by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
My goal for the third draft of this novel is to make it good enough that I can hand it over to either a professional beta reader and / or a manuscript consultant so I can turn around and then begin to query the novel. Given money and time involved, I figure it’s probably going to be late 2024 before I really get into querying.
Which, of course, is just about when all hell is going to break loose and either Trump turns us into an autocracy or we have a revolution / civil war. I find something poetic about that. If we DON’T have a civil war / revolution — which I find the most likely at this point, then that definitely increases the chances that I will sell this novel given that the entire six novel project is one long screed against MAGA and extremism.
I really fucking hate MAGA.
Anyway. The goals of the third draft are to improve world building and character. I want people who don’t know anything about small towns to “get” the setting in a way they probably won’t with the second draft. I also am going to try to really flesh out characters in a way that makes them more cohesive and interesting.
I have a few ideas for my heroine that I hope will really make her a lot more memorable. But now that I have some sense of the totality of the story — and the overarching arch of the six novels — there are some things I hope to improve about some of the smaller characters as well.
Overall, I have a lot of work ahead of me — but it’s a lot of fun.
