Romance and the Language of Consent
I’m proud to write romance, so it’s no surprise that the #MeToo movement has prompted a lot of thoughts in me about the role of the romance genre in women’s lives.
Pin ItSexy Scenes: Open Door or Closed Door?
There’s no right or wrong answer for how to depict intimacy in our writing—only what’s right for our story. The “right” amount can depend on our genre, our characters, their situation, their emotional journey, and our target audience.
Pin ItDread Writing Sexy Scenes? 5 Tips for Success
Whatever genre we write, we often have to write scenes that make us uncomfortable. For many, sexy scenes are high on that discomfort scale.
Pin ItReconnecting with Our Passions: Storytelling
In my last post, we talked about struggling to write when suffering from burnout. Maintaining a connection with our passions can help us endure the problems of life, and remembering how and why we have passion for writing might help us recover from burnout.
Genre Reading: Is “Escapism” a Bad Thing?
Certain types of reading are sometimes valued more than others. One descriptive term that’s often used as a put-down for genre stories is escapism, but is romance or any other genre story really “escapism”? What does that mean? Is escapism a “bad” thing, and if so, why?
Pin It4 Ways to Add Depth to Our Stories — Guest: Kassandra Lamb
What makes a story *not* frivolous? If it’s gritty and dark? Has emotional depth? Or does it need to be “serious literature”? Can a story be light and yet weighty at the same time? Today, Kassandra Lamb shares her insights on how we can add meaning to our stories.
Pin ItWhat Does Your Genre’s Theme Promise to Readers?
Theme is one of those concepts that can be hard to understand, but by understanding themes, we’ll better satisfy our readers. In the recent debate about the romance genre’s requirement for a happy ending, the controversy comes down to themes, believe it or not. *smile*
Pin It5 Common Myths about Emotions — Guest: Kassandra Lamb
We all have emotions, so we all think we know how to write them. However, sometimes the best writing comes from exposing an emotional truth that we’re hiding from ourselves. So the better we understand emotions, the better our stories will resonate with our readers.
Pin ItWhy Is Our Journey So Hard?
One of the things I mentioned last time to soften the frustration we might feel for not reaching our goal yet is that life is a journey. There is no finish line. So if we’re constantly comparing where we are now with where we want to be for our goals or dreams and being frustrated about that gap, our life will feel lacking. Always.
Pin ItWhat 5 Years of Blogging Has Taught Me about Writing
People tend to like nice round numbers like 5s and 10s, so reaching the five-year point on my blog feels like a major milestone. That means now might be a good time to look back at what I’ve learned over those five years, and share what those lessons might tell us about the rest of our writing career.
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