Author: trumplandiareport_zk3po8

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, #Hollywood, #JodiKantor & The #Novel I’m Developing & #Writing

Some thoughts.

Things May Begin To Move Fast Now With The Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After what feels like an eternity, I think I’m just about to see development speed up rather quickly. I have a script consultant now and he’s really helping me see some major problems with the story. I’m obsessed with character now. I feel like I’m getting much, much closer to filling my previously empty vessels of characters with some substance.

I continue to use Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire as my text book. But it’s growing more and more of simply a stepping off point. My personal ability to tell a story is improving dramatically. Or, put another way, I’m finally reaching a level of storytelling that placates my own brutal personal editor.

If I was better educated and a better writer, I would say I had a chance at writing something as good as Gillian Flynn’s debuted novel Sharp Objects. But I didn’t go to the right school and my actual writing ability is rather mediocre, so I am trying to lower my expectations accordingly.

But I think it’s at least possible that I may have figured out some existential issues with the story. If that is, in fact, the case then things should move a lot faster.

Wish me luck

Thinking About Starting a YouTube Channel Devoted To Storytelling



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have the equipment to do a YouTube channel, but, to date, I haven’t thought up what it would be used for. But given how many videos I’ve done about the novel I’m working on — and how much reading on the subject I’m beginning to do — I think maybe that’s the answer: do a YouTube channel on storytelling.

So, I think over the course of the next few days I’m going to begin to plot out my next move. I would have to give some thought to what the best practices are on the matter. YouTube people are pretty brutal — more so than even Periscope people — so I would have to be very careful so as not to make a fool out of myself. I do that all the time, anyway, no reason to make the situation worse.

But I definitely have a lot to say on the subject. The only thing that’s changed is I’m beginning to read so much that I’m accidentally turning myself into a self-taught expert on the subject. Or, I will be by the time I finish reading on the books on storytelling I’ve bought over the last few months.

Anyway, I love to talk and a YouTube channel seems to be perfect for filling up a little extra time. One thing slowing me down is figuring out what best practices for the channel would be. How long should each episode be, extra.

One thing I have to do, however, is speed up the process of actually wrapping up development on the novel I’m working on. I’m getting nervous it’ll be three years from now and I’ll STILL not be done with it.

This is not A Confederacy Of Dunces. It’s not literary in any way. It’s not like my sister can take up the drive to get it published after my death and finally succeed 11 years later.

This needs to be published now — or never.

V-log: Some Thoughts on Hugh Hefner, Playboy & The Protagonist Of The #Novel I’m #Writing

Some thoughts.

‘Autocrats Always Win’ #Trump #Resist



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It is a liberal fever dream that Trump is ever leaving office for any political reason. If he ever leaves office, it will be because he’s finally grown so absolute erratic that MoscowMitch, at last, signals it’s time for him to go.

Otherwise, lulz.

I would go so far as to suggest that it won’t be until Trump bungles a war with the DPRK and is directly to blame for, say, Alabama being vaporized and turned into a post-nuclear hellscape that he leaves office. Trump is going to do whatever necessary to win re-election.

Then he will call a Constitutional Convention. He will be America’s Brezhnev for the next 10 years or so until some other member of House Trump finally ascends to power. Sometime around 2060, AOC will lead an armed popular revolt against House Trump and rule via a junta until things get sorted out.

I honestly don’t see any other endgame. It’s not like Trump’s going to let himself lose in a free-and-fair election. The only votes that matter are the Electoral College votes. He got away with bribing Stormy Daniels. The center-Left in the United States is so weak, he will get away with do something like that again, only in a far more brazen manner.

I’m going to die in an ICE camp. All I got to defend myself at this point is a novel I’m developing.

Maybe it’ll be a success so I can leave the country before ICE puts a bullet in the back of my head.

On #Writing A #Thriller That Is An Allegory Of The #Trump Era



By Shelt Garner
@SheltGarner

I have been working on this novel for some time now. It’s totally consumed my life to the exclusion of all other creative endeavors. This is good on a number of different levels because, well, I was wasting a lot of my time and energy on a number of scattershot ideas. But now I have my creative life focused on one thing and one thing only — figuring out canon, plot and character.

Plot and canon are pretty much figured out. But character continues to a major issue. I have to figure out what motivates these characters to do what I need them to do. The point of this novel is it’s a thriller that allows me to run around an allegory of the Trump era in an entertaining fashion. I don’t want it to be preachy like, say Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart. I want it to be a sly rumination on the Trump era that is also something of a tentpole.

I will be the first to admit that sense I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m drafting off Stieg Larsson’s work. He has inspired and influenced me a great deal. But as I become a better storyteller, I find myself flexing my own creative muscles and using what he did as more of a stepping off point than anything else.

I hope to spend the next few days thinking out some crucial character details. I also am going to map out as much as possible the plot in a treatment of some sort. One thing I can’t do is continue to spin my wheels. I need to take a results-oriented, holistic approach to writing a novel. This business of simply doing development in a vocal manner for months has got to end.

It’s time to finally put up or shut up.

I have written at least 200,000 words over the last 18 months of development. I wrote 100,000 words then realized what I wrote was so horrible it didn’t deserve to be finished. But given that I’ve split the story into two novels, it is also now effectively my first draft. That is pretty cool.

Anyway, I know that if, like, anyone liked me, I probably would not have been spinning my wheels for as long as long as I have. But I’ve been working in a vacuum for much of this development and so I have no idea if anything I’ve written is any good.

Things are slowly changing on that front, however, which is pretty cool. Hopefully by the time I finish a professional-grade first draft in a few months, I’ll be able to find someone to read it all for me and ask, “What happens next?”

V-Log: Some Idle Talk About The #Novel I’m Developing & #Writing

Some thoughts.

V-Log: The Honesty of #Fleabag in The #Trump Era Of Lies

Some thoughts.

V-Log: An Update On The #Novel I’m #Writing

Some thoughts.