Amanda Meuwissen's Blog, page 12

The fine line between subverting expectations and giving readers what they want

The first thing to realize is what you’ve already been told a thousand times – you can’t please everyone. But! That does not mean you shouldn’t grow as a writer and push yourself to be different and challenging in the ways you spin a tale.I come across as someone who wants happy endings in my books and movies, or at least bittersweet, so back when my husband and I were first dating, he worried I wouldn’t like one of his favorite movies because…SPOILER ALERT FOR DONNIE DARKO (18 years later)…the main character dies. But I loved it. Why? Because the ending and Donnie’s death were earned. The way the story was told made his death cathartic even if it wasn’t happy.Fiction fails at this all the time, whether with deaths, romance, or any other plot points. For me, it’s about pacing, sure, but also about finding those moments when something seems obvious, maybe even allowing it to stay obvious, but then doing something completely different in the end.For example, my husband and I have been marathoning through the now complete TV series Grimm that first aired in 2011. It’s urban fantasy, where a police detective discovers he can see the truth behind the veil of supernatural creatures living amongst humans, and he struggles to continue doing his job without alerting his partner to the truth.But of course, his partner is destined to find out, especially when he starts seeing things and worries he’s going insane. The typical path here would lead to a liar reveal, where the truth comes out, the partner is angry, and they are at odds for however long before making up at some critical moment.But Grimm doesn’t do this. It sets us up for the usual beats and then does something new, allowing the character to be sensible and simply happy that he wasn’t crazy after all, while understanding why his partner hadn’t told him the truth right away.It was so refreshing! It didn’t lessen the conflict, it paved the way for character growth and a focus on all the other conflicts going on, which for me, as a viewer, was far more interesting.Now, an example of when to give your readers what they want is harder, because you don’t want to be predictable, but sometimes readers expect something to happen—and they want that to happen. Therefore, they are disappointed if it doesn’t, even if you gave them a unique surprise.I think the best advice here is to think about the moments you love when enjoying fiction. The big reveals. The first kiss. The drop of humor after a tense moment. Then, as you plot where those happen, make sure enough builds into them to make them earned without being too obvious, but still with enough hints that they are inevitable to feel satisfying when the payoff comes.And, in the right cases, when you can flip the story on its head and do something different without alienating the expectations of readers, do it. Honestly, it’s better to err on the side of unique storytelling them sticking with the norm.

A Model Escort - Cover Reveal & Pre-order

Check out my new Dreamspun Desires novel: A Model EscortWhat’s the value of love?Shy data scientist Owen Quinn is brilliant at predictive models but clueless at romance. Fortunately, a new career allows him to start over hundreds of miles from the ex he would rather forget. But the opportunity might go to waste since this isn’t the kind of problem he knows how to solve. The truth is, he’s terrible at making the first move and wishes a connection didn’t have to revolve around sex.Cal Mercer works for the Nick of Time Escort Service. He’s picky about his clients and has never accepted a regular who is looking for companionship over sex—but can the right client change his mind? And can real feelings develop while money is changing hands? Owen and Cal might get to the root of their true feelings… if their pasts don’t interfere.PRE-ORDER NOW!Release Date: March 5, 2019 from Dreamspinner PressCover Artist: Bree Archer Buy Links: Dreamspinner Press eBookand Paperback

