Author: Carrie Padgett

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Knowing (and Meeting) Reader Expectations

All fiction readers come to their chosen stories with certain expectations.

A mystery reader expects a puzzle to solve.

A thriller or suspense reader anticipates tension and excitement and an explosive ending.

Fans of literary novels expect to get lost in world building, beautiful prose, and lovely descriptions.

Romance readers expect:

  • Well-drawn characters
  • On-the-page chemistry between the hero and heroine
  • Compelling reasons that keep the two apart until they wake up and realize they’re perfect together, leading to a
  • Satisfying resolution and a
  • Happy Ever After ending. Or at least a Happy For Now ending

Characters need to be compelling and feel like people we could be friends with in real life. They should have story goals that are known to the reader close to the beginning.

Give them a quirky trait to seal them as true-to-life characters. In The Princess Bride, Farm Boy Westley responds to Buttercup’s every demand with, “As you wish.” Darcy’s pride covers his growing feelings for Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.

Hero and heroine both need to grow during the story, overcome obstacles and learn something about themselves that helps propel them to the end of the story.

The recent release, Here With Me, by Mandy Boerma with Tari Faris and Susan May Warren, is a second chance romance. Both Sadie and David contributed to their break-up ten years ago. To get to their Happy Ever After, both characters must learn to overcome their weaknesses—David to communicate more clearly and Sadie to trust and accept help. David has a failure along the way, but he learns from it and becomes more determined to win Sadie, no matter how long it takes. Sadie feels betrayed and let down and it reinforces her resolve to handle everything alone. David’s persistence and care helps her learn that God can be trusted, and she should accept help when she needs it.

There are various kinds of chemistry romance characters experience. There’s instant attraction, the slow burn (Enemies to Friends, for instance), or awakening interest (Friends to Something More).

To keep readers turning the page, the story needs to have tension. Tension is not the same as conflict. An argument is conflict. So are competing goals. The best tension comes from something unexpected or unknown happening.

You create this by using things such as:

  • Subtext in dialogue
  • Weather or other external forces
  • A ticking clock (often used in suspense and thrillers but can also be put to effective use in romance. Maybe the heroine has to raise a loan payment and is running out of time. Perhaps the hero has to get a job or apartment to prove to the court he’s a worthy guardian)
  • Failure or the fear of failure

Other elements romance readers expect:

  • Witty dialogue/banter, especially with humor
  • The hero and heroine sharing lots of time on the page together
  • A unique setting. Rural town, mountain village, coastal settlement, or neighborhood in an urban area are often used.
  • Romantic gestures, large or small. Remembering she loves peanut butter cookies and bringing some to her at work. Or getting the whole community to support the unveiling of her big project in the town square.

Of course, the best characters need a compelling storyline and plot. They need shared goals as well as individual goals. They need conflict with competing goals. And it all needs to culminate in a satisfying resolution.

With all these elements, your readers’ expectations will be met with a heartwarming, compelling story and they’ll close the book with a contented sigh, satisfied.

The best reward for a romance writer.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Romancing Your Story

A Trope with a Twist

Readers, particularly romance readers, love stories that feel familiar—shorthand for they use tropes—but also seem new and bring a surprise. As writers, how do we craft novels that deliver on all counts?

There are several strategies to writing fresh stories that still feel as comfortable as a warm sweater on a cold day. Let’s look at just a few:

Twist a Common Trope

Enemies to Lovers is a popular trope that can have several variations. The hero and heroine can dislike each other for their personal points of view, such as in Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have different worldviews and values which lead them to disagree about virtually everything. Or the protagonists can actually be friendly personally, but enemies professionally, such as in Mr. and Mrs. Smith who are in “love” but also rival assassins. Or in Two Weeks Notice, Sandra Bullock’s and Hugh Grant’s characters were different both personally and professionally but finally realized their differences attracted them to each other and made them compatible.

Combine Tropes

Another Sandra Bullock movie, The Proposal, combined Enemies to Lovers and Fake Relationship, with a dash of Forced Proximity. Ryan Reynolds (along with all of Bullock’s other employees) hated her because she was rigid, mean, and cold. She needed a fiancé to avoid deportation. He agreed to her proposal to pretend to be in a relationship because of what she could do for him professionally. One element of that movie I appreciated was the change in Bullock’s appearance. As she grew to care for Reynolds and his family, she softened. She let her hair down (literally), and she dressed more casually.

Another great combination, Forbidden Love (Romeo and Juliet) plus Forced Proximity (Green Card) guarantees sparks on the page.

Unfamiliar Settings

Sticking with Sandra Bullock (and why not?), let’s talk about The Lost City. Set on a tropical island, both Bullock’s and Channing Tatum’s characters are out of their elements and forced to work together to escape the crazed billionaire who’s kidnapped Bullock’s romance novelist character. There’s also a Forced Proximity combination with Loretta (Bullock) and Alan (Tatum) on the run together.

No matter the tropes you choose to combine, there are some things to keep in mind:

  • Characters. They should always have great backstories and motivations that work with the trope. For a Second Chance story, both protagonists will have shared memories with emotional layers. Use those emotions to help your reader connect with the characters.
  • Conflict and Resolution. The conflict should be genuine, not something that could be resolved with a discussion. It needs to stem from who the characters are and what they believe. The resolution should be a result of growth and lessons learned.

With the many, many romance tropes available to writers, the combinations for something new and fun yet familiar are nearly endless. To paraphrase a current credit card commercial, “What’s in your Trope Wallet?”

Pull it out and put it to work.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Romancing Your Story

To Thine Own Self Be True

  • Plotter or Pantser? Or Plottser?
  • Outline or just start writing?
  • Index cards or story map?
  • The Hero’s Journey or Save the Cat?
  • Three Act Structure or Four?
  • The Emotion Thesaurus or 1,000 Character Reactions?
  • Scrivener or Word? Or Google Docs?
  • Tropes or archetypes?

