Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
For more than a year I’ve been writing and story editing a dating adventure game called LongStory. At the start of the game, players select their avatar and gender, choosing whether they want to be referred to as “she”, “he” or “they”. We don’t write different dialogue or storylines for different player genders. LongStory is …
Continue reading “Writing Gender-Inclusive Romance”
Last year we ran a whole series of posts called Masterplots Theater from A to Z. Because we had some plots that started with the same letters, we had to cut several fantastic masterplots. ‘Forbidden Love’ was one of our unhappy victims as Heather wrote about the Fool Triumphant Masterplot instead. We did cover several …
Continue reading “Using the Forbidden Love Masterplot”
Welcome back to Masterplots Theater! Today we are exploring one of the most popular masterplots of all time: The Love Story. And even if you’re not writing a full-on romance, most stories have an amorous subplot which contains the same plot elements. So without further ado, let’s fall in love! Love Story Plot Notes: The …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: L is for Love Story”
Top Ten Tuesday is a list created by the book loving crew at The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday is a different topic and everyone is invited to join in the fun. So let’s do this! Everyone loves romance, even if you don’t specifically read romance novels. No matter what genre you prefer, there …
Continue reading “Top Ten Tuesday: 5 Pet Peeves + 5 Fab Fixes for Romance in Books”
I’ve written some sweet romances, but I found I prefer my romance a bit stronger. For whatever reason, I just happen to love writing about sex. Maybe because in real life I love it, too. Back in June, I wrote an initial piece about the romance genre. As recently as August, Sister Caryn considered why …
Continue reading “Romancing the Genre: That “Guilty Little Pleasure””
I was one year old when The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison) was released by Hollywood. I found it in my pre-teen years as a TV offering. Then and there, I fell in love with the idea of ghostly love. Which is kind of weird because we lived in a house …
Continue reading “In the Spirit of Halloween: Ghostly Love in Film and Books”
Caryn is down for a bit after some minor surgery. Today we’re running one of her best-loved posts on the trials of writing erotic fiction. We know you’ll love this post and Caryn will be back with us all in no time. When Fifty Shades of Grey crashed into the publishing world, everyone was aghast. On so …
Continue reading “Retro Caryn: Writing Erotic Romance”
I posted Tuesday about characteristics of bad boys in books and how to write believable ones. In doing research for that post, I gathered so much information, that I thought I’d share the leftovers here. Well, not really leftovers, actually, since this is new content, but the content is complementary to what I posted Tuesday. …
Continue reading “Writing “Bad Boys” in Romance”
Last week I wrote about the vitality that male crit partners bring to your writing process. I admitted to my prejudices, that I thought men were mostly into political thrillers, sports biographies, and the like, and hinted that I was shocked to discover how many men were avid readers of romance novels; and a significant …
Continue reading “Trashing Romance Novels: Why?”
I am co-authoring this post today with one of my alter egos, Angelica French. Angelica writes romances of varying degrees of heat. (I have another alter ego, River Glynn. River writes paranormal, science fiction, and fantasy.) The fourth Tuesday of each month I’ll post about issues in romance, writing romances, or provide general information like …
Continue reading “Romancing the Genre”