How to Finish Your Novel

I’ve lost count of how many times, usually while at a convention like I was the weekend of MCBA Fall ComiCon in St. Paul, Minnesota, where someone mentioned to me that they too are a writer but have yet to complete one of their ideas.I tend to offer the same advice in these situations, that I was also an idea-driven person without the ability to execute my ideas to fruition and complete a story, but what saved me…was fanfiction.I think fanfiction lends itself to seeming easier than original fiction because there’s less pressure, you don’t necessarily have to build a world from scratch, so you can sit back and enjoy yourself more and let the story progress organically without that feeling of—this is entirely mine and I am solely responsible for it and everything someone might think of it.Now, I don’t agree with that entirely, I think fanfiction and original fiction are only different because of content origin—everything else is just as important and worthwhile and wonderful—but the fact that it feels easier and freer and more fun is why I still write fanfiction today. It’s a vacation for me.I was a young writer, struggling to fully realize any of my concept, so at first, I started with one-shot fanfics, i.e. short stories. Then I started to progress to chapter fics, amazed at how much easier it was to see an idea through to the end. From there, just finishing a novel-length story once gave me the confidence and drive to do it again and again, and I’ve never had trouble since.Not to say I never have writer’s block, but if a story grabs me and the idea takes hold enough for my fingers to fly across the keyboard, I absolutely will eventually finish that idea, usually even longer than the typical 50-60k word length (I’m getting better at creating more concise novels with practice, though I know many of my fans love that I have epically long novels as well).So, really my advice comes down to keep trying, but also, I’m once again being an advocating voice for fanfiction. If you just can’t seem to get any ideas flushed out fully, written from start to finish, no matter how much you plot and daydream, start small with finishing even just a short story, and also consider delving into fanfiction where you might have an easier time completing an idea before switching to the larger world-building of your own universes.Like with everything else, finishing a novel takes practice, but you can get better over time.

Why M/M (Gay Male) Romance?

I often get the question – why M/M? Why a focus on male characters and male relationships? The simple answer for me is that I relate more to male characters, always have, and I connect more with the portrayal of male relationships, whether friends, family, or romantic. It’s difficult to express exactly WHY that is, but it’s been true all my life.We live in a society now where questions of gender identity are as often discussed as sexual identity. There is a spectrum of possibilities and a spectrum of opinions about what it all means and what’s acceptable. I find it fascinating and embrace the studies that have gone into it, because at the end of the day, we all just want to feel a combination of belonging and being unique onto ourselves.I, for example, identity as a demigirl with she/her pronouns and am bisexual. The how’s and why’s and what that all means to me are very personal. I don’t shake someone’s hand upon first meeting them and say all this, but it tends to be obvious the more someone gets to know me that strictly being thought of as feminine doesn’t suit me and I am attracted to people across genders.I’ve also had the pleasure of knowing several transsexual and genderqueer people in my life, and I enjoy the discourse that arises when all parties are open-minded and courteous. It does take mental work to remember someone’s correct pronouns if it conflicts with your automatic responses, but it is hardly a feat to do so to show respect and care for that person.It is also no one’s business what someone’s lifestyle is like in the bedroom and doesn’t hurt anyone as long as what occurs is consensual between adults, so marriage equality as well as simple acceptance of LGBTQ+ people has long been something I’ve advocated and fought for.There were times in high school and college where I used M/M writing to express my feelings on these matters to a wider audience, such as writing for the Day of Silence that occurs each year, choosing to go mute in honor of all those silenced by oppression. While I would not speak for that day, I would take the time to reflect and write and maybe reach a few people with the stories I told.I like to think that my writing continues to do that today, whether in the form of my young adult novel, Life as a Teenage Vampire, that portrayed coming out in high school and young love, or more adult perspectives on acceptance as well as the importance of mental health.What writing does for me, whether fantasy based or otherwise since I dabble in many genres, is reflect how I feel about these issues in a relatable way through a lens that allows me to see even more perspectives than I can ever know as just me. Maybe that’s part of why I write more about men, because it’s a perspective that isn’t inherently my own but equally important to explore and that resonates strongly with me.Sometimes that means tackling difficult issues in my writing, sometimes it’s about writing sweet fluffy scenes of domestic bliss. We need all of the above in our fiction and in life, and I’m proud to be counted amongst a subset of voices shedding more light on M/M relationships.