There are nearly as many methods, resources, and ideas about writing romance as there are romance novels. New writers are often overwhelmed by the vast—and sometimes conflicting—teaching they hear.

Friend, I see you. I am you.

In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon wrote, “the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.” In other words, there is always a new and shiny technique guaranteed to make writing your novel easier.

But does it really?

Thinking about a story, outlining a story, plotting a story is not the same as writing the story. No matter the method or process, writing a novel requires BIC (Bottom in Chair) time. And fingers on the keyboard, typing.

Writing is what makes us writers, not the number of craft books on our shelves.

Joanna Trollope said, “I have more books than I’ll ever read, and I keep buying more books. It’s the one addiction I have.”

I have bought (and then given away) enough how-to books for a writer to furnish a small library. If someone I like recommends a book, I snap it up, set it on top of my already close-to-toppling TBR (To Be Read) Mountain. And there it sits until I can’t take its reproachful cover glaring at me any longer and I place it on a shelf with its other abandoned siblings.

Then I plant myself in front of my computer, place my fingers on the keyboard, and get to work. 

Until my story stalls, yet again, and I run to the newest shiniest craft book on my shelf searching for the secret sauce that will make my story stand out and get noticed above the estimated 2.2 million books published each year.

The answer to how do we make our stories unique:

  • Be original.
  • Be familiar.

Contradictory, right?

Not really.

Readers want stories they relate to.

This accounts for the various and popular tropes. All readers have personal preferences, and this extends to tropes. They may like marriage of convenience stories, enemies to friends, friends to more, secret baby, fairy tales retold, and so on. But even with familiar tropes, readers want something new and original and fresh. 

I have a friend who used to say she wanted to be the next *insert Big Name in publishing.* Our critique friends kept telling her that was impossible. Not because her writing wasn’t good enough, but because she was shortchanging herself and her readers by not being the best writer she could be, instead of a pale imitation of someone else.

She listened, wrote a book from her heart, and it found a publishing home. Making her writing transparent and vulnerable made the difference.

I still buy craft books. I even read some of them. But I’m far enough along on this writing journey to trust that I can write stories worth reading.

So can you.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Romancing Your Story Writing Romance

A Rose By Any Other Name (Authenticating Details)

Once upon a time, when I was new to fiction writing, I brought a chapter to my weekly workshop/critique group. I read a selection from a romantic suspense where the heroine receives a package from a stalker. In the padded envelope was a dead bird.

My workshop leader/writing teacher/mentor complimented the writing and plot twist, then asked me a question.

“What kind of bird was in the package?”

(I had no idea.) “Hmmm. A little brown bird. A sparrow?”

“Why not say sparrow instead of bird?”

“I don’t know.” (This shows how much I needed to learn.)

“Authenticating details are part of what takes good writing to great writing.”

It took me a long time to understand what my mentor was saying: specificity makes the scene come alive for the reader. “Bird” could mean anything from penguin to turkey and your reader pause to wonder just how big that package was. A sparrow evokes a specific image.

What are some ways to add depth and details to our story worlds?

  • Choose the specific over the general, such as buzzard rather than bird, rose instead of flower. But don’t go so far into specifics (unless it’s vital to the plot), that the reader must pause and research what a long-wattled umbrella bird looks like (black, short-tailed, with a head crest. The males have long wattles).
  • Weather can help set the mood. It’s hard to describe a suspenseful scene if it’s a bright and sunny day. Are the clouds dark and menacing, full of rain? Or white and puffy, moving gracefully across the sky?
  • Food. Is your character eating fries out of a bag while driving their Mini Cooper or leaning over a sink, eating a ham on rye sandwich? Or sitting alone at a long table in an ornate dining room with candles and green cloth napkins to eat a bucket of chicken?
  • Music. What’s playing in the car or in the café? Does a song evoke an emotion in your character?
  • Smells. A steak sizzling on the grill elicits a different expression than driving by a dairy farm. (Trust me, it’s not pleasant.)
  • Clothes and fashion. In the movie Grease, when Sandy’s attire changes from Peter Pan collar blouses and skirts to black leather and off-the-shoulder tops, the viewer knew instantly she was telling Danny she was willing to change to fit into his world.
  • Accessories. Does he wear pearl stud cufflinks and a matching tie pin? Does she wear an armful of bracelets or a colorful necklace?
  • Props. If they scribble a note to say they’re meeting a friend for coffee, do they use a fountain pen, a broken crayon, or a highlighter?

Anything that adds visual detail to your scene will help your readers know and “see” your characters. An engaged reader is one who keeps turning the page. Exactly what we want.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Writing Romance

REALISTICALLY RELATABLE

Making your hero and heroine relatable is key to creating characters your readers will care about, will laugh with, and will cry over. Your protagonists must also care about each other. They must have enough in common so that their attraction makes sense, but they also must have enough differences to create conflict.

How do we create characters who leap off the page and into our readers’ hearts?

Characters need to have:

