known Unknowns of Post-Production


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are humming along with this first novel in what I hope will be a five novel series. But I’m beginning to grow alarmed at the idea that I’m not taking into account something — even if I sell this series (or just the first book) — there would be a six month to a year delay before the book was actually published.

This is beginning to cause me a great deal of angst.

But I have to press on. At this point, selling any of these novels would be literally the literary equivalent of winning the fucking publishing lottery. However, I see this project as existential for no other reason if I wasn’t working on it, I really wouldn’t doing much of anything else creatively. I would continue do what I did for years and years after leaving Seoul — drift — and I would be in a dark and miserable place.

So, working on five novels it is.

Let’s rock.

Ok, A Novel Development ‘To Do List’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My goal the next few days will be to finally — finally — get into the second act. I’ve printed out the outline for the first act and now it’s just a matter of taking my Sharpie and sketching out individual scene summaries in long hand before I get back to writing.

I’m really kind of annoyed at how long it’s taking me to get where I want to be with this novel. I theoretically have four other novels to work on and I need to get to them, chop chop. I continue to think about idly, the idea of turning my attention to a tightly written novel of about 100,000 words (100 scenes) but I just can’t bring myself ot do it.

I’ve been too much time on this specific universe and, fuck that. I can do this. I just have to believe in myself. Though, to be honest, I wish I had a muse. It would be nice to have someone, anyone in my life who I could talk to about these novels.

As it is, I got squat.

I’m totally working in a vacuum. I’m believe I can get this project done a lot faster than you might think, however. It’s just a matter of putting in the work. I’m a very unique situation right now.

I’m very grateful to have this opportunity and it sure is going to hurt if this moment in my life ends and I’ve not even managed to write one fucking novel all the way through.

‘Murder Most Foul’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well. Now that I’ve decided to not only shoehorn myself into this first novel, but to murder that character off, I’ve come to the point where I have to figure out how, exactly, I’m going to do it.

I have an idea.

It’s a method that will allow me to remind people of how the little town I’ve come up with is pretty well organized and if they don’t like you, they can get rid of you in a pretty evil way, not leaving any fingerprints. But to pull it off, I’m going have to point out something about the geography of the town so when I knock the character off it won’t be too abrupt or silly.

But drama and comedy are two sides of the same coin, so, I can fix any problems with tone by simply being very aware of the potentially silly nature of my proxy character’s demise.

Overall, things are going really well with this first novel. It is March now, however. If I’m not careful, I’m going to wake up in a year and be exactly where I am now. I have to push forward and get into the second act as quickly as possible.

There continues to be a little part of me that wants to use all of my storytelling ability that I’ve learned over the last few years to write a different novel that is a tight 100,000 words. But, to date, my ego just won’t let me do that. I love these five novels too much.

I know I can write them, I just have to put in the hard work.

Of ‘Fleabag,’ ROKon Magazine & Daydreaming About Jennifer Lawrence In The Movie Version Of This First Novel


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really need to shut up about any potential movie adaptation of a novel that’s not even finish yet. But, lulz, I’m a nobody and the only people who read this blog are stalkers or people who stumble across it for this or that reason.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

It’s the murder of a Fleabag-type character that ultimately serves as the catalyst for the dramatic transformation of small Southern town I’ve come up with. I’ve mentioned that Bella Thorne would be ideal to play the character in any movie potential movie adaptation, but I have a huge ego and, as such, I realize what I really what is Jennifer Lawrence to play a person that Bella Thorne could play just by being herself.

LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 01: Jennifer Lawrence attends a photocall for “Passengers” at Claridge’s Hotel on December 1, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)

The character is inspired — even based on — the late Annie Shapiro who was, in her own way, at least somewhat like Fleabag. (This is really stretching it, but Fleabag is a character everyone understands when you invoke it and as such, that’s why I’m using it.)

The late Annie Shapiro. RIP.

Annie Shapiro was a very, very unique person. And I’ve been trying to tell our story in the context of ROKon Magazine in Seoul for the better part of 20 years now. But I’ve finally accepted that it’s just not going to happen. So, instead, I’m using things I know to be true and pouring them into a five novel series set around something else I know to be true — what it’s like to live in a small Southern town.

So, I guess what I’m saying is, in my mind, the character whose murder changes everything is a mixture of Annie Shapiro fused with Fleabag as played by Jennifer Lawrence if she was channeling Bella Thorne.

Bella Thorne

Anyway.

A Sprint To The Second Act


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m not getting any younger. If I’m destined to die of a widow maker heart attack like Stieg Larsson, I would at least like to have finished ONE novel. If I could manage to get four other novels done as well, that would be great.

Stieg Larsson

Anyway, I at least now know how many scenes I need to write before I enter the second act of this novel. The novel continues to have too many overall scenes and everything past the mid point is quite muddled — I just don’t know how I’m going to adjust the structure of the novel now that I’ve not only shoehorned myself into it as a character but am going to kill myself off before the end of the novel.

But I have to kill myself off in the novel — I don’t want to do the cop-out route of killing the character off in between novels. I want the audience to see what happened to the character. They will see the emotional hand off to the real heart of the series — a Mare of Easttown like woman who looks a lot like Olivia Munn (at least in my imagination.)

Olivia Munn

I risk getting kind of cocky. There have been plenty — plenty! — of times over the last few years when I thought I was going to zoom through a version of my first novel, only to have everything collapse in a rather abrupt manner.

But you have to have hope. I refuse to simply drop dead and not have at least one decent novel under my belt. And once I finish my first novel, I’m hoping that the development and writing of the other four novels will go much, much quicker.

There is the issue of if I do sell this first novel that I’ll be known as a thriller writer when I see myself as much more of a scifi author. But that’s really worrying over stupid shit at this point. The issue is to just get something, anything done.

If I do manage to write five novels I will be ecstatic.