Know The Rules So You Can Break The Rules

“Know the rules well, so you can break them, effectively.” -Dalai Lama XIV

“Know the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist” -Pablo Picasso

These are just two quotes that touch on the subject and since they’re from world renowned individuals, I think they must hold some weight. I think this notion of knowing the rules so you can break them holds especially true for the art of writing. Good writers who break the rules well are like the little blades of grass that peek up through the cracks in concrete—they shouldn’t be able to grow, they shouldn’t have the strength on their own to push through concrete—but they do, and sometimes, those weeds become flowers.

Whenever one of my writer friends says “You shouldn’t use adjectives” or “You shouldn’t waste too much time on mundane activities” what always comes to mind are two of the greatest fantasy writers of all time—J.R.R Tolkien and George R.R. Martin. They constantly break these two rules and many more in their work and not only do they get away with it, the are celebrated for it, which makes most writing advice out there, somewhat invalid. If they can do it and become world-class writers despite these common writing mistakes, why can’t I?

This is where knowing the rules comes in. If you know the rule, why it’s a rule, and why so many people tell you to steer clear of it, you then know how to use it to your advantage. The reason is, by knowing the rule inside and out, and knowing your writing is good, simultaneously, you know that you’re breaking the rule effectively.

Tweet from @PageTurner on Twitter.

If you break the rule in a bad way, like opening a scene with someone waking up and the following scene being predictable, then knowing the rule is pointless. But if you know the way you’re breaking it is interesting, unique, effective, and enhances or enriches the story, then not only are you breaking it well, you doing it in a way that will make other writers wonder how you got away with such a writing crime.

James Patterson opened up his bestselling novel, Maximum Ride with the main protagonist waking up, but he jumped right into the action in a fast-paced, and tense scene immediately after that kept readers engaged, enthralled, and made other writers wonder how he managed it.

Likewise, Tolkien went on for several chapters in the Lord of the Rings before the adventure ever began. One whole chapter even describe the dealings between the Bag-End Baggins hobbits and the Sackville Baggins hobbits, and spent another chapter describing a wordy, convoluted scene where Frodo and his friends enjoyed tea from and spent time with Farmer Maggot. Many writing coaches would say to avoid these lengthy scenes and cut them out since they didn’t drive the story or add to the plot in any way.

 However, they’ve remained in every edition since publication and the novels are still celebrated today. It just goes to show if you know the rule like the back of your hand, you know you can break the rule and not only get away with it but be recognized for your writing when it’s done effectively.

For further reading on this topic, check out Steven Jame’s “Story Trumps Structure: “How to Write Unforgettable Fiction by Breaking The Rules” to:

• Ditch your outline and learn to write organically.

• Set up promises for readers—and deliver on them.

• Discover how to craft a satisfying climax.

• Master the subtleties of characterization.

• Add mind-blowing twists to your fiction.

And that’s it for my hot take on how you can break the writerly rules by knowing them inside and out! What do you think about breaking the best-known rules in the writing world? Let me know in the comments below!

Thumbnail photo by Payton Hayes.

—Payton

Spring Break For Writers: 10 Rules For Writing Your Book On The Beach

With Spring break right around the corner, I think it’s high time we start planning out our travel writing goals and getting together a list of things we’ll need to make the most of our writing vacation! Have you ever traveled to write? Or perhaps you’ve written while travelling? No matter the reason you’re on the road, you’ve got an incredible opportunity to get out of your usual writing environment—one of the leading cures to writer’s block, so make use of your time away from home write with your newfound inspiration and motivation!

I spent an entire month one summer (June-July 2016) in Port Aransas, Texas and it was amazing for my creativity. I wasn’t working on a book at the time, but I was writing multiple poems a day and designing my website, the latter of which required charismatic copywriting. Getting out of my usual writing space was monumental for my writing following that summer because it kickstarted my creativity in a way that prepared me for when I got back home and began writing the first draft of my fantasy novel.

Even though I was on vacation, it wasn’t all fun and games. I did have to do some writing to make sure I made the most of my time there. To keep you on track with writing while travelling, I’ve made a list of 10 rules for writing on the beach!

Beachy patio view. Photo by Sabel Blanco.

Secure a stellar view

I’m not kidding. If you don’t have a gorgeous view from your balcony, what’s the point of writing on the beach? Ocean-front lodging is a must if you’re a travelling writer. Not only is the view beautiful and awe-inspiring, but you’ll have plenty of photo opportunities. This is a must-have for any content creator, really.

Set up goals for the trip

Just like any other writing challenge, you should outline your goals. Establish a word count and a daily expected word count and outline your novel. It’s like preparing for NaNoWriMo—in order to make every moment of this creative trip count, you should do as much planning as possible, beforehand. That way, you can focus on writing and enjoying the sun while you’re there. Scrivener is a great tool for story outlining and even has a word count tracker that allows you to set a projected word count and keep track of your daily writing goals.

Soak up the sun and solitude

It’s not everyday you can wake -up feet from the sand and sun—that is unless you actually already live on the beach, which if that’s the case, I a) envy you and b) don’t know why you’re reading this blog post and not enjoying the sun!

Take writing breaks by walking in the sand, sunbathing, and swimming. Enjoy everything the beach has to offer and be sure to really absorb the experience. When you’re writing, enjoy the solitude away from home. No sound, no interruptions, and no distractions. It sounds like a writer’s haven to me!

Make sure to pack all the essentials

There’s nothing worse than getting to your destination and realizing you’ve forgotten something you knew you needed to pack. I’ve made a little mini list for writers to ensure they’ve got all the right tools in their toolkit for writing on the beach.

Don’t forget to bring these essential travel writing items with you on your trip to the beach:

• your favorite pair of sunglasses

• The Novel Planner for Authors by Kristen Kieffer

• On Being Stuck by Laraine Herring

• your Laptop—and the charger!

• your Story Binder with all your writing notes

• a notebook to jot down random ideas and inspiration

• a novel in another genre for leisure reading

• sunscreen. Don’t forget the sunscreen.

• you might bring aloe vera too, just in case…

 Limit your exposure

Vacation means “an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling” and not “checking my phone every two minutes when I should be writing.” Yes, I am talking to you, dear reader. Don’t waste your valuable vacation time reading emails, hanging out on social media platforms, or checking your text messages. Limit your phone use and spend your time writing, reading, and enjoying the beach.

Of course, you do want to make use of that photo opportunity I mentioned earlier. Photos of the beach for Instagram are permitted. Bonus points if you take a selfie of you writing on the beach!

Catalogue the coffee shops

When you arrive, find the best coffee shops for writing and befriend the baristas. You don’t have to do all of your writing in the beach house or in the sand. I’d like to think you’re researching in the coffee shop, reading on the beach, and writing at the beach house/condo. Keep your activities compartmentalized for optimum focus and consume copious amounts of coffee for maximum productivity. Okay, maybe maximum jitteriness is more accurate, but this is my excuse and I’m sticking with it.

Talk to strangers

Yes, I know—your parents told you not to talk to strangers and while in most cases that is decent advice, don’t heed it while travelling. New places + new people = new conversations and new experiences! Chat it up with the locals and try to research your novel. Maybe your YA contemporary has a surfer guy in it? See if you can find a surfing instructor or rando on the beach that can lend their experience to your craft.

Make time for margaritas!

This is especially true if you’re travelling to any of the beaches in Texas. Make time to let lose and enjoy the free time. If you’re on vacation with friends, spend a night out and see the sights your destination has to offer. Grab drinks go dancing with the locals! If it’s just you, pop open a bottle of wine and read under the stars. Even though this trip is an amazing opportunity for writing, don’t forget to do the vacation-y activities as well.

Write, rest, repeat.

In addition to budgeting fun time into your travel schedule, you should also include time off from writing. You don’t have to write the entire trip and you should include some downtime for self-care that doesn’t include partying. Hit the spa, meditate, or strangely appropriate, take a long, walk down the beach and collect seashells at sunset.