  • Relatability. Make them human, not perfect. Give them flaws, real character flaws, not just physical imperfections. I once edited a book by a man whose heroine was perfect. I told him she needed to have a flaw. “She does,” he assured me. “She has a limp.” A limp is not a flaw, it’s an imperfection. Being quick to judge is a flaw. Lying about inconsequential matters is a flaw. An inability to apologize is a flaw.
  • Strong personalities. I’m a fairly passive introvert and my first drafts heroines are very much like me. In other words: boring. It’s in the rewrite that I figure out their personality and give them some sass and spunk. I’m in the process of doing that with my work-in-progress’s heroine. She’s still way too passive, but she’s getting there. I’ll often think of something outrageous that I would never do and force my heroine to do that. I’ve had characters go bungee jumping, sing karaoke, and appear on a reality television show.  
  • Conflict. Both within themselves and with each other. In my work-in-progress I’m pairing a hero with a strong sense of justice and honesty with a heroine who is intent on helping someone, but it means not telling the full truth. Instant conflict!
  • Attraction. They need to have chemistry, which is easy to see, but hard to write and describe. I guess I’m a prude, because physical attraction is the hardest thing for me to write. Kissing scenes about kill me. I’m beyond grateful I don’t write sex scenes. But showing physical attraction between your protagonists is crucial to getting your readers to cheer them on to their happily ever after.
  • Obstacles. Kind of like Conflict, but bigger, harder, more intense. Always be thinking, What can happen to keep this character from reaching his/her goal? What can I throw at them or put in their way? It can be anything from weather to mechanical to physical/geographical distance to family or work responsibilities to employer policies to those pesky personality differences.
  • Authenticity. Nothing makes a reader lose interest in a book quicker than a character who does something unrealistic. I once read a “romance” where the hero gave the heroine not one clue that he was interested in a relationship. I was convinced that at the end, he’d give her an incredulous look and say, “Where did you get the idea I liked you, much less that we were dating?” and she would realize she’d made up the whole relationship in her head. Alas, he apologized for all the ways he’d failed her and promised to be a better boyfriend in the future. I instantly apologized to my heart for making it pump all the hours I’d wasted reading a book with zero plausibility.

Writing realistic and relatable characters is a skill worth learning. It’s the secret sauce that will turn your stories from good to can’t-put-down-able.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Same Vocabulary, Different Dictionary

I recently attended a conference where one of the speakers talked about how, because of cultural and societal shifts, different generations may converse using the same words, but not realize that the definitions of the words have changed. Basically, we’re using the same vocabulary, but different dictionaries.

Imagine anyone from our current world saying, “My mouse needs a battery and my streaming service has been freezing.” We know exactly what they mean. Someone from a hundred (or even fifty) years ago would likely ask, “What kind of rodent did you train to eat batteries and how could a river/creek/stream freeze?”

To narrow the historical divide a bit, a Boomer or Gen-Xer probably has a different definition of words such as marriage, gender, or furry than a Millennial or Gen-Zer. I know we’ve run into this when talking to our grandkids. We’ve had to ask lots of questions and have them define terms to be sure we’re talking about the same thing. Even emojis may have meanings ascribed to them that are not what you think. 😉

What does this have to do with writing romance?

Everything. Because words matter.

As writers, we need to remember dialogue comes from inside the character. This means that character’s past experiences, their hurts, talents, flaws, everything in them will color how they view life, what they think about things, and what they say.

A man who grew up on a Wyoming cattle ranch will think about a grilled steak differently than a guy from Manhattan’s Upper East Side. But what a fun twist would it be if the cowboy really knew about wine, too? If he had an amazing palate and could pair any food with the perfect wine it could be his super-power.

A woman whose father walked out on her and her mother may be slower to trust men than the gal who grew up with a bunch of brothers and a dad who took her out for donuts every Saturday. For the first woman, it would be a huge step to agree to a second date with a man who accidentally stood her up the first time (due to a misunderstanding). Her agreement would probably be timid, an “Okay, maybe, I guess.” While the second woman would be more able to shrug off the unintended rejection and accept with more enthusiasm. “Sure, let’s try again.”

Dialogue should sound organic and natural to the character.

But don’t fall into the trap of having a character from the South drop their g’s or use exaggerated accents on the page. It be distractin’. Doncha know? Instead, use speech patterns and idioms to create the conversational style you want.

When I wrote a novel set in Tennessee, I consulted several websites listing Southern expressions. Some I used, and some I tweaked for my purposes. One of my favorites, and one that’s often cited as making a reader laugh out loud was, “Well, butter my backside and call me a biscuit.” The actual saying I found was, “Butter my butt and call me a biscuit.” I thought my character would rather refer to her backside, and it kept the alliteration of the b’s, so I changed it to suit my character and my story.

Used wisely, dialogue and word choice can deepen your story and create characters who come alive in the mind of the reader.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Romancing Your Story

What’s Your Type?

So many personality types and traits and tools to figure them out.

  • The Enneagram
  • Myer Briggs
  • The OCEAN Model
  • The 4 Types

These are just a few of the various personality typing tools available to writers for crafting characters.

The Enneagram is currently popular but can be overwhelming with its nine personality types and the interconnecting relationships they form.

Myer Briggs starts with four models, but with all the possible combinations, it ends with sixteen personality types.

The OCEAN model measures five traits:

  • Open-mindedness
  • Conscientiousness
  • Extraversion
  • Agreeableness
  • Nervous/High-strung

The 4 Types have had various iterations depending on who’s espousing them. I’ve heard them described as Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic, and Melancholic. Also Popular, Powerful, Peaceful, and Perfectionist. Or Tigger, Rabbit, Eeyore, and Pooh. Otter, Lion, Golden Retriever, Beaver.

What all this means is, as writers, we have a plethora of available personality traits to draw on for characters. The challenge is in making our characters seem like real people, not a list of characteristics chosen from a list.

The Hero:

  • Ruggedly handsome Checkmark with solid fill
  • Over six feet tall Checkmark with solid fill
  • Cowboy/Navy SEAL/Billionaire Checkmark with solid fill
  • Loves puppies and babies Checkmark with solid fill 

The Heroine:

  • Beautiful without makeup Checkmark with solid fill
  • Quiet and studious Checkmark with solid fill
  • Too busy for love Checkmark with solid fill
  • Scheduled/organized or messy/forgetful Checkmark with solid fill 

I got tired of reading about heroines who always had their hair up in a messy bun, so I gave my last protagonist a short, spiky pixie ‘do. Not exactly a character trait, but it was something different and it worked for her.

The best characters are complicated and full of contradictions. A cooking show host who can’t cook (Dining With Joy by Rachel Hauck). A high ropes course guide who’s afraid of heights (a story idea I’m playing with). A businesswoman who paints and creates (You’ll Be Mine by Rachel Hauck and Mandy Boerma). A 5’5” executive protection agent (The Bodyguard by Katherine Center). A doctor who faints when he sees blood (Doc Martin).

