I had so much fun chatting to Elle Greco about writing the steamy bits of my stories. Check out this interview to learn:
whether or not I get embarrassed writing those steamy bits
my trick for using weather to set the mood
and how I make my steamy scenes work hard (ha!) for stories
Huge thank you to Elle for hosting me! Check out the podcast here.
At the beginning of 2020 I set myself some lofty goals. I know, I know…great year for it. However, as I write this blog post from the desk in my new apartment and I look over my word count spreadsheet, I have to admit that the wheels haven’t fallen off my year as much as it feels some days.
The biggest productivity goal I set this year was to see if I could write 500,000 words in a year. Yep, half a million words. It felt impossible. In fact, I had also set this goal for 2019 where I didn’t even come close.
But I wanted to try again.
I’ve come to realise that my motto is: let’s see what happens. I often go into things without expectation, only wanting to gather data to see if something is possible and (ideally) repeatable.
Okay, but it’s September.
Let me start off by saying I haven’t hit the half a million point yet. YET. What I have done is crack the biggest word count goal of my previous writing years (which was 400,000) with three full months to go. I could go tools down now for the rest of the year and still have had a massive year, so I feel confident sharing this data with you.
How many words do you write a day?
The assumption seems to be that writing so many words a year means HUGE word counts on a given day. That’s not the case for me.
Here’s a secret. I have the most boring superpower: epic consistency.
Let’s break it down. To write 500,000 words in a year you need 41,667 words per month. That’s 10,417 words a week (assuming a month has four weeks) and if you write on weekdays, that’s just 2084 words a day. I’m rounding up because one extra word never hurt anyone.
What happened in September?
For reference, I don’t work on weekends. In September 2020 this is what my stats looked like:
Goal: 41,667 words
Words written: 46,298
Days worked: 18 with 4 days off to move house
Of those 18 days, I had a 5,000 word day only once. I had plenty of days where I only wrote about 1,500 words, because I had boxes to pack and moving stuff to coordinate.
Aside from the move, this was a very average month.
My highest month so far has produced 61,236 words and my lowest has been 5,583 (a two week break, revisions and peak pandemic malaise chewed up all of July.) Most months have hit around the 45,000 mark.
What is my approach to writing?
I put my ass in the chair every day and I write. I know, least helpful piece of advice ever. I track my words in a spreadsheet every day and have done since 2014. This data really motivates me.
I almost always juggle multiple WIPs (usually writing 2 at a time and having a further 1-2 in varying editorial stages). I prefer a morning/afternoon split, doing words in the morning and either edits or more words on a second project in the afternoon. I tend to “exhaust” on a project around 3,000 words so having a second project revives me and allows me to get more done.
Essentially my approach is to write 5 days a week, with a goal of hitting 11k a week. I don’t worry about daily goals because some days I just need to think or tinker with a scene, so the weekly goal is the one I aim for.
Will this work for everyone?
No. Sorry to be blunt, but it won’t. That’s because NO APPROACH WORKS FOR EVERYONE. Loud enough for the people in the back? Okay.
Here’s who it could work for:
People who thrive on consistency, routine and momentum (and have a lifestyle that supports this)
Highly goal-oriented and/or data-driven people
People who are very focused and/or people who like juggling projects
It might not work for you if you find routine and consistency stifling to your creative process, or if you don’t have a lifestyle that supports it. This amount of data can also be intimidating/boring/uninspiring to some people. That’s cool, too.
I wanted to share this for the people who do like consistency and routine, to show that it’s possible to use that very underrated skill to your benefit.
Big word counts goals are just an accumulation of many smaller word counts.
I’m confident that this year I WILL hit 500k. For me it’s important because I have SO MANY books that I want to write. So many characters to bring to life and stories to serve, and writing is what I love doing.
NB. Honestly, during this pandemic consistency and routine make me feel safe. I tend to bury myself in work when I’m stressed, because it soothes me. I know this NOT the case for a lot of people. If you’re not that kind of person, please don’t beat yourself up. We all cope differently. But please also don’t criticize those of us who do rely on work to get us through the tough times.
