Amanda Meuwissen's Blog - Posts Tagged "advice"

It happens every so often that I either 1) suddenly want to devour every piece of fanfiction about a fandom that I can (like after seeing Captain America: The Winter Soldier) or 2) suddenly want to reread all of my own fanfiction about a particular fandom (like what recently happened to me when someone reviewed an old Saiyuki fic of mine).

For the uninitiated, fanfiction is just that, fan written fiction. The example I love to give is Harry Potter. Say you love Harry Potter, but you wish there had been more about the Marauders when they were younger, so you decide to write some stories about that yourself – that is fanfiction, and it can take many forms.

I started writing fanfiction long before I delved into original fiction because it helped me realize stories better and reach natural ends to my ideas. It taught me how to write, just as reading does.

So a few weeks ago, I got a new review on a very old fanfic (about a decade old), and it made me go…huh. And before I knew it, I had devoured the entire 3 story series, all 62 chapters worth between them. And wow, it amazes me every time as the years pass how there are scenes I just love, and wouldn’t change a word on…and then scenes that make me cringe, and whole paragraphs starting out chapters that I would literally delete and start, well, maybe even three paragraphs down if I were to write it again, because that is all driveling filler.

But it’s fun because it reminds me why I love to write, amazes me at some ideas that I’d forgotten I had, and inspires me toward my next endeavors.

As The Incubus Saga draws to a close, and I continue into the first few chapters of Life as a Teenage Vampire, which I am already fully in love with and cannot wait to share with the world, my next project after that is already stewing, and all because of a single thoughtful review.

The lessons learned? Readers, comment, review, let your authors know how much you love their work, whether original fiction or fanfiction, because it might just inspire their next masterpiece.

And writers, don’t knock your old work. Go back once in a while and read it again. Some of it will be crap, some will make you laugh or sneer, but some will capture your imagination and heart just as it did the first time, and it’s important to let ourselves fall in love with our own writing.

Ah, Saiyuki, a manga and anime that was one of my first literary love affairs.

I’m going to detail out how one of my current new characters has developed to give some insight into my process at the start of a story.

My upcoming vampire novel, currently titled Life as a Teenage Vampire, was always going to have the vampire teen as the protagonist, though despite him speaking to readers in 1st person for his sections, it is arguable whether or not his love interest and best friend shares his role as protagonist with 3rd person-owned sections. I knew I had to find some sensible balance between both characters’ perspectives to tell everything I wanted in the right light.

But first I had a vague sense of the characters and story I wanted to tell. This was what came to me naturally, before I gave things much thought. Two 18 year old seniors in a small town (something I can write about with authority), one becomes a vampire, one is gay while the other is straight (later realizes he is bisexual), the gay friend is in love with the other, and by bonding more deeply over the first becoming a vampire, their friendship grows into something more.

A story of change and survival with an undercurrent of love, my favorite.

Next I named them. I won’t lie, when I’m stuck on names, I go over to babynames.com and type in words under meaning in the search that relate to the character’s personality. It’s fun, and often leads me to good names, or at least in the right direction.

But this time I didn’t need to do that. Emery is a character name I have loved and wanted to use for a long time, and since I had already planned to give the character the last name of Mavus—one of my husband’s nicknames from Meuwissen—Emery Mavus was born without much struggle.

I knew he had dark hair and hazel eyes, that he was sturdy having played football, but had switched to theater, and therefore had a bit of pudge from less physical activity. I didn’t sit down and decide any of this, I just knew it based around little reveals the character would give me as I wrote him. His athleticism but also his ability to act well, as would be seen in having to hide his nature from most people after becoming a vampire.

Something still felt off about him though until I decided to search areas around the world where Mavus was a common surname, and discovered that the largest population of people with that name live in Turkey.

Suddenly, I understood why Emery was always darker skinned in my mind. His father was of Turkish descent, though born in the US, and it only recently dawned on me that after Emery’s grandfather passed away, his grandmother, who had immigrated to the US with her husband in the 50s, moved home to Turkey, giving me an opportunity to have her visit and introduce some Turkish culture where fitting.

I never sit down and tell myself, I’m going to create a gay character. I’m going to create a person of color. I want to include this or that particular heritage. As I tell the story, these things are revealed to me, and I simply choose not to fight them.

