Author: Amy Spitzfaden

My giveaway is up and running! It’s extremely exciting for me to see the merch you want, and to wonder who will win. Winners will be chosen at random, but I find myself hoping each time I see someone enter that he or she will win.

This whole thing has been such a learning process. When I first thought of how to advertise merchandise I thought, “Oh, a giveaway is a great idea!” It can get people excited, help get some publicity for my Facebook page, send an item into the world that reads “AmySpitzfaden.com” and help with advertising that way, and, most importantly, get an item to a fan, as a thank-you for all the support you guys have shown me. That’s really what this is. Even if nothing else about this worked out, I’d still feel happy giving the prize to the winner. But then came the questions: “How many prizes? How do I pay for them? How will it help UNTOLD?” And the over-thinking began.

I’m happy to say that I pushed past that, though. A lot of being an entrepreneur, it seems, is pushing past the over-thinking part. Actions are a million more times more valuable than ideas, and that’s really what I need to remember.

Right now, I’m working on ways to spread the word about the giveaway. I’ve done the usual social media channels of course, and have had a wonderful response from a lot of you already. Does anyone have any ideas of how else I can get people interested? I’d be interested to hear how you’ve done your own giveaways, and various promotions.

Before I go, let me just clarify the rules to the contest. You can enter UP TO THREE TIMES: One for liking the post, one for sharing, and one for commenting. Sharing is, of course, the most valuable to me and the giveaway since it helps get the word out, but I’m getting fairly addicted to comments, and seeing who wants which item. Do all three and you triple your chances of winning 😉

Until next week!

— Amy

One of the prizes! Which will you choose?

Merchandise!

And March.

That’s right, after months of planning, scheming, and designing I’ve finally launched the first five items in my merchandise line. Even more exciting, this week I’ll be launching a giveaway! Quick details on that before I get into my regular musings: The contest will be on Facebook, so if you haven’t already, like my page. The giveaway will start on Wednesday, March 4th, and run for a whole week. Entries will be based on post likes, shares, and comments, and I’ll be posting the more official rules on my page pretty soon. The winner will be able to select one of the new Untold items for free. So start browsing, and see what you want!

As for being an author who has recently launched a line of merchandise… Wow. Somehow seeing t-shirts and mugs with lines from Untold, as well as hoodies headlining the writerly encouragement that ended up being my most popular tweet, makes me feel legitimate. That’s the first thing. It also helped that I designed the images entirely by myself, so what you see is straight from me. The blue lettering on the t-shirts is exactly how I imagined Robin’s words under the bridge looking, and the mug is a design that I would want to drink out of myself. I’m not going to lie to you guys, I’m proud of that.

But the next stage is one of terror. What have I done? Here I am, throwing all of my time and energy into marketing my book, and now suddenly I have to divide my resources and start advertising my other products as well. The idea behind it is that it would help gather excitement and spread the word, but along with every new endeavor comes the terrifying thought, “Was this a bad idea?”

Having launched this only a week ago, I really can’t tell you for sure. Mostly, I really just want to create a little more excitement and depth for those of you who have grown to love the world on Untold. I want you to feel a little shiver when you put on your shirt that says, “I thought you didn’t paint”. I want you to feel encouraged to write when you don the hoodie that reminds you that you like to write. I want you to feel magical when you drink out of the mug that reads, “Tonight is a night for fairytales”.

I’m going to keep working on this, too. I’m going to keep listening to you guys, and add more and more to the collection until your favorite characters and favorite parts of the story have a new kind of life that none of us have seen before.

— Amy

I’m asked quite frequently if I base my characters on real people. The short answer is no, but I do sometimes base character interactions on ones from real life. To have a whole character be mimicking someone that I know personally has always felt restricting to me. Sure, I might nab someone’s appearance, or take a funny quirk and run with it, but that’s as far as I can comfortably take it.  But taking the interactions you have with your friends – the little ones that are simultaneously so personal, and so universal – are what add richness and depth to any story.

The problem here is, my friends and I aren’t perfect.