How do we “go deeper,” as my former writing mentor used to say, beyond hair and eye color, occupation and height?

Everyone has something from their childhood or adolescence that shaped them into who they are as an adult. Don’t be afraid to explore that incident or wound.

I know a writer who literally (yes, I’m using that correctly) fixes a cup of coffee for herself and her character, then sits down and asks the character all kinds of questions, starting with what kind of coffee drink do they like and why.

“Oh, you’re a tea drinker, not coffee. Why?”

“Yes, having hot coffee spilled and leaving a scar on your arm would be quite painful. Was it an accident?”

“Thrown at you? By whom? Your father? Who was he angry at? How old were you?”

And so on. She drills down until she gets at exactly what happened.

Sometimes, of course, a coffee preference has no hidden meaning. In that case, the questions start more broadly until something pings.

“Tell me about your family. What’s your birth order?”

“Youngest in a large family? Were you the spoiled baby or lost in the shuffle?” She’ll continue in this way until she learns the character was an over-achiever, always trying to get noticed, and this is why her protagonist must be the last one to leave the office every day. She’s overly conscientious and that can lead to compulsiveness and obsessiveness.

Questions are a powerful tool to help you find the personality traits that will move your character from a stock archetype contrived from an Enneagram assessment or Myer Briggs profile into a fully-fleshed out person who rises from the pages to live in the reader’s mind long after they close your book.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Writing Romance

Lessons From the Movies

I recently watched Hudson Hawk, a (deservedly) lesser-known Bruce Willis movie. It was released three years after his smash hit, Die Hard.

Bruce gave his all to the wise-cracking and charming title character. But the movie just didn’t spark the same laughs or tension or empathy as I’d felt for his Die Hard character, John McClane. Why?

I spent some time analyzing why Die Hard worked and Hudson Hawk didn’t and realized this was a lesson I needed to remember for my own writing.

  • Die Hard devotes the opening minutes giving us reasons why we should like John.
    • He’s a New York Police Department detective who arrives in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve.
    • He and his wife are separated, and he wants to try and reconcile. We like him because he’s humbled himself to make this trip and he cares about his family.
  • Hudson Hawk opens with Eddie Hawkins (Hudson Hawk) being released from prison. He’s a cat burglar and he just wants a nice cappuccino. But he’s immediately blackmailed by various people to do more jobs, stealing artworks.
    • We don’t know why Hawk was imprisoned. If he was justly accused, tried, and incarcerated, then why would I care about him? If he was unjustly imprisoned, or took the fall for someone else, I might be more sympathetic towards him, but that’s not hinted at.

Take away: Set up my character as someone the reader will care about.

  • In Die Hard, the stakes are clear, and the hero has a goal.
    • John McClane is a well-defined good guy who willingly steps into the arena (Nakatomi Towers) to fight the evil Hans Gruber.
    • Hudson Hawk is coerced into fighting the couple wanting to replicate a design by Leonardo DaVinci and begin turning lead into gold and take over the world. He keeps insisting he just wants that cappuccino.

Take away: Give my character a noble goal, something of value. Then put obstacles in her way.

  • The antagonist is clear and formidable.
    • McClane’s antagonists, Hans and his band of pseudo-terrorists, are serious about their own goal: breaking into the building’s vault and stealing multi-millions of dollars’ worth of bearer bonds. They are professional and cold and believe the ends justifies the means. They murder randomly and are after McClane to stop him interfering with their plans.
    • Hudson Hawk’s bad guys are played so over the top and are so comical, it’s impossible to believe they could achieve their goal of building an alchemy device. Hawk’s buddy and co-burglar walks away from an accident in which the vehicle he was in went over a cliff and burst into flames.

Take away: characters need to be believable, rooted in reality. A little over-the-top goes a long way

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Writing Romance 101

Writing Outside the Box

The essence of Show, Don’t Tell, when it comes to characters is to put your hero or heroine in a situation where they must react. They will show the reader who they are.

In WHAT YOU WISH FOR by Katherine Center, the protagonist, Samantha Casey, experiences a life altering accident and must make a choice: remain invisible in drab grays and beiges or embrace color and step to the front of her life. Sam puts on a hat covered in tissue paper flowers and wears it to work. It’s the beginning of her renaissance and shows the reader the choice she made.  

Ann B. Ross’ character, Miss Julia, anchors a fun series. Miss Julia often speaks and acts as you’d expect a Southern lady of a certain age to, but she often surprises the reader also. In MISS JULIA SPEAKS HER MIND, she is shocked to learn her staid, pedantic, opinionated, controlling, and newly dead husband has left behind a love child. Instead of denying the boy’s existence or trying to hide him, Miss Julia allows him—and his mother—into her home. This surprising act is the inciting incident to the whole series and comes to define Miss Julia’s very nature: stronger than she ever imagined.

THE NATURE OF FRAGILE THINGS by Susan Meissner features an Irish immigrant, Sophie, who decides to marry a widower in San Francisco in 1905, based on a newspaper ad. The why is revealed throughout the book, but at the beginning the reader is told Sophie was tired of living in a cold New York tenement and wanted a change. She’s a woman who takes charge of her life, evidenced by the cross-country move to marry a stranger.

To make your characters come even more alive in the reader’s mind, craft them into more than a cliché. Give them an unexpected aspect to their personality.

In RIGHT HERE WAITING by Susan May Warren and Michelle Sass Aleckson, the heroine, Jae, is a petite Korean American former-military helicopter pilot. No clichés there. 

In RUNAWAY TIDE, Julie Carobini has two bad guys stalking the heroine. Instead of making them typical muscle-bound men in dark suits, she described them as “creepy … hanging around in their flip flops and board shorts … They look kinda like surfers but never actually, uh, surf.” Brilliant.

