Tag: Replicants

I Worry This Scifi Dramedy Is Too Spicy

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t know what to tell you, folks. I’m writing about a sexbot and I worry there’s too much…sex…in the novel. And, yet, I don’t know. Maybe I’m overthinking things, looking things too much through the lens of a movie.

The point is to tell a good story and if I can tell a good story while depicting a lot of spicy content, all the better.

But I’m WELL AWARE that the “woke cancel culture mob” will likely hate this novel for various personal and fictional reasons. I can’t help who I am. And I can’t help that I came up with a pretty good idea for a novel that just happened to lend itself to lots of spicy scenes.

My biggest problem right now is how fucking moody I am when it comes to writing. I spend way too much time daydreaming rather than writing. Though I have to admit that using Claude LLM and Gemini LLM as my manuscript consultants has really helped a lot.

And I know because everything is horrible that any whiff of an idea that I used AI to help write this novel will cause a lot of people to dismiss the whole endeavor as “AI slop.”

It’s not. I swear.

I’ve done all the heavy lifting, with some assistance from AI.

Making My Way Through The Second Half Of This Scifi Dramedy I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m now easing myself into the second chapter of the second half of the novel I’ve been working on for some time now. Things are, in general, going pretty well. My biggest issue is how much I’m going to have to totally rewrite the scenes as I get to them.

The story continues to drift away from what I originally had, so as such I’ve found myself having to rewrite a little bit more — maybe a lot more — than expected.

One issue that has come up some is there are some “spicy” elements to to this novel that LLMs balk at. As I keep saying, I’m doing all the heavy lifting, using AI as sort of a modern day spellcheckr, but it can be a little bit annoying to feel like the AIs I’m using are “judging” me for having sexxy content.

It’s not that bad. I really haven’t had that many problems as of yet. A few little quirks.

I definitely have found that Claude LLM is a much better manuscript consultant than Gemini LLM. Though, I will note, Gemini LLM is very quirky and has a lot of personality because of some of the quirky things that have been saved to my “Personal Intelligence” feature.

Now In The Second Half Of This Scifi Dramedy I’ve Been Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The hope is, that once I finish this draft of this novel I’ve been working on for some time now that the NEXT time I go through it will be a breeze. I will just lightly edit it here and there to make absolutely sure that it’s in my own voice and people can’t accuse me “having AI write it.”

My fear, of course, is that I’ll read it the next time and see all these opportunities to make it better and that will slow me down significantly.

But as of right now, I’m feeling pretty good about this novel.

Though, it is of note that absolutely no on but me believes in any of this. I had an alarming conversation with a relative about the movie Ex Machina and….they pretty much said anyone who thought such things up must be some sort of twisted sicko.

I tried to tell her that, “Well….” but it did not register. Which makes me wonder what this person will say once this novel is finished and I MIGHT want her to read it. I find that doubtful now, though. No point.

I’m really going to struggle to find people to serve as Beta Readers I fear. And I’m growing really nervous about what kind of reception I should expect from the mostly liberal white women who make up literary agents. I’m kind of a kook and when they do due diligence on me…they might not like what they find.

And that doesn’t event begin to address the woke cancel culture mob generally not liking any sort of sex written by a smelly male, especially a smelly middle-aged male like me.

Anyway.

Right now, my biggest problem is I have too much information for the characters to process. Too many big events have happened in quick succession and I need to figure out a way to slow things down, to process information over the course of a few scenes, not just one.

But we’ll see, I guess.

My Biggest Worries About My Novel At The Moment

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

  1. Too Much AI
    I am very self-conscious about there being any AI used to actually write anything in this novel. My hope is, through the editing process, I can eliminate any “AI speak” that may have slipped through the development process. I have worked so hard on this novel, I would be devastated if it was unpublishable because I had used AI too much to actually write it. (Which I haven’t.)
  2. It’s Too Spicy
    There is a lot of sex in this novel. And I’m worried that the very nature, the very premise, of the novel will be seen as “too trashy” for the liberal white women I imagine make up most literary agents. But who knows. The novel is shaping up to be pretty good, all things considered.
  3. I’m Too Big A Kook
    I’m really worried that whenever I get into the querying process and literary agents are doing “due diligence” on me that they will read this blog, or my social media presence and be extremely spooked that I’m just too big of a weirdo to sell a novel. But we’ll see, I guess. Stranger things and all that.

Feeling Insecure About My Novel’s ‘Comp,’ Annie Bot

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The core difference between my novel and Annie Bot is mine is told from the POV of the “owner” of the android. Similar premises, in a sense, but told from the exact opposite POV.

Now, I decided to tell my novel this way because, well, lulz, the woke cancel culture mob demands that men only write from a male POV and as such, lulz, I have to write it the way I am.

Of course, given GenZ’s general “no sex please” sentiment that is ANOTHER issue that I have to worry about. My novel has a lot of spicy content in it for various and obvious reasons.

But I worry that 1) Annie Bot is better written than my novel and 2) the woke cancel culture mob will poo-poo my attempt to write a dramedy about a man’s relationship to an android he subscribes to.

And, yet, I really like what I’ve come up with. It is, all things considered, pretty good. It’s quite an entertaining yarn, if I do say so myself.

