Columns: Tag – Writing Course
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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.
Writing Quips and Tips
Romance – Why People Read It
People write romance for all kinds of reasons. But if you’re considering starting your first love story, it’s a good idea to know why people read them.
Writing Quips and Tips
Romance - Why Write It
If you think Romance is a lesser form of fiction, go off immediately and read Pride and Prejudice.
There are many kinds of genre fiction, but nobody accuses Ian Rankin or Ruth Rendell of being lesser writers – simply because they write Crime. Genre fiction has certain expectations and constraints. But what else you do with it is up to you – and your talent.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writing a novel – how to keep going
No first draft was ever perfect. Most novels need rewriting and extensive editing. But if you never finish writing, it, there’ll be nothing to work on. Writing four published novels, I’ve learnt one or two things about how hard it is – and how to make it easier on yourself.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writer’s Block - Managing those pesky writer’s blues
I don’t believe in writer’s block.
Every day I ever sat down to write, I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. I always sit down sweaty-palmed, wondering if I’ll be able to get a word on paper.
That’s why I believe writer’s block is another way of saying “fear”. And it’s just another excuse for not pushing through it.
Writing Quips and Tips
Characters and how to lift them beyond the cardboard cut out
A friend of mine is a fine writer, whose first book was a great success.
His characters were beautifully drawn and tugged us into a poignant memoir. But he had always longed to write a novel. I couldn’t wait to see it.
When he showed me a draft, I couldn’t believe it. The characters were cardboard stereotypes.
Writing Quips and Tips
Dialogue is real speech but better
Everyone recognises good dialogue when they see it. But few people can write it. So here’s a quick guide to really good dialogue:
Writing Quips and Tips
Short stories by course participants
Two of our Preparation for Romance Course participants have written short stories, which are being featured on the allaboutlove site.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writing dynamic dialogue
You’ve written a really crucial dialogue that will end your characters’ marriage. It should be dramatic and poignant, but instead it seems flat, unreal or, worst of all, dreary.
What’s wrong with it? It will change your characters’ lives. Why doesn’t it affect the lives of your readers?
Here are a couple of quick hints that will lift a plain or dreary dialogue and give it dynamism:
Writing Quips and Tips
Show, Don’t Tell and how to use detail effectively
His desk was bare, but for a human skull, with a cigar clamped firmly between its grinning teeth.
Immediately, we know a huge amount about this person, without anything having to be explained.
By now, the concept of “showing” rather than “telling” is pretty much accepted. But in numerous writing workshops, it’s become clear that people may accept the concept, but they’re often unsure how to to put it into practice.
Writing Quips and Tips
Book research is like make up
Research is like good make-up. It should make you look better, without drawing attention to itself.
As a writer, you have to do far more research than you’ll every use in your book. But once you’ve done it, you’re tempted to show it off. Resist the temptation.
Writing Quips and Tips
Romance, Lesbian vs Straight
Both straight and gay Romance writing is about love. Both involve the intensity that we long for in our humdrum lives. They make us believe – that great love is possible, and that Romance is alive and well.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writing Sex and how it can change your life
Every scene, even a sex scene, should take the story forward and develop your characters. Before your characters have sex, ask yourself why. Sound familiar? Probably because it sounds like your mother: “Before you leap into bed, dear, ask yourself why on earth ...”
Watch a novel grow
Why wash my dirty words in public?
I’ve explained why I want to write the novel. That’s clear enough. But what about this running description of the trials, tribulations and (I hope) triumphs of the process of writing it? Why expose myself to the cruel taunts of an army of critics out there—that’s you, dear blog reader? Why commit myself to a very public parading of what is under normal circumstances a very private process? (There can be nothing more private, after all, than the intimate conversations you have with your characters, and the even more intimate conversations you have with yourself about your characters.)
Writing Quips and Tips
Tongue in cheek
Every now and again, someone comes along thinking they can knock off a romance or two and make a fortune from Mills & Boon. They begin with tongue firmly wedged in cheek and write … usually extremely ghastly stories that no-one in their right minds would publish.
The first rule in writing romance is to respect our readers.
Writing Quips and Tips
Why read romance?
Romance readers are passionate, not just about love, but about the books they choose.
And this isn’t because they can’t find any other books. Romance readers are loyal to their genre, and specifically choose to read these books above all others.
If you’re about to embark on writing your first love story, it’s a good idea to know why people read them.
Writing Quips and Tips
Characters - beyond the cardboard cut-out
A friend of mine is a fine writer, whose first book was a great success.
His characters were beautifully drawn and tugged us into a poignant memoir. But he had always longed to write a novel. I couldn’t wait to see it.
When he showed me a draft, I couldn’t believe it. The characters were cardboard stereotypes.
“But where are the kind of characters you had in your first book?” I asked.
“But that was non-fiction. This is a novel. I have to make them up.”
But you see, you don’t. You can, but you don’t have to. If you work from real life, think of a real character and … lie. Change them to suit your story.
Writing Quips and Tips
How fear shuts us down
Why do we feel that, if we’re successful at writing, it ought to flow all the time? It won’t, you know.
Last week I wrote about writers’ block and how it is experienced by different writers. I’ve been thinking about it since and thought it worth another word or two.
People pounce on the word “blocked” to explain the unexplainable: the inability to continue writing. Part of the fear associated with it comes from the mysterious nature of writing.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writing Sex (and how it can change your life)
7am – 1pm: Sex
2pm: Emails and admin.There’ve been a number of days when my diary has looked like this. Let nobody tell you writers don’t have a tough life.
If some future archaeologist excavates my diaries, he’ll write: “The ancients were an insatiable people …”