Maggie O’Farrell’s INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE features a character, Aoife (pronounced Ee-fah. Sort of), who’s described as a free-spirited, bohemian kind of gal. But she’s hiding a deep secret and the reader is definitely surprised when it’s revealed. No spoilers from me, so you’ll have to read it yourself to see if O’Farrell pulls it off.

It’s okay to start with a clichéd character or archetype but play with them.

Put them in a situation out of their comfort zone and see what happens. If it surprises you, it will surprise your reader. If it surprises your reader, they will keep turning the pages. All the way to the end.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Writing Romance 101

The (Character) Arc de Triomphe

Writing teachers often talk about the story arc and character arc, meaning how the story is constructed or how the character grows and changes. As I write this, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris was recently wrapped in fabric, an artistic event envisioned and designed by the late artists, Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Much like wrapping the iconic landmark in layers of fabric and rope, adding layers of character arc and growth will make your stories deeper and more nuanced.

Growth

One facet of growth an author can layer in is the character’s ability to do something at the end of the story they couldn’t do at the beginning. Or they see the truth of something they first believed to be a lie.

In the movie You’ve Got Mail, Kathleen Kelly believes her life only has meaning as long as she keeps her dead mother’s bookshop alive. By the end of the movie, the shop has died, but Kathleen has been able to not just envision a different life for herself but takes steps to build that life. She can do something she couldn’t before, because she’s moved from a lie to the truth.

Character Arcs

Another facet of character arcs that can be particularly effective is an ending that mirrors the beginning.

While You Were Sleeping begins with Lucy talking about her dreams of travel, the stamps she planned to collect in her passport, but how that didn’t happen because of her father’s illness and death. Later, she shares that dream with the hero, Jack, who gives her a snow globe with a scene of Florence, Italy, a foreshadowing of the end. The movie ends with the two of them traveling and Lucy gets that passport stamp for real.

Rachel Hauck’s book To Save a King begins with a prologue in ten-year-old Prince John’s point of view about his love for the fairy tale, The Swan’s Feather. The book ends with grown-up Prince John’s wedding to his real-life love, Gemma, and the convergence of three white swan feathers.

How does an author find the arc to the ending? Or the moment to mirror?

  • Figure out what is the lie your character believes at the beginning and how they will move to truth (like Kathleen Kelly in You’ve Got Mail).
  • Decide if there’s a poignant moment you can mirror at the beginning and end (like Lucy’s empty passport in While You Were Sleeping).
  • Find a prop you can highlight in both the beginning and ending scenes (like the swan feathers in Rachel Hauck’s To Save a King).

Well-layered character arcs leave the reader satisfied and happy and leaving five-star reviews. They may not know why or how, but they know they’ve been taken on a ride of beauty and vision by an artist.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

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Romancing Your Story

Make it Personal

One of my favorite movies is You’ve Got Mail. When Joe Fox attempts to apologize to Kathleen Kelly for forcing her out of business, he says, “It wasn’t … personal.”

She replies, “What is that supposed to mean? … All that means is that it wasn’t personal to you. But it was personal to me … Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.”

The same is true of great fiction. It begins by being personal, meaning your story should embrace universal themes that people will relate to.

The Count of Monte Cristo poses the question, does getting even—revenge and retribution—make one happy and satisfied?

Kristan Higgins’ new release, Pack Up the Moon, is about a grieving widower who receives a letter a month from his late wife for the first year after her death. In spite of the downer premise, the theme is that “life’s greatest joys are often hiding in plain sight.”

A Christmas Carol and Les Miserables pose the question, is redemption possible?

I love stories with themes of perseverance, of never giving up, despite terrible odds. This is why I enjoy Susan May Warren’s adventure thrillers, like her Global Search and Rescue, Montana Marshalls, and Montana Rescue series. The stories are full of danger and intrigue and impossible predicaments, but the protagonists survive. I also like movies like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and R.E.D. The heroes. Never. Give. Up.

Another book with a theme of perseverance would be A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L′Engle.

The theme of You’ve Got Mail is summed up nicely in its tagline: Someone you pass on the street may already be the love of your life.

That’s intriguing. Even if you’re with the love of your life, there are occasions you may wonder what (or who) might be out there. What if you’d walked to work the day you met your significant other, instead of taking the bus?

The movie Sliding Doors shows this “path not taken,” plot with a lot of heart and creativity. Helen is fired from her job and takes a train home in the middle of the day to find her boyfriend with another woman. Or did she miss the train and arrived home after the other woman left, and stayed in a relationship with the cheater?

I think Sliding Doors’ theme is, will true love always find a way?

The heroine of my work in progress is a young widow. I’ve never lost a spouse, but I’ve lost a parent and other close loved ones. I know the stages of grief (anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). The hero has his own loss that he’s dealing with, so their journeys are each echoed in the other. I’m attempting to show a theme that life and love can be rich again, after loss.

Grief and joy. Regret and eagerness. Doubt and excitement.

Our job is put those emotions on the page in a way the reader relates to and (hopefully) feels them as much as our characters do. Personally.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

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Romancing Your Story

Walk on By: Secondary Characters

Secondary characters are the seasoning in your story soup.

Who can be secondary characters, or sidekicks? Often, they’re the protagonist’s best friend, but they can also be a family member, co-worker, neighbor, or even a frenemy. Sidekicks give the hero and heroine someone to talk to, someone to confess their feelings to, someone to be honest with. Sidekicks can say things your heroine or hero need to hear. Secondary characters can act as the hero’s conscience. Secondary characters often provide comic relief with quirky characteristics, either physical or in their personality.

If you’re writing a series, a sidekick can be the main character in the next story. Susan May Warren is a master at this. Her series, Global Search and Rescue, starts with friends Jenny, Aria, and Sasha on Mount Denali. They meet Orion, Jake, and Hamilton. Book Two is Aria and Jake caught in a hurricane in Florida, with Jake’s friend and boss Ham Jones, the hero of book Three. Warren’s Christiansen Family and Montana Marshalls series all focus on different family members in each book.