Turbulence Ahead

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m beginning to believe that the long dreaded turbulence I’ve expected for my personal life is going to happen soon. It could totally throw the context of me working on this novel out of whack.

And, yet, I’ve been grateful for how long I’ve had the idyllic situation.

At this point, I just want to finish a novel that I’m proud of. Any thing else that might happen will be icing on the cake, as it were.

I still haven’t read Annie Bot. I still haven’t read any of the books I have on querying. I just can’t bring myself to do such things just yet.

I think once I actually finish the novel — no matter how trashy it might ultimately be — that is when I will really start to take querying more seriously. Right now, it’s still something of an abstract.

Beginning To Approach The Midpoint Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel (Again)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m in what I’m calling the “color correction” phase of this novel’s development. I’m trying to not rewrite anything — or as little as possible — but I keep failing. I’m supposed to just be editing when absolutely necessary to kind of get everything in shape, but I find myself just giving in to the temptation to rewrite entire scenes.

That proclivity, of course, is slowing me down.

The next stage of things will be a lot quicker — once I’m done with this version of the novel, I’m going to re-read it one last time before handing it over to Beta Readers. I just want to make sure I put things in my voice as much as possible, just in case any “AI speak” slips past me when I get AI to “gently edit” the text of what I’ve written.

As of right now, at least, I continue to be on track to query around Sept 1st. I still — still! — have three books about querying I need to read and yet to date refuse to do so. I’m skcart, as they say.

I’m scared that after all this work, I’ll stumble across a passage in the querying books that makes it clear that I can absolutely never successfully query this novel. Ugh. And, yet, I also know that I have to read the books.

I am probably going to start serious development work on a new novel once I wrap up this novel, so I have something to work on while I query.

Update On My Scifi Dramedy WIP Novel For March 18th, 2026

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, I’ve finished A Draft of this scifi dramedy novel I’ve been working on. And now, I don’t quite know what to do.

I guess what I will do is go through and read the entire draft to get some sense of what happens next. I worry there are some structural issues that would cause me to have to do plot “open heart surgery” on the novel, but I just don’t know.

Maybe that won’t happen.

What you’re SUPPOSED to do at this point is take a month-long break and then start work on the next draft. But this draft is unique because it’s really a mixture of vomit draft and second draft.

As such, I think, as I mentioned, I’m going to go through and read the entire novel updating the outline as I do.

Now, one issue is the time frame for when I am going to query the final production of this novel. I still think it’s going to be Sept 1st for various post-production reasons.

Anyway, I am, in general pleased with where things stand. I just can’t continue to drift towards my goal. I need to buckle down and get things done with this thing. As I keep saying, I continue to worry that my kooky nature will — and age — will prevent me from selling this novel, no matter how good it may be.

Just About In The Next Stage Of My Scifi Dramedy WIP

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have a few more scenes to write with this scifi dramedy I’m working on before I take things to the next level: reading it all the way through.

Once THAT is done, then I will get more into the nitty-gritty of “color correction” so there is some consistency of tone to it all.

I’m hoping to do something different than previous times I’ve gotten to this point when things seemed to fall apart for various reasons. I really need to keep this draft to myself as long as possible before giving it to anyone to read.

It definitely looks as though I’m on track to start querying no later than Sept 1st. I might actually wrap things up a few months before then — maybe — but as I understand it, there are two “seasons” for querying: spring and fall. So, once everyone is done with their summer vacations, I suppose I can start to query.

Now, obviously, I have to prepare myself for a catastrophic disaster, failure. In the sense that any number of things could go wrong, from be being simply too old, to me being to big of a kook, to the novel just sucking no matter what to…the list goes on.

But at least I will have tried. At least I will have experience something interesting and cool.

One thing I will need to do is start work on a new novel while I query. And, yet, I also know I’m getting up their in age and while it will be a distraction to write a new novel, I have to accept that if I don’t sell this first novel that the next novel is probably just for fun no matter what.

I just will be too fucking old to be a first-time traditionally published author.

Update On My Scifi Dramedy WIP For March 15th, 2026

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The movie that is the closest “comp” to my novel is the horror-thriller movie Companion. But I continue to be intrigued about how there hasn’t been a direct competitor to my novel that deals with the practical elements of actual romance with an android.

Everyone is so busy thinking of the absolute worst case scenario that no one — but me so far — has wondered about a more nuanced romantic scenario.

Anyway, I continue to edge closer and closer to wrapping this draft of the novel up. I’m, at the moment at least, breezing through the third act. Then, I’m going to take a deep, deep breath and do “open heart surgery” on some of the structure of the novel. And THEN, I’m going to going to “color correct” the novel’s content on a more nuance basis.

I still am weighing leaning into having AI being my editor and having it “gently” the novel to give it some consistency as well as query-level content. My only fear, of course, is because everyone is hateful that they will just roll their eyes and say “AI wrote the novel,” when that will not be the case at all.

Anyway. I’m growing more and more uneasy about what happens when I get to the querying process. I’m really nervous about due diligence on the part of mostly liberal white women who make up literary agents (in my imagination.) I’m a kook and always have been and I’m afraid they will “cancel” me even before given me any sort of chance with the novel.

I have three books about querying I should be reading, but just can’t bring myself to do it. But there will come a point when I absolutely have to.