Don’t get stuck rewriting.

It’s probably the hardest piece of advice in this entire blog post, but seriously, don’t get stuck rewriting. Work on writing only while you’re travelling and safe the editing for later, once you’re home and once you’ve completed the first draft. I know it can be so hard to quiet our editor brains, but we have to if we want to write effectively. Remember, the edits can wait, but the writing can’t. Stay focused and happy writing.

That’s it for my 10 rules for writing on the beach. This was my spin on another post from Shayla Raquel, so check out her post here! Comment below what you thought and if you’ve ever done any of these or if you have any tips of your own!

Thumbnail photo by Rodnae Productions.

—Payton

How To Write Love Triangles - The Right Way

Hi writerly friends!

This week, in Freelancing, we’re talking about the dreaded love triangle. I know, I know, some of you are moaning and groaning about this, but what if I could tell you there is away to write the love triangle trope in such a way that won’t get you crucified by your readers? What if I told you not all love triangles are bad?

Okay, now you’re rolling your eyes.

But hear me out—the reason bad love triangles are bad is because they’re shallow and have no substance. The characters have no real connection with each other, the reader feels no real connection to the characters, and ever move they make is founded in shallow, superficial misbelief. With these kind of love triangles (most love triangles, if I’m being honest) is that everything is so painfully surface level.

Not only do the characters have no real connection to themselves or the reader, but they lack connection to their internal conflict as well. Everything is stagnant and predictable, and chances are, you’ve got it all figured out by page two. Who wants to read a book where they’ve got the love triangle figured out by page two? I certainly don’t, and I’m sure neither you nor your readers want to do so either. So, is there a way to actually make this plot device interesting? Is there a way to revolutionize the love triangle and breath fresh life into it? Yes. That’s why I’m going to show you the secret to a good love triangle (yes, it does exist). It all begins with know what NOT to do.

Don’t make your love triangle simple

Three friends enjoying an afternoon drink together. Photo by Helena Lopes.

Of course, usually, I would advise the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Sweetie) but this time I’m advising against it. The reason so many love triangles fall flat is because they’re too simple and predictable and the reader can figure it out by the end of the first page. This is old and well overplayed since most of the time we already know who the main character will end up with anyways. The reason it’s a love triangle and not a love line is because it’s supposed to be confusing, complicated, and challenging to the main character (remember the three C’s and you’ll be fine). And perhaps we should do away with love triangles altogether —a love web would probably be the better descriptor for what we’re shooting for, since a web is less linear and therefore lest predictable. Weave together plots and characters’ unique storylines, use suspense, character, pacing, rising and falling tension, and amp up the drama in your love story.

Allow the triangle to bring out the internal conflict

This pretty much applies to any genre or method of storytelling, but if something doesn’t challenge your characters, force them to fight for their desires, confront their fears and upend their entire life as they know it, then the reader will lose interest. Now, I don’t mean they have to go on some crazy big adventure, but whatever internal and external conflicts they are dealing with need to be meaningful, they need to matter, and they need to be able to shape your characters in a non-superficial way. Put your characters out of their comfort zone instead of simple asking “which one will she chose,” especially if by the end of page one, we already know which one she will choose.

Not only is this overdone and sooo predictable, but it’s devoid of the electricity that lights up a story—the internal conflict—when the protagonist is forced to confront their greatest fear, crush their misbelief about the world, and ultimately achieve their greatest desire all while developing as a character and delivering a powerful message to the reader. When it comes to story writing, everything happens for a reason, and therefore, the reader needs to know why something matters to the characters. If the reader doesn’t see why it matters to the characters, then they won’t see why it should matter to them.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret here: you can use any literary device in your story, no matter how cliché or overdone it is, so long as it directly engages with the main characters inner conflicts, brings them to a fear versus desire decision and forces them to reckon with despair before reaching their aha moment that will bring their character development full circle. That’s right, any device. You’re welcome.

If the external conflicts are continuously forcing your character closer to their internal conflict, then you’re doing it right. Additionally, if the other characters are doing the same thing—being forced to confront their internal conflict—then using a love triangle would make so much more sense not only are the external forces at play here, but everyone’s messy emotions and tangled inner conflicts should be at play as well. Consider how your love triangle can cause all of your characters to either confront their fears or run from them?

Make the love triangle a catch 22 for the protagonist

For the most part love triangles should really only be used to force your characters to make a decision they otherwise would shy away from and force your readers to feel for the characters in said sticky situation. Anyone who reads and enjoys the trope will tell you they aren’t reading it because it’s realistic—in fact I’ve venture to guess most of us never have and never will find ourselves in such a predicament but it’s the ability to put ourselves in another’s shoes and feel for them and the tough decisions they have to make that makes the love triangle work.

However, their decision really has to mean something to the character. It needs to be an ultimatum for them, and it needs to really holds weight for it to resonate with your readers. It cannot simply be “which person will I chose”.

no.

No.

NO.

Three college students standing on campus. Photo by Alexis Brown.

The stakes just aren’t high enough and pressure for the reader to stay invested isn’t painful enough in this case. It goes way deeper than that—it goes all the way to your protagonist’s deepest fear and greatest desire.

Ask yourself these questions before using the love triangle

There are a few questions to ask yourself before writing the love triangle. It might take you a while to come up with the answers for these but trust me, it will make writing convincing, compelling, and challenging situations for your character much easier and you will better understand how the love triangle is directly linked to the characters internal conflicts. Additionally, your readers will be so engrossed in your story, they won’t even notice that you’ve just revolutionized one of the most hated tropes of all time. 

Here are the questions:

• What is my protagonist’s inner conflict and how did it lead them into this love triangle?

• If they’re being honest with themselves, the real reason they’re stuck in this love triangle is because_________?

• How does this love triangle cause all three characters to face their fears?

• What would it take for the protagonist to overcome their fear and make the right choice?

• How high are the stakes and how hot is the fire beneath the protagonist’s feet to make a decision?

Answer those questions and you’ll know how to link the internal conflict and the love triangle in a meaningful way. Trust me when I say, as long are you’re drawing on the internal conflict, you can’t go wrong and the reader certainly will be invested. It’s all in the way you play with the protagonist’s greatest desire and deepest fears.

And that’s it for my guide on how to do love triangles the right way. I know, unpopular opinion, but I think they can be done, and well, I might add. I think the reason we’ve seen so many badly written love triangles, is because it’s a plot device (something used to drive the plot) and instead writers are using it as a surface-level element. Over the years, we’ve forgotten how to really use this device effectively and that’s why it had gotten to exhausting and boring to read over and over again.

Anyways, that’s it for this week’s post in Freelancing. I hope you enjoyed reading this and if the guide helped you better your love triangle game, let me know in the comments below! Don’t forget to like and sign up for my email newsletter to get awesome, actionable writing advice straight to your inbox each month! As always writerly friends, thanks for reading!

Further reading:

• How To Write The Perfect Meet Cute

• How To Write Best Friends to Lovers Romance - That Feels Realistic

• The Top 10 Worst Romance Tropes EVER

• 5 Supernatural Romance Reads for February 2020

• 5 Contemporary Romances Everyone Should Read

• Classic Romance Reading Challenge for February 2020

—Payton

How to Write Hate-To-Love Romance

Photo by Rodnae Productions.

Hey writerly friends!

Today, we’re talking about my absolute favorite type of romance and that is hate-to-Love romance. This is the kind of romance that buds in Becca Fitzpatrick’s romantic thriller, Hush, Hush. It’s the kind of romance where the story starts out with the couple-to-be hating each other before they come to realize they actually love each other. These types of stories start out with disgust, resentment, and hatred and end with the characters realizing they’re in fact, perfect for each other.

As you might imagine, a lot of character development has to happen between the beginning and the ending of hate-to-love romances for this change of heart to seem believable to the reader. Is it tricky to write? Yeah. But is it totally worth it? Yeaaaah!

