Writing Romance is a tricky business to get into…what with all the voices we often carry around in our heads. The romance genre is often a more difficult genre to write in for most folks because it requires a great… Read More ›
Archive for November 2012
How to Create: Do You Need a Muse?
Writing Romance is more difficult than ever now. With readers wanting as many books as writers can muster, pressure builds to produce multiple books every year and that requires daily work. Factory work. The imagination station has to run regularly… Read More ›
How to Flesh It Out
At some point we all get very tired. We may love our book. We may love our characters. We may even love each and every sentence (though I doubt it at this point). But, we are tired. By now you… Read More ›
How to Use Your Muses
Do you worry that your work is derivative? That it’s not unique enough? Do you worry about the influence of other writers, other texts, other mediums? Are you afraid that pop music is leaking into your drafts or that this… Read More ›
Who To Write For
When you begin writing a story (novel or otherwise), most writers don’t ask themselves who they’re writing for…but they should. In truth, you often begin with the sole purpose of entertaining yourself or getting those characters out of your head… Read More ›
How To Begin
Whether you’re just starting your novel or returning to edit, you know you’re beginning needs to be special. It needs to make an impression. It needs to have impact. It needs to catch a reader’s interest. But, just how do… Read More ›
How to Write Side Characters: The Ensemble Effect
As you continue participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), you’re probably coming across a couple of unexpected problems–namely…who are all these other people and how do I get them to work in my story? Depending on who you are and… Read More ›
How to Handle Tricky Tropes: Dealing with Violence Against Women in Romance Fiction
Violence against women, specifically rape and sexual assault, is–for better or worse–a popular trope in romance fiction. There have been various interpretations explaining why this trope is so incredibly popular–women are masochists, women want to avoid the blame and shame… Read More ›
How to End a Chapter: The Cliffhanger Approach
As you continue participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), it might be useful to talk about how to end that chapter you’ve been writing for a thousand years. Has it grown to epic proportions? Are you begging it to stop?… Read More ›
