Tag: writing community
Once I Stabilize The First Three Chapters Of The Third Draft Of This Novel, Things Should Move Really Fast
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I am so close to stabilizing the first three chapters of this novel to the point that things might start to go really fast. One huge problem I face is I’ve so forked the story from what it was intended to be in the second draft that I have a huge amount of writing, rather than editing, ahead of me.
My dream is to write a novel as popular as Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
I’m going to have to just throw everything up in the air and reimagine a lot of the novel on a specific basis, with the third act really being something I have to work on. The third act of the second draft s u c k e d. It was horrible. So these days I spend a lot of of my time thinking in the back of my mind about how I can straighten out some serious problems in the third act.
Anyway. My storytelling and writing ability have both gotten significantly better. Some of it is I’ve being using AI some to help develop the novel — but not write it — because I’m doing everything in a vacuum and I have nothing to go on but my gut.
And sometimes my gut just doesn’t cut it.
But, in general, I’m very pleased with what I’ve managed to come up with. One key thing I have to do is stop being such an absolute perfectionist. The point is to finish a third draft THEN go back and edit it some. This business of forking the Goddamn thing all the time has got to stop.
Slow & Steady Wins The Race
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The novel is getting really, really good. It’s just taking a lot longer than I would prefer for me to get past the thrashing around in the water phase of things. But I am slowly but surely getting close to the second act.
The dream is to write a novel as successful as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Of course, I still find myself worried about how long the whole thing is going to be.
And, of course, I still need to work on some backup stories in case disaster strikes.
But, in general, not only does the novel flow really well, but there is an ebb and flow to things that I think will appeal to readers.
It does help that I’ve stopped drinking entirely. I hate being a dry drunk, but hopefully — hopefully — I will be able to focus structuring my life in a much better way.
I have to stop pissing my life and time away by daydreaming so much.
It Appears That The Novel Has Stabilized
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I have printed out a few chapters of the first act and now I hope to go through and make sure that the mystery-thriller elements of the story are evenly spread across as much as possible.
The basic scenes are fine, but I need to keep reminding readers that this is all leading up to a mystery-thriller Big Event that will make the novel a traditional thriller in the guise of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
The structure of this novel is much more like The Girl Who Played With Fire, however. I have about 50 scenes of lead up to the event that kicks off the second act of “the special world” and gets us going into what the novel is really about — murder in a small town.
The biggest problem I have at the moment is I’ve changed so much of the first act that I have to accommodate those changes in the rest of the novel. That is really slowing me down.
But I need to stay focused. I know I have a really great concept, I just have to build it out in a way that the novel fits the genre of mystery-thriller. It doesn’t help, of course, that I’m just not very dark or twisted in my writing. I find it really difficult to write that way.
Ugh.
Wish me luck.
An Issue Of Verisimilitude
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
If I ever needed a clear sign that, in general, no one takes me seriously, it’s my overall failure to get anyone from my past life with the press industry to answer my call for help about something. (I finally got one person, but that’s really not very many given how many people I reached out to.)
The issue is, I really want to make the situation I’ve come up with for my heroine — that she owns both a strip club (where she occasionally strips to relax) and an alternative weekly — as real as possible. Like, how would that REALLY work out, especially in mid-1990s Richmond, VA?
I’m WELL AWARE that because of human nature and the needs of marketing, that there is a real risk that this novel would be reduced down to two tropes being fused together — “hooker (or sex worker) with a heart of gold” and “sexy slutty assassin” solves a murder mystery.
I think about this even more given how many men my heroine beds in the first act for the purposes of the plot. All the sexxy time is not gratuitous and definitely serves the overall plot. And, in general, I don’t even really show the spicy stuff that much. I do show it some, but it’s hopefully not so much that people get turned off.
And, what’s more, I’ve cut back the sex in the second act. I don’t know, but I think that best practices for storytelling is you delay sexxy time as much as possible. But, lulz, I never do anything the right way.
But the story is getting much, much better in general. I’m really pleased. But I have to prepare for people to attack me for how much sexxy time there is in the novel. While I’m very sex-positive and don’t see my heroine’s sexual activity as “slutty” I’m afraid there will be some people who think I’m replicating Debby Does Dallas with how my heroine seems to have so much sex on the fly.
Ugh. Anyway. Wish me luck.
Things Are Getting Really Good With The Third Draft Of My First Novel
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
This afternoon, I plan to plunge back into editing and rewriting (as necessary) the first three chapters of the third draft of my first novel. I also hope to do some reading and watching of some TV / movies. I’m really, really pleased with what I’ve managed to come up with for this third draft.
I dream to have a level of success equal to “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.”
The issue is, of course, that I need hurry the fuck up. I can’t just keep screwing around. Any number of things could happen in the next few days and weeks that totally throw everything up in the air or, at a minimum, dramatically change the context of this project.
But, for the time being, all systems are go.
I’ve given myself a few days of pause to recalibrate things and now I’m ready to go again. I hope to wrap up the first act of this novel ASAP and get into the second act.