Who among us won’t instantly bash someone that’s making a friend feel angry, or insecure? Who isn’t guilty of saying, “You’re so much prettier!” And who hasn’t asked a friend to do the same for us?

I read an article over the weekend with the title “The Women We Hate… For No Reason.” It looked at how ready women in general are to instantly hate another woman, just for dating one of our exes, or being the ex of a current paramour. I’d link to the article, but I read it in a magazine (okay, it was Cosmo), and can’t find a digital version. Basically, it looked at the trend of hating on women who you likely don’t even know, and inviting your friends to join in. And of course they do, because they love you, and want to show you that they, at least, like you better. And because you do the same for them.

After reading this article, I started mulling over ways that we, as a society, can move away from this default. It’s an ultimately unfulfilling practice, and one that not only fosters ill-will and competition between women, but also leaves us scared of what other cranky women are saying about us. It’s a learned behavior, for sure, so how do we stop teaching it?

This is where my role as a writer, as well as those of everyone else involved in the media, comes in. We need to start setting a better example. But then we run into the issue… how?

I want to keep my stories realistic. I want them to reflect the struggles that humans go through every day, as well as the triumphs, both deep and superficial. I don’t want to ignore the fact that seeing someone who looks amazing on a day when I was feeling pretty cute can send me into a tailspin. I don’t want to ignore the struggle that each and everyone one of us goes through of finding our places in a world full of everyone else’s successes. And maybe I don’t have to.

I hope that as I grow, my characters will too. I hope that I can portray their struggles in realistic, relatable, and ultimately progressive ways. I want to allow my characters to feel the frustration that comes along with making yourself feel better by tearing someone else down. I want them to get sick of that, just like I have.

So here’s to showing how powerful the phrase, “I hate her too!” can be for bonding, and here’s to creating friendships, both real and fictional, that can move beyond it.

What struggles have you faced in portraying reality vs. progressive thinking? Do you also find it hard to write flawed characters without furthering some of the big problems of today? Let me know in the comments blow.

Love you all.

— Amy

Let’s be part of the solution!

It’s one of those days where all of a sudden everything that seems important is totally out of my hands.

Do you ever have those? Days where you think of approximately ten million absolutely crucial things that need to happen, and your hands are tied on every single one of them? For me, that’s today. I think it might have to do with the weather. I’m snowed in for the fourth or fifth time just within the past week or so. I love snow, I do, but I’m starting to wish I could leave my apartment for more reasons than just to shovel.

If I could go out, would I be feeling any better right now? The things that I want to have happen, the ones I don’t have any control over, are definitely not things I could do if I made a trip into town. If I went into town, I’d probably buy some groceries, stop by the office, check the mail, and have a hot cider and a cookie at Twelve Pine. None of that will help me figure out my travel plans for the next month or two, sell my book, or generally give me a sense of how to stabilize the uncertainties in my life, but I still think that it would help.

Sadly, it looks like I will have to remain at home until tomorrow at the earliest. So, while I am under nature-enforced house arrest, I will do everything I can to be productive right here at my own desk. A large part of this is going to be preparing my birthday surprise for all of you. I am so excited for this. It’s something I’ve had in mind for quite some time now, and I finally feel ready to launch it. There’s a fair amount of work to be done before then, so this whole not being able to leave the premises thing is actually a blessing in disguise. Still, I wish the snow would stop…

How are the rest of you fairing with the winter? Local authors, are you happy to have the excuse to stay in and write, or, like me, are your bursting to go out and seek adventure? Don’t worry. We’ll be out of this soon.

Keep an eye out for my birthday launch! Only two weeks away!

— Amy

Keep calm and get your hot chocolate on!

For the longest time, the characters in my current work would not listen to a thing a said.

When I didn’t want they to end up together they would, and when I then went back and wrote another draft to intentionally push them toward each other, they’d turn away stubbornly. It seemed like whatever I had in mind, they insisted on doing just the opposite. It was frustrating and made me despair, especially since I didn’t want to force a story that didn’t want to be told. You can tell when a story is like that. It’s not pretty.

