Girl on girl hate has become a ubiquitous theme in romantic comedies, novels, television shows and nearly anything catering to the pre-teen, thus creating a never ending cycle of vicious gossip, bullying and tormenting. Modern romance fights that tide.
I cannot say I’ve ever read a romance novel where the heroine sat around twiddling her thumbs waiting for a two-dimensional character with no name, (looking you, Prince Charming... ) to give her a new life.
Whether there are only seven stories to honestly be told or a vast amount more, the reality is that when you—or any other author—puts those stories to the page, it is the very first time they have been done that way.
It is also important to find a healthy, sustainable balance between the business and creative sides of your work, or you can find yourself wasting a lot of precious time on to-do items with low ROI.
From the outside, writing doesn’t look too hard. After all, I spent eight to ten hours a day on my computer, doing the thing I love most in the world. What could be difficult about that? I get to research unique and interesting things, and tell the stories that I want to tell. It’s the dream job.
And it is the dream job, but it’s sure as hell not an easy one.
Why aren’t these books marketed as romance novels and why do so many stories have love-story plots or subplots but scoff at the ones that do so intentionally?
If you do find yourself in the midst of more than one long-term project at a time, here are a few tips and tricks for keeping all the books in the air.
Just because the writer, reader and general populous know how the book is going to end doesn’t mean it’s not a book worth reading – or writing. In fact, I have discovered that writing the books with a required ending is more challenging than writing ones without.
The Annual Romance Writers of America Conference makes up for a year of lonely workdays in a single week. I’ve been home from the conference for a few days now and I can officially look back and discuss some of the themes, trends, and moods that I witnessed this year and what excites me most about being part of the romance writers community.
But the one thing that a book must have to count as a romance novel at all is either a Happily Ever After or Happily For Now. The reader goes into the story knowing that everything is going to turn out all right in the end, better than all right, no matter how dire the circumstances may seem.
Holland Rae, Writer 