Tag: writing

The State Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On For October 5th, 2025

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m coming up on the 20th anniversary of a confounding, astonishing moment in my life. The brief period between July 06 and February 07 was simply the craziest, most interesting time in my life to date.

The female romatic lead of the scifi dramedy I’m working on looks like Emrata in my mind as I write things out.

With that in mind, I’m hoping that I can wrap up this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on and query it no later than the fall of 2026.

But. I was using Claude to help me with development recently and it said some shit that really gave me pause for thought. It made it clear it thought my protagonist was too passive. Also, it did not like that my “fun and games” portion of my story was a little too dark and tense, as if it was more the second half of the second act, not the first.

And THEN, later, it also proposed that I totally restructure the story altogether.

Once I gave it some pushback, however, it seriously backtracked from its criticism and kind of threw up its arms and said, “Whatever. Let’s get to work.”

But the experience has left me with lingering self-doubt and insecurity. And, yet, I’ve kind of gone too far down the path of doing things the way I have set up. It could take me months to reconfigure the novel to meet Claude’s demands.

So. I’m just going to wing it, keep going the way I am and hope that I can make my hero as proactive in the context of what I’ve already established. I’m also going to keep going and hope for the best.

It Is Better To Have Loved & Lost, Than Never Loved At All

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I look back over my life and I sometimes wince. I’m not perfect. No one is, but I worry that maybe my wild life in Seoul may come back to bite me in the ass if I should happen to somehow, magically “make it big” via this scifi dramedy I’m writing.

I didn’t do anything THAT BAD in Seoul (or otherwise) but we live in a very touchy world and some of the things I did do, if seen out of context, might…uhhh…not exactly help me going forward.

But the old Shakespeare quote about it’s better to have loved and lost than never loved at all comes to mind. I’d much rather have a taste of success and have it taken away from me for a dumb mistake in the past than never experience it at all.

The only reason why I even bring this up is I’m kind of pumped about this scifi dramedy I’m working on. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely shaping up to be good enough to query.

I just hope my life doesn’t collapse before I at least have a shot at querying this thing. It really is that good.

I Need To Distract Myself

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’ve finished what I hope will be the first act of the second draft of this scifi dramedy I’ve been working on, I find myself in a bit of a limbo. I know I want to throw myself into the first half of the second act, but…I also want to pause just a moment to collect my thoughts before doing so.

If I had *any* money I would take the Chinatown bus to NYC this weekend. Or something. Something like that. But, alas, I’m flat broke. As always.

So. I don’t know. I have been toying with the idea of seeing One Battle After Another AGAIN but…I don’t know about that, either. Seeing a movie twice typically isn’t my style.

I think what I might do is just cool my creative heels for the rest of today and then throw myself into writing and developing again tomorrow. That seems like a tentative plan.

Just About Done The First Act Of The Second Draft Of The Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On

After strategic expansion to improve narrative flow, I’m close to completing the first act of my sci-fi dramedy novel. The quality feels query-ready, though I’m experiencing some anxiety about the timeline and competitive landscape.

I feel urgency to finish quickly, driven by multiple concerns. The novel’s premise is fairly accessible, which makes me worry someone might execute a similar concept first. That said, multiple works can successfully explore the same territory—the execution matters more than the idea.

Part of me still wishes this could be a screenplay instead, but I’ve accepted that’s not the path forward. (Unless the technological singularity grants me anti-aging technology and a 500-year lifespan, but I’m not counting on it.)

I maintain my “AI First” approach to development while keeping a clear boundary: AI helps me develop and refine the structure, but I write every word of the actual prose myself. This distinction matters to me. I’d rather produce flawed human writing than polished AI-generated text. The novel’s quality needs to reflect my craft, not an algorithm’s output.

For story development, though? AI assistance has been invaluable.

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I Need To Hurry Up

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My life is on the cusp of changing dramatically. To the point that the context of my ability to work on this novel may change rather significantly. So, I need to buckle down and get to it.

I feel like I have magic in a bottle with this novel. It’s really good. Of course, the issue of how good my native writing ability is something about. The premise can be as great as I want it to be, but if my writing just plain old sucks, then…lulz?

Anyway.

Wish me luck.

I Worry That, By Definition, I’m Too Old To Query This Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

According to my AI friends, wink, the first act of this scifi dramedy I’m working on is good to go. I just have to fill in some holes currently occupied by scene summaries and I can move into the second act.

Yet, I have to admit that I’m a little nervous that all of this is moot because of innate ageism in the publishing business. I’m older than Stieg Larsson was when he got published (and promptly died) and from what I can tell, the circumstances surrounding him getting published were somewhat unique.

But, at the same time, no one ever go anywhere in this world without taking a risk, as my dad used to say. So, I’m going to continue to work on this novel, hoping I can query early next year while I’m still in my “early” 50s.

Of course, because of the nature of publishing post-production even if I stick the landing I could definitely be closer to my *late* 50s by the time this novel hits bookshelves. And that’s if I stick the landing. If I don’t stick the landing and linger in querying hell then, well, you know.