Mentoring Aspiring Authors

My mentoring of others for writing began with my work as Managing Editor for the indie publisher BigWorldNetwork. As much as I adore writing, I enjoy editing as well and helping people craft their work.I helped edit over 60 novels and many more online series, and I consider the five years I spent with the publisher some of the most rewarding, both for how I advised other authors and my editing team.The most important thing to me was to ensure that what we were editing never took away from the voice of the author but was more technical focused while also being conscientious of any plot/scene moments that weren’t coming across clearly. Readers don’t want cookie cutter voices from their authors, so everyone doesn’t need to be exactly the same in execution.I also went out of my way to give feedback on those submissions we received that weren’t accepted, still providing edits, suggestions, and the opportunity for repeat submissions if authors went back, revised, and tried again. We even published a few who were initially rejected. Other publishers simply don’t do that.I love telling aspiring writers to not compare themselves to other authors because we’re not competing with each other, readers always want more to consume, we only compete with ourselves, bettering ourselves and our writing. I think approaching publication that way helps a lot.I’m also just a natural cheerleader who wants to see others succeed. Writers who are wary of putting their work out there? I’m here to tell you to believe in yourself and try, especially when it comes to some of the amazing fanfiction I’ve read over the years.Most of my novels are adapted fanfic, and I like sharing that with readers and writers I engage with online to encourage them to consider how they might adapt their fanfiction to reach a broader audience. Often fanfics are better than the ‘best-selling’ novels out there. Most fanfic authors do so just in their spare time and never consider their work going beyond a website, but fanfiction is just as valid as any other writing and is one of the best tools for beginners to build their skills and craft their voice.The other bit of advice I never stop giving is to write every day. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriNo) was the kick in the pants I needed a few years ago to jumpstart my writing habits, and I’ve never looked back. With NaNo you HAVE to write every day, and the tendency stuck with me and only for my benefit.So, I say—don’t give up. Take a chance. You can be a teenager or full-time accountant or middle-age mother of four, it doesn’t matter, you can still share your writing, and I aim to encourage as many people as possible to embrace that and share their stories.

Fun Facts Surrounding Lovesick Titans

There are three fun facts surrounding Lovesick Titans, and the overall two-part series.1st: It’s an adapted fanfic about The Flash and Captain Cold from DC Comics (specifically the CW’s TV universe).2nd: The editing and cover art was done by fans of mine.3rd: It started as a single book and almost became a trilogy before I decided on splitting it in half.Adapted fanficI am a huge proponent of fanfiction and have written articles about how to take fanfic and adapt them into original novels. Like this one: https://www.amandameuwissen.com/singl... all my works are adapted fanfics (The Collector and Life as a Teenage Vampire are not) but most are and more in the future likely will be too because that is where my muses live, even if I eventually take the stories and rewrite them into something original, often from alternate universe fics so the story really does stand on its own.The Lovesick Series was originally simply Lovesick, a fanfic for the TV version of The Flash and Captain Cold. I fell so in love with the story and saw how the inherent plotline and villain didn’t rely on canon. So, I rewrote it, painstakingly at times, to be an original novel.I couldn’t be prouder of both versions and the great fans I have from The Flash (and specifically ColdFlash) fandom that have supported the story, which is why the book’s dedication is – To my family of ice and lightning.Editing and art by fansI have close relationship with many of my fans – we hug at conventions, we’re Facebook friends, we DM on tumblr – so it’s hard to even think of them as fans so much as just readers and friends.For the cover art for both books in this series, I commissioned a remarkable artist who had done art for my fics in the past, just out of the goodness of her heart and as a reader, and because of that, I wanted to have something of hers for the adaptation. It was a joy working on the little nuances to get everything just right, especially since the art is flawless, but my poor cover designer had to redo things several times until I was truly happy with how the art was presented.The editing was also done by a reader and online friend, who still blows me away with how thoughtfully she edits. She would catch the exact moments where something might drag, or where something might be missing, and remember things I’d missed from earlier scenes that could be called back to at just the right time. She really immersed herself in the story to be the best editor I could imagine for bringing this tale to new life.Without editor Kaila Corrington and artist Veronika Dolnikova, this series would be incomplete, and I am truly grateful for their contributions.Book lengthI have trouble writing that 50k basic novel length. My stories are often much longer, I can’t help it! I thought after editing things down for Lovesick that it would be fine for a single novel length – I was wrong. For everything I tweaked and cut, I added just as much for new worldbuilding, and the length at the end was as long as the original fanfic. I could NOT let it be a single book.I spent weeks, maybe months, while still editing pieces of the story, trying to determine the best place to split it. Everyone tends to think of trilogies first, but I knew that doing that would make one or more of the books lacking in narrative structure.So, I finally decided that the best spot to break things up was almost perfectly in the middle. I still made changes and additions to make sure each novel felt sound on its own, while also requiring each other to get the full story, and I don’t regret my final decision at all.Plus, since there are two equal protagonists, with an alternating 3rd person limited POV between them throughout, having two books that each represent one of those characters really ties everything together.