Now, I don’t know if all other authors go through something like this process, where some things you just know, and other things you discover through research and the writing process, but I definitely find that letting it be organic like this makes for fuller, more realistic characters that readers can identify with and love.

How did your last character come to be?

*Photo from HERE.

Sometimes I don’t think readers understand how much receiving an honest, positive review feels. Maybe not enough authors, especially if they become truly famous, have the time or wherewithal to express to their readers how much their comments mean to them. While having too many reviews to comment back on is a problem I’d love to have, I hope I never lose sight of how much fans drive me forward.

Recent Incubus review:
"I was lucky enough to get this book for an honest review. Well I didn't think I was going to enjoy reading this as it is M/M and the ones I read so far I really didn't like much, but this book, well, it rocked my world lol. I loved it, the characters were well written and you really got sucked into the book rooting for them all. There is so much more in the book than meets the eye and it wasn't distasteful. It was really a great book to read and if you never read any M/M books but love paranormal than this would be a super book to start with (wish that this would have been my first M/M). I really felt for Jim, Nathan and Sasha and couldn't stop turning the page because I wanted to know what was happening to them. I am so glad I didn't have to wait for the next book which I can't wait to read. I am giving this 5 stars; would give it more but there isn't any."

Recent Changeling review:
"This book is a great addition from the first. Still loving it. The characters really come to life and you get to know a little more from each one as you turn the pages. You can’t help but feel for them all, and keep your fingers crossed that it will all work out in the end. Really well written and the reader gets sucked into another world which is yet still so like ours. You can't help but fall in love with the main characters. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and will give 5 stars because there are no more to give."

-Reviewer for Paranormal Romance and Authors that Rock

But community as a writer isn’t just about getting comments from readers—though I love that part, and it’s one of the reasons I will write fanfiction until I die, because the ability to comment and respond to even a single chapter is made so easy online—but also in the community of authors themselves; other writers sharing ideas and support.

Being published through BigWorldNetwork is one way I’ve been able to hang onto the sense of community I love with fanfiction, especially since it has allowed me to get to know so many remarkable writers, narrators, and editors. As a BWN Team, many of us converse daily, and it never fails to inspire me when I see interactions happening.

After all, we’re not competitors. Books aren’t like other products where because someone buys another book, they won’t buy yours. Consumption of reading material is a constant thing. Just because someone doesn’t buy your book this month, or even this year, doesn’t mean they won’t eventually. So authors need to embrace being there for each other as much as themselves.

One great place I’ve found help with this—and goodness, do I wish I had more time to really make use of this site—is from groups on Goodreads, particularly Support for Indie Authors. If you’re an indie author, you should be part of this group too!

Being able to ask questions, share wins, review each other’s work, all with open, honest community is the best tool any author can have. So wherever you find that kind of community for yourself, embrace it. And if you’re a reader…be sure and leave a review from time to time. It keeps the muses happy.

I wear several hats in my professional life, one being writer and another editor. And I don’t just mean editing my own work; I am Managing Editor for BigWorldNetwork.com, and read chapters from around 20 stories each week. It’s a dream job really, though it isn’t the one that pays the bills, because I get to experience all of these different novels before they’re even finished and have a bit of my own hand in them as well.

For me there is an automatic sense of mentoring that goes into editing another person’s work, and it doesn’t matter if I’m older or younger, more or less experiences, or have more or less published novels under my belt than the person I’m editing for, because everyone needs an editor. More than anything it’s about expressing the reader experience to the author so they know how to tweak or react accordingly. Is what they’re writing evoking the reactions they wanted? Awesome!

So while copyediting is helpful, as well as comments about plot structure and pacing, the most important thing I can offer other writers is my honest opinion, so they can ask themselves if my reactions are in line with what they want readers to experience.

When I read and edit someone’s work, I always want to err on the side of the author so as not to impose too much of my own voice, or risk changing theirs. It doesn’t matter what POV they write in, whether they overuse passive voice, or over simplify descriptions; it’s about whether or not they are telling an engaging story the way they want. That is always the lesson I want to pass on to writers who give me their work to read.

