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Combining Two Stories into One

Amanda Meuwissen

May 28, 2020
2 min

Combining Two Stories into One

My recent release of Public Enemy, Undercover Lover is a monumental feat for me. Not because it’s my first release or a milestone number (though 12 is pretty cool). It was the first time I had two distinct story ideas, neither of which I thought could flush out a full novel, and I decided to mash them together into a single narrative. Let me tell you—it was not easy! The plot elements in this case were 1) enemies-to-lovers where the MCs are constantly having semi-public sexua

The Problem with Side Characters

Amanda Meuwissen

Apr 27, 2020
1 min

The Problem with Side Characters

Obviously, if you're writing an ensemble cast, there are no 'side characters', but for me, since I primarily author romance novels, I tend to have two main characters, and then several supporting cast members. Supporting characters are necessary regardless of the story, but the reason I say that they can be a problem is because it's difficult to know how to write them for every audience member. You can't write anything for every audience, but I still try, and while I apprecia

If it hurts, it’s working

Amanda Meuwissen

May 16, 2019
3 min

If it hurts, it’s working

I am not a fulltime author. By day, I’m in marketing for a customer engagement software company that caters to auto dealers. This year, we’ve been utilizing a fantastic sales coach to help train our sales team, and I’ve had the pleasure of sitting in. Remember being a kid and having your parent or guardian put Chapstick on you for the first time when you had chapped lips, and when it hurt, they said that just means it’s working? Sales training is like that. Likewise, exercise

66 Days to Create Good Writing Habits

Amanda Meuwissen

Apr 30, 2019
2 min

66 Days to Create Good Writing Habits

More than any other piece of advice, what people most often ask me is how do I foster good writing habits to create as much content as I do each year. The simple answer is I write every day, but that isn’t what people want to hear. Writing every day sounds hard. It sounds nearly impossible. Considering the amount of people (myself included) who try to break bad eating and exercise habits and fail, it’s no wonder we feel that way. We all wish there was an easy route to what we

5 Tips for a Successful Author Convention

Amanda Meuwissen

Mar 25, 2019
3 min

5 Tips for a Successful Author Convention

There are many kinds of conventions. The ones I’m most familiar with are comic cons (being a huge geek myself) and creator conventions where authors, artists, and craftsmen can share their work with others. I have had tables and wonderful experiences at both for my writing for close to a decade now and have learned a lot about what works best, what to hope for, and what is considered a successful experience. Here are 5 of my top tips for your next convention. Bring too many b

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

Amanda Meuwissen

Jan 15, 2019
2 min

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

How to Finish Your Novel

Amanda Meuwissen

Nov 12, 2018
2 min

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 eas

Mentoring Aspiring Authors

Amanda Meuwissen

Sep 12, 2018
2 min

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

AU (Alternate Universe) a Day Challenge

Amanda Meuwissen

Jun 30, 2018
2 min

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

Dear Lucifer – Be Like Castle not Bones

Amanda Meuwissen

Apr 25, 2018
2 min

Dear Lucifer – Be Like Castle not Bones

I’m a big fan of the comic adaptation TV series Lucifer on FOX. A recent episode did a nod to its sister show Bones relating Lucifer’s character to Brennan and Detective Decker to Booth. I think I would have been less disturbed by this if Castle had been a FOX show they could reference instead, but Castle aired on ABC. The reason I was disturbed? Because the analogy feels far too apt right now. I stopped watching Bones during its infancy because of the staggering amount of ba

Not even Star Wars can make everyone happy

Amanda Meuwissen

Jan 4, 2018
2 min

Not even Star Wars can make everyone happy

I think one thing that all creators struggle with is the question: what causes people to dislike something?

How to adapt a fanfic into an original novel

Amanda Meuwissen

Sep 9, 2017
5 min

How to adapt a fanfic into an original novel

I love fandom. I love fanfiction. I don’t plan to ever stop writing it or being part of fandoms that make me smile. I am also a published author, and most of my books are adapted fanfics. Why? Because they are the stories I pour my soul into, and if I can change them into something that a wider audience might enjoy, I love the idea of doing that and pulling in more readers. Why not? After all, I have spent months, even years sometimes, writing fanfics, and they are no less im

Write every day – a page, a paragraph, even a sentence. Here’s how.