Looking back on my own writing, I’ve noticed I use this trope a loooot and I really enjoy reading it too. I’ve also noticed a ton of other people really enjoy this trope as well and unsurprisingly, a few great examples of hate-to-love romances are Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. There are of course tons more of examples, but for the sake of this blog post, we’re going to discuss these two classics.

Although it rarely happens in real life, hate-to-love romance is a pleasure to read and a pleasure to write because it makes your story a thousand times more dynamic and interesting due to the big change of heart and the extensive character development that must take place to pull this kind of romance off. When done well, these kinds of stories are incredibly addictive and are hard for readers to put down.

So with my experience of writing and nerding out about hate-to-love romance, today I am going to show you how to craft a realistic-feeling and brilliant story arc that will take your characters from enemies to more-than-friends.

Step 1: Establish the reason for all the hate

First off, we have to establish why our MC’s hate each other. Whether they’ve hated each other for a long time, or they’re only just now meeting for the first time and aren’t exactly hitting it off, no one hates without a reason. Hate is the flip opposite of love and as such can be an equally strong feeling, therefore we need the reason behind it to be just as strong. What “hate” boils down to in this context is a negative judgement one character makes about another based on their misbelief or perspective.

So, what negative judgments do your character make about each other?

Matthew Macfadyen as Mr.Darcy and Kiera Knightley as Elizabeth Benet in Pride and Prejudice (2005).

Let take Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for example, where Elizabeth first meets Mr. Darcy and is immediately put off by his palpable pride and arrogance, not to mention his miserable expression and on the other hand, we have Mr. Darcy who can describes the laughing, and lighthearted Lizzie as “barely tolerable” and is repelled by her family and their lack of propriety. It’s definitely not a smooth start to one of the greatest love stories of all time.

Bad impressions are usually the root of all dislike. When we don’t know someone, we try decide whether or not we should trust them and when they display any sign of being unlikable in our eyes, our brains, and hearts are quick to judge.

Writing exercise: The First Meeting

If you’ve never written the first meeting of you MC’s into their backstory (even if it doesn’t show up in the actual story) I highly, highly recommend doing so. Write out the scene, feel the tension, and get to know the reason for their disliking each other like the back of your hand. I’m serious. Write out the scene start-to-finish and fully understand what their reason for hating each other is and trust me, once you do you will have a much easier time writing about them and their mutual dislike of one another.

Step 2: Who hates who?

Relationships, even ones hewn from hate are usually a lot more than just “we hate each other.” As you can imagine from the first step, there is so much more tension and conflict boiling under the surface. What if it’s much deeper than that—what if the bad feeling isn’t exactly mutual? What if person A hates person B but person B is in love with person A? That makes for a much more tense, more conflicting love story, especially if they end up together after all. Talk about drama! The plot thickens, my writerly friends, the plot thickens!

Although this is still hate-to-love romance, this kind of imbalance throws a monkey wrench into an otherwise simply romantic relationship and is one of my absolute favorite tropes to write because you can throw in all kinds of twists and turns that will throw off the reader while they’re concerned with the almost tangible tension of the main characters.

Megan Follows as Anne Shirley and Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables (1985).

Let’s take Anne of Green Gables, for example. The two main characters, Anne and Gilbert get too pretty bad first impressions of each other when he teases her on her first day of school and she breaks a writing slate over his head. Yeah, not a good first impression, guys. Not good at all. However, what Anne doesn’t realize is that Gilbert actually likes her, despite his boyish teasing and their competitive relationship that follows that first encounter. He likes her fiery spirit and determination to better him and the reader quickly becomes swept up in their relationship because they want to know what kind of change of heart will happen to these two dynamic and opposing characters.  But you know what they say about opposites attracting, right ? What happens when they both change their minds about each other? Then, my friends, we have a wonderfully romantic mess on our hands.

Step 3: The Middle-Ground of Friendship

Thirdly, DO NOT forget the halfway point between love and hate, friendship. Nothing will make your hate-to-love romance seem unrealistic more so than leaving out this key story arc. You must, must, must have this to make a flawless and believable transition between your characters hating and loving each other. A change of heart never comes suddenly. It’s not an overnight thing; it happens over time. I like to think of it like the alphabet; between A and Z there are twenty-four other letters that act as steppingstones for the characters to bridge the gap and experience the change of heart needed for any good hate-to-love romance. Use these other letters, these other moments that take place in the middle-ground to make the hate-to-love transition believable to your readers. This time is great for building your character’s friendship or forcing them to make do with “we don’t know what this is and we’re getting along, but it’s weird.”

Step 4: Let the Change of Heart Go Unnoticed

This makes for an extremely effective hate-to-love transition, especially when the character’s themselves are unaware of it, even if the reader can tell what is going on.

For example, at the end of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth asks Mr. Darcy when he started to fall in love with her and he replies:

“I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”

Ugh, can I just??

See, even Mr. Darcy didn’t know the exact moment he’d fallen in love with Elizabeth.

Step 5: Let Your Characters Resist Love

Chances are your characters have been hating each other for a long time, whether in the backstory or over the course of your own novel, and anything new, unfamiliar, or different will likely scare them. They’ve been hating each other for all this time and now, romance and love are uncharted waters for these people. Chances are that when they first feel love after hating each other so long, they’re not going to admit they were wrong right away and start loving each other—no, they’ll probably experience some friction. They’ll likely be thinking, “Eww, is this what emotions are like? Get it off of me!” or something to that effect.

This adverse effect to the change in heart that occurs in hate-to-love romance is what makes this trope so enjoyable and often comical. The psychological side of it is that we often resist any type of change, especially changes in heart from enemies to friends and more. When our hard-won beliefs are challenged, our first instinct is to dig our heels in even deeper and resist the new emotions. What happens to the characters in these critical turning points is they are experiencing three key emotions that we absolutely must dive into and that’s a) vulnerability, b) fear, and c) desire for comfort. The characters, just like us, are afraid to step out of their comfort zone and into uncharted waters. They’re afraid to try new things, feel new emotions, and welcome change of any kind, and the character should display these feelings of resistance in your hate-to-love story as well.

Of course, their attempts to stay on the warpath are  futile and both you and your reader knows this. However, you have to at least let them try. Give them some time to wallow in these misguided, resisting emotions and allow them to grow from it. If your characters caved to the first shred of affection they felt from their nemesis, then your readers won’t be please, I can tell you that much.

Megan Follows as Anne Shirley and Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables (1985).

Let’s go back to Anne of Green Gables, shall we? It takes Anne a lot of time and introspection to realize she does indeed have feelings for Gilbert. She has to swallow the hard pills of her pride and stubbornness and come to grips with the fact that she was wrong all this time—not an easy realization for anyone.

Of course, your characters’ hate-to-love story will be unique to them—but how they handle the transition and how it shapes them and effects them as the story progresses—that’s what the story is truly about.

That’s it for my 5 Tips for Creating Irresistible Hate-to-Love Romance. What do you think of these tips? Do you enjoy reading or writing hate-to-love, or both? What are some of your favorite hate-to-love novels or films? Let me know in the comments below!

Further reading:

• How To Write The Perfect Meet Cute

• How To Write Best Friends to Lovers Romance - That Feels Realistic

• The Top 10 Worst Romance Tropes EVER

• 5 Supernatural Romance Reads for February 2020

• 5 Contemporary Romances Everyone Should Read

• Classic Romance Reading Challenge for February 2020

—Payton

10 Heart-Warming and Heart-Wrenching Scenes for your Romantic Thriller

Hi writerly friends!

Welcome back! This week, we’re talking about five heart-warming and 5 heart-wrenching scenes to write into your romance novel! I can’t remember where I first heard of writing different/alternate scenes to get you unstuck from a difficult scene, but I figured I’d put my own spin on it! You don’t actually have to include these in your story but they’re excellent writing prompts to set within the realm of your own story and it makes a great writing exercise if you’re stuck in the middle of a scene.