Or the secondary character could be a common character in each story in the series. The coffee shop barista with hair that’s a different color each week. The waitress at the diner who never writes down an order but never mixes them up. Or constantly mixes them up. Gayle Roper’s Seaside Seasons series has a guy with a metal detector on the beach in each book. He often has a word of wisdom to pass on with the buried treasure he finds. J.D. Robb’s In Death series has the candy thief who steals Eve Dallas’s candy no matter where she hides it in her office. Nora Roberts (writing as J.D. Robb) has promised to reveal the candy thief when she ends the series, which I’m happy to say looks like won’t be happening any time soon.

The secondary character can provide what James Scott Bell calls the “man in the mirror” moment. This is when your protagonist looks at their life and who they are, then decides if they’re happy with that or are going to change. The sidekick can give your hero or heroine advice or feedback, facilitating that man in the mirror moment and assisting the change.

In the movie Sleepless in Seattle, Rosie O’Donnell played Becky, Meg Ryan’s character Annie’s best friend and editor. Becky provided a sounding board for Annie to talk to about how crazy her obsession was with Sam, the “Sleepless in Seattle” caller to the Dr. Marcia radio show. When Annie pitched Becky an article about the Dr. Marcia show, Becky (and the viewer) clearly knew Annie was really asking if she should try to find and/or meet Sam.

Sometimes a secondary character will walk into your story and try to steal the scene. Be careful to keep the spotlight where it belongs: on your main characters. If your secondary character turns into a scene stealer, give them a stern talking to, then consider offering them their own future story. That will usually convince them to play nicely for the rest of your current project.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

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Romancing Your Story

Emotional Logic, Or How to Keep Readers From Throwing Your Book Against the Wall

The basis of every good story is conflict. As writing teacher extraordinaire James Scott Bell often says, “Happy people in happy land” is boring. Conflict is needed and conflict comes from people doing things that don’t come naturally, that forces them out of their comfort zone.

My first writing teacher and mentor liked to talk about something she called Emotional Logic. This is being sure your characters stay in character.

For instance, consider a character—I’ll call her Maisie—who is spontaneous and bubbly. If she suddenly begins scheduling her life to the minute and dressing in all black for no reason, I’ve lost her emotional logic.

So how do we, as writers, get our characters into conflict without sacrificing emotional logic?

With foreshadowing. Drop hints along the way to some of the turmoil your character will experience and changes they’ll have to make.

Let’s return to Maisie. If Maisie wakes up one day, shoves her flouncy pink skirt and heels into the back of her closet, pulls on black leggings and a sweatshirt, and orders a new planner, but I haven’t done any set-up for that change, readers may very well put the book down and not pick it up again. Or at least wonder at what in the world is going on with her.

But if Maisie tells someone in Chapter One that the job she wants will soon be vacant and it involves the ability to multi-task and schedule a group of co-workers, she might realize in Chapter Three that she needs to get serious about organizing her life. And if in Chapter Two, Maisie overhears two co-workers saying her frivolous outfits make her seem unprofessional, she might decide in Chapter Five to stop wearing color altogether.

Titles can be used as foreshadowing devices. Kristan Higgins’ book The Best Man is about a woman who ends up with the guy who was going to be the best man in her wedding that didn’t happen. So he was a literal “best man,” and is the best man for her.

In How to Walk Away by Katherine Center, the foreshadowing is both the title and the first line: “The biggest irony about that night is that I was always scared to fly.” I won’t give away what exactly is being foreshadowed, but I highly recommend that book.

Effective foreshadowing leaves some room between the hint and the event. Scatter the hints throughout the story. The character changes will feel organic and a natural result of the conflict and your reader will close the book, satisfied with the happily ever after you gave them.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

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Romancing Your Story

What Do Your Characters Want and Why?

What drives your character? What is his or her motivation for pursuing their goals, whether it’s defusing an atomic bomb and saving the world or decorating cookies for a bridal shower?

There are lots of books and articles and blog posts about how to make character sketches and how to know your characters. Some writers advocate filling out spreadsheets with lots of details, including physical descriptions and where they lived in the fourth grade. Others journal in their character’s voices for pages and pages, getting to know them. Some take their characters for a metaphorical cup of coffee and chat with them.

I use a system that asks a series of “Whys” to drill down to a dark moment in their past that’s shaped who they are now. 

For example, we’d start with: Who are you? The answer starts with a noun plus an adjective. For this example, “I’m a prodigal fisherman.” 

Why? “Commercial fishing was a job I could get. Prodigal because I can’t go home.” 

Why can’t you go home? “I messed up.” 

How did you mess up? “I got into a fight at my sister’s wedding.” 

Why did you fight someone at your sister’s wedding? 

And so on. 

We’d continue until we learn he felt rejected by his family as a teenager when they allowed him to leave home to play ice hockey at an elite boarding school. 

This system of noun plus adjective and “Why?” questions is from The Story Equation by Susan May Warren and this character profile is Owen Christiansen from You’re the One I Want also by Ms. Warren.

There are often two sets of goals, internal and external, but the motivation is the same for both. The internal want drives the external goal.

Owen Christiansen wants to go home and feel welcomed by his family. That’s his internal desire. The internal meets the external when his brother finds him and brings him home. Of course, there’s a lot more to the story.

This next example is from my own work in progress. The heroine is Chloe:

Who are you? “I’m a driven widow.”

Why? “I have to open my bakery next month to honor my dead husband on the second anniversary of his death.”

Why? “He died in his sleep of an undiagnosed heart condition.”

Why? “I drove him to his death, nagging and pushing him to work harder.”

Chloe is determined to not fall in love again. Because her father also died at a fairly young age, after working extra hours to pay for a family vacation, she feels she’s toxic to men. (Of course, since this is a romance, she’s going to fail at her plan to not fall in love and will finally get her happily ever after.)

