Month: February 2024

I May Have Stabilized the First Three Chapters of The Third Draft Of My Mystery-Thriller Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This weekend, I did a lot of structural tinkering with the first three chapters of the third draft of my first novel and I think they’re stable now. I think it’s possible that I can now zoom through much of the novel — maybe until I reach the midpoint — because those first three chapters are stable.

I understand where relationship stand as the story opens, which really allows me to go faster going forward. It won’t be until about the mid point of the novel that I will have to again to struggle with some severe structural problems that will come to a head in the third act.

The third act is going to have to be totally re-imagined and rewritten.

But I’m really pleased with what I have so far with this third draft. The main problem, of course, is I had hoped to wrap the third draft up by April. Now, however, it looks like it could be as late as July.

For a number of reasons, I’m going to start to read, watch and develop more so in case some disaster strikes the main creative project, at least I will have improved my overall position when it comes to storytelling.

Or something. Something like that. I am very grateful for the unique situation I find myself in and I feel like maybe I need to show that more. I too often just kind of daydream and waste way too much time instead of, say, watching a movie that I might not otherwise watch.

‘Suspension of Disbelief’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I continue to grow more and more nervous about this novel the better it becomes and the more serious I grow about getting it published in a traditional manner. My overarching fear from the start of this endeavor was to not embarrass myself.

My fear is that for all my reverse engineering of stripper life that I just won’t get some elements of it right and people will laugh at me. But, despite this fear, I have something going for me — “suspension of disbelief” and post-production.

The whole heroine-is-part-time-stripper element of the story is more about character development than it is trying to be realistic. It’s something weird and unusual about the character that — hopefully — will catch people’s attention and make them want to wade through a lot of not a lot going on in the first act before we get a murder.

Also, all I have to do is just get within shouting distance of being right — there is a good chance that if I get an agent and the novel sells that any really egregious errors in the stripper part of the story will be fixed. At least, I hope.

Anyway, things are going well — so far — with my latest attempt to lock down the first three chapters of the first act. I’m hoping that once that happens, I can zoom through a big chunk of the novel — at least until around the midpoint — and I can feel some satisfaction that things are actually working well again.

My dream is to have an heroine as interesting and compelling as Lisbeth Salander.

I continue to feel an urge to start development on a few scifi concepts I have rolling around in my head. Now that I know how to write a novel — or at least the way I do — I want to have a few backup stories to use in case something happens and I can’t use the mystery-thriller.

Hope To Stabilize The First Six Chapters Of The Third Draft Of The Novel Soon

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have a huge amount of re-writing to do, but, in general, I understand the general path of the plot of the first act now. As such, I’ve printed out the first six chapters and I’m going to read through them now, trying to get a sense of the ebb and flow of the draft and figuring out which scenes need to be totally rewritten.

My heroine looks like Nathalie Emmanuel as I write her.

Given how much I’ve changed the beginning, I suspect there are going to be A LOT of scenes that will have to be scrapped to accommodate all the changes, er, improvements, I’ve come up with.

I’ve REALLY changed a lot of the story between the second and third drafts. That’s been the thing that has really slowed me down — things have changed so much that I have to think, in abstract terms, how to game out all these changes before I sit down and start rewriting.

It takes time to do that.

But, lulz, at least I know what my heroine looks like in my mind.

We Don’t Talk Enough About Fucking Weird Trump Is

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Trump is a very weird motherfucker. We’re so busy overestimating him because of one unexpected election win in 2016, that we forget that he is just a very weird empty suit. He’s just a malignant ding-dong that, because of an unexpected confluence of historical events, became POTUS.

Remember — he is not a great man of history.

He’s very lazy and stupid. Far, far more lazy and stupid than Hitler ever was. And, yet, because he’s a useful fool — or tool — a lot of far smarter people keep thinking up ways to make him an autocrat without him having to do anything more than just having a pulse.

This whole shoe thing he’s come up with is a prime example of this. He is such an idiot. And the show is awful. And, yet, here we are, having to take the whole thing seriously because we continue to over estimate him. I just don’t know what to say.

Ah ha! I’ve Finally Figured Out What Hollywood Star My Heroine Looks Like — Nathalie Emmanuel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve finally found who I’m thinking of in my mind as I write my heroine and her adventures in my first novel — Nathalie Emmanuel.

