Tag: Burn Hollywood Burn

Welp, A New Beginning For The Third Draft — AGAIN

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Within moments of looking over the beginning of the third draft of the novel, I came up with a new, better (?) beginning. The key thing is I really get right into the part-time sex worker (stripper) element of the story.

I never know how much of these changes will stick and how much is just part of the “breathing” process of the novel where everything moves around for months and months until I FINALLY reach something I kinda, sorta like.

But I think if I’m going to do this editing and rewriting right, I need to calm down some. I need to be more methodical because otherwise, I’m just going to spin my wheels for months and months and lulz, nothing will ever get done.

Part of that is to be more active with my setting and descriptions. In past drafts, I’ve kind of been lack about shit like that because the point was to get something, anything down.

Now that I’m on the third draft, I think I need to give a lot more consideration to describing things. I have a feeling I’m doing all of this wrong, but lulz, I’m doing it in a vacuum and have no one to tell me “no.”

I Have No Idea What I’m Doing With This Novel, Redux

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While things feel like they’re doing pretty well, I honestly have no idea what I’m doing with this novel. But I continue to press forward. I also continue to think about how I need to give my life some structure.

Maybe my novel will be adapted into a movie one day.

I’m very grateful for this peculiar situation I find myself in that affords me the ability to — essentially — be a professional aspiring novelist, even if I have to live in poverty to do it. Of course this particular situation won’t last forever and any number of things that could happen that will, if nothing else, dramatically change the context of what’s going on in my life.

And I continue to grow unnerved with political events that are totally out of my control. Way too many people believe that if only we can defeat Trump at the polls that magically that will be enough to end the threat of MAGA.

My heroine looks a lot like this woman in my mind.

The events of January 6th, tend to make me believe that Trump could very well demand a National Divorce, and as such, prompt a civil war even if we defeat him at the polls fair and square.

As all of these thoughts fill my mind, I also worry about the possibility that AI will make all my hard work…moot…just as I’m preparing to query in late 2024, early 2025. But there would be something poetic if, rather than querying my novel, I’m dodging bullets from MAGA fascists.

But, who knows. It could go a lot of different ways. And, as such, I need to buckle down and work hard. Or, at least, a lot harder than I am at the moment.

I’m Too Old For Mischief

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If I was younger, I would pick a random celebrity and write a lot about them on this blog, just to see if any of their “people” noticed. But, you know, I’m just too old.

While, on paper, it would be a fun experiment, it also would be too easy for said “people” to take one look at this blog and think I’m some insane stalker. So, meh. I have better things to do with my time.

In The End, Not Even Comedy Will Be Safe From AIGM

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, apparently, there’s some sort of AI generated George Carlin special floating around. Such AI Generated Media (AIGM, pronounced Ayee-Gym,) is a sign of things to come.


What gets me is that it’s also a sign that we need to re-calibrate what we expect for AI going forward in regards to the arts. It definitely SEEMS as though within about 18 months….that human Hollywood…just might not exist as we think of it. AIGM will totally consume Human Generated Media (HGM) and…that will be that.

It might be a bit longer than that, given the US could collapse into civil war / revolution in late 2024, early 2025, but, still…the times, they are a changing.

A Bit Of Regret

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have to accept that it definitely appears as though — barring something I can’t predict — that my dream of pulling of a third hat trick with my life is a bit…delusional? I say this in the context of reading the big new book about The New York Times, “The Times.”

I always though that I had one big third act ahead of me. But, lulz, even if I sell my novel and it’s some sort of hit, it’s not like I will be, uuuuhhh, YOUNG when it happens. Everything will happen in the context of me being in my 50s.

It’s not like I can get my act together an one day work at The New York Times. I MIGHT be able to, like, hang out with New York Times people if I was some sort of successful — and eccentric — novelist, but work there full time….nope. Not only am I too old, I’m too bonkers and my personality just doesn’t fit working at such a high pressure gig.

Meanwhile, my other option — making it big in Hollywood — is just as delusional, but for different reasons. Yeah, I could probably talk my way into a three picture deal while drunk at a cocktail party, but, still, the whole context would be different from what I always imagined.

Rather than partying with 24 year olds, I would be this guy that everyone is stunned became a success 25 years later than everyone else. “So, how does it feel to be a success later in life,” is the chief question every reporter would ask me.

All of this is delusional, of course.

And I have to appreciate that barring something REALLY BIG that I can’t predict, I probably won’t actually be able to physically see my novel on the shelf of a physical bookstore until my mid-50s. (And by that point, a combination of AI and XR may have even made physical print bookstores rather quaint.)

Who knows. I don’t. But no matter what, the context of any success I have at this point in my life just won’t be what I expected back in the day.

Hollywood Needs To Burn Some Beloved Franchises To The Ground To Save Them

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It seems clear that Hollywood needs to accept that we’re having something akin to a generational “vibe shift” and they need to completely reboot all the major scifi franchises for a new generation.