In The Story Equation, Susan May Warren outlines a method for diving into your character’s motivation. It involves digging deep and getting to what she calls their Dark Moment Story or DMS. This is a moment in their past that shaped them into the person they are at the beginning of the novel. For Chloe, it’s her husband’s death. The DMS also contributes to the Flaw, a Lie they believe, and several other factors. I highly recommend The Story Equation if this method of getting to know your characters appeals to you.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

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Romancing Your Story

Romantic Tension

In the romance genre, it’s a given that your hero and heroine will end up together for a happily ever after. Or at least a happily for now. The challenge for the writer is coming up with the obstacles (AKA conflict) to keep them apart.

The most satisfying stories are those with organic differences that seem insurmountable, but the couple, because of their love for each other, are determined to find a way. Deanne Gist is a master at this. In Tiffany Girl, it’s 1892 and Flossie Jayne is a New Woman. She’s moved from her parents’ home to a boardinghouse, to take a position at Mr. Tiffany’s glass studio. Most young gentlewomen don’t leave home until they marry. And they certainly don’t work at jobs. Reeve Wilder is a resident at the boardinghouse who disapproves of the New Women and believes all women should stay out of men’s business and their domains. He even writes a newspaper column about the proper place for women in the home and in society. I had to keep reading to see how they would reconcile such differing beliefs and come together.

Susan May Warren is another author gifted at creating characters with deep wounds and flaws that seem diametrically opposed, but ultimately can only find healing in each other. I just finished her The Way of the Brave. Orion Starr was a pararescue jumper who was injured in Afghanistan in a mission gone wrong. He’s angry and wants answers. Jenny Calhoun was the CIA profiler who gave the okay for the mission that cost Orion his knee and his teammates’ lives. How can they end up together? But Susie makes it so that not only can they get past these issues, they must, to heal each other and to move on.

In The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck, there are two story lines, one contemporary and one historical, (that also intersect with two other timelines). In the historical timeline, Emily is engaged to a suitable young man, Phillip, whom her parents approve of. Daniel, the man she thought she loved once, has returned to town, eager to renew their relationship and upset to learn she’s moved on. Phillip is perfect for Emily and wedding plans proceed. The only problem is Emily and her mother disagree about her dress. And the little things Emily notice that lead her to believe her fiancé may be hiding something from her. If she breaks her engagement, her father will lose his standing in his business and in the community. Her mother will be devastated. Daniel knows Phillip is not what he seems, but if he tells Emily she will be broken-hearted and blame Daniel. Now that’s conflict.

Conflicts and obstacles are not something that can be solved if your characters would just sit down and have a conversation. They’re something deeper and organic. They demand really knowing your characters. They’re hard work. But they make for a richer, more satisfying read that will linger with your reader long after they close the book.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever after. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. Carrie and her Stud Muffin live in Central California with their cat and dog and within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Twitter: CarriePadgett

Instagram: carpadwriter

Facebook: WriterCarriePadgett

Amazon Author Page: Carrie Padgett

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Romancing Your Story

Location. Location. Location.

When I first visited upstate New York several years ago, I kept getting the feeling I’d been there before, but that was impossible. I finally realized that I’d visited the area through the pages of a book. Several books, actually. Julia Spencer-Fleming’s Claire Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne series is set in that area. I’ve read them all and they take place in icy winters, muggy summers, and fiery-leafed autumns. So of course I recognized the hills with orange-tipped trees and houses with screened in porches and pumpkins.   

Location is said to be the three most important rules in real estate. Although often overlooked in fiction, it’s pretty important there too.

The locations in our romance novels need to be such that the reader can’t imagine that story taking place anywhere else.

J.D. Robb’s In Death series could not be set anywhere except New York City in the near future. The urban grittiness of the series is a perfect match to Lt. Eve Dallas’s voice and the tone of the books overall.

Not strictly a romance, but I recently read Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind, set in North Carolina. The southern voice and idioms make it the perfect location. Ann B. Ross set her series in a specific time and place, and the hot humid summer weather rose from the pages of the paperback and frizzed my hair. Margaret Maron’s Deborah Knott series does the same.

How do we make our location into a character in our stories? Let’s look at the examples I’ve already mentioned.

  • Specificity. Spencer-Fleming talked about the crunch of ice underfoot, the slipperiness of the roads, the bone-numbing chill. And colors, like the flame-colored trees in the fall. Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb adds aromas and noises to make the future New York come alive. She describes the smell of a chemi-head as he passes her in the booking department, and what a soy dog smells like being grilled by a street vendor, and the sound of a bus belching smoke as it rumbles by her.
  • Voice and Tone. For books set in the south or areas with distinctive speaking cadences, capturing those patterns are essential. But beware of trying to write accents and particularly showing ethnicity by speech. In a Sue Grafton book. Kinsey Milhone was interviewing someone over the phone and at one point she realized they were African American and let her surprise show. The interviewee was (rightly) offended, and put on an elaborate “black,” accent, asking, “Yo, dis better fo yo?” (Grafton was making an effective point.) Use patois and jargon sparingly. Some parts of the United States refer to a soft drink as “pop,” others as “soda,” still others call them all “coke,” or “coca-cola.” If you’re writing about an area you’re unfamiliar with, find out those little idioms and differences.
  • Use location to strengthen your characters. Could Scarlett O’Hara be from Missouri? No, she can only be from the South. She has a particularly genteel determination that’s bred into southern gentlewomen. Can Gidget be from Maine? Nope. She’s a beach girl with sand between her toes and sun-kissed cheeks.

In romance, location can be so much more than a setting for sunsets and picnics and first kisses. Those are nice, but with a bit of detail, your location will become a full character. One your reader can’t imagine your other characters and plot without. 

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever after. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. Carrie and her Stud Muffin live in Central California with their cat and dog and within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Twitter: CarriePadgett

Instagram: carpadwriter

Facebook: WriterCarriePadgett

Amazon Author Page: Carrie Padgett

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Romancing Your Story

When Romance Writers Read and Create

In my opinion, anyone who says they don’t have time to read might as well say they don’t have time to breathe. Reading is as necessary to my well-being as food, water, and sleep are. It can be argued that writers must be readers. Most romance writers are also romance readers.

