Romance Weekly: Writers Write…

Do you like to read romance novels? Wouldn’t you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well, you came to the right place! Join the writers of Romance Weekly as we go behind the scenes of our books and tell all…… About our writing of course! Every Tuesday we’ll all answer the same questions and after you’ve enjoyed the blog on this site, we’ll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride. Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.

Have you come from Romance Writer Kim Handysides’ blog? http://kimhandysides.com Great. If not, jump back after reading this.

This week’s cool questions come from Jo Richardson.

1. How often do you write?

Most days, but not everyday. I write as long as I can when no one is at the house with breaks for Facebook and walks to clear my head. At least two hours of writing are done each day wile I’m sitting in the car waiting for my daughters at their activities. With no Internet access and complete silence, it’s one of the best places to concentrate.

1. Do you think it’s important to your craft to write as much as you can, and as often as you can?

Yes and no. No one can improve in writing skills if they don’t actually write. And over time, I feel like I’ve improved some basic skills in writing like sentence structure, avoiding passive sentences, showing v. telling, etc. The more I write, the more my writing is closer to where I want it to be on the first draft.

Writing alone, however, doesn’t make a good story. I’ve read stories where it feels as though the person rushed through to finish, but never connected to the characters. A quick first draft is great, but if the time is never put in to solidify the plot and flesh out the characters, then the story can fall flat. There needs to be time to think and plot and come up with creative ideas. I’ve taken days to play with plots and make sure that everything is interesting throughout the story. Many of those days, I don’t add any new words to the story.

I’ve tried to write super fast, but I’m so picky about word choice that it’s nearly impossible to write straight through a scene without pausing to use a thesaurus or Google a location or flight schedule or other random fact. My pace is also slower than most people because I hate leaving a sentence unfinished. If a word isn’t right, I obsess over it until I find the perfect way to phrase my thoughts. One sentence can take ten minutes if I’m struggling with it.

1. What is your opinion on the saying “if you don’t write every day, you’re not a writer”?

If a person writes, he or she is a writer. Writers may only be able to write on weekends, on vacation, or maybe every Thursday afternoon when the kids are at soccer practice. That said, practice is important in any craft. And if a person wants to be successful, he should improve his chances by writing more.

Write because you love it, practice because you want to improve, and work hard because you have goals.

 

You’re now in for a treat, Ronnie Allen is the next stop.http://ronnieallennovel.com/gemini/blog-1 Her book “Gemini” will be published soon. Psych’ meets ‘House.’ An assertive, sometimes aggressive screw the protocol psychiatrist who happens to be psychic & clairvoyant, uncovers and then tracks a female psychopathic predatory murderer.