Amanda Dick's Blog, page 4

Teaser Time!

It's been awhile since I posted a teaser for "Absolution" so here's one for you:
“You want to know if I told her about what happened that night.”Callum glared at him, and Jack could tell he was on the right track.“The answer is no, I didn’t.  But why the hell didn’t you?  You were there, you knew.”“Because it wasn’t my place to tell her – it was yours!” Callum snapped.“Jesus, Callum!  You just let her think God knows what, all this time?”“What the hell do you care what she thought!  You weren’t here, remember?  You didn’t have to pick up the pieces – we did!  I made a decision not to tell her because what the hell would be the point?”“What would be the point?” Jack repeated indignantly.  “She would have known!”“Known what?  That you were a coward?  That you left because you were scared?  She knew that already!”Jack opened his mouth to speak, but Callum cut him off.“Don’t you dare come back here and start blaming anyone else for what you did – you did it yourself, you left!” Callum hissed, eyes blazing.  “You did the wrong thing then and by coming back now and stirring it all up again you’re just making everything worse.  Why don’t you just get the hell out of here?”“I’m trying to make it right!” Jack insisted feebly, heart racing."And how in the hell do you think you’re gonna do that?”Jack stared at him dumbfounded, knowing that he had asked himself that question a million times and come up empty.“She doesn’t need you anymore.  The best thing you can do now is just crawl back into whatever deep, dark hole you crawled out of and let her get on with her life.”Jack shook his head determinedly, his heart pounding.  “No.  I’m not going anywhere, not this time.”Callum laughed scornfully.  “That’s your master plan?  Seriously?”Jack glared at him in silence, his anger mounting.“Oh come on – you gotta admit, that’s a reckless statement, especially for you.” Callum snorted derisively.  “You disappear when the going gets tough, remember?”Jack clenched his teeth so tight his jaw ached.  “That’s not what happened and you know it.”Callum threw his hands in the air, his eyes burning hot with rage.  “Do I?  Because that’s what it looked like from where I was standing!”“You know damn well why I left!” Jack blurted out, his voice thunderous and desperate.  “You knew what I did – you were there!”“Yeah, I knew what you did - big deal!  You were trying to save her life - she wouldn’t have blamed you!” he said hotly.  “You did the wrong thing, Jack – you should’ve stayed.”

If you're shy about leaving a comment below, you can always pop on over to my Facebook page and let me know whether or not you enjoyed the read.  It's always great to get feedback :)
~Amanda

The Road So Far

(My fellow "Supernatural" fans will appreciate the title of this post, but come on...it fits, I had to use it!).

Anyhoo...

This is another one of those "glimpse behind the curtain" posts.  Sorry.  Had to be done.

This past week has been a total nightmare for me.  I've been in week three of fighting off a head-cold, the kids have had stuff going on, I've had stuff going on, the hubby's had stuff going on, work never ends, it's been chaotic to say the least...and yet, the show must go on right?  As it happens, the show went on (for awhile at least) to the detriment of my sleep.  Then I just got so tired, the show stopped altogether and I got into a real funk about it.  I took a few nights off, to catch up on said sleep, and hoped I'd be able to throw myself back into things.  Which sorta did and didn't work...well, it didn't work out the way I planned it, anyway.

So here's the thing.  I have written possibly about 10 maybe even 12 drafts of this story.  In each version, the story changes somewhat (a good thing, I hope - certainly seems a natural progression, as I get to know the characters better each time).  But with the current draft I'm working with, the first 15 chapters were written already and I just needed to edit them.  So I did, which inevitably changed them...yet again...and we're onto draft 13 now (or some such thing - gah!).

And then I fell into that trap that I suspect most writers do at one time or another: I tried to edit as I was writing.  Now this is just silly, for lots of reasons.  Firstly, when you write, you really need to throw caution to the wind and get the gear onto the paper (or the screen).  The editing process SHOULD BE seperate from this.  Otherwise, you get to that stage where you just can't go forward because you're too busy looking back.  So that's what happened to me - I got stuck.  And because this story has changed soooooo much during the past few months, I had no clue where I was going with it.

So how did I fix that?  Well, I took some time out. I caught up on some sleep.  I tried to get myself well, so I could concentrate better.  And - one of the best moves yet - I actually ALLOWED myself a few nights off, just to mull things over.  I ended up spending a couple of hours last night, writing up draft chapters with the key issues in each, so that I had a purpose.  I now know where everything fits into the second half of the story.  I have a direction.  I know what happens next, right up to the end of the book - and (now this is a big one for me) I know how it ends.

