Amy Engel: On Leaning Into the Gray Areas of Good and Evil in Writing Thrillers
Amy Engel is the author of The Familiar Dark, The Roanoke Girls and the Book of Ivy series. A former criminal defense attorney, she lives in Missouri with her family. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Amy Engel
Cassandra Bushell
In this post, Amy shares how her experience as a criminal defense attorney helped shade her thriller writing.
Name: Amy Engel
Literary agent: Jodi Reamer
Book title: I Did It For You
Publisher: Dutton/PRH
Release date: July 25, 2023
Genre/category: Thriller
Previous titles: The Familiar Dark; The Roanoke Girls; The Book of Ivy; The Revolution of Ivy
Elevator pitch for the book: Fourteen years after the murder of her older sister and the conviction and execution of the killer, Greer Dunning returns home following an eerily similar murder. While the cops blame a copycat, Greer knows there is more to the story and forms an alliance with the unlikeliest of allies in an effort to uncover the truth.
Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]
What prompted you to write this book?
Before becoming a writer, I was a criminal defense attorney. I’ve always wanted to write a book that more directly incorporates some of the things I learned during that time. Specifically, I was interested in exploring the ways in which we demonize not only those who commit crimes, but their families as well.
As a criminal defense attorney, you learn pretty quickly that most people who do terrible things aren’t necessarily terrible people. It changes the way you see the world, and I wanted to bring some of that nuance to this book.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
Time gets a little foggy for me when I’m deep in the writing process, but I think this book took about six months to write. After that, I edited and that took a couple more months. As I’m sure most people know, publishing is a slow process. I think from the initial idea to actual publication date was around two years.
The book idea didn’t change much during that time, although for purposes of full disclosure I should say that I don’t outline. I generally know the beginning and have an idea about how I want the book to end, beyond that it’s a mystery to me until I start writing.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I can’t think of any big surprises with this book. I will say that the editing process was a bit more involved than in some of my other books. I tend to write short and have to add during editing, which is the opposite of a lot of writers. My amazing editor, Maya Ziv, pushed me to dig a little deeper with some of the characters and storylines, and it definitely resulted in a better book.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
Probably the biggest surprise for me were the short chapters from the points of view of various characters we don’t otherwise hear from. I hadn’t planned on those sections, and when I wrote the first one it sort of took me by surprise. But I felt like they added to the story, and I liked hearing from those characters, so I ran with it.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
My main hope is always that readers enjoy the time they spend reading my books. Beyond that, I hope that this book causes readers to maybe take a moment and think about the gray areas in life. It’s easy to put people, ideas, emotions, etc. in black and white categories—good and bad, right and wrong, us and them—but most of life isn’t actually that simple. If we could all lean into the gray a bit more, I think the world would be a kinder and more empathetic place.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Try not to get in your own head to the point where it impedes your writing. I think it can be easy to fall into the trap of worrying so much about whether people are going to like your book that you begin trying to write to please everyone, which is an impossible task. Write the book you need to write and let the results go.
While there’s no shortage of writing advice, it’s often scattered around—a piece of advice here, words of wisdom there. And in the moments when you most need writing advice, what you find might not resonate with you or speak to the issue you’re dealing with. In A Year of Writing Advice, the editors of Writer’s Digest have gathered thoughts, musings, and yes, advice from 365 authors in dozens of genres to help you on your writing journey.