Then, finally, I realized what needed a makeover wasn’t the plot, it was one of the characters. So I picked him up, knocked him about this way and that, turned him around a few times and voila! Here was something I could work with. Yes, it meant a drastic overhaul of every scene containing even a mention of him (difficult since he is one of the main focal points of the book), but I could do that. I could definitely work with that. All of a sudden, it was like my characters were poised and ready, staring at me as if to ask, “Yes? What is it you want us to do?”

But now the problem is, I don’t know.

I brutally ripped an unrequited love from the heart of this guy and now he is a much less likable but much more interesting character. I gave his object of affection room to feel uncomfortable and alone instead of waltzing straight from one relationship into the next. I gave them each new hobbies, friends, and relationships, and everything looks good to go. But what do I do with that?

I wish I had an answer for you, but right now all I’ve come up with is: keep going. Keep writing, keep trying, keep hacking away at this story until it starts to resemble that which I know it can be. Not having a clear pathway in mind is difficult, but I know the end that I’m aiming for, so the path should become clear in time.

— Amy

When you don’t have a clear path, you can end up anywhere.

Happy 2015! Only about three weeks late…

This month has been absolutely amazing in more ways than one, including that I’ve rekindled my motivation. That’s right, yesterday I spent almost the entire day cozied up on the couch and ended up editing over 6,000 words. I really do love to write, and I really love editing too. The problem is that I get so caught up in my head, anticipating all the work that’s left to do, that I end up running. Fortunately, this month running has been visiting beautiful and historical parts of Europe, and reading. A lot. Both of these, it turns out, are great for inspiration.

I’m on my fourth book of the year and each one has been wildly different from the last. I love that. I have a tendency to get really caught up in one genre for months at a time (read: chick-lit or murder mysteries), which can make writing difficult. If I read too much of one author, I find I end up imitating their voice. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can get awkward when I’ve switched genres and suddenly the voice of everything I wrote over the past eight weeks seems awkward and out of place. So it’s wonderful that this year I’ve gone from mystical/historical fiction, to modern-day psychological thriller, to pop-culture romance, to historical detective. I really need to keep this up.

As for my writing…

Well, it’s always a blow to the ego to go back to a first draft. When I’m having a day where writing feels like struggling through cement I tell myself “just keep going. This probably won’t seem so bad when you come back to it.” Sadly, this is rarely true. A lot, and I mean A LOT, of this draft is going to have to go. And I’m not going to be able to get it all on this first go-through. I’m starting to come to terms with that. But it turns out that writing is really fun. And I’m getting back to the point where I don’t mind the work. It’s also an excellent time of year for it. On a day like today when the air is thick with fog and no one in their right mind would want to be outside, there’s nothing better than getting in some solid swings on this novel of mine.

I should probably go do that now. But I’m feeling good guys. 2015 is gonna be good.

Tell me all about what you’re up to in the comments!

— Amy

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

One day last week when I was getting out of the shower an idea struck. “Oh!” I thought delightedly. “That can be what I write my next blog post about!” As I toweled off, I reflected cheerily on how nice it was to have my topic lined up and about how much stress that would save. And then, within minutes, I forgot it.

A different time last week I was driving in the car and was struck with the most brilliant idea for novel after next – Untold’s sequel. This is kind of a pet project of mine and while I know I should be spending my time and energy on my current project (about which I am very excited!) I can’t help but think ahead and try to figure out where my Untold crew are going to be in a few years. Without evening meaning to, I came up with the perfect character point for someone, and began banging the steering wheel in excitement. Dangerous, maybe, but not quite as dangerous as if I had pulled out a pen and written the idea down then and there. (I did later, don’t worry.)

Why does inspiration happen the most when I’m not in a writing state of mind? Besides the idea that life just likes to structure things in the most inconvenient way possible/is trying to get me to write down more of my ideas, I’m starting to think I know the reason. I think everyone can complain about inspiration hitting at the worst of times (say, right before bed), and I think this is because we don’t get inspired through sitting down and trying to manufacture a story. Yes, that part of the writing process is crucial (maybe I’ll write my next post on how bogus “only writing when inspired” is), but it’s not what we’re writing about. No matter the genre, we’re writing about the nuances of life and of human interaction, and ideas for that are much more likely to hit us when we’re out there living than at our computers/notebooks/typewriters trying to remember what it is that people who aren’t harnessed to their works-in-progress are doing.