I also think it’s necessary to read outside of the genre you write in. I’m not saying that if you write sweet or Christian or inspirational romance, that you should read erotica or gay romance. But I am saying that if you write historical romance, maybe pick up a romantic suspense. If you write Amish, try a romantic comedy. You’ll be surprised at how the conventions of the other genre will inspire and inform your own writing.

For instance, I was working on a sweet, contemporary romance but was stuck on a plot point. I was using the secret baby trope, which I know lots of readers hate, so I needed a really, really compelling reason for the heroine to keep this pregnancy and baby from the father.

I story mapped. I brainstormed with my critique group. I tried free associating ideas. Finally, I gave up. I told my subconscious to work on it and I picked up a thriller to read. A couple of hours later, I put the book down and I knew exactly why the heroine didn’t tell the father. She couldn’t tell him. Telling him would ruin his life, and she would never do that. Something in the thriller—a turning point in the story—jogged my subconscious which had been laboring feverishly while my conscious mind had been otherwise occupied. Steven King calls this the “boys in the basement,” at work. My girls in the basement, once I set them loose on the problem, came up with the solution while I read about spies running around Rome, trying to stop a terrorist plot to kill the Pope.

Reading in another genre also helps keep you open to new ways to twist a phrase or expression. Some genres have specific vocabularies and reading unfamiliar idioms will help your brain follow new pathways and make new connections. That all helps keep your writing fresh and unexpected.

If you normally read hard copy books, try an ebook, or an audio book. Something about shaking up your normal routine also shakes up your creativity. Speaking of creativity, let’s touch on the importance of filling up that creative well. Reading outside your usual genre is part of that. But also take time for other creative endeavors. Get outside into nature. Visit museums and art galleries. Even if you live in a rural area, far from a museum, many offer virtual tours online. With the Internet at our fingertips, we can learn Scottish history as easily as we can examine the Sistine Chapel up close and personal.

If there’s a popular romance author that you’ve never gotten around to reading (because, let’s face it: so many books, so little time), seek out a title by that writer and move it to the top of your To-Be-Read stack.

Be purposeful in your reading, yes. But also read for the sheer pleasure of it. Read because you must. Read because without stories, your brain would shrivel up and crumble to dust. Read to make your own stories stronger and better.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever after. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. Carrie and her Stud Muffin live in Central California with their cat and dog and within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Twitter: CarriePadgett

Instagram: carpadwriter

Facebook: WriterCarriePadgett

Amazon Author Page: Carrie Padgett

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Writing Romance in the #MeToo Era

Once upon a time a romance novel plot included a heroine who wanted the hero to kiss her, but she had to pretend not to want that. She had to object. She had to act surprised. That was a reflection of the times. Women were expected to protest to protect both their virtue and their reputation. Women who wanted physical touch were wanton.

Those standards and mores faded in the late 20th century when women could actually enjoy a toe-curling kiss in romance novels (and in real life), along with other physical expressions of love.

But now we’re in the 21st century with sexual harassment, assault, rape, consent, dubious consent, and #MeToo stories in the news every week. Gone are the days when a hero can force a kiss—much less himself—on a heroine in a romance novel.

So how does the current day romance writer handle physical affection in our stories? If our hero has to stop and ask permission to kiss the heroine, it slows the story and action. Especially if then he asks if he can touch her “here?” “How about there?” And it’s not realistic for the female protagonist to instigate every caress, kiss, or cuddle either.

So what’s a romance writer to do?

Well, I have some suggestions.

First, get very good at writing visual signs of attraction.

Your hero needs to be able to tell the heroine is attracted to him. Study body language and non-verbal cues.

He can do things like move in for a kiss, then pause, raise his brows in a question. She smiles back as an invitation.

Movies and television are great tutors for this kind of thing, because they’re a visual medium. Watch your favorite rom com and take notes. How does she show her interest? How does he make his move without being creepy? Is it clear that she welcomes his move? How does she convey that to him?

In one of my favorite movies, Notting Hill, Anna and Will are clearly attracted to each other. They engage in flirty banter. They laugh together (she throws popcorn at him in a movie while he’s wearing his SCUBA goggles). She invites him “up,” after a movie date. Then in a classic plot twist, her boyfriend arrives on scene. Will exits, stage left, with the trash. The next time we see Anna and Will together, she’s single. (Thank goodness, or we wouldn’t like her at all.) In this instance, they both debate making the first move, but are unsure. It’s played out clearly onscreen. When Anna tiptoes downstairs, Will thinks it’s his idiot roommate and groans, then says, (more or less), “Bugger off. Go away.” When Anna replies, “Okay,” Will quickly recants. Anna perches on the edge of the couch where he planned on sleeping. You can imagine, as does the viewer, (most of) what happens next.

 Even though Notting Hill is more than a few years old, it does a great job showing the dance of consent. Probably because Anna is a celebrity, but that doesn’t make it any less of a tutorial for the contemporary writer now. Maybe more so.

In Susan Mallery’s current release, Meant To Be Yours, when the hero, Jasper, moves to kiss Renee, he says, “I may be reading this all wrong …” as he puts his hands on her waist and pulls her close. This gives Renee time to back away, if she doesn’t want him to kiss her. We know she does, so this works great to show her consent.

Of course, historical romance writers have a bit more leeway, because of the conventions of the times. But still, they’re writing for contemporary readers with contemporary sensibilities and would be wise to keep all this in mind.

A rake can be a rake, but he should still be a gentleman.

A lesson for all the eras.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever after. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. Carrie and her Stud Muffin live in Central California with their cat and dog and within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Twitter: CarriePadgett

Instagram: carpadwriter

Facebook: WriterCarriePadgett

Amazon Author Page: Carrie Padgett