The Character I Identify With Most

Many authors identify with their heroes. In my case, my ‘hero’ is an actual superhero. He’s also more villainous than his nemesis.The Lovesick Series, made up of Lovesick Gods and the new release Lovesick Titans, has two equal protagonists – Danny Grant, who is secretly the Lightning Elemental superhero Zeus, and Malcolm Cho, better known as the Ice Elemental thief Prometheus. The real villain and antagonist of the story is both a separate villain, Hades, and the emotional hurdles faced by the characters as they grow closer and try to find a relationship through their difficult pasts and behaviors.It’s not a spoiler even for the first book to say that Danny isn’t being his best hero self at the start of this tale, as he immediately decides that the only way to get out of his recent depression is by hurting someone who once hurt him—Mal. He wants Mal to fall in love with him just so he can break his heart, and hey, getting some no-strings-attached sex isn’t a bad bonus.Now, I never enacted any sort of elaborately cruel scheme like this, but the portrayal of Danny’s bipolar depression, how he acts out, how amazing his supports structure is to bring him back, and having a partner who forgives and relates and still wants to be with him, is all a reflection of my own experiences.Too often we try to ignore mental disorders and disabilities faced by the people around us, or maybe we simply don’t know how to help. Sometimes talking is enough, sometimes medication is needed, sometimes it just takes time and patience, or maybe a combination of all the above.It was a very therapeutic process for me to write this story and to pull Danny through the worst of his rock bottom and back on a road to recovery. We think of heroes as invincible, especially in comic books, which this tale is largely inspired by since I am a comic book geek, but what makes them well-rounded and interesting is when they reflect us, and we see that not even the ‘best’ of us is ever perfect or even okay some of the time.And it’s okay to not be okay.I’ve had many fans tell me how impactful reading this was for them, because they’ve been there too, and seeing a real portrayal of depression with a real ray of hope at the end gives us all a little more strength to push on.I was writing this long after the brunt of the worst of my depression had passed, and yet it still snuck up on me as something I didn’t realize I needed to tell as a unique story. This series makes it finally feel like a chapter I’ve closed (however much I continue to cope each day) through characters I adore, with an emotional ride of angst (but I promise with a happy ending) and the enemies-to-lovers trope turned on its head in a way I could not be prouder of.I hope anyone who enjoys comics, superheroes, rollercoaster romances, or who just needs to read about a relatable character at their darkest moments gives this tale a try.