That may sound stupid, but I write for fun.  Sometimes I don't know how it's going to end, because I get so caught up in telling the story that I personally don't care (this is why editing is so important - you get to laugh at yourself and use the delete button and say "Yeah, I don't think so..." alot).  So important.

So what happens next? Well, I get to flesh out each chapter, according to my plan.  I don't have to stick to my plan rigidly (and probably won't, as inspiration strikes), but at least each chapter has a direction now.  Hopefully, that will make the editing process that much easier.

And what chapter am I currently up to?  That would be chapter 20.  At last.  Yay!  How many are left?  I think around 10, maybe less.  So technically, I'm over halfway there.  And it feels good.

Oh - I keep meaning to mention this.  Just so you know, the publisher has only seen the first 4 chapters and the synopsis.  They signed me on that basis, knowing that only the first 15 chapters were complete.  So really, you are all sharing this journey with me, as I edit and write and tear my hair out and rejoice and cry and basically throw everything I have into this book...and then some.

So welcome to the merry-go-round - thanks for riding with me :-)

~Amanda

New cover for "Absolution"!

If you've been following my Facebook page, you'll have probably seen this already, but if not...here is the official cover for "Absolution" :-)

Big thanks to Laura Gordon for the cover art!

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I've also shared two snippets from "Absolution" on my Facebook page now - if you've seen them, I hope you enjoyed them :-)
~Amanda 
Attributions: Cover Art and Design by Laura Gordon (www.bookcovermachine.wordpress.com), Male Cover Model: Jason Aaron Baca (jasonaaronbaca.deviantart.com), Male Model Photography: Portia Shao (www.positivevista.com), Female Cover Model © Jochen Schonfeld/Fotolia.com.

My "Process" (or "How this whole writing thing seems to work for me")

Danielle asked me about the title of this post on my FB page and to be honest, it wasn't one of those questions that I really thought might be interesting.  But maybe it is, so I'll try my best to explain it.

I'm sure this works differently for every writer, but for me, ideas come in pieces.  Usually it's kicked off by something I'm reading, watching, doing, discussing.  I "see" something (or "hear" something).  It's normally masquerading as something banal or fleeting.  A phrase.  A concept.  A song lyric. A question.  Literally anything can become a story.

I don't think it's any secret (now that I've splashed it all over the newspaper and my blog!) that the original question that kicked off "Absolution" was: "What if you felt so guilty about something, you ran away?".

That one simple idea can clearly have a lot of meanings.  For me though, it became an interesting question about human nature.  What would make someone run away from everyone they knew and loved?  It'd have to be something big.  Something life-changing.  Something that couldn't be fixed by "I'm sorry".

From there, the story began to grow.  Plot points rose up.  Characters introduced themselves.  Friends, family, relationships, places, events.  All these things showed themselves slowly, almost of their own accord (because I don't actually remember making any conscious decisions about any of these things).  Interesting, now that I look back on it.  Remember, the initial idea came to me about four years ago.  I note all these things down - characters, points of view, plot lines.  I come back to them later, changing as I go.

A lot of the time, I'll dream up a conversation or event for the story in my head.  I'll spend a few hours writing it out in a basic form, trying to remind myself what I'm trying to achieve for later.  Then, when the time is right, I'll cut and paste that conversation or event into the story, altering it as needed.  Some conversations or events never make it into the final cut, but for me it's all about exploring the ideas.  Creativity is addictive and it's all about keeping those lines open.

I don't dream, as a rule.  The only dreams I can remember are nightmares (most unpleasant, usually involving me running or hiding from nasty people.  Ugh).  Regular dreams - even crazy ones - I haven't had for years.  I think maybe, as I'm a nightowl and do all my best work at night time, I just go to bed so exhausted, I don't have the energy to dream. 

But going back to Danielle's question...once I have the basics in my head, the rest is pure and simple: hard work.  I work at telling that story.   

The first draft of a story involves the one idea that I had wanted to explore.  I'm desperate to get it out of my head and onto the screen (in that I write on my laptop).  I then refine that in the second draft.  By the third draft, I'm bored.  I need more.  This means I need to ADD more to the story, because I figure if I'm bored, so will the reader be.  So I try to think outside the square and figure out what needs to be added to make it a rounder story.  Does it need to be grittier?  Do relationships need to be explored more deeply?  Do I need another character or another angle?  There are lots of variations, and in drafts four and five, these things are added.  By the sixth or seventh draft, I'm usually happy.  Now it's time to refine the story.  Edit after edit after edit...