I was going through line edits on a book recently and I had a really lovely comment from my editor which sparked the idea for this blog post. She said:
“I love how your heroines all have a distinct sense of style that reflects who they are.”
It got me thinking. Style is a huge part of my character development.
Perhaps this is because style is important to me, personally. It’s always been a way that I have expressed myself.
Writing a distinct character wardrobe is a great way to enhance your character on the page. The way they dress is reflection of how they see themselves or perhaps how they want others to see them. It can represent their values, aspirations, fears, desires and more.
It can also be used to contrast characters against one another.
McKenna from Trouble Next Door is a makeup-artist and isn’t afraid to fly her glittery flag, even when others don’t appreciate it. Her makeup is described often in this book because it’s something she really cares about and is a reflection of the passion for her chosen career.
Her eye makeup had been on point—a smoky dark sapphire blue with glitter and the most kick-butt set of false lashes ever—but by the time she’d come home she looked like Britney Spears circa 2007. Total hot-mess meltdown. And to think she’d worn blue because she knew Gage loved it and then he’d gone and tossed it back in her face by saying he wanted a classy, elegant woman on his arm.
As if she was trash because she liked shiny things.
I love reflecting a diversity of style in my characters—from Drew (The Fling) who’s “goth-adjacent” and her twin sister Presley (The Rebound) who dresses almost exclusively in vintage-inspired pastels. Annie (Bad Reputation) wears very typical office-type outfits and dresses to blend into the crowd, a reflection of what’s going on in her life with the Bad Bachelor app.
This is totally something Presley would wear!
This is an excerpt from a current work-in-progress, where wardrobe plays a huge role in us learning about what’s important to this character and what she wants out of life:
In an effort to combat her bad mood, Sloane rifled through her wardrobe for the brightest, most cheerful dress she could find. Her wardrobe resembled a box of crayons, with items of every color meticulously hung in ROYGBIV order. Sure, she wore “normal” things like jeans and T-shirts, but even those were infused with her unique sense of style. She collected vintage T-shirts featuring anything Jurassic Park, she followed the Raptors NBA team and wore their merch because they were the only team with a dinosaur as their namesake and she even had a tattoo saying “clever girl” on the top of her thigh.
Dino obsessed? Maybe a little. One guy she’d dated for a hot second had thought it was weird, but Sloane knew a thing or two about making people remember her.
And being remembered was important to Sloane.
But what about heroes?
This technique absolutely can apply to characters of any gender. The hero in Hard Deal, Caleb, has a wild collection of colourful socks which he wears to the office each day, and they suit him for more than one reason.
“I’m supposed to take language advice from a guy who wears novelty socks?” Imogen shook her head. “How am I supposed to take you seriously when you wear tacos on your feet?”
He pulled up the leg of his designer suit pants to reveal a bright red sock with a T. Rex print. The socks were his “thing.” Plus, they had the added benefit of pissing off his father. The old man had strict requirements for his sons’ appearances. Even on “casual days,” where the whole damn company could wear denim, Caleb and Jason were supposed to suit up like penguins. So the funky socks were his way of giving the middle finger. And frankly, they were a talking point. A conversation starter. And Caleb liked talking to people.
Is every character going to have a crazy, out-there wardrobe? No. But simple things such as colour selection, the items that make them feel their best, how they view what they wear (whether it’s conscious or not) can really bring your character to life on the page and make them feel even more 3d and real to your reader.
Backstory is something that can trip up a lot of new writers. Any advice you read on the topic will often have some incarnation of the following:
DO NOT INFODUMP
Avoid backstory in the first chapter
Don’t tell us the character’s life history
As a result many writers go too far in the other direction, where the reader knows nothing about the main character’s past or what led them to this point. This causes a few problems. For starters, it can make your character’s actions feel unmotivated or confusing. It can also make characters seem unsympathetic, especially if they have a big arc over the course of the story.
