by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’ve pretty much wrapped up the treatment for the scifi pandemic backup novel I’m working on. It’s really good! Of course, if I was 25 years younger, I would probably write the story out as a screenplay. But, lulz, I’m old as hell and I just don’t have time to overcome the learning curve associated with learning how to properly write a screenplay.
So, novel it is.
I’m going to give myself one to two years to work on this scifi novel. But I am well aware that given how obvious this particular concept is, that someone else could very well beat me to the punch. It’s just a professional hazard, I guess. Or, “No one ever got anywhere in this world without taking a chance,” as my father would say.
Meanwhile, it’s becoming more and more clear to me that the main novel I’m working on is something of a passion project. There are just too many potential issues for the “woke cancel culture mob” to quibble with for me to have too much faith in it being published without me being able to leverage the success of another novel — in this case, my back up novel.
And that doesn’t even begin to address issues like my age, my general kookiness and all the crank-like things I’ve written about online. I can’t help how old I am and I can’t help who I’ve been well, all my life. But I do plan to wrap up the main novel pretty soon.
I am still on track to finish SOMETHING by no later than July 22, 2024. When that happens, I will take a deep breath and take stock of where things are creatively. I will probably being to query at some point, but I also may cool my heels — with the main novel, at least — while I save up the money for a manuscript editor to look over the third draft.
If, that is, I’m able to overcome what a kook I am and how conspicuous I’ve been with that kookiness online.
But I hope to start writing on my backup novel ASAP. It’s really, really good and allows me to explore a number of themes that are near a dear to my heart. And, what’s more the novel also allows me to address some really personal issues that I’ve long wanted to address in fiction.
You take yourself where ever you go, as they say.