Life is a balance between living it and reflecting on it. We grow through both experience and our own interpretations of those events, so it makes a lot of sense that we grow as writers not only when we’re sitting down with our work, getting our ideas out there and trying to make them sound the way we want. We also grow through the things we do, both mundane and extraordinary.

We need to write what we know, so let’s go out there and know as much as we can. And, most importantly, let’s bring notebooks with us. Try to keep those ideas from slithering away again.

Until next time,

— Amy

Inspiration is everywhere.

“After that I’ll have to see what else I can come up with because one good picture is never enough.”

Those of you who read last week’s blog post will remember that I discussed this phrase in relation to Katie’s character arc in Untold. I also teased that I’d tell you about how this relates to me, and my experience with Untold, so here I am, keeping my word.

In my recent trip to Fairfield, Iowa (home of my alma mater) I had a conversation about publishing with friend and former teacher Cullen Thomas. I began filling him in on some of the ups and downs of the publishing process that I have encountered so far, and he met me with two pieces of very good advice.

1.) Do not read your reviews. Ever.

“Everyone knows this rule, and everyone agrees. They don’t matter unless they’re from the true taste makers, and even then, don’t read them.” He thought for a moment and then said, “Of course, everyone breaks this rule. But still, it’s one you need to know.”

2.) Publish your first novel, grin, look at it on your shelf, and then throw it into the trash can.

“Keep promoting it,” he assured me. “But really what you have to do is keep writing more.”

And this is what brings us back to the quote. I, like Katie, have taken my moment to lie back on the grass, close my eyes, and take a bit of a rest. And, after that, I wrote a first draft for two different novel ideas I have. For me, first drafts are effectively glorified outlines, which is actually one of the reasons why I keep going back to NaNoWriMo year after year. The more 50,000-word manuscripts I have kicking around in the “stories” folder on my computer, the easier I can breathe. I know what’s coming next. I have options.

I’ll admit, one of my driving forces for getting Untold finished and out there was to give myself a feeling of accomplishment. My majority of work on it was during a time when I wasn’t doing much else; I was working maybe ten hours a week and spending the rest of my time crocheting, planning my wedding, and learning Dutch. It was a cozy existence, and a nice breather after graduating from college, but lacked direction. I worked fervently on the manuscript, telling myself that it was okay that I spent so much time re-watching Gossip Girl because I was doing something. And, thankfully, it panned out.

What I didn’t expect was how short the high of having done something would be. And how glad I would be when it wore off.

“I just don’t have the time,” I’d tell my husband as day after day of not meeting my word count goal, or even writing at all, went by. “I’m busy with Untold. I don’t want to divide myself between two stories.”

There was certainly an element of truth to this. It’s extremely taxing to spend a great portion of your energy trying to convince people to buy one book while spending the rest of your energy trying to build a new story from the ground up. But I think that my main problem was that the feeling of necessity was gone. I had done it. I had published a book. Where was the urgency for the next one?

Fortunately, it’s very rare for your first novel to be the only thing you need to create, ever. And, even better, it turns out that writing and publishing more books is an excellent marketing strategy that ties in with promoting your current novel. These factors don’t make the attention spread any less exhausting (especially since my day job has blossomed into full time), but I feel that kick of motivation again.

I’m going to do it. And this one will be even better.

— Amy

I’ll never throw you in the trash can <3

For those of you who don’t know, I spent this past weekend in Fairfield, Iowa showing my little sister around my alma mater. Well, truth be told, I did very little of the showing. Actually, I hardly ended up seeing her at all. One of the things I ended up doing there was, for the second time, I spoke to the group of prospective students that were visiting about my book. They were an attentive audience, but quiet, and maybe five minutes in I found I had told what I had intended to tell, so I went my default route for filling up time in a talk. I read an excerpt. In that excerpt, there was a particular paragraph that struck me. Or, rather, there was a sentence. That sentence was, “After that I’ll have to see what else I can come up with because one good picture is never enough.”

