Month: July 2013
20
Jul
2013

Tunnel Vision

Posted in: General

Do you ever get it into your head this one thing is how it’s going to be and nothing will change your course? You get tunnel vision and can’t be bothered to see around you and realize that one particular spot you’re rushing towards isn’t the end all be all of your existence.

I recently realized I had tunnel vision. When my focal point got messed up, of  course I had a melt down that would put Chernobyl to shame. At that moment, my world had just ended and I didn’t know what to do.

What was so life changing that I couldn’t see past my own stupidity? Someone else published a book under the name “Amanda Stone”. Of course when I decided to write under that name, it never occurred to me that there would be other “Amanda Stone”s out there. It never dawned on me that it was a common first and last name. Nope, I picked the name. So obviously I had dibs on using it. Right?

Thankfully after talking with some friends of mine I was brought back down to earth. They helped to show me that, while unfortunate that it happened, it’s truly not as life ending as I made it out to be. I was able to slightly change the name and continue on as I have been. So now I am “Amanda C. Stone”. Not much of a change. But at least I don’t have to start all over with a new name.

But it was my Bestie McBesterson (BMB to me, I love her dearly, she tells me things straight and gave me a fabulous smack upside the head to get me out of my Chernobyl sized meltdown) that brought it all into perspective for me. As long as I write quality stories, the name I write under truly doesn’t matter. We had a good laugh about writing under some truly horrible names.

I’m in the process of finishing up the research for my first book. Here’s hoping that my words will speak for themselves and my chosen pen name truly doesn’t matter.

07
Jul
2013

Let’s Start At The Very Beginning

Posted in: General

One of my favorite parts of writing is sitting down with my notebook (yup, I write by hand and then type) and my purple pen and start putting the story to the page. Unfortunately, that part is about half way into the whole process of “writing a story” for me. As much as I’d like to just put words out there when an idea hits, I have to start at the beginning.

Which is always the hardest part of course! I have to flesh out who the characters are first. Plus I have to have some basic plot ideas, whether it’s a full outline or just a basic overview. Then comes any research that is needed. How much research there is varies by book. Sometimes it’s hard to focus on all of the pre-writing things that need done when I have scenes and ideas just waiting to get out.

The very hardest part of all however, for me, is naming characters. So much meaning comes from a name. Plus I don’t want all of my books to have characters named “Jon” or “Joe” or “Bob”. There are some wonderful names out there and I want to find them and use them! I’ve recently started writing down names that I see while I’m out that strike me so I can use them later. Advertisements, companies, even the cashier at Target. Now to pick which ones go with which characters!