by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
While I’m not done yet with the latest version of the fleshed out outline, I am in the third act. And I’m really pleased with what I’ve managed to come up with. Now I continue to have a lot of worry about how I’m doing all of this in a vacuum and there could be a lot of things I’m missing.
But I think if I really focus on developing characters and their motivation then I will at least be in a position not to embarrass myself. I keep saying I’m going to read more and then lulz it. I’m so busy producing content that it’s difficult for me to consume it.
And, yet, that’s something I absolutely have to do. I have to read more. A lot more. I have a small library of books I haven’t read yet. Once I finishing fleshing out this outline — which will be about 50 pages — I think I may pause for a day I really force myself to read up on some basic elements of how to write a novel. I’m so proud of what I’ve managed to come up with, I don’t want to blow it with application.
I’ve been working on writing my first novel for way too long. I need to finish a solid first draft. I’m not getting any younger. Not only could too many things go wrong, but even if I get what I want — which is to sell at least one novel — I’m going to be so old when it happens that the whole context of what I get will be different than want I want.
All anyone will want to talk about is how I “came out of nowhere” and I “found success late in life.”
UGH.
Not to mention there’s always a chance that some dumb thing I did when I was drunk 20 years ago when be used to “cancel me.” But it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all.
Anyway, once I finish the outline and do some reading, then I will start the next step — writing scene summaries for each individual scene. THEN I will get down to writing.
