by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’ve decide to see these six novels as one huge story that is simply broke up into six independent parts. This is really a huge undertaking for a number of reasons. Writing ~600.000 words is not easy. But that’s my goal. I really love these characters and it’s a lot of fun to think about how they might change over the course of the 25 years depicted in the project.
But I’m the first to admit that I need to do a lot of reading. The biggest issue I have at the moment is character. That’s why I decided to do something of a reboot of the first novel — that, and I was feeling burnt out. I just it a moment in the novel when I realized I didn’t really know the characters as well as I needed to.
This second novel is about an abducted baby. I’ve already come up with some exciting twists and turns. The crux of the issue, of course, is how long is it going to take me to flesh out the story so I don’t embarrass myself. But the actual conceit of the novel — using the characters, canon and universe I’ve already constructed to talk about an abducted baby — is pretty cool. I just have to press forward. I can’t sit around doing nothing. These novels aren’t going to write themselves.
And, since I have so many novels to write, I felt it was best if I paused actually writing the novels for about two weeks so I can mull exactly the nature of the characters I’ve come up with. But, at the same time, I need to get going. I’m not going to live forever.
I guess, at this point in the process, at least, all of this is just for me. I just want to see if I can pull off such a huge project. The whole issue of if it’s ever going to get published is something entirely different.
I’m well aware that no one is willing to take me seriously. And if they do pay attention to me, they think I’m a fucking drunk crank. But having six novels to think about at least gives me something to use up all my excessive mental energy on.
