Journey Through My Profession: Creativity by Me for Me
I had zero intentions of becoming a published author. My 2024 editor-author and coaching journeys changed my mind.
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Writing
Year-End Review 2024: An Honest Accounting
With 2024 coming to a close, it’s about that time for a brutally honest year-end review for my business.
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Happily Ever After or Happy For Now: Create Reader Satisfaction
Whether “ever after” or “for now,” queer romance readers need their happy ending. Here’s how to give it to them.
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Climax in Romance (No, Not That Kind)
Your romance’s climax is what the entire story has been leading up to. Make it worth your readers’ time in three ways.
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Acting Out the Dark Night
Apparently experiencing my own Dark Nights isn’t enough. As an author, I act out my characters’ lowest moments as well. Here’s how.
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Emotional Pain, or The Necessity of Rock Bottom
Character growth can’t happen without emotional pain and the rock bottom that comes with it. Here’s a few reasons it’s necessary to your queer romance.
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Transition Scenes: How to Connect the Dots
Readers need transition scenes to follow the cause and effect of a character’s decisions. Here’s a few tips on how to create them.
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Story Beats in Your Queer Romance
Story Beats in Your Queer Romance: When “Romancing the Beat” Isn’t Enough Despite being the top-selling genre, romance novels continue to catch a bad name. The word “formulaic” is bandied about as though every story ever written doesn’t follow a formula of one kind or another. Within romance, categories abound, especially
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Decision Points: Plantsing My Way Through My Story
I try to anticipate my characters’ decision points. Often I fail. Still, the process works for me. This blog covers why.
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Plot Points and Turning Points: Doorways to the Unknown
Plot points and turning points make up every major story structure. Here’s a few ways to use them in your queer romance story.
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Ignoring Structure: When to Toss the Blueprint
The strongest queer romance stories don’t just bend structure. They ignore it in a way that still keeps readers glued to the page.
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Structure Your Queer Romance Story
Story structure isn’t as intimidating as you might think. For queer romance especially, it’s crucial to have in your writing toolbox.
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Intimacy: How I Spice Up My Fiction
Emotional or physical, I strive to balance the intimacy levels to give my queer romance readers a well-rounded reading experience.
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Story Location is Everything: How I Picked the Perfect Setting
Story locations can be hard to find. Making sure I keep readers immersed internally and externally can be even harder.
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Character Arcs: Picking the Best One
Character arcs are all about change. Pick the arc that best shows the change you want readers to experience.
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Subgenre Conventions: Lean Into Them (Not Away)
Queer romance tropes exist to be used. Genre conventions exist to guide authors in their drafting and revising journey. Take advantage of them.
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Story Tropes and I: A Match Made in Queer Romance Heaven
I don’t see tropes at blinders to my writing. If anything, they give me a whole new set of tools with which to build my stories.
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Virtual Conference for Queer Romance Writers
A Queer Romance Writers Virtual Conference would provide an opportunity to connect genre authors across time zones to share and mingle with other publishing professionals.
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Book Review 2024: My Three Favorite Craft Books To Date
Book Review 2024: My Three Favorite Craft Books to Date Photo by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay My go-to platform for book reviews is Goodreads. It’s there that I can accomplish a few things. First, I set my annual Reading Challenge goal. This year, it’s 85 books; that will likely increase before
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Queer Romance Writing Courses and Writing Workshops
Queer Romance Writing Courses and Writing Workshops: How to Help Queer Romance Authors Succeed Photo by Pixabay on Pexels This week’s blog initially was going to focus on adapting romance writing courses and writing workshops to queer romance. I’d read Jennifer Probst’s Write Naked: A Bestseller’s Secrets to Writing Romance &
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Storyteller or Hobby Writer: A Mindset Shift
It wasn’t until I started to regularly read writing-craft books that I made the switch from queer romance hobby writer to storyteller. It takes some time, but here’s a few questions to ask as you transition between the two.
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Debut Author Writing Part-Time Yet Doing Full-Time Author Work
Debut Author Writing Part-Time Yet Doing Full-Time Author Work Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash I’m proud to be a full-time queer romance story coach and developmental editor. However, that means I don’t have much time to work on the manuscript that will earn me the title of Debut Author. Firstly,
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Being a Full-Time Author Isn’t Easy
Being a Full-Time Author Isn’t Easy (But It’s Not Impossible) Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash A full-time author isn’t the tortured soul penning out their tale in a barely lit basement with nothing but cobwebs for company. Being a career author, too, isn’t just taking your headphones and writing implements
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Self-Publishing Responsibilities of Queer Romance Authors
Self-publishing a queer romance novel looks easy. There’s actually a lot more work to it than you may believe. Queer romance authors should take their responsibilities for producing quality work.
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Self-Editing Tools for Part-time Queer Romance Authors
Self-Editing Tools for Part-time Queer Romance Authors Photo by Thirdman on Pexels Self-editing tools occasionally get a bad rap. However, as a skill, self-editing in itself is vital for queer romance writers to home. Done effectively, it can be labor-intensive. When you find out all that’s involved, not just the terms
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