Amanda Meuwissen

Jun 27, 2017
2 min

Write every day – a page, a paragraph, even a sentence. Here’s how.

Not every sentence you write has to be for your next book. Most people think that a detour to write a blog post or even a social media post is a waste of time when they should be working on chapters. Not true. Those are the people who suffer most from writer’s block because they don’t give their brains a break. I write a lot of non-fiction in my day to day life – marketing, emails, articles – and on top of editing one book and potentially preparing for the next one, I also wr

Balance between plotting and musing for the busy writer

Amanda Meuwissen

May 10, 2017
3 min

Balance between plotting and musing for the busy writer

You may have heard of Architects versus Gardeners for writers. Architects plan everything out beforehand, while Gardeners cultivate their stories as they go. Most writers are a little bit of both, even if you lean more one direction. And you should be both. When you get a spark for a story idea, a scene, a conversation, a descriptive action, never rein yourself in to prevent writing ahead just because you feel you should follow the script. Conversely, don’t spend all your tim

Top 5 things I wish I knew before I was published

Amanda Meuwissen

Mar 9, 2017
4 min

Top 5 things I wish I knew before I was published

1. You can’t please everyone This is something we all struggle to learn, not because we don’t already know, but because it affects us anyway and it is such a tough thing to slough off. You’re a published author, you’ve had the book professionally edited, typeset, with a cover you love, promoting it as best you can…and you still get negative reviews. It’s not that you don’t know to expect this, it’s that it feels like a blow every time and you have to remind yourself of this f

Blog tours and initial reviews for Life as a Teenage Vampire

Amanda Meuwissen

Oct 10, 2016
2 min

Blog tours and initial reviews for Life as a Teenage Vampire

With the successful launch of my new book, Life as a Teenage Vampire, the start of my first blog tour is now underway with Bewitching Blog Tours. I mentioned last week how important I think blog tours are for spreading the word about new titles, and the next step of course is to promote each stop and remember to thank the sites who offered your book the chance to shine. Today starts with an interview at Ramblings of a Coffee Addictive Writer. And what fun questions! When you

How to Successfully Launch Your First Self-Published Book

Amanda Meuwissen

Oct 3, 2016
3 min

How to Successfully Launch Your First Self-Published Book

Fingers crossed, because today…I’m celebrating the launch of MY first self-published book, Life as a Teenage Vampire. Previously, I went over how I decided on becoming self-published, and the process I go through to publish my books using Createspace. But once you have everything written, edited, typeset, and ready to launch – what comes next? Sitting around and hoping that the right fans discover your book isn’t going to cut it. One of the most important things is getting re

How I Self-Publish with Createspace

Amanda Meuwissen

Sep 13, 2016
4 min

How I Self-Publish with Createspace

Now, there are tons of sites out there that can help you with self-publishing and distribution. Createspace just happens to be the print on demand service I find most helpful for my work, and I’m familiar with it, as it was also what indie publisher BigWorldNetwork used for my previous titles. Step 1: Write your book I think we can all agree this is the hardest and yet most obvious part. Step 2: Edit your book And I don’t just mean yourself. Everyone needs an outside editor,

My road to becoming a self-published author

Amanda Meuwissen

Aug 18, 2016
2 min

My road to becoming a self-published author

I thought there was no greater feeling than having a publisher interested in my stories, than getting that response of acceptance and knowing that finally, finally someone was taking notice of all my hard work and the struggle was about to pay off. But I’ve since learned that the true bliss of publishing comes later. Actually, for me, I get bliss at several stages. The writing itself, especially after finishing a certain scene or moment. When I complete the full manuscript fo

Top 3 reasons you need community to be a (successful) author

Amanda Meuwissen

May 31, 2016
3 min

Top 3 reasons you need community to be a (successful) author

At MSP ComicCon recently, another author showcasing their work (comics, but she is also a prose writer debating displaying that work at conventions as well) asked me what tricks have worked best for me to be a successful author. One of the biggest things I stressed was finding your community. I have had a community of sorts for my writing since I first started posting fanfiction online in 2000. Mostly because…I posted online! Where, inevitably, people will find your work an

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