Tag: writing about writing

I’m Really Nervous About Literary Agents Doing ‘Due Diligence’ On Me Going Forward

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Oh boy. I’m something of a kook and it’s going to be…interesting…to see literary agents poke around this blog when they do due diligence on me once I start to query. I just can’t help who I am. I’m a little bit bonkers and I just am not prepared at the moment to do what it necessary to properly hide how kooky I am.

So, come what may, here I am, accept me for who I am or not.

It will be interesting to see what happens. It really will be.

If I was younger, I think literary agents — who are mostly liberal white women as best I can tell — would probably be cool with my kookiness because I would be young and edgy.

But…as a middle aged man, I worry that literary agents simply will not be able to accept what a kook I am.

The Struggle Is Real To Get Back To Creative Work

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, I learned what I already figured to be true — about 85% of literary agents are, in fact, women. I learned that reading a book on how to get an agent that I’ve just started.

But the more important issue is how do I get back to writing just in general. I think there are three ways. One is to begin printing out pages from the novel I’ve written so I can edit it. Another is to work on the short story I’m working on. And the third is to work on a dramedy novel I’ve long dreamed about.

Now, one issue about the dramedy novel is it would be a much better screenplay than novel. But, lulz, writing a screenplay is just too sharp a learning curve. I know how to write a novel — or at least, how I write one — so I can dive right in and get going. Whereas to write a screenplay would be a serious, serious pain in the ass that would take too long.

Anyway, I hope to get into this book about getting a literary agent as well. I am still on track to get to querying by Sept of this year. That gives me roughly just over two months to position myself to do that as of this writing.

Now What — Struggling To Figure Out My Next Creative Step

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m slowly, ever so slowly, starting to think again about the issue at hand — querying my novel. But I’m still at a loss as to how exactly to go about it. I have a few novel ideas that I might be able to focus on instead of immediately going to querying is a possibility.

But…I don’t know. I just don’t know.

I also have a few short story ideas that I might work on as well. But…lulz? I still want to try to query by Sept 1st. That’s a real goal. I just need to get into the right mindspace.

I’m slowly, ever so slowly, getting there…but it’s taking a lot longer than I expected.

At Something Of A Creative Standstill At The Moment

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So. I’ve finished my first novel that is good enough to query. But I don’t really know what to do next. I have a few novel ideas but none of them have really caught my fancy.

Technically, I’m waiting for Beta Readers to return their reviews of the novel, but I really need to fish or cut bait when it comes to preparing to query. I need to get over my reluctance to do that and just…do it.

I’m using the Beta Reader process as an excuse to do nothing creative at all.

But, I think, the biggest issue is my age. I’m struggling to start a new novel knowing that by the time I’m finished it I’ll be in my mid-50s, if I’m lucky. So, I’m at a standstill, not really wanting to do anything.

It’s not like I have writer’s block, I don’t. It’s just…I have no motivation to write. I still have plenty of ideas, just no motivation to do anything about them.

I’m Really Struggling With The Premise Of My Next Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m working on a short story, but what I really want is a new novel to start working on. I have two strong contenders, but neither one of them is fleshed out enough to actually start working on them.

One is an homage to Stieg Larsson’s stuff that is in the same universe as the series of novels I’ve struggled with for some time. The only problem with it is I’m afraid it’s too complex — even with the help of AI — and I’ll be 60 years old still working on it.

Meanwhile, there’s another one that is much more clear cut. In some ways. In some ways it’s a real pain because I don’t know the plot yet. I just have a general flow of the story. And I *definitely* know how it ends.

But what I should be doing is working on querying the novel I’ve finished. I think what I’m going to do is sit down and read it one last time before I query to fix any last minute screw ups.

I’m really impressed with myself for having written a novel over 100,000 words long — even if that’s too long, in some sense — for a first time novelist’s first submission.

But the whole point of the novel was to just see how far I could get. This is by far the farthest I’ve ever gotten.

I Wish I Had A Showbiz Contact

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This scifi dramedy novel I’ve written, while spicy, is actually pretty good. I wish there was some way I could get someone with showbiz connections to read it, or at least glance at it.

And…yet…I have to accept that maybe I’ll get to prove my point, that I can write a queryable novel…and that will be that. That maybe I should just be satisfied that I have proven my point and if this novel doesn’t sell, I will at least have the satisfaction of having done something of note.

I’m content with that.

I Need To Figure Out My Next Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I have finished my first queryable novel, I have to figure out what happens next. My immediate issue is to force myself to start the process of querying in a concrete way.

I have given myself until September to do that, so that’s just around three months, I suppose, where I can think up ways to get into it.

But I also need to buckle down and figure out my next novel. I have several strong candidates, but there’s one that I think I’m going to work on pretty soon. It’s not nearly as “spicy” as the novel I’ve written and as such I think it will ultimately be the novel that gets a lot closer to being published.

Yet, I need to hurry. I’m not getting any younger. I have to accept that and begin to buckle down to start the process of developing the next novel sooner rather than later.

We Seem To Be Headed Towards A Real Life Butlerian Jihad

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I saw a blurb from an Atlantic Magazine writer about how AI being used to flesh out writing ideas was horrible because it reduced the amount of thinking involved.

Oh boy.

Where to begin with this one.

Now, let me be clear, I’m just opposed to AI actually doing the writing as anyone else. (I say this, of course, just as I pepper this blog with AI slop. But no one reads this blog, so lulz.)

But I do use AI to help me develop the novels that I write. In fact, I’ve finally figured out a pretty good workflow as to how to do properly. Yet, let’s go back to the issue at hand.

To me, this case against AI to flesh out ideas could also be used against spell checkers. I say this as someone who simply can not spell. My spelling is so bad that if spell checkers didn’t exist, I probably wouldn’t have had any journalistic career at all, no matter how failed it may have ultimately become.

But, using the logic of the Atlantic writer, if I really wanted to be a journalist that bad, I would have overcome my “disability” on the spelling front and figured something out, rather than letting spell check “think” for me.

Anyway, I need to start work on a new novel or something — with the help of AI. Wink.

I Need To Suck It Up And Participate In A Beta Reader Exchange

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I still have time, but I really need to participate in an Beta Reader exchange. That seems like the only way I can get a Beta Reader to read any of my writing.

This makes me nervous because, lulz, I’m afraid the Beta Readers will think my novel sucks. But I have to accept that as a possibility, given that I definitely need to suck things up and realize that there will be literary agents with real jobs and lives who will be the gauntlet ahead of me.

I just don’t know. I need to get over myself. It will be interesting to see how things work out.

I Have No More Excuses — I Have To Read The ‘Comp’ Novel To My Novel, ‘Annie Bot’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have finally come to the end of the road when it comes to my unwillingness to read the comp novel to my novel, Annie Bot. I just have no more excuses. If I’m going to query my novel properly, I need to have read Annie Bot.

Now, my novel is very, very different from Annie Bot in some basic ways. It is, as I understand it now, something of a feminist screed against what my novel embraces in a somewhat humorous manner.

But the basic premise of my novel is close enough to Annie Bot that I feel I absolutely, totally, have to read it if I want to query properly. So, lulz, in the next few days, I’m going to force myself to do just that.

I don’t have any more excuses. I’ve actually got a reasonably finished novel on hand, so I can’t use the excuse that reading Annie Bot might discourage me from finishing.

Wish me luck.