In every romance the key is making your characters fall in love, right? We’ve talked about HOW we fall in love…how we connect to each other’s core values, and how we complement each other and make each other into stronger people. However, how do you actually write that journey, step by step? How do you woo your reader into falling in love with your characters, too? You have to date your reader. Okay, let’s just analyze this for a moment. Remember the last time you fell in love? You saw him or her across the room, and something about their physical appearance intrigued you. It told you something about them—perhaps they were brave, or strong, or creative, or disheveled, or rough-edged. You probably noticed their […]
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So You Want to be A Writer? Well, What Should You Write?
I love writing. I love words. I started doodling in a little girl’s diary when I was six years old. I read every night before bed all through elementary and junior high school. Biographies were my favorite. But I never focused my writing. I wrote from my heart about my life. Writing a set story was harder. Because it required discipline. As a journalism major, I had to learn to write within the rules or guidelines. I had to write factual and objective. Back in the ‘80s, journalist were taught to be objective. It was the pride of the profession. The discipline combined with my natural bent toward writing gave me confidence. I once told a colleague I could write about a pile of dirt if required. Yet when I […]
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What if the HERO was the HEROINE? – Turning Your Story Upside Down
I started reading a great book last week and about a third of the way through a thought hit me: What if THE HEROINE was THE HERO and THE HERO was THE HEROINE? Meaning, what if their rolls were reversed? Suddenly the book became much more interesting and the one on my Kindle seem kind of status quo. Sure, some of the other plot points would be different if SHE was a HE, but it would also raise new, more intriguing plot obstacles. In an historical book, it might be hard to switch rolls. If you were writing about the Alamo, it would be hard to have a man spying on General Santa Anna since the spy was a female prostitute. But, what if you took an historical event, like […]
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Quick Skills: Finding you Romance Story Arc
If you are writing a romance, it can sometimes be difficult to know exactly how to build all the pieces so that you have the right amount of tension in your story. How soon do you make them fall in love? When do you start breaking them up? How do they get back together? This problem is solved by understanding the two main story arcs of romance: The Why/Why Not, or the Why Not/Why. (These arc models apply to both a straight up romance, or just a romance thread.) Understanding the kind of story you have helps you understand how to layer in the tension and where to insert the different components of your romance. Let’s a take a look: The first structure is Why/Why Not: These are stories that […]
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