Lock them up ❤️😂

While this sounds more like a heart-wrenching scene, I have seen some pretty funny scenes come out of characters being locked in a room with one another. Consider what dialogue you could use here and how this memory will help build their character prior to the story.

Kill someone 💔

I don’t mean literally! But kill your characters to see how their leaving the story changes the outcome. Consider how the other characters would react if the main character died. How would the story go from there? How would it ever get told?

Photo by Rodolfo Clix.

I wouldn’t exactly do this if the story its told in first person and in the POV of the character you chose to kill, but consider how the story would be different if he remaining characters had to carry the story to completion after the death of your MC.

What could go wrong? ❤️😂

As yourself this question when writing a scene you’re stuck in the middle of and then write exactly what can go wrong. I did this in one of my short stories and it worked wonders. This is especially great for best-friends-to-lovers stories where comical situations only bring the friendship even closer.

Their pet escaped 💔

This can go either really well or really badly depending on how you write it. Pretend as if of your characters pet has escaped and they enlist the help of their best friend of love interest to rescue it. This can come out very Cheetah Girls, or dog runs away for good. The point of this is to put your characters in an emotionally demanding situation to see how they’ll react under pressure.

It’s their wedding day ❤️

If you know two of your characters will end up together, write out their wedding day down to all of the nitty gritty details like dress sizes, color palettes, types of flowers, menu and everything in between. Vividly write it out and include the character’s stress of trying to have a perfect wedding day along with the immense joy of getting married to their soulmate.

Kidnapped or runaway? 💔

Write an entire chapter where your main character gets kidnapped and its up to their friends, family, or love interest to find and rescue them. This can be an especially heart-wrenching scene if the kidnapper gives them a ransom or time limit. This can be an especially heart-warming scene if the character in question isn’t in fact kidnappe, but rather they run away and their love interest is the only one who can convince them to come back. If the love interest runs away with them to make sure they’re safe, it will be extra sweet!

They’ve been drugged ❤️😂

Again, this sounds like a heart-wrenching scene, but I promise, it’s not. Remember the part of Stranger things when Steve and Robin were drugged by the Russians and they were so loopy and useless to their friends? Write your characters into the exact same situation and see what kind of hilarious dialogue comes out of it and how they get to know each other better. One rule though, don’t re-watch Stranger Things until after you’ve done this so that you won’t accidentally plagiarize! Not cool!

They’ve been framed 💔

Write an entire scene where your main character just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and they were framed for a terrible crime in their hometown. Write everything from their emotions and thought process to how their friends and family would prove their innocence. If they have any enemies, write how they’d help stack the cards against them. If you want, you can even write them going to jail and document their experience.

Talent show contestants ❤️😂

Write your characters into a good old-fashioned high-school-style talent show. Write out their process for figuring out their talents and deciding what they’ll do for the show, the actual show, and everything afterward. Consider what would happen if they messed up on stage and if their friends or love interest would step in to save them from embarrassment, or if they’d run off stage, sobbing. What would it take your main character to win the talent show?

Dreams and nightmares 💔❤️

While this works for both heart-wrenching and heart-warming categories, write what kind of dreams your characters would have. Write about what their subconscious shows them and describe them in vivid detail. If they have nightmares, write the wild things they see and if they have happy dreams, show us what kind of dreams would make them stay in bed longer.

And that’s it for my five heart-warming and five heart-wrenching scenes to write when your stuck in the middle of a scene. What did you think of these prompts? Do you like writing about other scenes to get yourself unstuck? Are there any other prompts I could have included? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and as always, thanks’ for reading!

—Payton

How To Write Best Friends to Lovers Romance - That Feels Realistic

Hi writerly friends!

I’m back this week with another romance writing guide. Next week we’ll be discussing how to write believable hate-to-love romance, so I thought it’d be a great warm-up to show you guys how to writer believe best-friend-to-lovers romance. This is obviously a steppingstone and acts as the middle ground between enemies and more-than-friends in hate-to-love romance, so as you might expect, you can’t have one without the other.

However, your characters don’t always have to start out hating each other, they can indeed go from friends to lovers in a single story. Funnily for us, and embarrassingly for your characters and readers, it’s not exactly a straight shot, no—it’s a pretty rocky ride from best friends to lovers and it can be a tricky-to-write trope.

It’s unsurprising that the characters will have a bumpy time getting from one side to the other, as one is decidedly platonic and the other is decidedly romantic, and the transition from friends to lovers can be tough to read, even tougher to write, and often employs tons of awkward exchanges and cringe-worthy moments.

So, how do you write best-friends-to-lovers romance that is realistic and believable to the reader?

Step 1: Embrace The Weirdness

 As you might expect, writing best-friends-to-lovers romance stories is going to feel weird, because plot twist, going from best-friends to lovers is weird! Not unearthing any best kept secrets, her—everyone knows it’s a weird shift, especially if you’ve known each other since childhood. So, when writing this trope, don’t shy away from all the weirdness, awkwardness, and embarrassing, gross feelings that happen, because it’s completely natural and these feelings should be present in the story. In fact, the reader should be able to pick up on these feeling and feel weird about it too. Secondhand embarrassment is a thing, and it’s something we want our readers turning pages to get to a point in the story when everything makes sense again and the awkwardness has died down a bit.

However, don’t go so far as to make it unrealistic. Yes, at times the uncomfortableness of the transition should be almost palpable to the reader, but keep the balance between rising and falling tension so that readers stay on the edges of their seats and grit the teeth at all the right moments.

Step 2: Determine Whether the Love is Mutual or Unrequited?

Before we get into the story structure for this trope, ask yourself whether the love between your characters or if it’s unrequited. This is very important to how the story will play out and what choices your characters will make based on their emotions, especially towards the resolution. Both routes can be delicious and heart-wrenching in their own right but know which one you’re going to go with in your own writing, will make the process a lot easier.

Jonah Hauer-King as Laurie Lawerence and Maya Hawke as Jo March in Little Women (2017) Photo by PBS.

To make it easier to chose which path your story will take, I’m going to give you a couple of examples, the first being Little Women  by Louisa May Alcott, and the second being Emma by Jane Austen, (and no, I didn’t just pick these two because they involve someone being gifted a piano, but man isn’t that romantic?)

In Little Women, Laurie’s love goes unreturned when Jo tells him she never saw him as more than a friend. This sends him to Europe to avoid his heart break. When he returns after falling for Jo’s sister, being rejected again, and being inspired to do something with his life, he asks Jo to marry him. She rejects him again and ends up marrying someone else, but this story is a prime example of a best-friends-to-lovers romance that took a turn when the love was unrequited.

On the flip side, Emma, by Jane Austen Emma is startled to realize after everything, she is the one who wants to marry Mr. Knightly. When she admits her foolishness for meddling in the romances of others, he proposes, and she accepts. This is a great example of friends who become lovers where the love is returned.

Step 3: Follow The Structure

Alright, now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about the parts of the BFTL story structure (at least that’s the acronym I’m giving it because that’s just way to much to type every time, sorry, not sorry.)

Whether or not you go by the 3-Act Story Structure, every best-friends-to-lovers romance typically follows this basic format:

• Foundation

• Set-up

• Aha moment

• Conflict

• Decision

• Resolution

• Foundation

The first part of the structure for this trope is the foundation, where we are introduced to all core story elements, characters, setting, premise and theme. Here, the reader will get to know what exactly the story they’re reading is.

Set-up

The second part of the structure is the set-up. This is where the meet cute would occur in romance, and for best-friends-turned-lovers romance, it is no different. Introduce the characters, their relationship at this point in the story, and begin laying the groundwork for the transition from best-friends to future lovers.

Click here to read my blog post for creating the perfect meet cute.

While your story might be set preceding or following the formation of your characters friendship, it is important to know how and when they became friends, because if they become lovers later on, this will be an important part in the evolution of their relationship.

