by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m so excited about how well things are going with this novel that I really want to read the first draft then turn around and start writing the second draft. But they tell you to try to wait about a month between first and second drafts so you look at what you wrote with fresh eyes.
While I don’t think I’m going to make a month, I am going to wait until Christmas to read the first draft so I can begin the process of writing again so I can complete the second draft by April – May 2023. That will give me the summer to get the novel up to snuff to query as part of the fall 2023 querying season.
That’s the dream, at least.
It’s going to be a real struggle because, well, lulz, I can’t even pay people to help me develop the damn thing. Apparently, something about my personality turns literary types off. They just don’t want to deal with me for some reason, which is weird because you think being creative people themselves that they wouldn’t be so quick to judge.
Maybe I’m being naive.
Only successful kooks are allowed to be themselves, maybe. Being a drunk crank kook is a privilege, not a right in their minds. If you’re a loser drunk crank, they don’t want anything to do with you. But if you’re a success, then you’re “unique” and “interesting.”
Anyway, all I can do is just bootstrap it. While no one is going to help me — even if I offer to pay them — I can still read. I hope to spend these few days of not writing on the second draft to read, read, read any and everything I can get my hands on that I can force myself to read.
I continue to be interested in how leadership applies to building a strong protagonist. So, I’m trying to read a few leadership books I’ve bought along the way since I started this project a few years ago.
