by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Absolutely no one has any faith in my ability to pull of a six novel project. Pretty much everyone would prefer that I just shut up about anything creative and never be seen again. It definitely seems as though everyone I know would prefer I lie in bed in a dark bedroom and twiddle my thumbs while I stare at the ceiling. Even though that would probably make a lot of people happy — that’s just not my style.
So, here I am, determined to flesh out the second novel in a proposed six novel project before I’ve even finished the first draft of the first book. But my literary hero finished — and sold — three novels (before dropping dead), so I’m self-assured enough to believe I can top him by not only writing and selling six novels but somehow managing not to drop dead as part of the process.
I am now mulling the plot of the second novel. At the moment, all I know for sure is the plot is based on the conceit that someone has abducted a baby. That’s it. Everything else is up in the air. But the fun of being at this point of the process — development — is being forced to be creative, to think up plot points to fill up a lot of blank space.
And the key thing of all of this is hopefully, in the macro scheme of things, the reader will be even more endered to the baby that will ultimately grow up to be my American homage to Lisbeth Salander. That, at least, is the dream. It is going to be interesting to see if I can pull this off. I’m pretty sure I can, but the uncertainty and the creative challenge associated with it is something to keep me moving forward.
A huge amount could go wrong — with the biggest issue looming in my mind is the idea that the United States may, gulp, have a civil war of some sort in late 2024, early 2025.
As for this second novel itself, one of the biggest things I’ve learned about development is how fluid things can be. I have a real problem with word count and I’ve come up with what is at the moment a very tight timeframe for when events in this second novel take place. But, like I said, everything is very much up in the air and who knows what they will look like once I’m finished.
But a lot is going to hinge on selling the first novel in the series. That is going to open a lot of doors for me should it happen, even though everyone thinks I’m a drunk crank that they refuse to take seriously.
