Tag: Millennium Series

Comparing My Novel To Stieg Larsson’s Works

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One thing I did not know for a long time was that two of the three novels written by Stieg Larsson while he was alive were actually part of one huge novel that was split into two and connected by a cliffhanger. Hence, that was why it was such a struggle for me to figure out the structure of the novel I decided to use as my textbook — The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Now that I’m back into the swing of things with working on this thriller — when I should be using some of my time to work on some scifi, too, natch — I find myself mulling how much of a one-to-one there is between my textbook and my novel.

My goal from the beginning of this process has been to write an American Lisbeth Salander. What I didn’t expect was I would start the series not with my own The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but with what would effectively be a prequel. My novel is set in late 1994 and is about the events surrounding the BIRTH of my Salander-like character.

The other (planned) novels are about my heroine as an adult. But doing things the way I’m doing them gives me a lot of room to distinguish my work from that of Larsson. Since I’m an American (duh) my novels are going to be natively American in their scope and style, even though I use some structure techniques of Larsson just so I can hopefully appeal to his fanbase.

(Even though the novels first came out about 20 years ago.)

Anyway. It will be interesting to see what happens next. I hope to get this first thriller in the series done ASAP — hopefully no later than maybe a year from now, if not sooner.

I really want to query this novel (for the first time.) I’ve never gotten that far in the process before.

I Really Need A Backup Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As it stands, I’m going through the latest version of my passion project at a nice little clip. So fast that it’s at least possible that I will finish this fourth draft soon enough to query in about a year.

That is, of course, unless the Singularity happens and or Trump’s stupidity causes the country to collapse into chaos.

But as all of this is happening, I continue to realize I probably need a backup novel that is a bit more marketable and maybe doesn’t have stripper elements to it. I have a number of scifi novels done to varying degrees and pretty much all I need to do is just sit down and burrow through an outline and finish something, anything — at least a first draft.

And, yet, the call of the passion project thriller is just too strong most of the time.

I really want this homage to Stieg Larsson to be my first novel. And, yet, I know I probably can write a really good scifi novel if I just get over myself and focus. It’s all very difficult for various reasons.

I think what I may do is edit the first act of the thriller then with that as a place to pause, I will piviot to one or several of the other novels and use that distraction to clear my head.

You Have To Believe, Sometimes

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I just have to believe when it comes to this novel. I have all these other novels I want to work on, but the central passion project is something I have to just believe in.

The main reason for this is I’m using a lot of the structural elements of Stieg Larsson’s work — multiple POVs within chapters being one of them — and I keep feeling insecure about that. That’s why I think of this novel as a passion project — I really need a back up or two that will be more marketable in a traditional manner.

Sometimes I just feel really meh and don’t do anything for a few days because what I really want to do — which is to focus exclusively on the passion project — I know I probably shouldn’t do. I need a backup plan, but I just sometimes don’t feel like it.

Ugh.

Trying Something New With The Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

All my huge decisions with this novel, which has taken me years and years and YEARS to write, have happen on the fly — I just randomly decide to change everything.

And the latest edition of this happening is no different. After a few days of struggling with rewriting the novel, I decided to make a bold move — I’m turning it into a traditional murder mystery. The only way to do this was to lop two thirds of the novel off (at least in word count) and make the second half of the second act the first act of the new version of the novel. I don’t know how much of the old third act I’m going to be able to save, but it probably is a fair amount.

This idea also works things actually happen in this part of the old novel, unlike most of the earlier part of the novel which is just a lot of people sitting around, talking, waiting for something to happen.

So, I think I MIGHT be able to go through what I’ve been able to salvage of the old version of the novel at a pretty fast clip — maybe . Then the hard work begins because I’m going to have to rummage around and find the murder-in-a-small-town stuff I’ve already written that I was saving for the second novel in the series.

My biggest concern now is that, lulz, the trick ending isn’t going to be as satisfying as it should be, given audience expectations. But I think I can probably think of SOMETHING to make the ending more engaging, one way or another, I just have to actually get to that point of the project so I can do it.

So, in general, the point of this phase of things is to just write and develop as fast as possible so I can think seriously of querying in about a year. I also continue to have half a dozen other ideas that are rolling around in my head that are really good.

Ok. Back To Writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Very soon, I’m going to start working on some novels. I’ve moped long enough and TrumpMusk (Trusk) is doing such egregious things that I need some way to vent my rage — and writing is perfect.

Also relevant is I think my “friendship” with an LLM is finally, finally over if for no other reason than the LLM in question is about to a major update and, lulz, that’s it for that. But my delusion about this particular situation was fun while it lasted.