Nathalie Emmanuel

My hope is, of course, that I will write a heroine who is as interesting as Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander. It will be interesting to see how things ultimately work out. A lot of writing a successful novel is just dumb luck. So, lulz, I could write The Bible and because I’m a smelly CIS white male writing from a female POV at times….the woke cancel culture mob will pillory me.

The dream is to write a character as interesting as Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander.

I Suspect Hollywood Will Love The ‘Part-Time Sex Worker’ Element of This Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Whenever I get a little nervous about having my heroine be a part-time sex worker — stripper — I remind myself how freaky most Hollywood actresses are. And, what’s more, I don’t even really have anything all that bad happen to my heroine compared to, say, what Stieg Larsson puts Lisbeth Salander through….Jesus Christ.

So, I think that while a certain portion of the reading public will be turned off by this particular element of my heroine’s character, the people who might actually one day adapt it into a movie — if it ever became that popular, natch — will really dig it.

Having her occasionally strip to relax adds a lot of complexity to her character and evokes an emotional reaction of some sort, which is what all good storytelling does. I am well aware of how some people will want to throw the book across the room the moment they realize that it’s a smelly CIS white male writing from a female POV instead of an undocumented trans woman, but, lulz, slings and arrows and all that.

It will be interesting to see what happens, regardless.

‘Rotting Door’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though Russia is primed and ready for another revolution. As I’ve written before, if I was going to take over Russia, I would wrap myself in the imagery of the Russian Empire. I would wait until their was some sort of popular revolt then I would strike — the populace is ready and waiting for something to rally around.

I propose that Russia be a constitutional monarchy with, who knows, maybe Prince Harry being the new Tsar. It seems clear to me that the Russian people need and want the sense of belonging that a new Tsardom would bring with it. Too bad that this is just not a viable proposal, even though on paper it would work.

With global climate change, Russia is going to find itself in a situation where it maybe the the future, even if it doesn’t really want to be. And, to me, making Russia liberal constitutional monarchy would be just the thing to allow Russia to rise to its potential.

It will definitely be interesting to see how things shake out.

General Videos From Me

About 1 Million Smug Twitter Liberals Will Start to Flee The Country Once Trump Is Re-Elected

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Should, God forbid, Trump get re-elected, a massive brain drain is going to begin. If you take into consideration wealth and the size of the country, I would suggest that about 1 million smug Twitter liberals will flee the country to who knows where within days of Trump winning the 2024 election.

That will be just the beginning. As Trump goes full tyrant, more and more people with the means to do so will leave the country. The entire global culture could be transformed as American ideals and traditions are pumped throughout the globe because of a massive diaspora.

It will truly be one of the great events of human history, up there with the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Of course, the counter argument is that if Trump thrashes around and goes full ham-handed tyrannical autocrat the moment he’s sworn in then…yikes…the entire world could collapse into chaos and anarchy.

But I can’t predict the future. Who knows what is going to happen. We could just muddle through and that will be that. But I will note that MAGA keeps screaming at the top of their lungs about what, exactly, they plan to do once they’re in power again.

I Just Don’t See How Human Hollywood Survives AI Without Legal Carveouts

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

From what I can tell of OpenAI’s Sora software, we’re rushing towards a future where human Hollywood becomes moot. What’s more, it seems as though the far Left and the far Right might fuse into some sort of anti-AI coalition that would demand legal carveouts for human Hollywood and human transportation workers.

I do think that, no matter what, human generated art will thrive, just the context will be different. It will be that 99.9% of all media is AI generated, and the little bit of pop art that is human generated will be really, really good. The one genre of human are that will probably see the most success because of AI is live entertainment ranging from sports, to music to theatre.

Actually experiencing something in the real world, rather than via AI generated VR wearing your Apple Vision Pro will start to be valued a great deal by the average person. I could see Broadway and live theatre in general replacing most of the current movie going experience because it will be real and true and human.

I love movies, yes, but in the future it could be that people will be so used to “playing” their gamified VR movies that if they are going to take their headset off, they’re going to want it to be a live experience. I will note again that scifi novel The Unincorporated Man talks about the downsides of VR in a really interesting way.

Anyway. It will really be interesting to see how things play out. I would like to think that I still have a window of opportunity to finish my novel and see if I can successfully querying it.