Tag: writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I continue to zoom through the outline for the first act of the second draft of this scifi dramedy I’ve been working on. The novel itself is pretty good. At least in my opinion.

As I keep saying, I’m something of an “AI first” novelist in the sense that I use AI to help me with development. I’m doing everything in my power to not use AI to actually write anything, especially now that I’m in the second draft.

I’m so paranoid about people thinking AI has written *any* of this novel that I may give the novel a final once over before I turn it over to Beta Readers to make sure that there is absolutely no reason to believe that I didn’t write everything.

I will admit that I use AI to help me with scene summaries. But that’s it. I kind of learned my lesson with the first draft. It was too easy to just defer to AI to actually write the narrative, given that the first draft was intended to be a “vomit draft” that no one but me would see.

But the second draft is different. I intend to actually show other people it once I finish it. And the last thing I need is people dismissing me as “one of those people” who is too lazy to do the hard work of actually writing the fucking novel.

Anyway, like I said, I’m really pleased with how things are going with the novel overall. I hope to enter the second act of the novel pretty soon. Maybe by the end of the week, early next week?

Maybe. It all depends on my mind. I can be a moody motherfucker when it comes to actually sitting down and doing the work of writing.

The strange irony of this novel—at least right now—is just how white it is. After years of laboring over a thriller where I bent over backwards to make the cast as inclusive as possible, somehow I’ve landed here.

I keep turning it over in my head, asking myself if there’s a character I could reimagine as non-white. But the nature of the story itself makes that a minefield. It’s not that I don’t want to go there; it’s that the themes I’m playing with are already volatile. If I layered race onto them, that might overwhelm everything else. Instead of engaging with the questions I want readers to wrestle with, the conversation could easily veer into a very different debate.

So I’m in this odd place: tackling heavy issues with a lighthearted touch, but deliberately leaving race out of it—not because it’s unimportant, but because it would dominate in ways that could drown out the other signals I’m trying to send. Is that the perfect solution? Probably not. But for now, it’s the one I can live with.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are going quite well with this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on. I’m zooming through the outline for the second draft I’ve written at quite a nice clip. Today, however, I have also been a little moody.

I’ve got a fair amount of writing done, but I should do a lot more before the day’s over and I’m not so sure I want to. I just want to stare out into space and daydream.

And, yet, I also know that this…unique moment in my life is probably going to wrap up pretty soon and I need to squeeze every moment of writing out of it.

Ideally, I will finish the second draft of the novel no later than…maybe the end of the year? Being “AI First” is really speeding the process up because I often will ask the AI insecure questions that in the past would have led me to go on a creative wild goose chase that would have tired me out and wasted a lot of time.

If I do finish this novel’s second draft by the end of the year, that would put me in a position to query it sometime in the spring. I just want this thing to be good enough to query.

That’s all I want.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m breezing through the first act of the second draft of this scifi dramedy I’ve been working on. It continues to breathe some. The detail of scenes get changed and moved around a little bit.

But, in general, things are moving at a nice little clip.

I continue to worry that my life is going to collapse and either I’ll have to pause writing or the context all of this effort will be so different as to make me not nearly as happy with it as I am now.

And I know I’m not getting any younger. Because of how post-production works, even if I sell this dang thing, I could be in my late 50s before it actually hits bookstores. And that doesn’t even begin to address how the fucking Singularity might happen between now and then, making all of this very, very moot.

Anyway.

The biggest problem I have now is I’m just moody. I often find myself wanting to write, but not really feeling it. But, then, to make up for it, I will have the spurts of writing where I get a lot of scenes done in one big burst of energy.

As I keep saying, I’m doing everything in my power not to let AI do the actual narrative writing — especially now that I’m deep into the second draft. That part has to come from me. But I am leaning on AI for development work and fleshing out scene summaries, and it’s been surprisingly helpful.

Sometimes it shows me angles I hadn’t considered, and more than once I’ve had a genuine “ah-ha!” moment thanks to its perspective. Still, the writing itself — the sentences, the voice, the rhythm — that’s all mine. If this draft falls flat, that’s on me. If it sings, that’s because of my own ability, not because a machine wrote it for me.

That said, the process is moving quickly. I’m burning through the outline faster than I expected, and maybe — just maybe — this second draft will come together sooner rather than later. Or maybe not. I’m giving myself some slack, because querying is still probably a year out. But I also feel the clock ticking. I need to wrap this up. I’m not getting any younger.

My sci-fi dramedy has reached a significant milestone: the premise is solid and the first act structure is strong. But creative work rarely moves in straight lines. After reimagining elements of the opening chapter, I’m facing a complete rewrite of material I thought was finished.

This cycle of writing and rewriting has become a familiar pattern over the years I’ve spent developing a query-ready novel. The constant revision can be exhausting, but it’s also how the work gets better. Each iteration teaches me something about the story that the previous version couldn’t.

The timing feels particularly urgent now. Major life changes appear to be on the horizon, and by the time I’m ready to send this to beta readers in late spring 2026, my circumstances may be completely different. This awareness creates both pressure and motivation.

The challenge is maintaining momentum without getting trapped in endless revision cycles. Sometimes the wheels spin, but forward motion—however incremental—still counts as progress.

.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I still have a three novel series that would be an homage to Stieg Larsson rolling around in my mind. But, for the time being, I’m focusing on this scifi dramedy I’m currently working on.

I just can’t, apparently, focus on more than on novel at a time for time being, so, I’m focusing on the easier to write novel at the moment

But once that’s done, I’m going to return to the thriller series I’ve been working on. But it won’t be six novels, it’ll just be three. Which, I guess, I what it should have been all along. Sigh.