Make A Living Writing Romance

Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.

- Barbara Kingsolver

Your heroine is sorting through her grandma’s belongings in an attic. She finds a large pink hatbox. She opens it. What does she find?

Time:10-20 minutes

Your ability to bring unique and accurate descriptions to people, places and things in your story will help bring your readers in. They’ll be able to see and visualize exactly what you visualized when you wrote the story. And as you know, that’s the power of good writing. Making a story feel so real, people feel as if they’re there or are experiencing it themselves.

Use this exercise to practice description without risk. All you need are ten to thirty minutes to complete this exercise. You’ll learn some amazing things about your writing skills. Trust me, this is fun.

Step #1 Choose the most boring object in your field of vision. If you can’t find anything, write about a water bottle.

Step #2 Now describe that boring object in detail. Make it come alive. Help your reader see exactly what you see. Use both figurative and literal language to describe it.

Dig deep. Try to write 500 words about this single object.

Have fun!

Being a romance writer, or aspiring to be a romance writer, is a tough job!

Writers, and I assume many artists, struggle with fantasies of perfection. We read a novel by our favorite author and then hold ourselves to that standard. That’s ridiculous!

Published authors have many advantages the yet to be published do not:

They have editors!

They may have a few books under their belt and know exactly what their publisher and their audience responds to.

They may also have a story board or template their publisher has given them to write. That means they don’t have to struggle with plot or characterization – the publisher has already given them a point by point outline of what HAS to happen. They just have to fill in the blanks. (Note: I’m not saying this is easy for authors to do, perhaps it’s more difficult. What I am saying is that the plot is already established and if a writer struggles with plot this can remove some of the challenges.)

The wonderful Anne Lamott is noted for her belief in a shitty first draft. I love this concept. It’s so freeing. It gives you the ability to just write and to not worry about perfection.

Trust that some days are going to be good writing days and some are not. You’re not a machine, you’re a human being and with that comes the ebb and flow of inspiration, focus and skill.

Be willing to learn and improve. This simple adjustment to your mindset, adopting a desire to learn and improve, will make you a better writer. It’ll also lessen the stress and pressure you put on yourself to be perfect. Perfection doesn’t exist and that’s a good thing. If it did, there’d be nowhere to go from here. And the desire to improve is a good thing!

Enjoy writing, do your best, and relish the process! You’re a writer and that’s a fantastic thing!