As I read that aloud, I found myself wondering, why did I include that line? I have a tendency to decide which sentences are important and which ones can be cut largely by feel. If there is some emotional potency to it I tend to keep it in, while if I feel like the line is there just for extra detail, I’m more inclined to cut it. Yes, that bit did foreshadow Katie’s struggle with getting her pictures done on time, which ultimately leads to a very important plot point but right there, right in the middle of a scene so packed with emotional nuance, why did I underline the fact that she’s a student?

I understand it now.

I actually came into this blog post intending to tell you guys about how this trip gave me some clarity and perspective on the writing process, thanks to friend and former teacher Cullen Thomas. We had an excellent conversation about publishing and what your debut novel means (hint: not a lot). But as I started writing, I started to think more and more about what this means to Katie. It’s interesting how a line in a book can encompass a whole struggle for your character, worthy at least on an entire blog post, and a whole different journey to you as a writer. So, we’ll save the first for another day, and right now we’ll talk about Katie.

I wonder if I could tell you how each line in Untold contributes to teaching you about Katie as a person. I certainly hope so, and might be interested in looking into taking that challenge. When you’re writing in first-person, it’s actually fairly difficult for each sentence not to have at least some kind of exposition because every single thing you write is going on inside your protagonist’s head. In this case, we’re looking at Katie’s knowledge of what’s enough. Or rather, what isn’t. She found some profound glory in finally exploring the feeling of lack inside her, but even while high on the feeling of catharsis she knows that there will be a comedown. This isn’t the end, this isn’t the answer. This is one strong moment in a story that is far from its resolution.

One thing about Katie is that she is extremely intuitive. This may not always come across, as she tends to stubbornly ignore her intuition. That’s actually one of the things I love best about her as a character: how she is capable of so much knowledge of the underlying truths that run through her life and simultaneously so capable of ignoring them. This moment when she knows that this picture of which she is so proud isn’t enough for a whole project directly precedes a scene where she goes to Geri without anything else to show. And here we have her problem.

Katie’s struggle was really a fascinating one to explore. Early drafts of it had me so frustrated with her (“why is she so back-and-forth on this?”), and even now I wonder if she could have made the whole thing easier on herself. But that isn’t who she is, is it? So there she is, lying on the grass totally aware of what she has to do, and promising herself she’ll do it. “But first…”

What were some of her excuses with Robin? Anyone remember those? I think they have a lot to do with this same tendencies of hers, and I’d be interested to see what of those you guys remember. More to say on this idea of “never enough”, but that’s going to come later.

Until next week!

— Amy

Reading, reading away.

And November is officially over! What a wild ride that was. Even as I type now, I’m eyeing the word count. Not yet used to the fact that it doesn’t really matter now.

For some reason, this year was a lot harder for me than other years. I don’t mean in terms of making the word count on time; I was behind for most of the month, but catching up wasn’t too strenuous. I mean instead that my motivation was running particularly low.  I wonder if it’s because writing is a huge part of my life now. In the past November was an excellent excuse to just get my darn book written. Now it’s more along the lines of creating a backlog of content.

This is making it all sound quite dreary and rote, which I’m not meaning to do at all. It was actually a great privilege to get to spent November with a new set of characters and explore their various struggle. I’m actually quiet taken with the protagonist of this one, and definitely looking forward to revisiting her adventures and filling them out in the future. I really think my main struggle with NaNoWriMo this year was that I had too much else going on. I’ve been spoiled in recent years with free time (and a working laptop), but this year everything is in top gear. Still, that’s the spirit of NaNoWriMo, isn’t it? Find time to write, even when life gets crazy. And that’s an important lesson to learn, again and again and again.

To all of you other WriMos, whether you were winners or participants: congratulations. You did it, you made the time to write. Bravo! Let me know in the comments how you did. Did you reach the 50,00 mark, or did you reach a goal of your own? Do you like your story? Where do you see yourself going with it?

Okay, I’m calling it a night. Sorry for missing last week’s post: NaNoWriMo took priority. It was worth it though. So happy to have another manuscript tucked away.

— Amy

Proof!