by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Now that I’m officially in the second act of the third draft of my first novel, I have come to the conclusion that I have to re-imagine on a structural basis, pretty much everything. And that is going to slow me down.
The key thing I have to game out is cause and effect. The second draft of the novel, upon reflection, doesn’t really have a lot of cause and effect. Things just…happen. There’s no this then happens, but, therefore, this thing happens.
As such, I have to brood.
I have to reimagine the story — which is going to stay the same in a general way — so that there is a very clear set of events that cause each other to happen one right after the other. This is causing me to stare out into space and contemplate not just my plans for this novel, but reality in general.
Anyway. I hope to not only re-imagine this novel, but to read other people’s work, watch more TV and movies AND begin to game out not only back up ideas, but some of the sequels to this first novel.
Nobody, but nobody takes me seriously.
I hate to admit it, but I feel a little bit like a literary version of Donald Trump, given how manuscript consultants tend to shit on my dreams.
