Amanda Hockingmaybe the most important question
Yet its one that I have never asked before. What is my story doing for you? I’ve never asked it for any of my novels, but I decided to ask it particularly with Switched, since I’m trying to publish it, and if someone else asks, I ought to have an answer.
What do I think the audience will gain from reading this?
Answer: I want to give what I’ve gotten.
Writing is it a joy, but that’s not what I meant. The things I read and watch are because I want a chance to escape into something else. If I haven’t cried, forgotten the time, laughed out loud, or felt my race in anticipation or fear, then I’ve probably stopped reading it ten pages in (or watching it ten minutes in). And I’ve also come to love that soft warm feeling in my belly when the heroine and the hero kiss (or almost kiss) for the first time.
That is what I want to give you, the reader. A chance to feel things and forget about what’s going on around you. Life is complicated and messy, but more often, it’s boring and it’s a waiting game between events. But with a book, it can be all the good stuff.
When you stop reading, I want you to feel better than you did when you started, but I want you to want more. And if it all possible, I want to infuse a bit more hope and wonder into your life.
That’s what I’m trying acheive in Switched. I want make you excited, not just about the book, but about life. When I am reading or writing a good book, it feels like I’m falling in love. I’m daydreamy, swoony, and I’m in a good mood. I want you to have that feeling too. That passion and happiness, and I want it to carry on beyond the pages.
So, that’s what I hope my story does for you. Sometimes, it can make you think, but the basic idea is that I want you to feel good. And I think I can do that, if you’re a teenager/early 20’s girl/gay guy that enjoys pop culture and romance. If you watch the CW or read Twilight (or most likely, both), you’ll probably enjoy my book, and you’ll probably take away from what I wanted to give.
Leave a Reply
Yeti says: You definitely make me want more. I finished Switched last night on my Kindle and ‘needed’ to know what happened next. i went on Amazon to get the next installment and OMG I can’t!!!! Have to wait until MARCH for the paperback – not sure if it will be on Kindle too, I do so hope it will. So you have achieved an entertaining story that makes me want to know what happens next, no mean feat – a testament to your writing and story telling! Anyway, I decided to get Hollowland and My Blood Approves to keep me going in the meantime 😉
A holy church, rings, a bouquet, a 3-floor wedding cake, lace wedding dress champagne, and the moving promise “ I do”, make up the happiest moment in one’s life. Then it is the wedding.
lace wedding gowns
A gorgeous wedding dress has been inside a girl’s dream since she was five years old. It is widely said that the bride is the most beautiful woman all over the world.
Bridal gowns vary in different parts of the world. For example, cheap wedding dresses plus sizein traditional Chinese culture, the color red is regarded for centuries as the symbol of good luck; while in the Occident, wedding dresses 2012 a full-length white wedding dress is always associated with romance and sanctity. But, with the globalization, wedding dresses tend to be alike in the whole world.
I’ve been following you on Twitter for a little while now. I’ve been “watching” your story unfold as it were – seeing your books become popular and then hearing of your big book deal. I am so excited for you! I just got finished reading the recent NYT article about you, and I find it so refreshing that you are so totally down to earth. You haven’t let this “fame” touch the core of who you are. I totally <3 that you love The Breakfast Club – so do I!
After reading this blog post – from before you were published, as a reader I love that you’re writing for the right reasons. To entertain the reader, to bring us out of our daily lives and give us something more fun to dwell on. All good books transport us to worlds unknown to us, and I have no doubt you have written good books – I am so excited for when I finally have a chance to read the Trylle series on my nook! I can’t wait!
All the best,
April @ My Shelf Confessions
lol, all the comments are from today when the article was written over two years ago. That is cool that you get to look back on it.
I am glad that you posted this, Amanda. But it is not just this. In your novels you are sharing a part of yourself. These are your inner voices, your feelings. I rememember the way I felt when I was younger. As the years pass, these feelings fade away into memory. But every now again, I will read something from an author that brings these feelings back up to the surface from the murky depths of seeming oblivion. You are definitely one of those authors. And I thank you for it. Readers need something they can relate to and you certainly give them that. I am about halfway through Switched as we speak and I am enthralled. I am actually putting my novel writing on hold for a few weeks because I have dived into a box full of my old poems from high school that I am typing up and getting ready to share with the world. Keep up the splendid writing.
Matt
http://matthewleo.blogspot.com/
Ally M says: that is exactly what all of your books have done for me. thank you.