by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
It’s still going to take a lot longer than I had hoped to finish the second draft of this also too long (in word count) novel, but I’m really beginning to grow pleased with certain elements of it.
Whomever is playing me in the simulation we call reality is really upping their game on the novel front, is all I can say. Things keep falling into place in a way that I sit back and take notice. I have established stakes. I have given my heroine a lot more motivation for her behavior.
I’m finally — finally — beginning to feel like I might be approaching that “potential” that the late Annie Shapiro claimed I had many moons ago. What’s more, I’ve doing my best to push my heroine to her limits. Instead of her just drifting through the story towards a general goal, I am really making her suffer in various ways — some spicy — so the overall novel is thought-provoking enough that people will actually feel compelled to finish the Goddamn thing.
That has been a real problem — to date, the few times I’ve tried to get people to read the first draft of this novel they get all excited, promise to read it…then all but ghost me. I really, really need to think of ways to engage the reader to the point that they are willing to spend the time necessary to actually finish the novel.
I’m not there yet, but I’m getting there.