Aha Moment

This part of the story is when the characters first realize they are in love with each other. If you chose to go with the unrequited love path, then here, they would learn that one likes the other and decide they don’t feel the same way in return. Consider what path you take for this part because it will really determine how the rest of the story plays out.

 Does the one who is rejected continue pursuing their friend romantically, or do they give up on the first try? Does the one who only views their friend platonically have a change of heart and end up with their friend after all? Is it a messy back and forth that never really ends with the two friends becoming lovers? Is the timing ever right? These are all important questions to ask yourself during the aha moment, because it directly drives the following course of the story.

Conflict

Remember the questions I just asked you in the aha moment section? Those questions should be asked and answered in the conflict of the story. Here we see the true feelings come out and the characters will understand the scope of the situation before them.

Decision

Saoirse Ronan as Josephine "Jo" March and Timothée Chalamet as Theodore "Laurie" Laurence (2019). Photo by Wilson Webb .

In the decision part of the best-friends-to-lovers romance, readers will see what choice the characters make based on everything they know at this point and their emotions. They might decide to get together or break up as friends, for good. Everything that has happened has led to this moment and how they react will change the course of their friendship forever. If the love is unrequited, maybe they just stay friends, but it is likely things will be weird and they’ll have to go their separate ways, like Laurie and Jo in Little Women. Perhaps they do end up getting together and marrying with a happy ending such as Emma and Mr. Knightly in Emma.

Resolution

Where do your characters go from here? How does the friendship grow or die after the decisions are made? Is there room for growth as friends and lovers or have they done irreparable damage to a good thing? Unrequited love stories are especially juicy and heart-wrenching in the resolution.

And that’s it for my guide on how to write best-friends-to-lovers romance stories that are believable and realistic. What do you think of these types of stories? Did you like Little Women and Emma? Do you prefer writing mutual or unrequited love? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and as always, thanks for reading!

Further reading:

• How To Write The Perfect Meet Cute

• How to Write Hate-To-Love Romance

• The Top 10 Worst Romance Tropes EVER

• 5 Supernatural Romance Reads for February 2020

• 5 Contemporary Romances Everyone Should Read

• Classic Romance Reading Challenge for February 2020

—Payton

How To Write The Perfect Meet Cute

Glen Powell as Charlie Young and Zoey Deutch as Harper in Set It Up. Gif by Payton Hayes.

Hello, writerly friends!

Today, we’re discussing the meet cute. What the heck even is a meet cute anyways? Well, according to Google, is an amusing or charming first encounter between two characters that leads to the development of a romantic relationship between them.

Of course, the way you do the meet cute is completely and totally up to you—it can be cute, funny, or disastrous and comical. How you do a meet cute is completely subjective and can be created in a number of ways, but today I am going to show you how to make a meet cute even cuter—like the cutest it could possibly be.

When the reader sees the meeting coming, characters do not

While you can craft a meet cute where both the reader and characters do not see it coming, I think it’s extra interesting when the reader does, because it’s like this little secret between the writer and the reader. I really love meet cutes that do this. It’s like the sense of rising dread you get when you’re reading parts of a story with building tension—except that it’s a good kind of dread because you want the characters to end up meeting. The reader knows something good will come out of this chance encounter, only they know it’s coming, and the characters do not.

Flinn is surprised when Rapunzel hits him with a frying pan during Disney’s Tangled’s meet cute (2010).

A great example of this kind of meet cute is in Disney’s Tangled, when Flynn Rider is running from the law and seeks refuge in Rapunzel’s conveniently hidden tower. We already know Rapunzel is inside and he definitely climbed up the wrong tower. The scene that follows does not disappoint, when Rapunzel smacks him in the face with a frying pan for climbing through her window. I would consider this a comical meet cute, but it works extra well because the viewer knows what will happen before the characters and it builds for extra spicy first meeting.

Joe Bradley wakes a sleeping Princess Ann in Roman Holiday (1953).

Another example of a meet cute where the viewer/reader knows of the meeting before the characters actually meet is Roman Holiday, when Princess Ann shirks her royal responsibilities to see Rome for herself and eventually ends up falling asleep on a street. When the scene shifts to Gregory Peck playing cards with the guys, viewers just know the two are going to meet. After his night out, we see him walking down the same street Ann has fallen asleep on and we’re already anticipating their meeting.

Milo Ventimiglia as Jess Mariano and Alexis Bledel as Rory Gilmore in Gilmore Girls (2000).

Another example of a meet cute where the characters don’t know they’ll be meeting it is in Gilmore Girls, Season 2, Episode 5. Not only does this episode include Jess' first appearance, but it's also the first episode that Rory and he meet. He steals her copy of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," only to return it to her later in the episode with notes in the margins because Ginsberg is love, you guys. Ah, Jess Mariano — you book thieving-and-annotating bad boy. When Jess swipes Howl from Rory’s room during that ill-fated dinner hosted by Lorelai, and then returns it filled with margin notes, Rory was definitely impressed. (And so were we.) This scene effectively sets up the characters before they even know each other, themselves and shows us that there’s more than meets the eye, both for the mischievous Jess and their tumultuous relationship down the line.

This kind of meet cute makes the reader feel smarter because they know something the characters don’t. This is why it feels like a special little secret between the reader and the writer because the reader feels like he or she has already figured the story out. This is especially effective if you have plot twists and turns later on in the story, because the ground work for the surprises will already be laid out for you.

Characters don’t know they’ll be seeing a lot of each other

Piggybacking on the idea that the characters don’t know they’ll end up together, another meet cute that works really well in many stories is when the characters don’t know they’ll be seeing a lot of each other and/or aren’t too thrilled about it. This is especially fun for awkward situations where the character thinks “oh well, I’ll never see them again anyways,” and then come to find out that they will be seeing them again, and a lot more at that. Awkward is cute, writers.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dido Elizabeth Belle and Sam Reid as John Davinière in Belle.

Pro tip: a sense of awkwardness or secondhand embarrassment is a fantastic feeling to give the reader. It’s as strong as , if not stronger than fear or desire, because its such a vulnerable emotion and it’s one we go out of our way to avoid. If you can invoke this in your reader, then congratulations, you’ve effectively written something that makes people feel.

A great example of this type of meet cute is in the movie Belle, when Dido and John run into each other on her late-night walk. She is startled at first when she finds that he actually came bringing news for her uncle and even more so when she discovers her uncle is John’s tutor and they’ll be seeing a lot more of each other.

Another example of this type of meet cute is in Jane Eyre when Jane first meets Mr. Rochester, he doesn’t tell her who he is, but later when she returns home, she recognizes his dog and realizes the true identity of the man she’d met on the road, earlier that day.

This kind of meet cute is really great because not only does it introduce a whole new level of awkward! but it also allows us to get to know the characters before they know each other and makes their relationship down the road, a lot cuter.

Irony, or something happening that would never happen later in the story

Megan Follows as Anne Shirley and Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables (1985).

This is probably one of the most powerful, yet hard to pull off versions of the meet cute, but if you can nail it, it can prove for a really effective first meeting and adds dept to the relationship later. Using irony in your meet cute makes the meeting 100x better because when these two characters are in love some day and they look back on their relationship later, it will be so funny to look back and think about how ironic their first encounter really was.

One great example of the use of irony in a meet cute is in Anne of Green Gables when Anne Shirley breaks Gilbert Blythe’s slate over his head out of temper when he teases her repeatedly. This was a very effective and ironic meet cute because the two characters would never behave in such a way after they’d gotten together but it really makes for a memorable first meeting.

 “I've loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school." Oh Gil❤️

The second meeting is even more awkward

Okay, the only thing better than making your reader feel the palpable awkwardness is making them feel it twice! (Or three times if you’re gutsy enough!) This kind of meet cute is incredibly effective, especially if you tie it in with the first two where 1) only the reader knows they will meet and 2) they don’t know they’ll run into each other a lot more following the first meeting. This makes for a really, really strong meet cute where the characters and the reader are almost swimming the awkward emotions and the only way to move past it is to keep reading and see how it plays out.