Besides having to edit many stories for my publisher, I also beta friends’ work, and approach it the same way. I may not always have time to read, but I am always open for queries into how to approach writing and publishing, and adore people who recognize the value of a good critique. One thing I would never do, however, is tell someone how their last book could have been better, but would rather tell them how the current one they’re working on could improve, because that’s something they can still change, while an already published book is set in stone. Besides, no matter how good the book, there will always be enough bad reviews out there to cover that part for me.

Working with BWN gives me opportunity to mentor so many new authors along with making relationships with already successful ones, and over time it has grown out of straight up mentorship into community. The authors, editors, and narrators at BWN have a closed Facebook group where we share ideas, help promote each other’s work, and ask advice all the time. I also point aspiring authors toward valuable Goodreads Groups like Support for Indie Authors.

The most important aspect of mentoring is to listen. Hearing someone talk passionately about their story ideas and then want to share with me their actual writing is half the fun of being an editor (and author). None of us would be in this business if we didn’t love stories. People are always welcome to contact me, and I hope other writers approach mentoring this same way.

Not every character is created the same way, even if you’re an author who has a certain method you follow when taking on a new story. While Sasha Kelly, the incubus character in my recently completed trilogy The Incubus Saga, isn’t the protagonist, there wouldn’t be a story without him.



I had a vague idea many years ago of an incubus story I wanted to tell. I knew generally what Sasha looked like, his name, what he was, but not a real feel for his personality. The story was actually going to be about Sasha and a teenage character, who in the end I did still add to The Incubus Saga though in no way romantically involved with Sasha—a fan favorite actually, Evelyn (Leven) Taylor.

Whenever I tried to write the initial story I had in mind for them, nothing would come out. The bare bones was there, but the heart of the story eluded me. I knew then that I couldn’t write the story yet as it was in my head and held off.

Cut to nearly a year later when at last the muse was inspired and told me what Sasha’s story really was. It wasn’t about Leven, though he played a role, and Sasha’s character was vastly different than I’d initially imagined. It was while watching an episode of the TV show Supernatural—and anyone who’s read The Incubus Saga can understand the inspiration drawn from the show in general—and something just clicked, suddenly I had an epiphany and I knew exactly who Sasha was, his personality, his likes and dislikes, his backstory, everything.

Never before in my time as a writer have I ever had a character just appear before me fully formed like that and say there you go, this, this is my story. Well, I spent the next several years writing it, editing it, tweaking it, and again, Sasha isn’t even the main character, but it was the epiphany that night that started it all.

I doubt I’ll ever have another character experience like it. But it does help hammer home something I’ve discovered as a writer. My characters are always the most fleshed out, the most real and relatable when at least some part of them feels like divine intervention. Not to the extent of Sasha usually, but small things I haven’t yet realized about my characters just suddenly making sense, almost like magic.

I tell people all the time, I don’t create characters; I discover them. I don’t choose things about them; they reveal the truth to me over time.

A more common example of this is for my current work in progress, Life as a Teenage Vampire. As I was working out the details of the protagonist for this story, I knew certain things about him right away. Age, generally how he looked, vague personality, where his story would go, what he was, and what he wanted. But there were still enough things missing that I didn’t feel I was ready to write his story just yet.

Part of how I try to get the muse working to reveal to me those missing elements when starting a new story is simply jotting down notes. With what I do know, what might happen for this scene, that scene, why would a character react this way or that? And maybe it’s part of being a writer, something I can’t explain to someone who isn’t one, but the ideas almost always come naturally if I’m on the right track.

I knew, for example, that this new character, Emery, had a non-American grandmother, but I couldn’t pin down the heritage, and that’s what was tripping me up, this ethnic background that could have an impact on the character and his story in some way, if only I could realize what it was. Greek? No. Romanian? Not quite. And then I felt quite silly, because I knew his surname was Mavus, and that this grandmother would be on his paternal side, so I did a simple name search: what countries is that surname most prevalent? The answer: Turkey.

It might seem like a simple thing, but in that moment several things clicked; his father is Turkish, born there, raised in the US, so very much an American in most ways if no one knew his parents, though his mother moved back to Turkey after her husband passed away, and my main character only rarely gets to see his paternal grandmother now, though she is very warm and doting when she visits.

Even if this doesn’t end up having a huge significance on the story, it’s part of who the character is, how he looks, how people think of and react to him. Even if the detail in question was something as benign as his favorite color instead (gold, by the way), those types of facts are something you need to know about your characters, because understanding their inner workings is how you tell their tale with legitimacy and heart.

