Tag: writing

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I dunno. Either this is novel’s concept is genius or completely ridiculous. Here are some thoughts.

— Things are going fine right now.

— Have a lot of blank time to fill up.

— The novel occurs over about 5 months.

— The book is very cinematic

— Rock music is at the center of this concept.

— Things keep getting better.

— I’m really actually, for once, beginning to get into the first half of the second act.

— There’s a reason why they tell you not to show your first draft to anyone. This first draft is going to be pretty chaotic.

— I’m a little nervous at the 200,000 word length, but the book I’m modeling the story after structure-wise, The Girl Who Play With Fire, is that length, so there you go. That’s what I’m shooting for. I really want that length, but we’ll see what happens once the beta readers get to it.

— It’s going to be interesting to see how long it takes me to finish the first draft. I know the major beats I want to hit, but how I actually manage to get there will likely be a pretty wild ride.

— Things continue to go well so far.

— Nervous about losing momentum if I don’t keep working on the scene summary.

— I have so much work to do.

— I’m doing everything wrong.

— It’s a lot of fun.

— In the “second part” (last 30 scenes of Act 1).

— May stay up all night tonight writing.

— Have to show that my heroine has the skill-set necessary to be a kickass superwoman.

— Need a sympathetic conservative character.

— Need to keep developing the rest of the novel as I write to keep momentum.

— Nervous if the novel is a success, people will want a quick sequel.

— Hoping this novel will be something of a mixture of The Girl With… series and The Fast & The Furious.

— Work on developing the first half of the second act continues.

— I’m dreaming in plots again.

— Continue to think about the scifi series I may eventually write.

— Going to try to write at least a few scenes a day, no matter, what going forward.

— A lot of people are probably nervous about writing Trump Era allegories because they don’t know how — or when — it’s going to end.

Some observations.

— Things are moving along well.

— Worried the heroine is a little TOO exotic

— Still worried about someone stealing a march on me in any number of ways, but the story itself is so personal, so semi-autobiographical, that a litteral “stealing of the concept” seems a bit difficult.

— Writing a novel takes time.

— If you talk about a novel, people assume they can read it immediately.

— Still struggling with what happens in the first part of the second act. Pretty much clueless at this point, but I can feel the pressure of creativity pushing up against the blockage in my mind. Once that dam bursts, things should start to move fast again.

— The method I’m using of developing a lot then writing works well for my writing style. Helps me to know the story really well as I actually write it.

— I’m on track to maybe trying to sell a completed spec novel at some point in late 2020, early 2021.

— The success of this novel will depend not only on my ability to tell a great yarn, but the state of politics in the broader world if, and when, it should ever come out.

— Debating on an “outsider” who pops up in full force in the beginning of the second act. But I don’t know yet who the person would be and / or what purpose they would serve.