There’s a balance to be found. Too much backstory can bog down a story, but too little leaves the reader struggling to connect with the character. So how do you navigate the tricky water of character backstory? Let’s start at the beginning.
What is backstory? And what’s the purpose of it in storytelling?
Backstory is information, key events and important milestones in your characters life that happen BEFORE the story starts. It helps the reader build empathy for your character, it shapes the way your characters act and forms the basis of why they behave the way they do. Without it, your characters actions and decisions may feel hollow, contrived or unmotivated.
For example: my hero in Her Aussie Holiday has been lied to about some pretty important things in his past, including his partner having an affair with her best friend who she thought of “like a brother.” As such, he never takes people at face value. This causes him to build surface-level relationships and it takes him a long time to trust others.
Without knowing about his past the reader might think he was simply a shallow person.
What’s wrong with an infodump? Doesn’t this get the reader up to speed quickly?
In a word…it’s boring. Slabs of text talking about the past doesn’t move the story forward, and your reader wants to know what’s happening NOW. Too much backstory can affect the pace of your story and cause the reader to lose interest.
How should I use backstory?
I like to think of the story as the main meal and backstory as the seasoning. The story is the most important part, it’s why your readers picked up your book. Backstory enhances your characters and makes them more complex and 3D. But it’s important to remember that too much seasoning will ruin any dish.
There are a few things to consider when writing backstory:
1. Backstory doesn’t need to happen up front. You can sprinkle it through so the character is revealed and deepened as the story progresses. This is a great way to share the information that might have compiled your infodump in a way that doesn’t slow the pace of your book.
2. The reader is smart, you don’t need to beat them over the head with the same piece of information over and over. If you mention that the heroine had a bad relationship with her father you don’t need to repeat the exact same piece of information two chapters later, but you can build on it by providing more detail specifically where it relates to the story or a decision your characters has to make.
3. The reader doesn’t need to know everything. I often think a lot about my characters—what type of school did they go to? What grades did they get? How do they get along with their family? Do they have a pet? What were the important milestones in their life? How do they like to dress? What do they read? Not all of this information will make it into the story, but I like to know everything about a characters past because it helps me to write them more authentically. Sometimes backstory is something that will stay in your head or in your planning document. Only put the information into the story that needs to be there.
What about backstory and secondary characters?
It depends on the book. If you want to set up a secondary character to be the hero or heroine in a subsequent book you don’t necessary need to put their backstory into the current book – save it for their book! But you can absolute drop a little hint in about their past. Keep it mysterious so the reader will be curious about their story.
Remember, the plot and your characters are the main dish. Backstory is your salt and pepper. Everybody likes their seasoning a little different, so you may like more or less than the next writer. But don’t serve your readers a totally unseasoned dish.
Have you ever read one of those books where you felt as though you were being propelled through the story, unable to stop reading even if your eyes were drooping and the clock was telling you you’d be sorry in the morning?
There are a lot of ways that a writer can achieve this sense of urgency for the reader. Today I’m going to talk about ending your chapters with hooks. I once got a very useful piece of information from Valerie Parv (aka Australian romance royalty). She said:
If you end a chapter with a character going to sleep, chances are the reader will too.
The end of the chapter should compel the reader to keep reading. I liken it to the technique they use on shows like MasterChef. Just as they’re about to lift the lid on the Mystery Box or announce the winner of a challenge, the show cuts to an ad break. If they’d shown you what treasures were concealed inside the ad box and then cut to a break, viewers might be inclined to change the channel.
You can use this technique in your story to keep the reader engaged from one chapter to the next. Here are some do’s and don’ts for chapter endings:
Do
Introduce new information right before the chapter ends that will hook the reader into wanting to find out more.
Throw your character’s lives into chaos so your reader is left wondering what will happen to them.
Pose a problem that your characters need to solve in the next chapter.
Have your characters make a decision that they need to take action on in the next chapter.
End the chapter a little earlier than you think you need to – you don’t have to show the characters putting the dishes in the sink if they’ve just had dinner. Stop the chapter while the action is still fresh.