The first meeting happens and once it’s over and done, you can bring it back around for the second meeting which is filled to the brim with potential for even more awkwardness, shyness, embarrassment and dramatic meet cute goodness!

An example of this meet cute is in Downton Abbey when Mary Talbot  and Matthew Crawley meet for the first time, she walks in on Matthew saying some offhanded things to his mother. He is talking about how he will likely be shoved into an arranged marriage with  one of the Talbot daughters since their parents had heard he was a bachelor. She says she hopes she isn’t interrupting anything but of course, that proves to be the case when they meet again later and its super awkward.

Callback to the meet cute

Megan Follows as Anne Shirley and Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables (1985).

All of these are great ways to effectively nail the meet cute for your characters, but you get bonus points for bringing it back up later on in the story. It’s really fun to see the characters in love reflecting on their embarrassing first meeting and makes for a great treat for the reader. A callback is a really effective literary device where something happens in the beginning of the story and is later referenced towards the end of the story in another context, essentially calling it back to the reader’s memory.

Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann and Gregory Peck as Joe Bradley in Roman Holiday (1953).

Some particularly cute examples of this callback to the meet cute is in Anne of Green Gables when Gil calls her Carrot, endearingly, in Roman Holiday when Princess Ann says “So happy, Mister Bradley,” in reference to her muttering “So happy” in her sleep on the street, and in Jane Eyre when Mr. Rochester says, “You always were a witch” to Jane in reference to their very first meeting when he’d said “Get away from me, witch!”

These are just a few really well-done meet cutes and you’ll find it’s always the little things that make these meeting iconic, memorable, and downright adorable.

That’s it for the secrets to the perfect meet cute. Try using them all and let me know what you think. Do you prefer to use one version over another or do you like using them together? Do you ever call back to your meet cutes? What is the most important element of a meet cute? And what are some of your favorite meet cutes? Let me know in the comments below!

Further reading:

• How to Write Hate-To-Love Romance

• How To Write Best Friends to Lovers Romance - That Feels Realistic

• How To Write Love Triangles - The Right Way

• The Top 10 Worst Romance Tropes EVER

• 5 Supernatural Romance Reads for February 2020

• 5 Contemporary Romances Everyone Should Read

• Classic Romance Reading Challenge for February 2020

Thumbnail photo by Natalie.

—Payton

7 Amatuer Writer Worries That Keep You From Taking The Plunge (And Ultimately Don't Matter)

Sometimes amateur writers get hung up on concerns when their worries really aren’t warranted and never end up taking the big plunge into writing. Some writers worry about their craft and the writing process while others worry about the business side of things. Whether its in my writing circles or in online groups, I see novice writers fretting about these seven things constantly, even though they’re not topics that new writers should be concerned with. These seven things hold many aspiring writers back, but once you learn to let these worries go and just write, your craft and career will come much easier.

Idea stealing

First and foremost, this is the single biggest concern most new writers have, especially when it comes to releasing their writing to online social media platforms or self-publishing.

Here’s the thing—ideas are a dime a dozen and when it comes down to the value of an idea versus the value of writing, it is always dependent on the execution of said idea. Most ideas, when it comes to pitching or marketing, are remarkably similar. However, it’s the writing that sets you apart from everyone else. Your worldview and experiences are going to shape the way you tell the story and execute the idea, and that alone is going to make your story vastly different than mine or another writer’s.

While there are some unscrupulous individuals out there, that is a very, very small minority compared to the rest of the creatives in the writing community. If you do encounter someone who is stealing your ideas there are two likely outcomes: 1) the thief likely won’t finish/see the idea through or 2) the thief won’t execute the idea as effectively as you will. If you do have a brilliant idea and any decent writing skill, you shouldn’t worry about hack writers stealing your ideas because the odds are more in your favor—that whatever you write will likely always be better than the writing of the person who is stealing your ideas.

Just a side note: your work is protected by U.S. Copyright law from the very moment you write it down. You can’t copyright ideas, but the expression and execution of these ideas are your intellectual property and they are protected.

Of course, this doesn’t excuse straight plagiarism. Nothing ever can excuse that level of creative theft. If another writer is stealing your words, they should be contacted and asked to remove the plagiarized work from their platforms and if they don’t comply, legal action should be taken. Copyright infringement is a serious offense and should not be taken lightly.  You can help keep the writing community free of plagiarism by reporting any instances of this that you see to the U.S. Copyright Office. You can also learn more about your rights as a creator here.

I could go on and on about this topic but TL:DR: idea stealing isn’t a real issue that novice writer should be too concerned about. If you’re really worried, just stay on the safe side and be careful who you share your work with. I wouldn’t post your entire manuscript online for the entire public to read with abandon but do your research and know that you can share your work with others. Critique partners and mentors are amazing for this purpose exactly. And remember, even if they steal the core premise, their delivery will be vastly different from your own. No two stories are the exact same, especially when writers have different experiences and worldviews.

Being original

This is another concern of novice writers—that they want their writing to be original. If you’ve heard the saying “There’s nothing new under the sun,” then prepare to love it, because I am going to tell you all about why novice writers should NOT be concerned with their work being original. It’s almost impossible to invent a new idea. There is this canon of stories, storytelling techniques, popular tropes, themes, character types, story beats, and other elements of storytelling.  With regard to these things, there is really no originality in most modern writing and classics alike. However, you can be original in your execution. No, I am not talking about killing people here—I am talking about the unique way you tell a story. Jeez—keep up, will you?

Anyway, it’s the execution that makes the idea original—you are putting your own spin on the idea with your own writing style, combination of tropes and character types, and techniques. With that said, you should be conscious of being too derivative. If this is the case, go back to your outline and work more on the idea and its basic elements.

So yeah, there’s nothing new under the sun—big deal. There are tons of new things on the sun, around the sun, above the sun, inside the sun—you get my point, right? It doesn’t matter if the core premise is unoriginal, if the writing style, characters, and delivery is. These original elements can set you apart from the competition in ways that originality in ideas just can’t.

Perfection in the first book or first draft

This has to be one of the biggest hurdles for novice writers and that’s that their work won’t measure up, won’t be good enough, or won’t be perfect on the first draft. Let me tell you something: that’s absolutely right. So, stop worrying about trying to create perfect writing and just write. That’s why we call them rough drafts, right? They aren’t supposed to be your best work on the first try. No, that’s why we revise and edit.

Here are some ways novice writers get all wound up about perfection in the first draft:

• Editing the beginning of the book before you’ve finished writing it

• Sending out early chapters to alpha readers or critique partners and making changes before the work is complete

• Waiting for others to validate the writing

It really doesn’t matter how good or bad your first draft is, because you’re going to edit it. Editing and revising are natural parts of the writing process, so it isn’t worth getting all wound up over trying to execute a perfect first draft. Most new writers get upset because they compare themselves to successful published writers, but almost all books out there are not the first draft edition and have undergone a rigorous editing and revising process before publication. Also, odds are is that any given book is likely not the authors first serious work and is actually the culmination of years of trial and error, experience, and growth in the writing process.  Perfection is overrated. Write first. Edit later. The editing can wait, but the final product cannot, so tell your inner editor to take a hike.

Focusing on publication and marketing

Another thing I see many new writers spin their wheels over and get too concerned with is all of the stuff that comes after you’ve written the book—the publishing process, the querying, the marketing, the launch etc. None of these things matter unless you’ve finished the book.

I see a lot of writers get caught up in the fantasy of what comes after publishing—the dream essentially. The problem is, is that that dream can’t come true unless you execute and write the book first. You can use these things as motivation to drive your efforts, but don’t get caught up in everything that comes after, so much so that you lose sight of the important part and that’s actually writing the book to begin with.

Editors are (not) monsters!

Another concern I see among amateur writers is that they will fundamentally change your book—that your creative vision, your baby will be crushed and ruined by the system and this is why traditional publishing is bad.

