Tag: writing about writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

With the help of AI, I’m zooming through the first draft of a my new novel. As I keep saying — I’m doing all the writing.

But there’s a meta issue that I’m concerned about — the very premise of the novel. You see, the novel is currently called “Girl Against The Wall” and it’s about a 17-nearly-18-year-old woman who is stuck behind a wall, and has been all her life.

This is where the first potentially problematic comes up — Woke 1 would say I’m being a creepy old man who writing from the POV of a young woman. And, to a certain extent, I guess they’re right. And, yet, I think if you actually read what I’ve written in context, those complaints would be midigated.

The other issue is that the “girl” against the wall is being helped by a 33 year old man. That, too, I guess, if you look at it the wrong way, is kind of…creepy. But, again, I think if you look in-context to what I’m actually writing it isn’t nearly as creepy as you might think.

I really believe in this novel and I’m going to give it ago for now. I have any number of other novel and short story ideas floating about, but this specific one has caught my fancy.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I finished an outline for a novel yesterday and now I’m pondering my next move. My gut tells me to do some reading and to game out some character studies. And, yet, I have some momentum and maybe I should throw myself into writing.

And there are some elements of the third act that did not quite work out the way I had hoped — damn AI and its knowing the logistics of things (grin) — so that has made me a little unhappy. I had this really dark sequence of events for the third act but at the moment, it’s just not practical.

But I have a long time to go before I have to get to that part of the novel. The general premise of the novel is pretty good and I think the only way I “save” it is to lean into it being a character study because right now I fear not a lot happens.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Today, I’m really going to buckle down and get some work done on developing my next novel. Enough moping. I may also do some reading about how to write a novel, if I really want to be productive.

I don’t know what’s been wrong with me the last few weeks. But, hopefully, it’s over. Hopefully, I can start to churn out copy within, maybe, a month or less. I still have a lot of development to do.

AI has really helped me speed up the development process a great deal. What might have otherwise taken weeks or months of struggle can now be compressed into a few hours.

That’s pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, I have two failed novels now under my belt, so I do, at least in some respect, understand how *I* write a novel. Hopefully, that will speed things up a great deal.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

A writer for The Wall Street Journal is in hot water for using an LLM to write a column. I think we should give the person a pass. So what if they used AI. Now, some context — I am NOT using AI to write my novel.

But, I will admit, that I am using it extensively for development.

It just speeds the process up too much not to be used. I used it some yesterday and I probably built-out three months worth of novel development in a few hours.

Anyway, back to the WSJ person.

I think we just need to get used to the idea that people are going to use AI to write stuff. We also need to accept that music is already being transformed by AI and that transformation is here to stay.

And, I will admit, that I’ve started to use AI more and more to write blog posts. But I generally clearly mark those that I do and also no one reads this blog — in general — so it’s a lulz.

But the people who get really upset over the use of AI in the creative arts for any reason really need to cool it.

But, at the same time, it is pretty lazy to use AI (or an assistant) to write an 800 word essay. Hell, I could do that pretty easily without breaking much of a sweat.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s time for me to put up or shut up about writing a new novel. I can’t just mope forever, however much I want to. I have three — at least — solid novel ideas a half a dozen solid short story ideas.

I need to just do it. I need to confront the cold, hard fact that the novel I wrote — which I think is pretty good — is just not good enough to query. That is very painful.

But that, combined with it taking me a while to figure out how to properly include AI into my workflow, causes me to want to put aside my first (completed) novel and “delve” (as LLMs always say) into a new adventure.

It’s just a lot more difficult than I would prefer to confront that failure before moving on. I really thought I had a chance of querying the novel I finished. And, yet, everyone who has actually given me a critical review of it instead of being polite has panned it.

Anyway. Onward and upward, I suppose.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have been feeling rather meh for the last month or so, ever since I finished my first novel…then realized it just isn’t good enough to query. Or, at least, it’s not good enough to at least try.

Add to this that I worry that the specific manner that I used AI may put the kibosh on it getting published, period and you have several reasons to just start all over again and do something different. (I’ve figured out a new work flow method for writing my novels that will hopefully prevent *any* accusations that I just generating AI slop.)

That feeling my change, but at the moment, I’m going to start from scratch on a few ideas I have rolling around in my head.

It’s just taken me a lot — A LOT — longer than I would have hoped to get back into the grove of things. I hope to do some reading about writing ASAP so I will have a fresh idea as to how to do it “the right way.”

If I was 20 years younger, I would go back to the world of the Stieg Larsson homage that I was working on for all those years…but I just don’t have the time unless the Singularity arrives and suddenly I have 500 more years to live.