Don’t
Tie everything up in a neat little bow at the end of a chapter (unless, of course, it’s the last chapter of the book)
Send your characters off to bed…unless they don’t plan on sleeping ;)
Have your characters reflecting on what happened or giving the reader a play-by-play recap. Let the chapter end when the action ends.
Feel like you need to end every single chapter on a big hook, use this technique to vary your chapter endings and add drama – but if you do it too often the reader will catch onto your writerly tricks.
When looking at the do’s you can use one of these types of hooks or combine multiple types. How about an example? Here’s a snippet from A Merry Aussie Christmas. Evie is doing her best to act unaffected, but Jasper sees right through it.
He didn’t miss for a second the way her gaze dropped to his mouth and flicked back up again, her pupils widening ever so slightly. Details. He loved them, loved them especially when it came to her. She rubbed her lips together, the little flecks of shimmer in her gloss catching the light. Her hands clenched and unclenched against the leather couch.
“You don’t look like you want to talk,” he said, reaching out and touching the feather dangling from her ear. It was soft and feminine and brightly wild, just like Evie.
“Don’t I?” Her nostrils flared. She was trying so hard to hang onto her shield, to her wall. “What does it look like I want?”
That was a loaded question. A dangerous question.
He shouldn’t be tempting himself with what he’d never be able to have. But she was the one who’d turned up on his doorstep with those big eyes and that pouty mouth and that tough outer shell that hid all manner of treasures beneath it.
How could he not be tempted?
Screw it. For once in his damn life he deserved to go after what he wanted instead of denying himself with all the reasons it wouldn’t work. Maybe if he’d had the courage to ask Evie out all those years ago his life might have worked out very differently.
“Like you want to kiss me,” he said.
At this point the chapter stops and I’ve done a few things:
1. Left the chapter hanging on the biggest romance question of all “will they or won’t they?” Readers will want a peek at the next chapter to see if they get a kiss or not.
2. Show character development. “For once in his damn life he deserved to go after what he wanted instead of denying himself with all the reasons it wouldn’t work.” This sentence shows how in the past Jasper might have retreated, but now he doesn’t want to because he’s changing as a person.
3. Put the characters in a position where they need to make a decision. This means that the next chapter will open with something active (e.g. Evie has to decide whether or not to rise to Jasper’s challenge), rather than passive. Active chapters where characters need to make a decision are more compelling than scenes where they’re passengers.
Remember, hooks can be added in later. Some may come naturally, but I often write my stories without worrying about chapter endings. If the story is flowing, I don’t like to let my internal editor have too much control at that point. You can definitely go through your manuscript during revisions and look at the end of each chapter to see how you can make it better.
Confession time: I’ve been in a reading slump for more than six months. Possibly a year. In that time, I’ve read way less than my normal amount of books. Reading has felt like…a chore. I found myself playing on my phone on the subway, instead of reading. I was letting books gather dust on my nightstand and on my shelves.
But I’ve managed to complete turn that around in the last few weeks and I thought other readers might find this interesting, so I’m sharing my tips.
First I had to figure out WHY reading wasn’t happening the way it used to. I’ve been a reader my whole life. I was that kid who asked for more sheets for the school read-a-thon. I loved getting sent to my room, because that’s where my books were (and my dad never had the heart to take them away as a form of punishment.)
The issue came down to three key things:
Reading had started to feel like work
I had new hobbies that I found more relaxing (as a result of point #1)
These new hobbies that take up more time
So, the solution was two fold: make time for reading and make reading fun again. This meant forming some new habits, looking at my schedule to see where I could fit reading in, and changing the way I chose what to read next.
These are the changes I made.
1. Allowing myself to read whatever I want.
I’ve done A LOT of reading for work: reading books received at publishing events, reading for blurb quotes, reading and judging competition entries, critiques, mentoring, market research, career analysis, reading challenges…you name it.
