by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I really, really like the novel The End of October so far. It’s very much a “dude” novel. It’s got stuff dudes like me like. It’s a little bit scifi and also very timely. I will notice, however, that it doesn’t follow some of the storytelling conventions I keep getting beaten into my mind with all these “how to write a novel” books I’m reading.
But, whatever, it’s a good story nonetheless.
It’s very timely, that’s for sure. Eerily so.
It’s about a pandemic. My novel is going to have elements of “panfic” to it, but more so in the second book in the two book story than the first, which is what I’m working on at the moment.
The End of October is a nice breezy read, much like how I hope my novel to come across. I’m reading it pretty fast, without even realizing it. That’s what I want my novel to be like. I want you to read my novel so fast you look up three days after you read it and realize you’ve barely slept.
That’s the dream, at least.
The thing about The End Of October is it’s focused on one thing and the novel I’m writing right now has a lot of different ideas jumbled together. I think the only way to flatten everything down is to be really character based. If it’s the characters who introduce various Big Ideas, then I don’t think the novel will lose focus.
But I think I have to give myself the right to fail when it comes to the first draft of the novel. There are just so many different parts to a novel that you can’t expect to have everything be perfect at your first attempt.
I really like The End of October so far, however.
