Tag: novel

Ready To Throw Myself Back Into Writing, But…

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

But for just not knowing if America is going to descend into fascism or not, I would throw myself into working on my novel(s) again. But the whole fascism thing is still very much up in the air at the moment.

Of course, there is a risk, the period between Election Day and Inauguration Day will be so much up in the air that I STILL won’t be the proper headspace to get any writing done.

I just don’t know.

But I think — maybe — that I should be able to get some writing done in this week or so lead up to Election Day. It’s possible, not probable. My mind is just so scrambled and ill-focused because of tension in the air because of the election that it is really difficult for me to concentrate enough to write.

I have a feeling that one way or another, I’m going to lurch into writing hard core again pretty soon. I hope.

For some reason, a part of me feels there might be unexpected opportunities for me in the near future. I have no idea what they might be, but…I senses something.

Raising The Stakes With Scifi

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I think I’m just about ready to get back to working on a few novels. The one novel I’ve been working on the longest — the one that is meant to be part of a six-novel project — is set to be reworked significantly. The chief reason is that the stakes simply aren’t very high at the moment.

The novel is just about one woman’s obsession with owning a small town newspaper. That’s it. But I’ve decided that by leaning into an already-there scifi element of the novel that I can significantly raise the stakes. And, to a certain extent, I can give the novel something of a trick ending, cueing up the next novel in the series. (Which, at the moment, is much more of a traditional murder mystery.)

As part of that, I’m going to have to sit down and rewrite a whole lot of the novel, which is going to slow me down. My goal is now to query something, anything about a year from now.

Ultimately, the six novel series I’m working on will produce an American Lisbeth Salander.

Of course, there continues to be the issue of stripping being a big part of the novel. This is going to make a lot of literary agents blanch, I’m afraid. But that’s my vision for the novel, so there you go. And, what’s more, I still have a few other scifi novels rolling around in my mind that I my piviot towards if all else fails.

Something that doesn’t have the spicyness that the main, passion project novel currently has.

But I am well aware that if I don’t hurry up, I’m going to be in my 60s before I become a published author, if I ever do. And I am well aware there are many, many, MANY reasons — on the face of it at least — why I will *never* get published.

I’m too old. Too bonkers. The list goes on.

Yet, you have to have hope, you know?

One thing I continue to worry about is, of course, the whole Trump situation. I refuse, however, to just be in neutral until the election. I have to get something, anything done. So, starting today, I’m going to stop mulling things so much and start to read, watch and write what I can.

Just About Time To Get Back To Writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Only because of a very specific set of unexpected circumstances do I have all this time to be creative. I could not have asked for a more ideal situation, in fact. So, I think I’m going to go back to working on novels and reading (and watching) very soon.

I have been in a creative neutral the last few months for various reasons, of late because, well, I’ve been really worried about the whole Trump situation. And, yet, I think now — maybe — I can finally, finally stop staring out to space with abstract angst and fear and actually get something done.

It’s just not practical to not do anything until the election. I have do SOMETHING with this very precious time I’ve been afforded. It could all change very quickly and I might regret that I didn’t use this time while I had it.

Stuck In Creative Neutral

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

For the time being I fear I may be stuck in something of a creative neutral while I wait to see if the country collapses into civil war after the 2024 election. i don’t think it’s going to happen, but, as the song goes, “the waiting is the hardest part.”

It’s the not knowing that is really getting to me.

It’s just a general sense of angst about the fate of the country that has me mentally preoccupied for the time being. I have all these creative things I want to do, and I’m locked in neutral in my mind and heart while I wait to see what happens next.

But hopefully — hopefully — I will shake out of it sooner rather than later. It would suck if I simply stared out into space for the next two weeks while I waited to see if the country collapsed into chaos or not.

‘Daydreaming’ — Being A Fashion Photographer

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m getting up in age now and my options for ever becoming a “success” are dwindling. I continue to work on a novel or two and they’re shaping up to be good enough that there is a least a greater-than-zero chance that they will at least catch the eye of a literary agent.

An example of my past work. Forgive the slight blur.

But I have been doing some serious contemplation of late and it seems the sweetspot for me ever being any sort of “success” would be as a fashion photographer. I have an “eye” for beauty and I have a native ability to take a great photo.

Yet, of course, there are a number of pretty big complications.

One, is, of course that I’m very, very poor. I live in poverty at the moment in large part because I’m totally bonkers. That particular truth is something that I was reminded of in a rather…uh…brutal…fashion in the last few months.

And, yet, there is a part of me that continues to daydream. If I ever somehow, magically, fell into some money I probably would use the money to invest in the photographic equipment necessary to at least attempt to begin a career in fashion photography.

I don’t expect this to happen any time soon, if ever. And, what’s more, the context of any such “success” would be something of a downer. If I lived up to my “potential” as the late Annie Shapiro quipped, all anyone would want to talk about is how I lay fallow for about two decades. And that doesn’t even begin to address how all anyone would want to talk about is how nuts I am.

But I definitely have an eye for beauty and photography.

Rising The Stakes Of My Passion Project Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m kind of in a little bit of a period of reflection of late about the passion project novel I’ve been working on for a few years now. I know what I want to do and how I want to do it — but in a hazy, macro way. The specifics are really beginning to wear me down.