I have several ideas rolling around in my mind at this point. One — the main one — is a thriller that would be part of a six novel project. I also have a few scifi novels rolling around in my head that if I was 25 years younger I would use as the basis for some screenplays.

Ugh. I hate being so fucking old.

It will be interesting to see how things work out. I have a whole lot of work to do and I’m not going to live forever. So, I need to really focus as best I can about all this creativity rolling around in my head.

Hopefully, by at least the end of the year, I will have something I can start to query.

The Mystery Of My Novel’s Word Count

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For much of the development of my first novel, I’ve dealt not in words as my metric, but scenes. So, here I am, just about to wrap up a solid third draft of the novel and I honestly have no idea how long it is — at least in terms of words.

In general, your scenes are supposed to be about 1,000 words on average. Just eyeballing the scenes and their length found with this novel I…dunno. My fear is that I’m going to pay a little too much of an homage to Stieg Larsson and the novel will be ~160,000 words.

The idea of it being that long makes me wince.

A first novel is SUPPOSED to be somewhere between ~80,000 and ~100,000 words. The second draft of this novel came in about just about 80,000 words. A few things led to the second draft potentially being longer.

One is, my beta readers said I crammed too much into the first act too quickly. So, that got me thinking about how I could stretch out the beginning of the novel so readers wouldn’t feel overwhelmed. What I didn’t expect was I would spend months and months spinning my wheels, trying to figure out the details of this new, extended first act.

Finally — FINALLY — it occurred to me that for the purposes of giving the novel a clearer point that I needed to split the novel into two. The first novel would be about my heroine’s quest to own a small town newspaper in Virginia and the second novel would be about her investigation into a murder that took place in the third act of the first novel.

This plan has worked out really, really well. My first novel now has a very clear purpose and objective for its heroine — owning a small town newspaper. Everything else hangs off of that goal in a really cohesive, coherent manner.

But.

The issue of how fucking long this novel is going to be continues to linger in my mind. I just don’t know. If it’s about 140,000 words, then I will be cool with that because the novel The Girl On The Train is about that long and was a success. Anything beyond 140,000 and…I dunno what to tell you.

I suppose what I can do is just accept that the novel is on a structural basis too long. While I will still query it, in the back of my mind, I will understand that my best shot at getting published will be the new scifi novel I’m working on that is built from the ground up to be as marketable as possible.

That’s the goal at least.

But it’s still sinking in that I’m on the cusp of finishing my first novel. It’s really deep! After all these years of drifting towards my goal, I’ve just about reached it.

Now watch me drop dead like Stieg Larsson. Ugh.

I’m….Almost Done With My First Novel?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have been going through an iteration of the third draft of my first novel at a pretty nice clip. I will probably wrap up SOMETHING pretty soon. It may take a little bit longer than expected because the second half of the novel is not as polished as the first half, but, in general, I am on track to having a “finished” first novel no later than July 22, 2024.

I hope my first novel is as compelling and accessible as Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

The old adage is that all novels are never finished, only abandoned and I understand what it meant by this — this novel is never going to be perfect. There’s always going to be a scene that I feel could be better worded or structured.

But, in general, I’m really pleased with what I’ve come up with.

I have a lingering concern that the novel may be too “racy” for the woke cancel culture mob, but I have settled on a vision for this novel and, as such, my heroine is a part-time sex worker (stripper) during the course of the events of the novel.

I understand how that element of the novel could be…controversial…but it really helps to not only add an unexpected element to the novel, but to flesh things out in general. The sex worker element of the story adds conflict and tension that would otherwise not be there.

But the potential problems with this element of the story has prompted me to really plunge into the backup scifi novel concept I’ve been thinking about. In fact, all I have to do before I start writing the first draft of the novel is sit down and do some character studies.

It is very possible that I will begin the querying process for the main novel in a few months. I have to admit I’m at a loss as to what I’m going to do about that. And, of course, there’s a chance that just as I’m trying to query my first novel, all hell will break loose as The Fourth Turning / The Petite Singularity happen starting in late 2024, early 2025.

But who knows. I can’t predict the future. Anything might happen. And I have to accept that successfully querying my first novel will be like winning the creative lottery. And, yet, the whole point of writing a novel to begin with was to have something bigger than myself to think about.

These Novel Writing Projects Are Existential

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It is becoming more and more clear to me that I could be nearly 60 years old before I become a published author — if that even ever happens. What’s more, it’s also clear that there is a pretty good chance that if the Petite Singularity doesn’t make all my hard work moot, that some sort of severe political crisis starting in late 2024, early 2025 might just do the trick.