There remains the issue of word count. At the moment, I have a first act that is equal to the first half of the second act — which, itself, is really long. So, it’s possible that, at least on a scene basis, that I’m going to have a really long first half and the second half will be a lot shorter — which, I hope, means it will read faster.
I continue to do all of this blind — I have no idea if I’m going it right or not. I may have a “reader” of sorts now — an older man who is at my dad’s nursing home — but I don’t know yet. Just having someone to read the novel as a second pair of eyes will be great.
But I have been disappointed so often that, lulz, I just don’t know.
Thing Continue To Be In Flux With The Third Draft Of This Novel
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Yet again, I find myself stuck at the very beginning of this novel, spinning my wheels. I have to admit, however, that the story is getting much, much better. I continue to dabble in the use of AI to develop this novel, to mixed results.
The dream is real.
Too much of this novel is “spicy” in a way that causes all the AIs out there to lock up, so I’m forced to use it sparingly. Some of the results I get from using AI are pretty good. Sometimes, meh. Not great.
And something is going to happen in my personal life the next few days that may force me to kind of chill out until next week. It’s very frustrating, but given how great my life is otherwise for writing, I can complain only so much.
Some other good news is I *may* have an “accountability buddy” at the nursing home that my dad is at. This older guy is really interested in reading the novel and, as such, I might be able to use him as something of a backstop to prevent myself from changing everything at the drop of a hat when I grow frustrated.
But….I don’t know.
I’m so desperate to finish this novel before I croak that I might be able to press forward of my own accord.
As I’ve Said Before, If This Novel Is A Success, Hollywood Actresses Are Going To Dig It
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Hollywood actresses are a curious bunch. While there’s no easy equation that explains all of their psychology, in general — especially as they get older — such actresses love to run around emotionally and psychologically naked using their roles.
You do you, baby.
This causes “good girls” like Natalie Portman to play a stripper in Closer. This leads some actresses who are probably bi-sexual to play many, many lesbian roles where they get to pretend to fuck another woman under the guise of “acting!”
In short, a lot of Hollywood actresses are freaks — in a good way. More power to them.
My heroine looks a lot like a younger version of Nicole Scherzinger.
Anyway, I only bring this up because my novel has a number of character in it that I could see actresses loving. My heroine is a really complex woman who would allow them to bounce back and forth between being a professional journalists / publisher and being the owner of a strip club / occasional stripper.
Have I got a role for you!
Meanwhile, I have the “comic relief” character who is wide open sexually and keeps causing trouble for the more “serious” characters by how unwilling she is to abide by the traditional gender power dynamic.
But I am really getting ahead of myself. Way, way ahead of myself. I have to finish the fucking novel first. I’m really, really pleased with how things are going, but I still have to stop fucking DRIFTING towards my goal and actually buckle down and get some work done sooner rather than later.
I Really Need To Think About Women’s Reaction To My Heroine Being A Part-Time Stripper
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
A lot could go wrong with this novel. I definitely fear someone will steal a creative march on me, if for no other reason, I’m just taking too long. But there’s not much I can do about it. Rome wasn’t built in a day and it’s just taking me a lot longer than I thought to get as far as I have.
But what’s interesting to me is the very thing that makes this novel a bit…edgy…could also be what makes it a success. I am WELL AWARE that because of marketing and human nature that this very interesting situation I’ve come up with will probably be boiled down to, “stripper solves a murder mystery.”
Ugh. That’s not at all what’s going on, but, lulz, what can you do.
But I do think that my heroine is beginning to approach Lisbeth Salander levels of interesting. She could very well be something of an icon if I play my cards right. And the thing that I keep being reminded about is how the interplay between my heroine’s “normal” life of owning an alternative weekly and her “alternative life” of owning a strip club / stripping to relax is something I need to lean into if I’m going to introduce the idea in the first place.
That’s what people — especially women willing to humor me by reading the damn novel in the first place — are going to want to see the most of.
The daydream issue of how Hollywood might address this novel occasionally gives me pause for thought. The obvious way to market the movie is something along the line of the old Pam Anderson movie “Barbwire.”
Double ugh.
The point of the story is not the T&A element of the story, but that by heroine is a woman who has sexual agency and self confidence enough that she is able to be a stripper to relax without giving it much thought.
It’s everyone else — especially horny men — who are the problem.
Anyway, I continue to work my way through the first act of the third draft AGAIN. Hopefully, this time, I will still have momentum enough to make my way through the second and third acts when the time comes.
I Might Do A Few Movie Treatments
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I have a few ideas that are interesting movie ideas, but I don’t know how well they would do as novels. So, I think, if I can summon the energy to do so, I’m going to write a few treatments.
There is one currently semi-funny idea that if I could find a collaborator would be something akin to The Wedding Crashers.
And, yet, lulz, absolutely no one cares what I say or do. I could walk off the face of the earth right now and it would take a few weeks for anyone to notice what had happened.
But I do feel like forcing myself to go outside my comfort zone by writing and developing something other than this one story I’ve been working on for years.
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