So, for the next six months I’m taking a break from most of that and just reading whatever I want. If I want reading to start feeling like relaxation again, I need to loosen the connection between it and my work. I also am the kind of person who NEEDS variety in what they read, as much of the above has meant extensive reading in one genre, which is not normally how I read.
2. Making time for reading.
Historically, I’ve always read at night. These days I enjoy staying up to watch sport (baseball and basketball primarily) and this has cut into my reading time. But I discovered that I actually love reading in the mornings…so that’s how I start my day now. I’m less distracted and I feel like it fills the well for a day of writing. Bonus!
3. Removing low-value distractions.
I travel on the subway a fair bit, since I don’t own a car and I live in a city with great transport (Torontonians might argue this point, to which I say “go live in Australia for a year and then tell me how you feel about the subway.”) And I’ve spent a lot of time on the subway screwing around on my phone. A while ago I deleted most of my game apps, after reading Digital Minimalism, but a few have since crept back. Subway time is now reading time.
4. Using a habit tracker.
I’m really enjoying the app Habit and it’s been a big helping in getting my motivation up to read. I set a goal of reading for 30 minutes a day and I’m that list-keeping Type-A person who loves checking off a goal, so this works for me. You can also use this app to send reminders.
The combination of these four activities has lead to me finishing two books in the past week and having more days with reading in the past month than in the three before it. I’m excited to reach for my book of choice, and it feels so good to love reading again!
This question has pops up at regular intervals, especially when I’m talking with non-writers about what I do. The TLDR answer is: nope. I don’t have any formal qualifications in writing, literature, publishing or anything like that.
But the more accurate answer is…I’ve done a lot of things that have really prepared me for a career in writing. And, I actually did enroll in a certificate of creative writing at once point. But I dropped out after one two classes. It’s the only time I’ve ever dropped out of any educational activity in my whole life.
It became VERY clear to me in only two classes that as a romance author I wouldn’t be welcome or encouraged. The teacher made some disparaging remarks about the genre (and an author they had in to talk about the genre in previous years) in the first class which made me really uncomfortable. At that stage I already had a request from Harlequin and when I thought about it, I wasn’t sure how a teacher with such a closed mind would help me to be more creative. So I quit.
Looking back on it all these years later, I’m glad I didn’t waste my money.
I have a Bachelor of Business from La Trobe University in Melbourne, with a major in Human Resources. My degree is made up of regular business subjects and a bunch of english lit electives. Do I think the English subjects helped me get published or become a better writer? No, not really. But did I enjoy taking them? Heck yeah.
One thing that’s great about the writing community is how different our backgrounds are. I know former teachers, lawyers, artists, police officers, medical professionals, journalists and more. Writing draws on the wealth of your experience, regardless of what it includes.
I did a lot of writing in my former careers. Company newsletters, recruitment advertising, policy, training manuals. executive communications, speeches, presentations, corporate blog posts. All of this helped me to learn how to communicate a message clearly, which is something that is required in both nonfiction and fiction.
Working in a high-performing team in one of Australia’s biggest banks also taught me some other important skills: how to manage my time for high output, how to manage stress and deadlines, how to work with lots of different personality types, how to communicate to a wide array of people.
None of these skills are necessarily things you would be taught in a creative writing class, but they’ve helped me immensely.
Other than a love for story…no, I really don’t.
There are certainly things that will help, such as:
A strong grasp of grammar, punctuation and the language you want to write in. If you don’t have this already, then have a willingness to learn and improve.
A thick skin (aka my eternal work in progress).
A willingness to be critical and complimentary of your own work. You need to see the flaws, but if that’s all you see you’ll never put anything out.
Determination.
Again, these aren’t things you’re going to learn in a general creative writing course. That’s not to say that a course won’t help, because for some people they might be immensely inspiring. If that’s you, then go for it! For romance writers, I often recommend starting with a course that’s specific to the genre, because then you know it will be a welcoming environment.
But you don’t need a piece of paper that “qualifies” you to write stories. Put words on the page, be committed to improving your craft through whatever means you have available to you and dust yourself off when you get knocked down. That’s it.
Now go write.
