by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I am really digging deep into my personal history as I write the first novel in what is hoped to be a six novel project. Really deep. Like, so deep that by the time you finish this first novel you’re going to — in a round about way — know way, way, way more about me than you might realize.
The whole thing, relative to what actually happened to me, is very jumbled, smashed together and out of context, but the grain of truth is still there enough that if you were to have a conversation with me you would probably figure out what was going on, what really happened.
And time and again, I’ve heard that there is something to be said for writing a really personal story, be it a TV show, novel or movie. Something about writing something very specific to your personal history, your personal journey in life actually evokes universal truths that make for something that can ultimately be really popular.
At least, that’s the dream.
This first novel continues to evolve and get much, much better. I hope to finish a really good first draft no later than the end of the year, hopefully even sooner. Then I’m going to turn around and, in some way, rewrite the whole thing so I can produce a beta draft that is good enough that should I somehow get beta readers — maybe after I become a beta reader myself — that I won’t embarrass myself.
One lingering fear I have, of course, is because I’m doing all of this in a vacuum that there are serious problems that I simply can’t do anything about until someone else reads the novel because I just don’t have a second pair of eyes to point them out as I’m writing.
Oh, to have a wife or girlfriend to be a “reader.” I keep thinking of Garp’s wife Helen who was his “reader.”
Anyway, despite not having written 25 page character studies or massive treatments, I’ve somehow managed to cobble together the first draft of a first novel that I’m quite pleased with. I’m sure their remain some significant issues that I don’t even know about, but I have a feeling there are going to be a few haters who will be silence at the end of this process, if nothing else.
