Tag: romance your story

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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
Writers Chat

Writers Chat Recap For February, Part One

Writers Chat Recap

Writers Chat, hosted by Johnnie Alexander, Brandy Brow, and Melissa Stroh is the show where we talk about all things writing, by writers and for writers!

“Because talking about writing is more fun than actually doing it.”

Let Me Entertain You with Larry J Leech II

While we long to use our words and stories to help the reader deepen or develop their relationship with God, readers like to be entertained. They want something that will make them chuckle, or smile, or experience a full-on belly laugh. But using humor can be risky. The wrong joke at the wrong time or a misinterpreted comment can frustrate, or even disgust, a reader. You certainly don’t want either of those to happen.

Watch the January 30th Replay

Larry J. Leech II, editor-in-chief and acquisitions editor at Bold Vision Books, shares five tricks for adding humor to your writing. Larry has spent more than 40 years working with words. After a 23-year journalism career, Larry moved into freelance writing and editing in 20004. He has ghostwritten 30 books and edited more than 400 manuscripts. His freelance clients have won more than 70 awards in the last eight years.

Novel Marketing Conference Recap with Johnnie Alexander and M.N. Stroh

Writers Chat cohosts Johnnie and Melissa (M.N.) are joined by surprise guest Kathy Brasby to talk about their experiences at the recent Novel Marketing Conference, hosted by podcaster extraordinaire Thomas Umstattd Jr., in Austin, Texas. This first annual conference focused on marketing for both fiction and nonfiction authors. One of the key benefits to was the opportunity to network with a terrific group of talented authors and industry professionals.

Watch the February 6th replay

Putting Romance in Every Genre with Daniel Kaplan

In this episode of Writers Chat, AutoCrit coach and workshop creator, Daniel Kaplan, leads the discussion of exploring the delicate art of blending heartfelt romance with complex storylines. How do you ensure that your love interest is more than a mere object of affection and avoid the pitfalls of contrived relationships that can derail your story? Daniel discusses strategies to sidestep these common errors, creating romance that amplifies your narrative’s impact, enriches character development, and captivates your audience from start to finish.

Watch the February 13th replay

Creator of 24 writing workshops and multiple courses for AutoCrit, Daniel Kaplan is passionate about dynamic education presentations and coaching authors. With over a decade of experience, his mission is to demystify intricate artistic concepts and make them accessible to everyone.

Writers Chat is hosted live each Tuesday for an hour starting at 10 AM CT / 11 AM ET on Zoom. The permanent Zoom room link is: http://zoom.us/j/4074198133

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: