Tag: Stieg Larsson

Bruh, Did We Read The Same Series?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, through Twitter, I got something of a tip about a thriller series much like Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Series. I was shocked once I started reading the first book in the series — the author, while obviously influenced greatly by Larsson, has a totally different interpretation of his work.

Lisbeth Salander

While I focus on the character aspects of Lisbeth Salander et al, this other author really honed in on the action-thriller part of what he wrote. He’s far more better educated than me and relative to the metrics of normal people, the type of guy who gets invited highfalutin cocktail parties. The closest I would get to such a thing with my current background, is a street urchin with my nose smudging the restaurant’s outside window.

So, I’m taken aback at what a poor artistic interpretation this other author has — in my opinion — of what made the Millennium series a success. Or maybe “poor” is too harsh. Maybe “dramatically different” is a better sentiment. To me, the story of Lisbeth Salander is of a woman who probably would have been pretty normal but for a very surreal and tragic upbringing.

At least, that’s how I see things.

But, I can dig that someone else would look at what I read and see that it’s the action-thriller aspect of the series that kept people reading. The three books in the original series are really action packed (after you get past the first 135 pages of the first book which are dull as dirt.)

Anyway. I wish my “rival” the best. I also want to crush him creatively by being far, far more successful than he is currently. I’m a loser nobody at the moment, yes, but I have a lot of drive and think Ii can pull another rabbit out of a hat before I drop dead.

My Competitiveness Has Kicked In


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I continue to read this thriller, I feel my sense of competitiveness kicking in. I have a fucking huge chip on my shoulder as it is when it comes to this project, to see someone else’s interpretation of Lisbeth Salander on the page is enough to get my juices flowing.

I’m beginning to get the sense that the author is really trying hard to appeal to the overlap of Lisbeth Salander and Jack Reacher fans. There’s something less-than-organic about this. To me, the point is to tell a great story with a clear vision and then, to figure out how to fit that vision within the general conventions of the genre you’re trying to fit within.

For the moment, at least, I find this novel…meh.

Something about it grates on my nerves and I have yet to pin it down. It all seems very by-the-numbers. The author is screaming on the page, “PLEASE LOVE HER, SHE’S JUST LIKE WHAT YOU REMEMBER OF LISBETH SALANDER.”

We love you, babe.

Ugh.

There are two things about Salander that make her iconic — one, she’s not very likeable, and, two, her character was fleshed out before the whole kicking ass and taking names part started. Now, obviously Larsson was gratuitous in the amount of backstory and exposition he wrote to get to that point, but the fact remains that we gradually got to know Salander.

But there is one thing I realize now — I need to make it more clear what kind of novel readers are getting into from the get-go. I just don’t have any wiggle room. I have to throw everything I have at the audience from the beginning to hook them.

‘If You Have Time To Write, You Have Time To Read’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve picked up a thriller that’s very much in the milieu of the four novels I’m developing and writing. It’s obviously, just like my project, very influenced by Stieg Larsson’s original Millennium series. What’s interesting is how different people take different things away from the series.

This book’s author obviously is leaning into the vigilante aspect of Lisbeth Salander’s personality. The novel is very well written, and, yet, it’s sufficiently different from what I’m working on that I don’t feel that threatened. The novel is, so far, pretty much a generic thriller that wants to create an American Lisbeth Salander.

The Icon.

I want to do that, too, but my interpretation of the Salander trope is dramatically — and I mean dramatically — different. In fact, now that I’m writing four novels, for the time being Mare Of Easttown is a bigger influence than Larsson.

And, I will note, that if you study The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Salander isn’t really the hero of the story — that’s Mikael Blomkvist. The author of this book I’m reading wants to get straight into the story of his Salander-type character. And, what’s more he definitely seems to want to appeal to Jack Reacher fans, to the point that he has a quote from Lee Child in support of the book.

But a key element of Salander is she had a very weird upbringing that we gradually get to learn more about over the course of two books. With the book I’m reading now, we’re just plunged straight into the character’s vigilantism. One of the rules of thumb about writing a successful novel is, “Tell a old story in a new way or an new story in an old way.”

And, of course, there is the very real notion of “There’s nothing new under the sun.”

As such, I have to get over myself. If I was to come up with something that was completely and totally unique, a publisher wouldn’t know what to do with it marketing wise and it would turn readers off because they wouldn’t have anything to compare it to.

So, I need to chill.

It’s ok if someone has written something vaguely in the same vein as what I’m working on. It’s inevitable that someone would want to create an American Salander. For the time being, at least, it definitely seems I’m safe in continuing to develop and write these four novels. Each of the four novels is a very compelling story, enough so that I’m willing to throw my entire life into finishing them.

