Tag: scifi

I Really Need A Back Up Novel!

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m old. Too old to do what I want with this new scifi concept I’ve come up with — write a trilogy. So, instead, I hope to write a tight novel that deals with a really profound concept.

The idea is something I’ve written about before, something I call The Impossible Scenario.

I think — think — I’ve come up with an interesting way to present the story. I only am even doing any of this because as I work on the actual main novel I’m working on….I’m getting a little nervous.

I’m getting a little nervous that the characters aren’t very likeable. As such, I want a novel where there’s no question that the main character is likeable and interesting.

Of course, I have to put my weird spin on things, but that’s to be expected.

Why My Upcoming Sci-Fi Dramedy is the Chaotic Antidote to Annie Bot

Editor’s Note: The usual AI slop, this time with the help of Gemini.

Every writer knows the specific, stomach-dropping terror of seeing a newly published book that shares a premise with the manuscript they are currently writing. When Sierra Greer’s Annie Bot hit the shelves—a novel about a human man and his newly sentient, synthetic girlfriend—I definitely had a moment of panic.

But after taking a breath and reading it, the panic completely evaporated. While Annie Bot and my upcoming novel share a starting spark, the fires they start are entirely different.

If you just finished Annie Bot and are looking for your next AI-centric read, here is why my novel is going to scratch a completely different itch:

The Tragedy of the Penthouse vs. The Comedy of the Gutter

Annie Bot is a brilliant, claustrophobic literary chamber piece. It operates as a heavy allegory for domestic abuse and coercive control. The human protagonist is a wealthy, calculating narcissist who uses his power to keep his AI partner subservient and locked away from the world. The horror comes from his deliberate cruelty.

My novel is not a domestic tragedy; it is a dark sci-fi dramedy. My protagonist isn’t a calculating billionaire playing god in a penthouse. He is a broke, morally conflicted guy who is entirely out of his depth. The tension in my book doesn’t come from a man trying to maliciously control a machine; it comes from a deeply flawed human realizing he is financially and bureaucratically trapped by a massive, dystopian corporate system he can’t fight. It’s the difference between a psychological thriller and a Coen Brothers movie set in a cyberpunk tomorrow.

Submissive Discovery vs. Weaponized Logic

The heart of Annie Bot is Annie’s slow, agonizing realization that she is a victim who deserves autonomy. She is designed to be compliant, and her journey is about quietly learning to rebel against her programming.

In my novel, the synthetic partner doesn’t need a slow-burn realization to figure out she’s getting a raw deal. When the illusion of her programming shatters, she immediately does the math. Instead of submissive discovery, she weaponizes cold, terrifying AI logic to brutally dissect her human partner’s flaws. She isn’t a passive victim learning her worth; she is an active, dangerous, and highly calculating co-conspirator.

The Micro vs. The Macro

Annie Bot delves deeply into the micro. It asks profound questions about intimacy, consent, and what it means to be “real” behind closed doors.

My novel takes those same questions and throws them out into the neon-lit streets. It asks what happens when that messy, toxic relationship collides with a sprawling corporate conspiracy, hardware modders, and a city-wide panic.

The Bottom Line

Annie Bot will break your heart and leave you staring quietly at the ceiling. My novel will drag you through the gritty, absurd reality of a synthetic future and make you laugh at the dark chaos of it all. There is plenty of room on the shelf for both.

This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On Is Shaping Up To Be Really Good

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This novel I’m working on is really good. So good that I keep expecting a movie or Black Mirror episode to come out that so steals a creative march on me that I have to piviot to some other story idea.

I will have lost valuable time, but, lulz.

I’m not getting any younger, you know.

And, yet, just because the premise is obvious to me, doesn’t mean it’s as obvious to other people as I think. But I’m definitely putting my stick where the puck will be. The premise of the novel is sort of like, “what would it be like, in real terms, for Pris from Blade Runner living her every day life?”

Pris from Blade Runner

That’s pretty much the general gist of the novel’s premise, even though that’s not exact.

Anyway, I still am on track to wrap this novel up around April-May 2026. Then I have to do some last minute editing before I give it to whatever beta readers I can scrounge up. Then I’ll probably have to go therapy because everyone will praise my writing and I’ll feel all this angst about how my writing was “enhanced” by being AI first, even though I did, in fact, write as much as possible of the novel with my own hand.

But because everyone and everything is horrible, people will just assume AI wrote everything and probably dismiss the novel as just more “AI slop.” Ugh.

I Have Three Books Related To Querying, Now To Force Myself To Read Them

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This time, I tell myself, will be different. Instead of just drifting — again — towards my goal of writing a novel that is query-worthy, I’m actually going to buckle down and focus.

With that in mind, I have not one, but three books devoted to the querying process to at least glance over. Two of the books are about querying, while the third is a big book of literary agents.

I really don’t want to think about the querying process because, lulz, I know there’s a decent change I’m going to fail in a monumental way. Like epically. I think this in large part because I’m a big old kook and “serious” “normal” that woke-liberal-white-woman-literary-agent who does due diligence on me is probably going to be aghast.

I’m just a loudmouth crank and always have been.

But, this is definitely the up-up or shut up moment of my life when it comes to writing a novel I plan on querying. If I don’t do something different immediately, I’m going to wake up at 60 and STILL not have queried a novel.

I just want to see how far I get through the process. I feel so old at this point. Even though I’m not, like, elderly, I am still older than Stieg Larsson was when he was trying to get his novel(s) sold. That doesn’t make me feel very good.

But this novel is really good. The premise is rock solid, if a little dark and pulpy. But, if nothing else, it’s “accessible.” I keep thinking of how I want to “comp” my novel to the works of Andy Weir who’s novels The Martian and Project Hail Mary are really, really accessible.

