Month: June 2020

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, it happened AGAIN. I realized I could make the outline for the novel I’m developing better and by doing so, I realized there was a huge structural problem and the whole thing collapsed. So, I’m not back to zero, but I’m at maybe 45% right now.

But I’m reading a number of books that will make this a really cool story once I get over myself and settle on some basic elements of its structure. But I still have a few days before I panic. I have given myself until about the July 4th weekend to wrap up the outline. Whatever I have at that point, I run with and start using to write, even if it’s not perfect — or finished.

Anyway.

Now to print out the smoldering wreckage of the outline again and look over it, struggling to figure out how I can fix the biggest problem of all — in the “fun and games” portion of the novel (the first half of the second act) — I need some fun and games. I need some investigation of some sort. I can’t have people just sitting around talking to teach other, ignoring the number of dead bodies that are piling up around them.

Something’s gotta give.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I posted a call for a “reader” on the NYC Craig’s List and all I got was grief from people about how I was being both “stupid and delusional.” This came in no small part from the fact that I said things like “no — or little — money” and how I wanted the novel to be a “guilty pleasure for Woke Park Slope Moms.”

I guess I WAS being delusional and stupid.

And, yet, no one cares about what I’m doing. No one believes in me. I generally have a very quirky — and obsessive — personality and this novel has officially consumed my entire creative life. Which is good. I’m using what little ability I have to produce something at the high end of my ability.

I still want this novel to be a guilty pleasure for educated, wealthy women. But not in, like, a 50 Shades kind of way. More a novel that is really thought provoking and has strong female characters in it in a way that educated women really like. But I absolutely no idea what I’m doing.

I guess I’m just kind of annoyed how Olivia Wilde and Jessica Chastain complain about how guys can’t write female characters and I want to prove them wrong. I don’t know how successful I’ll ultimately be, but this irritation definitely gives me incentive to do better than I might otherwise.

Shrug. No one cares what I’m doing. I can do anything I want.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

No one believes in me. And I’ve been talking and writing and livestreaming about developing a novel for about two years now and so everyone thinks I’m a joke. What they don’t know is Sonic Death Monkey is going to change its name soon and I’m going to start belting out “Let’s Get It On.”

I’m very close to wrapping up the outline of the novel. I’m going to go full speed in the coming days so I have enough to be able to sit down and start writing around July 5th or so. A *lot* could go wrong between now and then. A lot. A whole lot.

But given how inspired I’m feeling with this blog right now, I get the sense that my mind is ready to start writing. The only reason why I don’t just start right now is the number of times I’ve tried to do the past, only to have everything collapse on me.

So, I’m being extremely stubborn.

I’m going to continue to do a lot — A LOT — of reading about writing and just anything in general I can get myself to read. I’m reading The End of October right now and it’s really good. It’s kind of beginning not to be as interesting, though, which I think has something to do with it no longer being a cool scenario and becoming more just A Novel.

I’m really looking forward to writing again, though. I have a whole methodical setup laid out. Once I finish the outline, I’ll implement that next step.