10 Things No One Told Me About Writing Romance

My romance writing journey started out in the world of fanfic. I’ve always been into romance novels, ever since I was a teenager and stumbled onto the “gothic horror romance” that was V.C. Andrews. And boy were they right about the horror part. YIKES.

Anywho, almost two years ago now I got into that mobile story app called Choices. It sucked me in, I joined a book club, joined Tumblr and the rest is history. I never actually considered writing my own stories or books until I was having one of my existential crises and wondering what I wanted to be when I grew up, so I of course turned to Google. A couple of career aptitude tests later, and the answer was so obvious I couldn’t believe I hadn’t ever seen it before.

A writer.

After that, I decided what the hell? Let’s do this thing!

The thing is… I had never written anything more than blog posts or non-fiction articles or essays in school. I still don’t know the exact sentence structure stuff about how many verbs or adverbs or nouns or anything you need in a sentence. For me, writing has just come pretty naturally.

BUT… there’s a lot more to writing (and marketing!) a book than I ever realized. So, here’s what no one told me before I started and what I wish I’d known going in:

1. Writing sex scenes is crazy hard. (See my blog post here.)

2. There will be days where you want to tell the story, but can’t find the words to do it.

3. Some people may hate the stuff what makes your characters who they are. Those people can go fuck themselves.

4. Writing formally (like in essay form or for school stuff) is WAY different than writing romance. Conversations should sound natural which means using words like “I’m” instead of “I am” or “won’t” instead of “will not.”

5. You’ll spend more time searching for stock photos that fit your marketing and social media needs than anything else—including writing the book. (WHY IS THIS SO HARD?).

6. It’s impossible to do everything you need to write, edit, design, and market your book on your own. You don’t necessarily need to hire help, but making friends you can trade services with or leaning new skills yourself will be necessary to your success.

7. Plan all your books to be part of a series. Unless you’re a super well-known author, standalone non-series books don’t make much money and aren’t really worth the time to advertise them, at least not in the romance genre.

8. You can write in past or present tense, first or third person. But you should always write in dual points of view (POV). Personally, I can’t stand third person, single POV books. Fun fact: Finding Zen was originally written in third person and I hated it so much I had to go back and re-write the whole thing. If you’re going to write a story, though, write it how you like to read or in the way that feels best to tell the story.

9. Once you start writing your first book, a zillion other ideas will pop into your head for spin offs and characters that need their own books. Write that shit down and keep it in a Google Doc you can add to whenever you need to.

10. This shit is addictive! Writing one book quickly turned into two, three, four… you get the picture. I don’t ever want to stop!

There you have it! There are tons more I could go into detail-wise, but suffice it to say I’m addicted to romance (writing AND reading!) Who are your favorite romance authors? Have you ever thought about giving writing a go? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Let's Talk About S-E-X... Scenes

I was an avid romance reader long before I decided to try my hand at writing. I’m also slightly obsessed with Hallmark Christmas movies when that time of the year rolls around. And what’s the difference between contemporary romance and those sweet Hallmark vids?

Sex.

Graphic, hot, and awkward as fuck to write sex.

When I decided to write Zen, I knew it had to have sex scenes in it. I don’t write erotica, but to me, adult relationships include sex. They just do. And I’m not one to tiptoe around stuff like that. It’s why I don’t read sweet romance ever. Hallmark movies are as close as I get.

So, how do I write mine?

You know when you see something awkward or scary and you cover your eyes with your fingers but then part them slightly to look through because you can’t not look? That’s pretty much how I write my sex scenes. I’m being super voyeuristic by peeping in on someone else’s sex life, even if they’re people I invent so I try to shove that down and get through it as quickly as humanly possible.

Typically the first version of my scenes is horrifically robotic or repetitive. How many times can you say the words dick, cock, or pussy in one scene? I first try to think about the location I want it to happen in and then I go from there. Places like the bathroom in an airplane, the back of a car, the kitchen floor… whatever fits the couple.

Then I write the first version of the scene out as fast as I can to just get it all out there. Then, I cringe suuuuuper hard as I go back and read through and make sure I don’t accidentally throw in any words that make me shudder (like folds…. blech). Once that’s done, I add in the flowery stuff. The emotion, the chills down the spine, the electric sparks. Stuff like that.

Finally, I end up with something passable, generally speaking. I don’t know if there will ever be a day when sex scenes are my strength, but I like the challenge of them.

Fun fact: In Maddox’s book, I wrote all four sex scenes in one day because I wanted to get them out of the way.

Typically, I’m a linear writer which means I write from the beginning of the story to the end in order. Doing Maddox and Ryan’s scenes that way threw off my whole process so in Jericho I’m going back to my uncomfy roots and just nailing (HA) the scenes as they come (HAHA).

Soooo… there you have it. All things sex in a nice unsexy way. Are there any words that make you cringe when you read them (moist, anyone?)? Leave me a comment and let me know!