Throughout this whole process, the characters are becoming more and more real to me.  I can literally SEE them in my head.  Towards the end of the final draft, the story is more or less writing itself because the characters are so familiar to me.  I could tell you how each would react in any given situation, just as if they were real people.  Because by that stage, to me, they are.

I pay no attention to chapter length or word count until the final stage, by the way.  Up until then, it's all about the story and fleshing it out evenly.  That stuff comes later.

I hope that makes sense (and that it answered your question Danielle!).

~ Amanda

Realism

I love totally immersing myself in reading a book.  You know, that feeling you get when you look at your watch and realise you've been reading for over an hour and you can't even remember turning a page.  You get so lost in what you're reading, the page-turning becomes automatic.

One thing for me, as a reader, that really hauls me back from this dreamworld is when a conversation just doesn't ring true.  It's not real.  And by "real", I mean thus:

"Hello.  How are you doing today?"

As opposed to:

"Hey.  How's it going?"

When I'm reading contemporary fiction, I like to relate to the conversation.  I like the language used to be believable.  I like to imagine the characters speaking those words (refer to earlier posts where I confirmed that I'm a visual gal) - I don't like to imagine a wooden person speaking from a script.  Conversation like that just breaks the spell.   So, yes - I use 'gonna' and 'kinda' and the occasional cuss word (mild) to illustrate my point.  I think it lends a realism to the conversation.

That said, each character definitely has to have his or her own voice.  Some of my characters swear - like I said, it's mild and scattered here and there (no f-bombs) - not naming any names (Callum).  Some of them don't swear at all.  Jack speaks in short sentences with one syllable words when he's trying not to give too much away.  Ally's very matter-of-fact so she doesn't waffle - but Maggie sometimes does, especially when she's upset.  I think it's important that each character have their own style, just as we each have ours.

To illustrate how important I think realism is in conversation, I spent over an hour today re-visiting a conversation in "Absolution" that never really read right to me.  It took awhile, but I got there in the end and I'm glad I took that time because it punctuated the whole chapter.

And no, I'm not going to share it with you...yet.  You'll just have to trust me on this :-)

For those who are following the great "Editing Journey" - I'm currently editing chapter nine.  I hope to have finished editing chapter fifteen by this coming weekend, and then I'm in full-on writing mode.  I've set myself the goal to have this finished and to the publishers by the end of July!

Wish me luck...

By the way, if any of you have any questions, ask away and I'll do my best to answer them!  Goes without saying that I'm not going to give too much away about the story prior to release, but I'm getting good at handing out teasers...!

~ Amanda

Drawing on Experience

There is a famous expression which states "Write what you know".  I guess the more experiences you have - both good and bad - the more able you are to put yourself in your characters shoes.  Writing from experience puts you squarely within your comfort zone - you know what it looks like, how it sounds, and more importantly how it makes you feel.  This is something you can transfer to your characters with a certain amount of ease.  Research is a major part of writing, but there is something about having some personal knowledge of what your characters have been through, or are going through, that feels much more comfortable.

The single-most shocking incident in "Absolution" is the car accident which Jack, Ally and Callum are involved in.  For this reason, it was important to get it right.  I think I have written, and re-written, then edited, then re-edited, this part of the book in numbers that are well into double figures.  It is a critical point.  And luckily - or unluckily - for me, I was actually involved in a car accident a few years ago, so this put me well within my comfort zone.  However, it did require me to think back to that time, and that was...interesting.  I discovered, sitting on my couch late one night when everyone was in bed and the house was quiet, that I remembered more about what happened that day than I had previously thought. 

When I started writing, the experience came out of my fingertips.  I remembered how the car was suddenly upside down, that there was no noise and the air was literally buzzing around me, that everything happened simultaneously in both fast-forward and slow-motion.  It was enlightening, to know that I could recall all this detail just by digging deep - by remembering and drawing on that on behalf of my characters.  I hope it adds some realism to the story, when you get to read it.

By the way, this was our car after our accident.  Four adults climbed out of this car with only minor bruises.  It was truly a miracle.  I'm so glad we got to say that, because Jack, Ally and Callum certainly didn't.

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~Amanda