1) this is probably one of the biggest myths about the publishing industry EVER. Editors can’t make you do anything and besides, they are there to serve as a handmaiden to the writer. Editors don’t force fundamental changes on authors. Editors don’t just make these kind of lateral moves. The publishing industry is collaborative in nature and no one is forcing writers to make fundamental changes to their manuscript. Professionals make suggestions and the writer makes the changes as his or her discretion.  

2) Writers have a lot of power in the writing and editing process. Aside from the technical and stylistic advice editors give, authors should take most editing advice with a grain of salt and use their best judgement when navigating critiques and editing suggestions. A lot of the editing process is subjective, and worldview can and will impact what suggestions an editor makes.

Take critiques constructively and not personally and see whether they add meaningful changes to the story or should be ignored. Ultimately, you have the say in the direction in which your story goes. Don’t let the fear of red pens and monsters in reading glasses keep you from telling your story. If you get wrapped up in the idea that your book is a sacred creative vision and you can’t stand the idea of others’ suggestions, then truthfully, you are afraid of criticism. This is a serious fear and it should be reckoned with because if you ever hope to publish and have readers, you will have to be able to take criticism, constructive or otherwise.

One way to rid yourself of this fear is to start thinking about your book as a commercial product instead of a sacred piece of art. Once you acknowledge that you are creating a product for consumers—which they will not only buy, but also read, then you will stop thinking of the book as a piece of art with holy, creative meaning. You won’t grow as a writer if you aren’t open to criticism. If you want to read more on this topic, click here.

Negative reviews

Of course, this goes hand-in-hand with handling criticism but to work in a creative and commercial industry, you must be able to accept criticism—both good and bad. If this just isn’t something you are comfortable with, then you aren’t ready to publish and you likely never will be. Stick to writing for yourself if you can’t come to terms with the fact that not everyone will like your work.

I always think of this Dita Von Teese quote every time I talk to a writer who is afraid of dealing with criticism:

“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s, still going to be somebody who hates peaches.” -Dita Von Teese

And the same thing goes for writing. Your book can be the best in the whole world, and there will be someone out there who hates it. We all have our own preferences and opinions and we’re all entitled to them.  You can’t please everyone, so stop trying to now. Write because it’s what you do, be willing to take feedback, and learn to grow from the criticism instead of getting caught up in the negativity.

On the literary side, you will be rejected by agents and publishers and on the self-publishing side, you’ll be rejected by negative reader reviews. It is easier to let go of negative reviews if you think of them as a consumer tool. They’re not for you, the writer—they’re for other readers. As a consumer tool, they have to exist on their own, in this space. Likewise, readers should not be offering craft advice to writers in this space.

Far future planning

The final and most ridiculous concern I see amateur writers getting all wrapped up in is planning waaaay too far in advance. These are the kind of writers that worry about their perfect agent or editor who will be the one to help them with the rest of their books down the line. Sometimes they envision the perfect publisher and spend entirely too much time looking for these things and don’t end up writing the book to begin with.

This is a complete waste of energy and time. The industry is so competitive and constantly in flux, so it is futile to try and plan everything out ahead of time. Focus on the short-term goals—writing and editing the book, creating a killer query for said book, finding an agent who will pick up the book in question, and the marketing for the current book.

Of course, writing ALWAYS comes first, but these are the short-term goals that you should focus on as a writer. You’ll have jam-packed months when the publishing process is in full swing and other, slower months when there is no book to work on or market. Don’t plan too far ahead; it’s a waste of time because you’ll find that nothing really ever goes exactly as planned.

It’s important to remember, you don’t have to stick with any one agent, publisher, or editor. It’s not uncommon to switch between agents or test-run editors before sticking with one for the long term. You need to find the agent that will sell your book NOW and only worry about the other projects when you get to them, down the line. The cold, hard truth about it is this: if you spend all your time planning for your future career and don’t work on finding an agent for your current project, you won’t have a successful career in the long run, and you’ll have just wasted time. This is one of the only instances where being shortsighted comes in handy.

That’s it for my list of the 7 common concerns of amateur writers. These are all things that just don’t matter and constantly hold aspiring writers back from the craft and ultimately, their dreams. These things don’t really matter, at least not in a meaningful way, and definitely not right now. Don’t put your writing career on the back burner out of fear or wasting time worrying about any of these issues, because they’re really not a big deal. It’s good to do a little planning and have a general vision and a strong why, but cross those bridges when you get to them and allow some flexibility to your plan.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Have you heard of any of these concerns before? What is your biggest fear as a writer?

—Payton

8 Questions Writers Should Ask Themselves In 2020

Setting goals and resolutions is an important part of getting ready for the start of a new year and new decade and asking yourself a few critical questions can get the creative ball rolling. Consider these eight questions when outlining your goals for 2020 and think about what achievements and improvements you made in 2019 compared to 2018 and how you’ll bring that momentum forward into the new year.

What is your single biggest priority as a writer in 2020?

Do you want to finally publish your  novel? Are you still writing the story? Are you in the editing phase? Will you self-publish or traditionally publish the story? What part of the process are you currently in and what preparations need to be made to make this goal a possibility in 2020?

Photo by Vlada Karpovich.

As creative individuals, writers often juggle a million different passion projects at any given time, but to effectively execute any one task, we must focus out efforts on one project at a time. What project makes the most sense for you in 2020?

Take it from me —someone who has been officially diagnosed with adult ADHD—when I say I know how hard it is to focus your energy on one thing, but it’s equally as important as it is difficult. I don’t necessarily believe in the Jack of All Trades, Master of None sentiment, but I know if you have too many irons in the fire, you certainly will get burned one way or another.

The truth is that we just don’t have enough time and attention to do EVERYTHING. So, I challenge you to tackle the biggest, scariest project this year, and better yet, early in the year,  to get yourself up over that dreaded hurdle and keep the killer momentum going.

How many books do I want to release in 2020?

This question isn’t just for traditionally published authors with book deals and advances. You know what they say about dressing the part? It’s the same with writing—if you want to be a published author with all those shiny book deals and advances, you must start acting like one now, and moreover, writing like one. If you can write an entire book, move it through several stages of revisions and edits and produce a polished, final copy that’s a feat of strength on its own, especially if you can do it in one year. Additionally, it’s even more incredible if you can do that a few times each year, but that’s what it takes to become a traditionally published and professional writer—consistency, dedication, patience, and perseverance. So, whether public or private, how many books will you release this year? 

How much time will I devote to my writing each day, week, or month in 2020?

Part of being a dedicated and consistent writer is building time into your schedule for writing. This is the key to conquering writer’s block and harnessing your creativity and it’s crucial for any writer wanting to turn their passion into a full-time career. Consider when and for how long you will write every day. It might be a trial and error process but try a few different schedules and see what works for you. You might not be a “Wake up to write at 5 am” person like Amy Landino, but you might be able to squeeze in an hour every night before bed or something similar and less intense. Start with just 20 minutes a day and gradually increase the time so that you reach your desired time block for writing while building the daily writing habit without throwing your existing schedule into chaos.

How much money will I invest in my craft in 2020?

Consider what route you will take and start doing research. Maybe you are self-publishing—one avenue that isn’t cheap. You’ll have to pay for editing, layout and cover design, and marketing. Perhaps it’s time you got you’re a writing services listed on a proper website rather than you’re your LinkedIn profile? Hiring a developer, or at the very least, a designer who will put together your site using  a hosting platform such as Squarespace or Weebly, will set you back a few hundred, depending on the complexity of the site. Maybe you want to learn more about writing by taking a few master classes. Add up all the different ways you can invest in your brand as an author and budget for these expenses so your creative growth in 2020 isn’t gated by money or lack thereof.  

What are my weaknesses as a writer?

Photo by Vlada Karpovich.

We all have strengths and weaknesses and there are a few different methods of determining what your weaknesses as a writer are:

• Have your manuscript professionally critiqued/reviewed.