But time in short. Very soon, AI Generated Media (AIGM) will make all of this very moot because the audience will be in total control of what they see on the screen — or the Vision Pro (or whatever.) Within, say, about five years, all of (human) Hollywood will be totally and completely disrupted and, lulz, the only human made movies will be but about .1% of the total seen by the audience.

That’s a rather dystopian prediction, but that seems to be the direction things are going, with only the timetable being up in the air.

But back to the subject at hand — before AIGM takes over everything, Hollywood should hard reboot the Alien, Terminator, Star War and Star Trek franchises. Do it immediately. It can be the last hurrah of the Olde Ways before AIGM totally disrupts and revolutionizes how we make and consume media.

About To Sprint Forward (Soon)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m just about to sprint forward with the “Fun & Games” part of this novel. I’ve been doing a lot of constructive daydreaming the last few days in an effort to figure out how to game the rest of the story out. It’s been really, really tough.

But I do think if I just let this process play out that I should get to writing full time again pretty soon. I was kind of sweating it there for a moment until I realized what the problem was. There really wasn’t so much a problem as I needed to go into aggressive daydreaming mode so once I left it, I could throw myself back into writing again.

As all of this is going on, of course, I realize I need to do a lot more reading and watching of TV — and develop other projects. I don’t want to be left holding the back if someone — God forbid — should somehow steal a march on me story wise and I have to fall back to some other project from scratch.

I don’t know when everything is going to sort itself out, but it should be pretty soon. That’s the plan, at least.

Why Is It So Difficult For Me To Watch ‘Saltburn’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There was a moment, many moons ago, when I would have watched the movie Saltburn with my now-ex girlfriend and then moved on to the next thing. But now, as an middle-aged man, I find it very difficult to watch this “icky” movie. But whenever I balk internally at watching the movie, I remember that I watched Pulp Fiction long after everyone else did and I love it.

Ugh.

This is all part of a broader issue — I need to consume other people’s content. I can’t just consume my own content forever. This is especially the case as I lurch towards the querying process for my novel when I’m going to have to “comp” my novel to books more modern than Stieg Larsson’s work from 20 years ago.

I don’t know. I just don’t know. It’s all kind of bonkers that I would have such a dumb hang up in the first place. There are two things about the movie of note relative to my own life.

One, is the soundtrack which is very similar to the type of music I was using the DJ back in the day in Seoul. It’s not quite the same, but it’s reminiscent.

Second, as I’ve written before, the issue of the movie being so out there reminds me a great deal of all the fucked up shit that happened to me and the late Annie Shapiro back in the day in Seoul.

Soon, I’ll Leave My Creative ‘Vacuum’ & Find Out If My Gut Instincts Are Right

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Since I first started writing a novel, I’ve pretty much been doing it all in a creative vacuum. All I’ve had is my gut and a well-used copy of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire as my guide.

The gold standard.

Living in a delusional state as I did this has helped me a great deal. But soon I’m going to find out what people with careers and money –specifically literary agents — think of all my writing. I really need to pay a manuscript consultant to read the novel once I have a final third draft done –but I’m very, very poor.

As such, I may just say screw it and submit that I have and see what happens. The story is getting a lot better and it will be interesting to see what severe existential mistakes I made because I haven’t had a wife or a girlfriend to be my Reader on this project.

But I have to summon up some courage. I have to accept that it will really be like winning the writing lottery to actually sell this novel, even if I otherwise stick the landing. That’s why I continue to dwell on back up stories to use should it become clear that this novel just isn’t going to sell anytime soon. A lot of selling a novel comes from luck and hitting the zeitgeist just right.

It would also definitely help if I was, I dunno, an undocumented transgender woman. But, I’m just me, a smelly CIS white male who can be something of a kook at times.

I really need to start using my time in a more structured way. I really need to accept that things might get a little bit…bumpy…once I actually start to query. And I really want to query my first novel as early as fall 2024. Hopefully the country won’t be descending into chaos just as I finally reach the point where I can query.

I Continue To Be On Edge About The Looming Querying Process

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve vowed to sooner rather than later to take the querying process for my first novel a lot more seriously. At the moment, I’m on track to wrap up the novel around — hopefully — April. Then the plan is to begin querying no later than, say, September.

But it’s always possible that that deadline may slip and it won’t be the fall 2024 querying season that I take the plunge, but, rather the Spring 2025 season. And all of this is happening in the context of not only me Not Getting Any Younger, but knowing damn well that any literary agent who does due diligence on me might just throw up their hands with dismay at all the kooky things I’ve written about and done videos about over the years.

And I am the first to admit that if you don’t know me personally, I can come across as a drunk crank. Ok, I get it. But what am I going to do about it at this point? I am who I am and I have some quirks and sharp edges that might turn some (liberal white women) people off.

My heroine kind of looks like this in my mind as I write her.

I really need to stop stewing about querying and begin to take it concrete steps to be ready to go when the moment comes. But I also want to start to work seriously on some backup stories. I have at least three solid scifi novels rolling around in my head and all the hard work I’ve put into my first novel should speed the process of development up for these “back up stories” a great deal.

That’s the plan, at least.