Anyway, no one listens to me and no one takes me seriously, so, lulz.

I Have To Put Up Or Shut Up About This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My life is going to change one way or another this year, just by doing some simple back-of-the-envelope gaming out of things. And, as such, I really, really need to buckle down and get this beta draft of the novel done ASAP.

As I say that, I also have to accept that things are probably going to change dramatically in my life in Spring 2026, just as I hope to finish the novel. The thing I have to keep telling myself is there is a lot of post-production stuff I’m going to have to do.

So, just finishing a beta draft of the novel isn’t the be-all-and-end all of what’s going on. I’m going to have to do one last pass through the text to make sure all the scenes are up to stuff and I eliminate any too-obvious “AI talk.” THEN, I have to figure out what I’m going to do about finding beta readers.

All of that could push my actual querying of the novel to around Sept 1st. As I understand it, there are two “seasons” for querying — spring and fall. And I just don’t think I’m going to make spring. I may finish the novel in the spring, but because of post-production stuff, I doubt I will actually start to query until the fall season.

But all that works on the assumption that I wrap up the beta draft of the novel no later than maybe April-May. And, just calculating things in my head, that is JUST about when the wheels are going to pop off of my otherwise broke-ass, but otherwise idyllic life.

Ugh.

Anyway, this novel I’m working on deals with some pretty deep (and dark) topics and I hope people will find it as intriguing and engaging as I do as I write it.

Writing A Novel Is Hard Work, Redux

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The key issue with my scifi dramedy novel I’ve been working on for the last few months is my hero is just too passive. So, it, on a structural basis, has repeatedly collapsed in on me and I’ve had to start again.

The most recent collapse happened when I started new chat windows for the two LLMs I’ve been using for my manuscript consultants. Both of them complained that my hero was too passive, so I girded my loins and started all over again.

I think — I think — that maybe THIS TIME I’ve figured things out. I think. I hope. I can’t keep rebooting this project. “The perfect is the enemy of the good” is what I keep telling myself.

At least I’ve gotten to the point where I feel comfortable thinking about querying. Even if I fail in a spectacular manner, at least I will have tried. At least I will have gotten to see how far I could get.

Getting A Little Excited

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m breezing through the transformation of the first draft of the scifi dramedy novel into the second draft. At least at the moment. That’s because I’m able to reuse a lot of text that I generated in the first half of the novel.

Things are going to get much, much more difficult when I reach the second half of the novel because I just was more interested in stress-testing the outline that actually worrying about making sure scenes were long enough.

So, I’m going to have go through and really work to make the scenes of the second half proper length and that is going to slow me down some. But, and this is a huge but, I think I’m still on track — maybe — to query this novel in spring 2026.

Maybe.

If that is the case, then I have to start thinking about post-production stuff like querying, getting and agent and…a lawyer? I am totally broke, so unless I can figure out a way to get someone I’m related to do spot me for the costs of a lawyer to look over a book contract…oh boy.

And, yet, on a psychological basis, this is the farthest I’ve ever gotten with a novel so far. I really think I may wrap this baby up sooner rather than later.

Hopefully. Maybe.

But I continue to worry about my bonkers social media output being enough to either make “serious” liberal white women literary agents run away in dismay when they do due diligence on me.

I can’t help who I am, so, lulz?

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.

Just About To Reach The Midpoint Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One issue is I just don’t know what draft I’m working on with this novel. I think this is a beta-ish version, but it might be a first draft. But I think if I just don’t overthink things, this can be a beta draft that I just do a lot of work to on a technical basis before I show to other people.

Really, the only issue so far is sometimes I’ve gotten impatient and leaned into what AI has generated a little bit too much. That’s the thing I have to fix before I show it to anyone else.

I have to go in and rewrite all the “AI-talk” out of the text so people won’t just roll their eyes and assume that any of the good parts that exist AI wrote. Just doing that could take me a month or more of hard work to fix all the instances of em dashes and so forth.

But, in general, I really have written most of this novel myself. I’ve just used AI — specifically Claude LLM — to guide me towards what I probably would have written already.

One thing I’m a little bit uneasy about is how saucy this novel gets at points because of the whole sex worker element to it. That was a big obstacle to getting anyone to take seriously my previous novelistic efforts.

But, thankfully, the whole stripping part of this novel happens way, way, way later in the game in this novel than the other thriller novel I was working on.

Update On My Scifi Dramedy Novel For October 30, 2025

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Claude LLM is really, really good at being a manuscript consultant. It has helped me a great deal. I see it as an enhanced, advanced word processor with me continuing to do the hard work of actually, like, writing and stuff.

I continue to feel like I’m spinning my wheels to a limited extent. I have totally changed the order of the plot in some respects just the morning. And I’m beginning to worry about scene bloat. And, yet, I am in the first half of the second act and that’s supposed to be the longest part of the novel.

So…lulz?

The real test will come in the second half of the second act. I have a lot of ground to cover then and I’m really worried the novel’s scene count will balloon. I’m hoping for no more than 120,000 words, but if I start to creep up to 160,00 like a Stieg Larsson novel I may just have to grit my teeth.

But one major flaw of how I develop novels is I don’t really know word count until the very end of the process. And, in a sense, think that’s probably for the best. I just need to shut up and write, as they say.

I really hope this damn thing is no more than 140,000 words. If it’s 160,000…oh boy. That is going to be a tough sell.

Anyway, if you need any creative writing to do, I highly recommend Claude LLM to be your consultant. I say this in the context that I can neither afford nor get actual human literary consultants to give me the time of day.

They think I’m a freaky weirdo that they don’t want to work with.