How you get to that part can vary, maybe through very technical means most of the way, with sparks of inspiration from unlikely places, but it is my firm belief that the writing comes the most easily if you’re on the right track, telling the story you are meant to tell.

So if you can’t quite get a story out of you, maybe you haven’t discovered everything you need to know about your characters yet. Don’t worry, don’t rush, just wait, give them time, and when they’re ready for their story to be told, they’ll tell it to you.

Everyone deals with writer’s block. Sometimes the answer is to take a break. But since we all know that writing a little every day is best to facilitate a healthy writing relationship, how do you take a break, or step back from your fiction writing, while still keeping your juices flowing? Non-fiction.

Non-fiction doesn’t mean you suddenly change the genre you write in. It can mean blogging, like I am now, keeping a journal, writing articles for other publications (or your day job), or simple commentary on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr to get your ideas, even if non-fictional, out of you.

Personally, I find that spending some time getting my everyday thoughts on paper (or in a Word doc) makes me itch to get back to my fiction, especially if I had otherwise recently burnt out on fiction writing.

Write every day. Yes. But don’t feel you need to only work on you current big fiction project just because you are or want to be a fiction writer. Take a break, writer something else, write something in a genre or style unlike your big project, and you might be surprised how quickly you’re inspired to return to the writing you really want to delve into.

Every spring I participate as a judge for local Speech competitions in Minnesota. Sometimes I forget how seriously Minnesota takes its Speech season, as we have an entirely different organization than the National Forensics League, doing our own thing on the side with some of our own categories, while also having kids participate in the NFL version when we compete at Regional, State, and National competitions.

Minnesota High School Speech is composed of thirteen categories across interpretive and public speaking styles, some of which have the students write the content themselves. The categories offered include things like Creative Expression, Discussion, Extemporaneous Speaking, Informative Speaking, and Original Oratory.

While I’d love to go into detail on all of these categories, I’m going to stick with one today, which despite not being one I participated in during my high school career, is my favorite.

In Original Oratory, or OO, the speaker presents an originally written speech with the purpose of persuading the audience. As a writer, I am most critical when judging categories like this that involve writing because I think there is a distinct lack of good writers in today’s youth. This belief stems from real life examples of people constantly telling me how ‘good writers’ are hard to find in the work force, and experiences I’ve had as an editor.

I had the pleasure of hearing a speech in the OO category this past weekend about critical thinking and how we need to work toward building up this ability in people now more than ever. Considering how important this skill is for writing a persuasive argument as much as an informative speech or essay, the topic resonated particularly strong with me. Too many times I see people picking sides on an argument without presenting facts, or being willing to listen to rebuttals.

Critical thinking is described as “the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.” Being objective may be one of the more difficult things for us humans, especially when an issue is important to us, or something we feel very strongly about. But all the more reason that we need to step back, weigh both sides, consider facts, and try to think objectively before forming opinions—or maybe even changing our opinions.

It was a relief to hear a maybe not even sixteen year old young man present a speech on this argument, and do so with critical thinking applied to how he wrote his speech and attempted to persuade me. The kids who ranked lower in that round failed to apply what this boy’s speech was about—the need for evidence and objective reasoning.

Human beings are emotional creatures. As a fiction writer I embrace and accept that emotion is often what drives whether or not someone enjoys my stories, but critical thinking has a place in fiction too. Whether we’re writing to inform or persuade someone, we still always present a thesis, back it up, and then form a conclusion.

In fiction, your readers will ask themselves, maybe subconsciously, maybe directly, whether or not they care about your thesis (what the story is about), whether or not you gave adequate reasons for them to agree (enjoyed the plot and building climax), and whether or not your conclusion (the story’s ending) was satisfying. It’s only if they can answer ‘yes’ that they will leave your work having truly enjoyed it.

Consider critical thinking when writing anything, when commenting on others’ work, when engaging in conversation, no matter the topic. We might be emotional beings, but we’re also intelligent, so the next time you present writing to the world, hand-written or typed, to any audience, ask yourself whether or not you did so objectively and applied critical thinking to what you said. Chances are you’ll be more persuasive, more informative, and more engaging if you did.