by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I am just about to plunge into the third act of the first draft of my first novel and, as such, I find myself thinking a few steps into the future. Maybe a lot of steps into the future.
It has occured to me that if I can just get my first novel published, that will opened a lot of doors for me. The specific opportunity I’m thinking about is being able to consult OTHER people about THEIR manuscripts. I am very, very brutal with my own work — I recently restructured the novel I’m working on so I cut out about 50,000 words — and I like to think of myself as personable enough that I could pull it off.
I am a little nervous that I might hurt the tender hearted writers I would work with. As a journalist, I’m pretty used to people editing my stuff and being hateful about it…but from what I can tell from the Twitter writing community….there are a lot of writers who are so sensitive that they fold if you give them anything other than effusive praise.
I’m not going to pretend that I don’t get fucking enraged when someone gives me dumb input…that sometimes, after some though, I realize was right. But usually when that happens, it’s the person giving me the advice goes about it all wrong.
Anyway, we’ll see. I am still sad that I may begin a new career just as everyone else my age is checking their watch, thinking about what they’re going to do in retirement. I just can’t help what happened to my life up till now. All I can do is just try to be the best person I can be and squeeze as much fun — and success — out of life before I croak or otherwise become incapacitated.