AU (Alternate Universe) a Day Challenge

I stumbled up this original post a few weeks ago and decided almost immediately that I would take the challenge up myself and do it for the month of July (since there are 31 prompts and July has 31 days).For those of you who might not be familiar with alternate universe prompts or AUs, they are a fandom term for those of us involved in fanfiction and fanart to dabble in a universe we like (say Harry Potter) and write something where those characters or part of the concept is set in a reality different from canon (such as a No Power High School AU).In this example then, the writer or artist would be creating content that depicts characters from the Harry Potter universe as normal high school students and teachers.I love AUs because they allow writers to stretch their legs on new ideas while working with comfortable characters. Yet, at the same time, those characters become entirely different people simply by being placed in unique worlds.AUs are a great way to test out new novel ideas because if your fandom of choice really loves an AU you share, why not alter the names and necessary details to make that story truly and completely your own?And thus, I am embarking on 31 straight days of AU drabble writing.HistoricalSpySoulmateFairytaleSpacePirateHorrorMysterySupernaturalHigh School/CollegeSuperheroFake DatingRoyalSteampunkZombieBar (or strip club ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))Coffeeshop/Flower shopBusinessApartmentHanahaki (coughing up flowers due to unrequited love)Cheating/Secret relationshipPop starEnemiesBody switchingPlace your characters in your favorite tv show or movie!Dystopian/end of the worldGodsDreamHeaven or HellMobMash up any two!My goal is to not look or plan, but wait until the morning of before I peek at what my next day will be to see where the muse takes me.For those who know me well, my current obsessive fandom is The Flash (as well as Legends of Tomorrow and Arrow) on The CW, and I am especially devoted to pairing nemeses character The Flash himself and Captain Cold. That’s not to say that every day will feature them (though it might), but I’m excited to get started and see where these prompts take me, and what future novel ideas they will spark.I’d encourage my fellow writers out there to do the same, whether over a summer month or later this year. Writing a little every day truly makes a difference.

What A Difference Three Years Make

Three years ago, my husband and I donned Captain Cold and Heat Wave cosplay for the first time, inspired by the versions on the CW’s The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, and I have to admit, the costumes and photos turned out pretty amazing. It even helped get me on CW Fantalk at the time where I got to ask a question of John Wesley Shipp (and Keiynan Lonsdale on a later episode).A year ago, getting ready for a vacation to Jamaica, we decided to try out Nutrisystem to get our health and diets back on track, as both of us have a history of high blood pressure and cholesterol. I had always wanted to try Nutrisystem, just for 3-4 months, to help reset my calorie intake and get a few bad habits broken and some good ones put in place—and boy did it work.Not only am I 20 pounds lighter than I was three years ago for that first photoshoot, but I am thinner and healthier than I have ever been as an adult, mostly because of portion control, more protein, more good veggies in my diet, and actually snacking instead of three big meals like I was always used to.Over a year since we first started that diet, the weight remains off and we are both so happy and feel amazing, which is really what it’s about—feeling energized and happy with yourself.See, while I might not have been truly overweight three years ago, I was the fat kid in grade school. I spent an entire year of my life being called ‘Porky’ by classmates. And that sort of thing never really leaves you. Gaining twenty pounds these days might as well be a hundred for how it can turn me into that same little girl. Instead, taking control over my life and being this happy with my body makes that little girl very happy.So I decided it was time to retake those Cold and Heat Wave photos to show off the change in both of us (since my husband is down 30+ pounds himself).What a difference three years make.

Lovesick Titans, MSP ComiCon, and First Edition Deal

MSP ComiCon was this past weekend, my favorite event of the year to bring books, as it’s run by a great organization, MCBA, free for participating creators to have tables and sell their work, food is provided for us, and it’s always a blast to meet and talk with fans (new and dedicated alike).This past weekend also marked the official release of the second and final book in my Lovesick Series – Lovesick Titans.After the release of Lovesick Gods last fall, I ended up having second thoughts about the cover art and did a new edition. Lovesick Titans matches the new cover, of course, but I do still have some 1st edition books left of book 1, and I know some of you out there have purchased it.In the spirit of that, I brought first edition books to MSP ComiCon with a $5 deal, allowed people to purchase the set for $20 if they got the first edition (or $20 to get the new matching set as long as they had previously purchased the old cover of book one), and then $25 normally for just the new set.I am offering that same deal to YOU today and tomorrow for exclusive SIGNED copies.$5 + shipping for the first edition book$20 +shipping for the first edition book and Lovesick Titans$20 +shipping for the new Lovesick Gods and Lovesick Titans if you purchased the first edition already$25 +shipping for the new books onlyFeel free to contact me through Facebook, Tumblr, or my website contact form and let me know which package you want, where to send it, what name to sign the book to, what color to sign in (bronze, silver, or gold), and I will reply with the final cost for shipping and my Paypal link to get things rolling.I’m bringing everything to the post office Saturday morning, so time is limited and so are first edition books. Let me know if you’re interested!