What’s more, the novels I’m working on are far more character driven than what I’ve read so far of this novel. From the first two chapters, it definitely seems as though the author is more concerned with the action adventure thriller elements of the Millennium series as opposed to the character elements that I find interesting.

Another thing — the thing that got me writing a novel — now novels — in the first place was my white hot rage against Trumplandia. That rage was always the thing that generated the energy necessary for me to write a novel. That need to address the bullshit of the Trump Era is another thing that definitely makes what I’m working on different than this book.

I’m obviously working against the headwinds of being older, not being formally educated in creative writing and not having gone to an Ivy League school, but lulz, fuck the haters.

‘Mare Of Easttown’ Joins Stieg Larsson As A Major Influence On The Novels I’m Developing & Writing


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The book that inspired my now three-year obsession was Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire. I knew I had a lot to say about the Trump Era and after some fits and starts, I decided to try to think up an American Lisbeth Salander in that context.

That was a long time ago and the whole thing has changed dramatically. Now I have four compelling stories all set in the same universe that pretty much are the origin story for something akin to an American female James Bond. (Sorta.) It’s not a one-to-one, but rather than the vigilante like Salander, my character has, by the end of the series (which paves the way for a series of books about her new life) something bigger than her.

Mare of Easttown

Anyway.

Having watched Mare of Easttown, I realize that these four books really need an infusion of character. Things are going really well, but Mare of Easttown is forcing me to up my game. I have a small library of books to read as soon as possible.

But given what’s going on in most of these four books, I really, really need to mull made the show such a great story. The novels in my head definitely share some of the themes of Mare of Eattown and it’s just a matter of figuring out how to take them to the next level.

The key thing is to stop writing about writing and to actually start to write. But I’m something of a development obessive, so it just takes time to get to the point where I can start writing without living in fear that everything is going to collapse AGAIN.

For a very specific personal reason, I’m kind of locked in neutral for a few days and I’m using that time to throw myself into development. I’m hoping that maybe I even dig around the outline of the second book in a big way by the time I get back to writing on the first novel.

Vague Descriptions Of The Four Novels I’m Developing And Writing


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

All these stories are really compelling — at least to me — so I’m willing to let developing and writing them consume nearly my every waking hour.

Book 1
If Lady Bird was a thriller with a middle aged protagonist.
Book 2
The implications of Book 1 have come to a crisis — hero saves the day at great cost.
Book 3
A Stieg Larsson influenced allegory (of sorts) about life during Trumplandia just before the pandemic struck. Ends in a cliff hanger.
Book 4
We see how our female James Bond earns her license to kill. (Sorta)

I’ve Got Lightening In A Bottle With This Thriller Series


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m really struggling with the (new) first book in this four book thriller series I’m working on. But I definitely get the sense that there’s something there. I just have to be willing to put the work in to make this as great a yarn as I know it can be.

But it’s not going to be easy, just as it hasn’t been easy the last several years I’ve been working on writing a novel. I’ve redoubled my studying of Stieg Larsson’s stuff and I noticed something: he doesn’t cover every single solitary day in the chronology of events.

He focuses on one or two important days. I used to think that The Girl Who Played With Fire was the perfect textbook for me to use to write my own novel, and now I realize, on a structural basis, it’s not

It doesn’t really follow the structure I need. So,lulz.

But I do still study it a lot to get some sense of how to write A Novel, just maybe not My Novel.

Stieg Larsson & My Decision To Write Four Novels At Once


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Just in the last few days, the novel project I’ve been working on for years now took a hard left turn. For some time now, I’ve been struggling with how to give myself the occasional opportunity to switch gears whenever I feel the novels I’m currently developing and writing have begun to wear me down some.

I’ve figured out how to do it, and it’s greatly expanded the task before me, but in a great way. I’ve decided to develop and write four novels all at once. This allows me to switch gears like I want, but to also stay in-universe. As such, I don’t have to re invent the wheel when it comes to basic universe building things like names and locations.

One key thing is all this new work is flowing really easily, so I don’t have to struggle with that kind of stuff.

All this gets me thinking about Stieg Larsson and how he wrote a trilogy, sold it and then dropped dead days after doing so. This is almost taking on the air of a Twilight Zone episode — I’m well on my way to writing FOUR novels, potentially selling them…then dropping dead soon after I do so. But, “they shoot writers, don’t they” as they old saying goes, so I guess I need stop complaining and accept that the life of a writer is often tragic and unexpectedly cut short.

And, yet, no fate but what we make. So, it’s at least possible that if I should miraculously sell four novels that I will live to fight another day. An issue writing four novels at once brings up is now I have to defuse my creative energies over four novels and think about how important the first book is. The first book is supposed to set the tone of any series and I’ve come up with a great concept.