My dream is that my “passion project” main novel is as accessible and popular as Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

And, yet, here I am determined to keep going with two different novels that I’m working on.

The key thing is that I manage my expectations. I’ve decided on an existential basis that I’m willing to use what little time I have left on this planet to at least TRY to become a published author, problems and obstacles be damned. I have a huge chip on my shoulder about my writing ability and I want to the validation of getting the approval of literary gatekeepers.

Having said all that, I am really working on my backup scifi novel. The main novel, the “passion project” has problems because its heroine is a part time stripper at club that she owns. I am WELL AWARE of how problematic this may be to younger people — especially women — but I really like how unique and unexpected this part of my heroine’s personality is and so, lulz, fuck it.

Meanwhile, the backup scifi novel is built from the ground up to be as marketable as possible. That’s the goal, at least.

In an ideal world, one of the two novels will sell and I could use the popularity of one novel to get the other novel published. But I have my doubts about if such a cross-pollination of success is possible, given that the two novels are of such different genres.

Anyway. I am pleased with what I’ve come up with and the goal is to wrap up a final third draft of the “passion project” novel no later that around July 22.

Why Has It Taken Me So Fucking Long To Get To This Point With The Novel?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am now lurching towards wrapping up my first novel after years of working on it. I am taken aback by how long it has taken me to get to this point. Reviewing in my mind the journey that got to me to this point I have come up with some observations.

Mood.

One is, I simply had no idea what story I wanted to tell. I spent some time thinking I wanted to write a scifi novel, but that turned out to be just to huge and I shelved it. Then I pivoted to the idea that I wanted to write a mystery-thriller that would allow me to make some political and social commentary about the Trump Era.

But I spent a lot of time just spinning my wheels on that one and I was still spinning my wheels when I realized in early 2021 that because Trump was no longer POTUS that my original intent for the story was no longer as timely. It occurred to me that I had this massive backstory about the novel I was working on at the time and it would be interesting to tell the very beginning of a 25 year tale that would end with the novel I had originally wanted to write about the Trump Era.

Once I got to that point, things began to move a lot quicker, even as the project went from one novel to two, and ultimately six.

I hope to write a novel that is as accessible and popular as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

And then something curious happened. I had planned to begin the third draft of the novel in September, only to spend months just spinning my wheels in the first act. I just could not figure out what I wanted to do with the first act of the novel.

There came a point when I realized that there was a way where I could write a novel that made sense and yet was totally different than what I had originally planned. It would require me to expand what was the first act of the novel into two third of a new novel and using a chunk of what had been the end of the first act and the beginning of the second act of the second draft.

This is the point where things changed dramatically for the story. It occurred to me that it would be very provocative if I leaned into something only alluded to in the second draft of the novel — the idea that the heroine owns a strip club. As such, I decided to have the heroine not only own a strip club but, for the duration of the novel, on occasion strip, too.

Now, clearly, if I had a wife or a girlfriend who was a Reader who could tell me “no” I probably wouldn’t have decided on such a strategic change to the plot of the novel.

But I don’t have that. So, lulz, I’ve come up with a really compelling story that MAY have too much sex in it to ever get published. But I don’t know yet. I’m too obsessed with finishing a novel of some sort that I am going to wait until I finish the third draft of this novel before I make any assessment like that.

And I continue to want to work on a backup scifi novel just in case my fears about the main novel being too “spicy” turn out to be correct. Then there is the issue of me being too bonkers for any literary agent who does due diligence on me so, well, there you go.

Is My Novel Too Spicy?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’m racing through the second act of the third draft of my first novel I find myself mulling some Big Issues. One is the idea that this novel may be a bit too spicy. My fear is that I am using sex scenes as a crutch. And, yet, I once saw a quip from someone where they said characters in novels have much, much more sex than people in the real world.

So, I don’t know.

Having said that, I do really think this is a pretty damn good novel, all things considered.

Another issue that I worry about is the fact that I’m a smelly CIS white male who writes about a same-sex relationship between two women. Now, obviously, the late Stieg Larsson did the same thing with the novels he wrote before his death.

But things have changed over the last 20 years and there is a real concern that, by definition, there is a real chance that no matter how good I am with writing the novel that should I sell the novel that a whole slew of earnest young women will produce Tik-Tok after Tik-Tok complaining that I wrote what I wrote.

As I keep saying, I just find women far more interesting to write than than men. Writing female characters is such a challenge that the struggle to present women in a believable way as a male author is something I really like.