Guest Post: ShockWaves by Suzanna Williams

Today I have a guest post by Suzanna Williams, author of ShockWaves.  Read about her journey, take a look at her trailers, and stop by her website.  Enjoy!

The story of ShockWaves: or how many times can you rewrite without going insane?

A big thank you to Sarah for letting me chat on her blog. I’m sooo excited that my YA action adventure went on sale today. Beneath the shiny cover lies five years of re-writes. Yep … five years of blood, tears and broken pencils.

ShockWaves has reinvented itself so many times, I think if someone suggests I need to change my hero into a fluffy pink rabbit from the planet Zog, I’ll be able to twist the story to make it fit. Why would I want to do that? Here’s a quick spin through the highs and lows of birthing my novel.

Pre-2007 I have more unfinished stories than I’d care to count. I’d start off enthusiastic but plan-less and write myself into a corner from which I couldn’t escape. So what happened in 2007? My dad died, necessitating a weekly six hour round trip until we got my mum settled. And on those trips I discovered my secret weapon; my husband is a master plotter. We beat out a plan that would get me to the end of my current story. Three months and 63,000 words later, I’d finished.

I was naively proud of that first draft. I sent it out to my list of agents straight away. Maybe it was the ‘Die Hard for kids’ analogy I used, but three agents ask to see the manuscript. I was ecstatic … until every one of them sent it back.

Should I cut my losses or keep on trying? I contacted Cornerstones Literary Agency for a professional opinion. My first report (after I’d pulled it, ripped and tear-stained, from the bin) listed every mistake in the ‘Writers Book of Deadly Sins’. I could change Points of View within a single sentence, did more ‘telling’ than ‘showing’ and when should you use ‘past’ or ‘passed’? Bring on the first rewrite.

After my second Cornerstones report and several more drafts, they began to promote ShockWaves for me. The first interested agent wanted some changes. She seemed to the story was about how Paige dealt with her grief over the death of her parents. I flirted with some changes for her but I’m not sure she was reading the same manuscript and we parted company pretty quickly.

Several more missed agents down the line, enter the agent who missed her bus-stop because she was reading the part where my hero saves my heroine from a sinking ferryboat. This agent wanted changes too (including cutting the ferryboat scene which she’d missed the stop for – can you figure that one?). She didn’t like my terrorist bad-guy so I wrote him out and introduced The Spectator, a psychopathic serial killer who liked to watch people die. There were three major rewrites taking over a year before this agent decided not to take on the story.

However, whilst she was making up her mind, I was gaining confidence. I was fed-up with changing things until they were exactly how someone else wanted only to find they didn’t want them anyhow. I researched indie authors, looking to take back control. If I couldn’t get a publisher, I would become one myself. I ditched The Spectator (he gave me the creeps) and rewrote the whole story (yes, again). I hired my own editor and proof-reader. My husband designed the cover and we shot the trailer. It’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. Was it the right decision? Has the constant rewriting really driven me insane? We’ll have to wait and see.

Blurb from ShockWaves:

Lee Banner has one passion, parkour; one secret, he’s telepathic; and one problem, an ex-IRA terrorist, with a thirst for revenge, has kidnapped the girl of his dreams.

Sixteen year old Lee Banner thinks he’s a daydreamer. One minute he’s watching the football, the next he’s seeing a girl in a car crash. It’s so real he can feel her fear, hear her scream. But when he meets Paige Harper, the girl from the crash, and her parents have actually been killed in a hit-and-run accident, can it really be just his over-active imagination?

And then Paige is kidnapped. Will their special connection and Lee’s parkour be enough to save her?

ShockWaves is the first in a new fast-moving action-packed adventure trilogy.

Trailers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5jE_qiU_f0&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiqZCaWRnAc&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZO4WXLpl30&feature=plcp

Stalk Suzanna:  www.suzannawilliams.com

ShockWaves on Amazon:

US

UK