by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Now that things are beginning to click as to how to tell this mystery-thriller story the way I want to, I have to address a significant problem facing me — I have to totally rework the third act of the novel.
Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander showing off her dragon tattoo.
My vision is this — there’s an element of what seems to be New Age spirituality in the novel that turns out to have a very practical — if scifi — solution. I love scifi and as such I just can’t help myself. I like the idea that I kind of fuck with the audiences’ mind a little bit until there’s an “ah-ha!” moment in the third act.
I think what I’m going to do is just think of something, anything to finish the third draft of the novel then take a deep breath and weigh what the final third act of the novel will be when I tinker with things for the fourth — and final — draft.
My heroine looks like Nathalie Emmanuel as I write her.
The fourth draft is going to be the same as the third draft, only edited for clarity of consistency. (Outside of what changes I might make in the third act.) There is also a chance that in the fourth draft I could either cut the story into to (if it’s too long) or simply shave off a 10,000 or 20,000 words if absolutely necessary to get it published.
But I’ve already added 20,000+ words to the beginning to give the audience A LOT more context and character development — and a lot more sex. So much more sex that I’ve taken out some of the sex from the first part of the second act.
I still have a sex scene in the second half of the second act that one beta reader called “gratuitous.” Making it so it’s NOT “gratuitous” is going to be something that is going to require a lot of thought. But I believe in myself. I can do it.
