by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I haven’t finished the first draft of the first novel and I’m already eager to start work on the second novel in this projected six novel project. All I know at the moment is, in general, the second novel in this six novel project is about an abducted baby. That’s it. I have a general idea of what and why happened, but I have a LOT of work to do to flesh out characters, their motivation and the plot.
I’ve come up with an interesting way to flip the script on what happened in the first novel. It’s a way of keeping the universe fresh and engaging. Now, as I’ve mentioned if I actually finish this six novel project before I drop dead, the people who actually read all six novels will know a HUGE amount about me. They won’t know the context of what’s real or not, but the general story of my personal history will be conveyed.
With these six novels, I’m pretty much writing my autobiography, but in a very, very garbled manner where different eras are smashed together. And, really, my big regret is how much of a late bloomer I am. I hate that. Why did it take me 25 years longer than everyone else to go to this point? Think of all the novels I could have written just out of college.
But, come to think of it, something very different would have had to have happened in my young life for that to have happened. Something REALLY different. It took me going to South Korea to realize that I was never, ever going to be a journalist and that I was a lot more creative than I ever thought possible. So, lulz, here I am — almost 50 and struggling to write my first novel with thoughts of how I’m going to fix five more.
The key thing is, I’m going to really draw upon my experience with the first novel to speed up the process of writing the second novel. I’m hoping — hoping — that development will go far, far faster than it did when I had no idea what I was doing a few years ago.
The learning curve of writing my first novel was far, far more sharp than I could have possibly imagined. While using The Girl Who Played With Fire as my “textbook” was helpful in some ways, in other ways, it slowed me down because that novel was the second novel in a series and, as such, its structure was not ideal for a first novel.
But here I am. I now know what I’m doing (within reason) and hopefully, hopefully, things will go a lot — A LOT — faster with the development of the other novels in the project. I’m pumped, at least.
I find development a lot of fun because it requires a huge amount of dwelling on the characters and universe I’ve come up with. I think the best way to handle development this time is to plot out the stories in the context of thinking of characters and their motivation.
Anyway. Wish me luck.