I may never get published. Or if I do, I’ll definitely be too old to enjoy the rewards that may come with it. I already know that, baring anti-aging technology associated with the Singularity being developed, I’m just not going to run around New York City banging 24 year old women. Grin.

That is just never going to happen. And, really, it’s extremely doubtful I will make any money of note from this novel, even if everything goes according to plan. But, you, know, this novel, if nothing else, gives me hope.

I’m So Old (To Be About To Query A Novel)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are times — like these –when feel pretty insecure about my age and my looming querying of this scifi dramedy novel I’ve been working on. While I’m still in my early 50s, that’s way older than most people when they try to sell their first novel.

I’ve wasted so much of my life brooding over a failed magazine for expats in Seoul. And now I have to live with the consequences. There’s just no going back, I’m afraid.

I have to make do with where I am in life.

My only hope, I suppose, is the technological Singularity happens and instead of being mid-middle aged I will be a spring chicken as we all get to live to be 500 or whatever.

But I have my doubts.

And my age is just one of numerous other headwinds I face when querying. I’m something of a conspicuous kook. Enough of one to potentially scare off your typical liberal white woman literary agent.

And there’s the issue of my native, innate writing ability. I could just suck. And there is the lingering problem of political instability in the United States. It could be that, lulz, a civil war will break out and I won’t be able to survive, much less successfully query a novel.

Only time will tell, I suppose.

Really Interested In Seeing PTA’s ‘One Battle After Another’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

But for the fact that I’m flat broke at the moment, I would go see Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” this weekend. It seems like it is kind of my creative sweetspot of just the type of movie I might like.

Yet, of course, I’m also known for walking out of movies on a pretty regular basis. So, who knows. I’m so finicky about movies. I go into them all excited and then too often just about at the inciting incident, when I get a sense of what the movie is going to be about, I bounce.

We’ll see, I guess. Maybe this go round things will be different. I’m hearing really great things about One Battle After Another and there’s a chance that word of mouth will be enough to make it a success.

Of course, given the themes that I’ve heard that the movie addresses, there’s always a chance that it will catch a stray from Trump and that, unto itself, will be the thing that juices its box office numbers.

A Now, For A Momentary Pause

I’ve wrapped the first act of my sci-fi dramedy’s second draft. The milestone feels significant enough to warrant stepping back before plunging into Act Two’s deeper complications.

My plan is straightforward: read through the complete outline, then review what I’ve actually written. This should give me the perspective I need to tackle the rest of the novel with clarity rather than momentum alone.

I’m also considering character studies for the major players. It’s foundational work that often gets skipped in favor of forward motion, but might be exactly what this story needs.

The pause brings up familiar anxieties about craft. I can construct a solid narrative, but there’s a persistent sense that I’m missing something—some technique or insight that separates competent storytelling from compelling work. It’s the kind of self-doubt that either paralyzes or motivates, depending on how you channel it.

I’ll use these few days for broader reading too. Sometimes the best thing you can do for a project is step away from it entirely and let different voices and perspectives shake up your creative approach.

The timeline is loose but intentional: back to full-time writing by late September, possibly early October if the reflection period proves more valuable than expected. The key is recognizing when the pause has served its purpose rather than letting it drift into procrastination.

Sometimes the work requires working. Sometimes it requires not working. Learning to distinguish between the two might be more important than any particular writing technique.

I Continue To Feel Rattled By The Prospect of Querying In Spring 2026 The Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Now Writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t know what to tell you. Not only am I demonstrably bonkers, I’m old and I don’t handle stress well. So, here I am, contemplating the prospect of querying this scifi dramedy novel I’m hard at work on.

I am going to go into the querying process totally blind. I am going to try to read as many books as I can, but, lulz, that isn’t really going to prepare me for the real thing.

The whole point of working on a novel all these years has been to see how far I could get in the process before it became clear I just wasn’t good enough to get published traditionally.

Looking back at how I got into this specific situation of being, for all intents and purposes, too fucking old to do any of this and one thing is clear — I think I would have wrapped up a novel worthy of querying had I had a wife or girlfriend in my life.

A wife or girlfriend not only might have been a “reader,” she might have also kind of told me “publish or parish.” As it was, I just kind of drifting year after year towards my goal. Then, I actually finished a thriller novel, only to real it just was not good enough to query.

But now, with the rise of AI, I think, no I KNOW, that this novel is going to be good enough to query. And, yet, there are some pretty significant headwinds. I’m old. I’m bonkers. And I can’t promise you that everything I’ve done online will pass the “smell test” of your typical liberal white woman who probably makes up the vast majority of your literary agents.

And, yet, this novel is not nearly as “spicy” as my previous attempt to write a good enough to query. Although, of course, it is kind of white, which is something I worked so hard to prevent with my previous efforts at a novel.

It’s kind of ironic.

Anyway. Wish me luck, I guess.