Ask the Author: Amanda Geard
Answered Questions (4)
Amanda Geard
My third novel, set in northern Norway and Ireland. More soon!
Amanda Geard
This is a difficult question with an ever-changing answer. I love the creative freedom, I love the excuse to sit and think, I love conjuring worlds. I love meeting fellow authors, I *adore* meeting readers.
I'm going through a phase of wonderful book club visits with groups from all over the world. They read my words so carefully. It's wonderful to chat with readers for whom the settings and characters from The Midnight House and The Moon Gate are fully-formed and real ... and that simply blows me away.
I'm going through a phase of wonderful book club visits with groups from all over the world. They read my words so carefully. It's wonderful to chat with readers for whom the settings and characters from The Midnight House and The Moon Gate are fully-formed and real ... and that simply blows me away.
Amanda Geard
When the dreaded block hits I take out my favourite notebook (I have a pile of these, all waiting for their turn) and a fountain pen (because its far more fun) and set a timer for 25 minutes. I put an old, sepia photo before me. I sit down and write about it. Anything at all. What the image looks like, what is the scent of the scene. What the air there tastes like. I think about who might soon walk through the image, or who has already left. I wonder where they went, I wonder why. I won't show anyone what I'm writing, so the inner voice (which makes up a huge part of writer's block) simply cannot silence you.
There's no fear, and so the words flow.
Try it :) Let me know how you go x
There's no fear, and so the words flow.
Try it :) Let me know how you go x
Amanda Geard
What genres do you like to read? Horror, romance, mystery? Choose one, the one you think that you know best. Open five novels from that genre and study them. How are they written (first person or third? Slow pacing or fast? Is the prose sparse or filled with description?)? Look at the tropes and the characters, what are they really like? What questions did I, as a reader, ask?
This is what I did with novels by Lucinda Riley, Kate Morton, Kristin Hannah and Jenny Ashcroft. I saw how loved and successful these writers were, and I wanted to be just like them. I saw how they wrote of modern protagonists that people could relate with, and histories threaded with generational mysteries. Then I taped several A4 pieces of paper together and began to plan a novel. I asked myself: what do I know? I know old houses, and Ireland and World War Two London. I know love, and I know grief. I know sacrifice. I came up with an image, not unique, but timeless: an old letter slipped from between the pages of a long-forgotten book.
From there, I began to plan the novel by asking myself questions (ones that the reader will later ask). Who was the letter from? What did it say? Why was it written (and did it tell the truth?)? You mind immediately goes back in time, searching for the answers. I played a lot (The Midnight House existed on many stuck-together-peices of A4 paper before it became a draft!) and eventually I had planned a story, and from there I laid out the story into chapters, and then I began to write.
This is what I did with novels by Lucinda Riley, Kate Morton, Kristin Hannah and Jenny Ashcroft. I saw how loved and successful these writers were, and I wanted to be just like them. I saw how they wrote of modern protagonists that people could relate with, and histories threaded with generational mysteries. Then I taped several A4 pieces of paper together and began to plan a novel. I asked myself: what do I know? I know old houses, and Ireland and World War Two London. I know love, and I know grief. I know sacrifice. I came up with an image, not unique, but timeless: an old letter slipped from between the pages of a long-forgotten book.
From there, I began to plan the novel by asking myself questions (ones that the reader will later ask). Who was the letter from? What did it say? Why was it written (and did it tell the truth?)? You mind immediately goes back in time, searching for the answers. I played a lot (The Midnight House existed on many stuck-together-peices of A4 paper before it became a draft!) and eventually I had planned a story, and from there I laid out the story into chapters, and then I began to write.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more