It’s pretty much totally different than what I expected to write when I started all of this about three years ago, but that’s good because if I ever get restless working on one of the four books, I can always switch gears and start development and writing on another one — all while staying in-universe.

I figure that while this new approach may slow me down some simply because I have two more books to work on, it will actually make it more likely that I finish the entire project because even when I “take a break” from one book, I will still be within the universe I’ve come up with.

That, at least, is the plan.

Fashion In The Novel I’m Developing & Writing


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing I’ve learned over the last few years of working on this novel is readers are acutely aware of anything you point out to them on the page. As such, I’ve had some alpha readers take note of how much fashion there is in what I’ve written to date.

I really like fashion as an art form. There was a point when I wanted to be a fashion photographer until it dawned on me how impractical that was given where I was in my life. But I still have a dream that maybe someday, someway, I’ll get an opportunity to prove my photographic chops by taking pictures of models. I have an eye for beauty.

Since the character at the center of this novel is a young woman, I feel what she wears is really important at times in driving the plot along. I struggle to make my heroine as dark and interesting as Lisbeth Salander while also making her more accessible — what she wears at any particular moment helps a lot with that.

Some of this comes from the inspiration for the heroine. The late Annie Shapiro in Seoul was a kook and was a hipster before I even knew what a hipster was. Though, I have to note, some of what she wore at any particular moment while we were working on ROKon Magazine was her reflecting my own wardrobe. But all that was so long ago. So very long ago. A totally different era in my life.

But I’ve been working so hard — and so long — on this novel at this point that I’m kind of tired of being too conspicuous about talking about it. I’m kind of embarrassed, in fact. I need to just throw myself into this thing and get it done, knowing that once I finish this novel, I have another in the series to finish.

I no longer think about who will play any particular character in the film adaptation. All I can about is just finishing the damn thing so I can move on to the next book. B

Just About To Stabilize The Novel’s Outline…AGAIN


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I finally have figured out my hero’s motive and, as such, figured out the throughline of this first book in the two book story. The story is very personal and unique. The new interpretation of the story I’ve been struggling with for the last few years draws some on the structure of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

I’m itching to start writing again, but I’m being stubborn and want to wait until I finish yet another full version of the outline before I do that. I don’t want to start writing only realize the only way to finish the outline is to throw out the beginning again for structural reasons.

Ugh.

But, at least tentatively, I’m about to lock down the outline again. Pretty much everything outside of the first act is done right now. Though there is a specific subplot I need to sprinkle through the second act so it makes sense that it comes roaring back in the third act.

Anyway. It’s quite a relief to finally figure out my hero’s motivation. I find myself digging even deeper into my personal life as this happens, however. I really need to make my hero Not Me. But this is just a first draft, so I think I can give myself a pass.

Things Are Getting Really Good With The Novel’s Development


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m finally just about where I want to be with the novel. At least on a developmental basis. The first act is pretty stable at this point, as is the third act. It’s the second act that I still have some blank spaces left in the outline. But in the next day or so, I hope to rework it to such an extent that I can fill those blanks and start writing with gusto again.

I finally feel like I have laid out the proper structure for the novel. One of the crucial things I had to do was stop following the structure of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire so closely. My story just doesn’t fit its structure. As such, when I finally figured out the story I wanted to tell and how I wanted to tell it, the novel is it’s own thing now, not just overwrought fan fiction.

Once I sort the second act out, things should move a lot faster when it comes to the actual writing. I have a lot of reading to do, still, to flesh out some of the characterizations. I keep punting on reading because I’m nervous I’m going to read something that makes me throw everything out again. I’ve done that so many times — and so often felt like I was spinning my wheels — that it’s very frustrating.

And, yet, the only way to give life to my characters is to do a lot of reading. I hope to at least try to get back into the habit of reading a lot again in the near future. It’s just so difficult to do when my entire life has become consumed with developing and writing this novel.

But, in general, the structure of this novel is really, really strong. My goal is to write a first draft that’s so stable that when I write the second draft all I’ll have to do is just rewrite everything, I won’t really have to mess with the actual structure of the story. You’re supposed to give yourself a month between the first and second drafts and I think I’ll spend that month working on the second book in this two book story.

I wish I could follow in Stieg Larsson’s footsteps (minus the dying of a heart attack, of course) and finish three novels, but that’s just not how it worked out. I have a prequal (or two) already mapped out in my mind, but those would only be written if I manage to sell these two books and they’re popular enough that people want to know what happened before the events they depict.

I keep looking at the outline, even with all the gaps and am quite pleased. It’s taken me about three years to get this point, but I finally see land just over the horizon. I really hope to get to writing again soon.