Tag: writing

July 2nd: Tangled Up In Indecision

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’m officially beginning the process of querying, I’m at a loss as to what exactly to do. I think what I’m going to do is keep reading about the querying process for a little bit with an eye to beginning the process of looking up actual agents who might be interested in me.

A “comp” to my novel.

I’m not exactly going the traditional route with this querying because I can’t afford an editor and I can’t afford to pay beta readers. But two beta readers I gave the novel to did give me positive feed back — and they actually finished it! — so that’s enough for oblivious, clueless me to plunge forward.

And, really, that’s always been the point of all of this — I just want to see how far I can get before it’s obvious that even though I did a good job, I’m just not going to get this novel published traditionally.

I do think this novel is good enough to publish traditionally. And I will admit that for structural development issues, I did lean into AI. But when it came to the actual writing I put in so much hard work that I’m going to pop a gasket if people just roll their eyes and dismiss everything I wrote as “AI slop.”

It’s not. I swear.

Anyway, I’m really struggling about what to do next as part of my quest to query traditionally. I think I need to read more about querying. I think. But also I need to maybe read some of the comps that Sonnet 5 helped me discover. Most of all, I have to realize that the clock is ticking for more than one reason.

I’m getting older, my life is probably going to…change…soon…and if I screw around I won’t be able to begin to query around Sept 1st as I hope to.

As an aside, my “friend” from Cuba is back and they still want to leave a comment, and yet don’t. If you really want to yell at me for some reason, you can track down my email address, you know. Or ping me on Twitter.

It Makes You Wonder

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Looking at my Webstats I noticed that someone searched for this blog then made a direct beeline to my post about beginning to query. They were coming from Cuba of all places.

More than one thing about all of this I find curious. How did they learn about my blog? Are they on vacation in Cuba? Why were they interested in that specific blog post? Why did they try to comment then decide not to? (They were probably going to write something nasty, but oh well.)

Anyway.

I continue to hope I can get some work done not only on querying, but the new novel I’m working on. And maybe do some reading and watching a movie or TV show as well.

Only time will tell, though. But I fear I have a little bit of a ticking clock. Not only am I not getting any younger, but very soon, my life is going to change in a rather dramatic fashion, I suspect.

July 1st: Finally Beginning The Process of Querying

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After several weeks of staring out into space, not doing anything, I’m finally, finally beginning the process of querying User Error. I’m giving myself essentially two months to prepare before I start sending out my query letters.

Now, obviously, what is going to happen is the literary agents I query — if are interested in me — are going to do due diligence on me and discover this blog, then God only knows what will happen then.

I fear a lot of them will run screaming into the night at how kooky and weird I am.

But, who knows. I am prone to overthinking such things.

One thing I’m afraid of is I will really struggle to continue work on my next novel because I’ll be so focused on querying. But who knows.

Another thing I have to watch out for is leaning too much on AI to do querying stuff. It really helps in some respects — like finding comps — but in other ways I really need to be careful not to replace my own writing with AI slop.

Literary agents are going to notice that kind of thing.

I’m Such A Pop-Culture Snob

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I struggle, I really struggle to consume rather than produce media. Pretty much all of my media consumption at this point is done passively via Facebook and Twitter.

And, yet, I know if I’m going to have any hopes of being a creative success — even at this *late(er)* moment in my life, I need to consume someone else’s media. They say if you have time to write you have time to read, so there.

What’s more, I really need to get out of neutral when it comes to both starting up a new novel and reading about how to query. In the last few days, some of that passiveness has changed….so maybe going forward I finally get some work done on both of those fronts.

Time will tell.

As an aside, it’s interesting that I listen to female pop-rock acts while a direct relative of mine listens only to angry young man rock music. Shows two people can be related and yet very different.

I Have Got To Get Back Into The Swing Of Things, Creatively

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have drifted for way too long. Time to get some figurative smelling salts and get back to business. I need to read Annie Bot and my books on querying. I need to buy two other books that are my “comp” books for my novel I’m querying right now and I need to throw myself back into very beginning of querying.

My goal is to start all of this before July 4th weekend. That’s the goal, that’s the dream.

I just refuse to keep drifting forever. One of the reasons why I’ve had such trouble getting out of this mental state is my age. I’m old(er) and I just want to drift until the end of my life because I know that I could be nearly 60 before I’m a published author, no matter what.

Anyway. I can’t think like that, right? I need to buckle up and get back to work. I still think something really dramatic is going to happen soon and throw everything out of whack.

What that is, I don’t know.

I May Have Come Up With A New Novel Idea That Sticks

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are all these novel ideas swirling around in my head. But recently, I was dreaming and came up with an idea that may fill the gap. It’s really interesting and I hope — hope — that it can spend a solid year or so developing and writing it out.

I say this in the context of taking a deep breath and girding my loins to actually start querying. Querying is going to be scary for a number of reasons, but I absolutely want to and have to do it for various pyschological reasons.

Anyway. I hope to start development on this new novel before the July 4th weekend.

I’m Struggling To Get Through ‘The 5th Element’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I think I tried to watch The Fifth Element when it first came out on DVD and never got into it. And…the same thing is happening now in the age of NetFlix. It’s just boring.

I like how stylized it is, but there’s no there there.

And, yet, I feel as if I just keep pressing forward that I will actually like it in hindsight, if nothing else.

That’s the goal, at least.

‘Klara & The Sun’ Is ANOTHER Movie Edging Towards The Premise Of My Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, I have another “comp” novel for my novel — Klara & The Sun, which is now going to be a big-time Hollywood movie in October.

It seems like the book and novel are a lot different. The novel — from what I have learned of it on Wikipedia — is a lot more serious than the movie. At least that what it seems like.

Anyway, seeing the promos for the movie adaptation really get my juices flowing to query this novel and to get back to writing in general.

Now Getting Into The Nitty-Gritty Of Preparing To Query

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If Hollywood is any indication, we’re zooming towards a situation where someone writes a screenplay that steals a creative march on me. That, or I sell this novel and it hits the zeitgeist in just the right way and is a big success.

I keep seeing promos for movies that keep edging closer and closer to the premise of my novel and it’s making me a little nervous.

And, yet, I just have to accept that it’s really possible that my fear is going to come true and everyone will just roll their eyes and say, my novel is “just like that popular movie” even though I wrote my novel first.

That just comes with the territory of being a creative person.

And I do have a new novel idea — a comedy — that I may use to shoehorn myself back into writing on a regular basis. I’ve had some real trouble getting back into the writing groove since my novel is done. It’s kind of like creative post-partum depression.

But my need to create is slowly roaring back. So, as such, I suppose I will get back to writing pretty quick.

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.