Where do you go to clear your head enough to write?

Long walks by the beach, through the woods, around the block or sitting in the garden? I like to go somewhere I can see for miles, it reminds me that the possibilities have no limits. Somewhere you can forget about the bills and the housework or the job. Someplace that’s just for you.

In every setting, I imagine what it would have been like a couple of hundred years ago, or what it may be like after a few more centuries have passed by. What would it be like to try and survive right here in this place with no money, having to hide from the authorities? What if you met an eccentric traveller that turned out to be a relative or an alien. Anything really, I just let my mind wander and throw a few ‘What ifs?’ at it.

I like to have someone there to throw these ideas at, it’s ok to get laughed at or inspired or maybe their ideas are wilder than yours? No matter, it’s fun to share and I do enjoy getting out there and imagining the next story.

I also collect characters along the way, that old man with the ice-blue eyes, the cute kid with her balloon chasing a dog on the beach, anything really I just look for what makes someone stand out to me. Figure out what got my attention and make a note to use that in a story sometime.

Where do you go?

Amanda xxx

Not sure about you but empty bookshelves send me into a panic!

I’ve either just packed up to move house, which is super sad as I have to put all the books away for a while and the place feels empty. Either that or I’ve just installed the bookshelves in the new home and I now have to find time to unpack the 33 boxes of books and fit them back on the shelves!

Either way, it’s a lot of work.

Can you imagine trying to fill these bookshelves with your own published books? What would that take? Well because I had a few minutes spare I worked it out.

These shelves hold 24 books each at around 500 pages a book so you’d have to write 12,000 pages to fill one shelf! At 350 words per page for a standard fantasy fiction genre size, that’s 4.2 million words. That’s certainly more than a few weeks work. And that’s just one shelf!

So I’m going to outsource that job to a few of my favourite authors. Adding a few of my own titles to the shelf feels good but I’m definitely going to share the load.

I’ve written a few short stories and they don’t take up much room on the shelf, though they were fun to write. A very different tech to writing a novel. I occasionally break from a novel to do a short story just for the fun of it. It’s refreshing to do something different.

Although Sarah wouldn’t agree! More about her later.

Amanda xxx