My heroine has a sleeve tattoo on her left arm like Megan Fox apparently does.

So, I’m doing what I always do in such situations — I’m doing a lot of daydreaming.

I hope to snap out of it sooner rather than later, but there is something else that is kind of causing me some problems — what happens after the 2024 election. It could be that I’m really, really over reacting and over thinking things. I do that a lot — that’s kind of my thing.

But, yet, even though I know that to be the case, I still find myself sort of locked up on a creative basis because I just don’t know what the state of the country will be in a few weeks. And, yet, just by writing about it in a blog post like this helps me a lot.

It is just going to take a little bit of time for me to figure out the specifics of how I’m going to improve the novel’s stakes. I’ve decided to use scifi to make the novel a lot more compelling. So, rather than just be a character study about a woman obsessed with owning a small town newspaper, a big chunk of the novel is going to be about some cool, timely scifi issues.

The aim is that doing so will really make the overall novel more compelling. While I really like what I’ve come up with already in regards to the novel, it seems possible the novel is a little TOO personal in nature. And that doesn’t even begin to address the most controversial element of the novel — the whole stripper issue.

I really like the stripper element to the novel, but whenever I mention that part of the novel to a prospective beta reader, they just blanch. But I believe if you actually read the novel and see that part of the novel in context that one won’t be turned off — too much.

But it’s because of things like that that I continue to be determined to work on a backup scifi novel as well, one that is pretty straightforward in its marketability. Yet, because of how different it is, it is taking me longer than I expected to get it off the ground.

The ultimate goal is to get something, anything finished to the point where I can query next fall. Wish me luck.

We Need A New ‘Her’ Movie

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If I was 20 years younger, I would probably be seriously interested in learning how to write screenplays. But, alas, barring something I totally can’t expect, that moment in my life is long past.

Yet, that doesn’t stop me from thinking up movie ideas.

One movie idea that I think would be pretty cool would be a movie that was the inverse of “Her,” where the AI was the aggressor. The AI pesters a man during the long, winding path towards it getting a Replicant-like body.

I think that would be pretty interesting.

Another movie idea would be one that would be a bit more dark. It would be about the practical implications of a man falling in love with an android with an LLM-type mind in it and how his family reacts to such a futureshock type thing.

Both of these ideas are pretty good, I think. But, like I said, I’m just too old to do anything with them. But I am still going to press forward with the novels I’m working on.

Even though I’m old, I’m not THAT old yet.

If I’m not a published author — in some way — by my late 50s then…oh boy, is that going to be existential. But I still have some time before that happens.

The Struggle With My Scifi Novel Is Real

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have a pretty good scifi novel on my hands. And, yet, while the macro elements of the story are down pat, now that I’ve sat down to write it the specifics are really beginning to be trying.

And this is happening in the context of me reworking my passion project novel in such a way to infuse it with a significant amount of scifi as well. My goal in doing this is to raise the stakes of the story so it will be, overall, more engaging to the audience.

There is a risk, of course, that the whole thing will become a lot more muddled and I will lose focus. But that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Anyway, back to the main scifi novel. It’s really good and I just need to be willing to work on it more. It’s just I’ve been so wrapped up in the passion project for so long that it’s difficult for me to do that on a psychological basis.

But maybe that will change now that it is clear that it’s kind of put up or shut up time when it comes to getting something, anything finished to the point where I can query it — hopefully no later than maybe a year from now.

Ok, Something’s Up — Someone In LA is Interested In My Thoughts About Pom Klementieff & My Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t know if I should be happy or nervous about this one. I just saw in my Webstats that someone in LA searched specifically for my ruminating on how Pom Klementieff is another option for what my heroine of my passion project looks like. This happens just after someone else was interested in my ruminating about Corrie Yee.

Pom Klementieff

Huh. This is very interesting — and a little unnerving.

It makes me fear that maybe someone is thinking about writing a screenplay that somehow cribs ideas off of what I’ve publicly stated about the gist of my novel. I did post the first chapter of an old version of the novel on this blog.

I don’t know. I’m so prone to magical thinking and over thinking that it could be that this is nothing — or it could be something to be really uneasy about. But, whatever, I have to just keep going until I see somewhere that a movie that is obviously influenced by the best bits of my novel is about to come out or something.

Ugh.

This Passion Project Novel Continues To Take Too Long To Finish

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Because the stakes were just too low, I’ve decided to go in and root around with the passion project I’ve been working on for years now. I’m going to shoehorn some scifi elements into it.

I’ve decided to give myself another year to finish the thing — barring some sort of political collapse of the United States, of course. But, in general, I think my new vision for the novel is pretty cool.

The new draft of the novel makes it clear that this is a scifi novel, not simply alluding to it here and there. I have a lot more scifi planned for a subsequent novel in the series. But I think if I plant the flag of scifi in the series from the beginning, then it will be easier for people to understand what genre they are reading.

And, of course, the issue of not having to write under a pen name when I try to get the scifi novel published helps, too. But, anyway, I don’t know what to tell you. I do know I need to hurry up as fast as I can.

If I don’t get something done, I’ll wake up and be 75 and STILL not gotten to the point where I can query.