How to plot a romance novel

How to plot a romance novel

I was recently asked for references on how to plot a romance. As someone who’s been writing in the genre for years and reading as many books on the craft of writing as I can, I had very few recommendations for romance-specific craft books. It’s not that...

World Conflict (in fiction)

How interesting is your world? Is it interesting enough that you would want to live there? Too interesting that it would terrify you to do so? I recently heard about someone who created a world so dull that she didn’t even want to create her story anymore (it was a...
Intuitive Editing: A Review

Intuitive Editing: A Review

One in an occasional series of writing book reviews. Today, I’ll talk about Intuitive Editing by Tiffany Martin. I came across this book when I went to the home of a fellow author who was hosting a write-in. She had very cleverly put out all of her craft books...
Writing to Your Strengths

Writing to Your Strengths

I am a very strong believer in trying new things—whether it be a new food, a new experience, or something new with your writing. With just about every book I write, I try to use a new tool or a new way of organizing my writing. I try new programs—Scrivener, Atticus,...
Showing Emotion

Showing Emotion

Continuing on with the Emotion Theme: We’ve all been there: reading a book, looking forward to the exciting bit where the hero(ine) really gets to show their chops. We know it’s coming, and we’ve been looking forward to it since we figured out that they’ve got to...
Bringing Emotion

Bringing Emotion

When I first started writing, I was told that if my character cried on the page, my reader wouldn’t. If I wanted to bring tears to my reader’s eyes, my character’s eyes needed to be dry while they were completely torn up inside. As with every “Rule” of writing, you...