Columns: Tag – Romance
-
Writing Quips and Tips
Happy Valentine’s Day! Allaboutlove has launched.
Allaboutlove.net is dedicated to good writing and … well, love naturally. The site has been designed in the spirit of fun. We hope it will bring a touch of lightness to all our lives.
We’re dedicated to nurturing and publishing writers. But good writers need the best readers, so we’ve packed the site with features about love and relationships, that we hope you’ll enjoy. We’ll update them regularly. This is a community, so please comment on any or all of them.
The Greatest Contraceptive in the World
To suck or not to suck?
I have two nipple horror stories. I save them for particularly dull dinner parties when I want to horrify all those present. Especially the men.
The Greatest Contraceptive in the World
Three in the bed
One of my favourite quotes ever is from Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, the cult British comedy. “And then she said: ‘Do you think this bed is big enough for three of us?’ and I thought ‘SCENE’! And then she told me she was preggers.”
Love Factually
Mr Bean of the flirting fraternity
I am a loser in love. The Mr Bean of the flirting fraternity. And a dating disaster. I’m just not cut out for trotting out the cheesy lines seemingly required to, as a woman friend so quaintly puts it, “instantly moisturise a girl’s eyeballs”.
Love Factually
Tangos and titillations
“Yo,” Lofty half-whispers , “you’d better get your sad ass down here. It’s wall-to-wall women and they’re asking after you.”
Writing Quips and Tips
Publish your love story
We need your short stories and novels! A story without a reader is like a horse with no rider. Or a romantic without love.
Writing Quips and Tips
Do you need help with your manuscript?
We read and consider every manuscript sent to us – this service is free. We can also give you a full and professional editing report on any manuscript for a very reasonable fee.
Characters on the Couch
Two for the price of one
Dear Gabriel
A friend of mine, let’s call her Claire, told me in confidence about a man she’s seeing. She’s crazy about him, and he’s told her he loves her. Very expressive, apparently. Unusual for a man. But there were just a few things she told me that made me think I’d heard about this man before.
Another friend of mine has also been seeing someone who says all the right things and brings her flowers. So I asked Gail one or two quick questions and discovered they’re both seeing the same man.
Writing Quips and Tips
What makes a good writing class?
“As for myself,” says Stephen King in his wonderful book On Writing, “I’m doubtful about writing classes, but not entirely against them.” What I want to insist on in this article is that writing classes – or seminars, or workshops, or writing circles, call ‘em what you will – can be
• Inspirational
• Motivational, and
• A spur to action and
that Mr King would do well to approach the subject a tad less sceptically.
Love Factually
Sucker Love
I saw her. As I hurried along the passage to enter the room, I saw her and her alone.
The restaurant was full but it was as if nobody but Iris was there. She wore a crimson-red shawl of rich texture and her oh-so-delicate face was framed by auburn-black curls.
Her face didn’t so much light up as it was aroused in recognition of my red hat. Caveau was abuzz and we needed somewhere quieter to talk of broken wings and love lost.
Writing Quips and Tips
The lessons of the Olympics for writers of romantic fiction
What lessons do the Olympics hold for writers of romantic fiction? Or, indeed, for writers of any kind? If you think this an idle question asked simply to cash in on the world’s current obsession with the events going on in Beijing, you’d be wrong.
Characters on the Couch
How many times can you say “I love you”?
Dear Gabriel
Why does my wife insist on hearing that I love her all the time? I just don’t understand this neediness in women. What could have changed since 9pm yesterday? I told her last night that, when I stopped loving her, I’d tell her. Until then, she could take it as read. She burst into tears. Why is she so irrational?
Writing Quips and Tips
How Journals Help Writers
Oh, I know you kept a diary when you were fourteen. Your awful brother probably picked the lock and read steamy passages to his friends. But even so … a journal kept properly can help your writing in many ways.
The Greatest Contraceptive in the World
A new curriculum?
I think it’s time that our schools seriously reconsidered the life skills curriculum. When do they ever give you advice on the absolute essentials? For example, consider the situation my friend Kath was faced with last week.
What do you do when your six-year-old walks into the lounge clutching your vibrator, exclaiming: “Hey mom, look at this cool shaker I found. You just twist it around like this.”
Writing Quips and Tips
Preparing for the writers life
I sometimes imagine all the unfinished novels in drawers. All the characters who will never finish their journeys; the stories that will never draw to an end. Perhaps that in itself could be the starting point for a story. (Just an idea.) But why is it that so many people start out on their first novel with such enthusiasm, put so much effort and time into it, and then …?
A Lipstick Lesbian on the Prowl in London
Seventy-thousand lesbians flirting (or not)
You’d think my chances of hooking up, stealing a kiss, or meeting my soul mate would be quadrupled by being around 70 000 lesbians for an entire weekend….
Luke's World
Guide to the internet for the not-yet misanthropic
Gosh I had such an interesting experience recently – I got to meet someone I had met through the internet!
Yes the sarcasm is deliberate. I’m just so tired of men flirting and chatting and texting, but all the excitement is in the chase and not in the kill. I now am convinced that about 80% of the men who use the internet are not really serious about finding a partner – it’s just a game to them.
The real challenge for those of us who are serious, and who are reasonably intact psychologically, is to “do” the internet with hope and sincerity while not becoming completely misanthropic.
Characters on the Couch
Kids or no kids
Dear Gabriel
I’m in my 40s and divorced. I have two pre-teens. Recently I met a woman in her early 30s. She’s never been married. We’ve got pretty serious, I suppose. We both like the same things.
We met in a cycle club and we cycle marathons together. My ex-wife never liked things like that. We were planning to move in together in a month or two. Now, the thing is, right out of the blue the other night, she said that when we had our kids ... something or other. I didn’t even hear the rest. I mean what a shocker.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writing Romance - Five Tips
Many people think Romance writing is a bit like knitting. There’s a pattern to follow and, even if you’re a bit clumsy at first, you can knock off a finished product in a few afternoons while the kids are out playing.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writing Romance - Five More Tips
Good Romance relies on good characters. We need to believe in them. They should be strong and complex enough for us to identify with them.