• Open up your manuscript to beta readers.

• Participate in a critique group for feedback on your writing.

• Have a friend who is well-versed in your genre read your manuscript

Post parts of your manuscript on free reading sites like Wattpad (I wouldn’t post the entire thing for free. Consider posting the first third of the story and adjust visibility as needed. Even though your writing is protected by US Copyright Law, it can be hard to know when someone breaks the law if they aren’t caught. This will better protect your writing against plagiarists.)

Once you’re aware of the trouble areas in your writing, you can work to improve them in 2020.  Writers can have several strengths and weaknesses. Maybe narrative is your forte but dialogue…not so much. Maybe you need to learn how to employ the senses and imagery to create a more immersive and engaging reading experience. Maybe you need to improve your openings or endings. There are plenty of writing exercises to help you build your skill and strengthen these weaknesses.

What are my weaknesses as a marketer?

Many writers cringe at the thought of marketing their writing but it’s not really as scary as it initially seems. It just takes a little doing to get familiar with how marketing works but once you get it, it can be fun. To determine how familiar, you are with marketing what strengths and weaknesses you have, you can do the following:

• Hire a marketing professional or schedule coaching call with one.

• Join author groups online and in person and see how the other members market their work.

• Read books and articles on marketing and follow tutorials on YouTube.

• Research how other authors in your genre have successfully marketed their own novels.

How can I get involved in my writing community?

Photo by Canva.

While marketing is an important aspect of successful businesses in 2020, it’s also important to take care of yourself, both in an out of your craft. I’m not going to get all self-care-lecture-y on you, but you should, for your own sanity, get involved in the writing community both online and locally. I know it’s sort of become a mood to lock yourself away with your coffee and keyboard (or typewriter) and write all day long, but it’s important to have a constructive crew of like-minded creatives to surround yourself with. Other writers can act as sounding boards, sources of inspiration, and often, they have plenty of useful advice and information to freely give. Not only that, but by having critique partners, you strengthen each other’s writing because every manuscript can benefit from a second set of eyes.

Some ways to get involved in the local writing community:

• Join a local writing group

• Joining or forming a local book club

• Attending local or regional writers’ conventions, conferences, retreats, or workshops

• During NaNoWriMo, check for local Come Write-Ins in your area

• Some ways to get involved in the online writing community:

• Join Facebook writer groups

• Join Betabooks.co to connect with beta readers and become a beta reader yourself

Engage with writers and readers in your genre on Twitter and Instagram by using relevant hashtags and commenting frequently on posts you truly love/connect with.

How can I grow my tribe in 2020?

This shouldn’t come as a surprise but like marketing, growing your community’s engagement is going to take some doing. Remember it isn’t and should never be just about the numbers. You want to make real connections with people and develop a group or true fans that will support you. This is your tribe and if cultivated carefully and correctly, they’ll stick around for a long time, through the thick and thin. They in turn will help grow the tribe and the wonderfully vicious cycle repeats.

So how do you grow the tribe? Some ways to inspire engagement on your platforms are:

• Engage with other users on social media, especially in your genre and medium.

• Provide quality, valuable content to readers via newsletter marketing Read my blog post on Newsletter Marketing That Doesn’t Suck here.

• Pay for targeted adds through Facebook and Google (these are proven to be effective due to their highly skilled algorithms)

And that’s it for my 8 questions that writers should ask themselves in 2020. Of course these are just a few guidelines for narrowing down your goals for 2020 and it’s just a starting area. If you’d like to see more questions like these, and if you enjoyed this list, let me know! What are your goals and/resolutions for 2020?

Further Reading

• Spring Cleaning for Writers: 10 Things Every Writer Should Do Before 2020

• 5 Actionable New Year’s Resolutions For Writers In 2020

• 20 Bookish New Year’s Resolutions for 2020

—Payton

5 Actionable New Year's Resolutions For Writers in 2020

1.Share your writing with others more often.

Photo by Ivan Samkov.

It can be hard as a writer to be vulnerable and open to criticism, but it is crucial to our growth and improvement to feel comfortable putting our work out into the world, despite what others say. Always use your best judgment when dealing with criticism to determine if it was constructive or just negativity. But by opening up and letting the world into our stories, we grow and gradually become used to having other eyes on our work. Coming to terms with this is essential for aspiring writers desiring professional writing work.

2. Try a new writing style or medium for telling stories.

Do you usually write in a certain POV or tense? Do your stories typically take on a humorous or satirical tone? What voice do you normally write in? Is your target audience the same every time? Change it up by writing new stories in different ways.

Another way to freshen up the writing process is to work with different methods of storytelling. Of course, audio-visual mediums can be used for storytelling and often are, but I’m specifically referring to the written word—poems, plays, short stories, novelettes, novels, articles, blog posts, and reviews. Consider writing in a different medium to explore and learn new techniques, styles, and practices.

3. Watch, read, and write stories in genres you’re unfamiliar with.

This one likely requires some research but by branching out into a new genre, you learn all kinds of different storytelling techniques and styles that were gated by your own genre. By stepping out of your comfort zone, you open up your craft to new growth. Diving into new genres can seem unappealing at first, but you’ll find all kinds of hidden gems in other genres and the challenge will breed new creativity.

4. Make creativity part of your everyday routine.

I written extensively on consistency and building in time for writing but the gist is this: writing every day makes you a better writer because a) practice does make perfect and b) it acts like exposure therapy by bringing you face-to-face with the fear associated with the writing process (fears of inadequacy or imperfection) often enough that you get used to it and overcome this obstacle.

Photo by Ivan Samkov.

As someone who was incredibly busy and believed in the idea that creativity strikes only at certain time, I used to think this was impossible, but I can assure you it is achievable. Consider one of the previous options such as writing in a new medium. By writing new blog posts for this blog, all the time, I am exposing myself to the writing process and therefore making it increasingly easier to write in my passion projects.

 The blog takes off the looming pressure of trying to achieve constant perfection and allows me to just write freely. Then, when I sit down to write fantasy, it’s easier every day, and since I’m all warmed up from writing blog posts, I can produce better quality work.

5. Learn to enjoy the writing process and not just the end result.

How does that quote go? It’s all about the journey, not the destination? Writing is EXACTLY like that. Our novels and stories are for others to enjoy and the process itself is for us to enjoy. It’s the intimate, scared process of bleeding onto the page, of pouring out our souls, and manufacturing stardust into the written word, and therefore it should be enjoyed.

Writers should completely and fully feel the fear, pain, sadness, confusion, satisfaction, happiness, excitement, and fulfillment, as well as all the other emotions that come with writing. They should wholeheartedly appreciate and understand the process of taking a fleeting thought and sculpting it into a living, breathing idea that takes root in the mind of others. They should value and hold dear the writing process because it is as integral to their being as air to the human lungs.

Photo by Ivan Samkov.

It’s never about the destination, the end product—because it’s not meant for us—it’s meant for our readers. It is however, about the process, the journey, the steps we take to get there and everything we experience along the way—the learning, the reckoning, the weaving of words to form a story. Most writers have a love hate relationship with the writing process and this is as it should be. However, we should also recognize the value and the wild, seemingly untamable beauty in the process.

Alright, let’s liven things up a bit, shall we? Sorry to get all mushy about writing on you there for a second. It’s something I hold dear to my heart so any chance I get, I am going to take the time to discuss the writing process.

That’s it for my 5 Actionable Writing New Year’s Resolutions for 2020! I really love all of these goals because they’re practical, actionable, and sustainable. I know those seem like buzzwords people just toss around, but I do really think these writing resolutions are ones that we all can stick to year-round!

What do you think of my writing resolutions? Do they overlap with your own writing resolutions? What would you add to this list? Comment below and let me know what you think!

Further Reading

• Spring Cleaning for Writers: 10 Things Every Writer Should Do Before 2020

• 8 Questions Writers Should Ask Themselves In 2020

• 20 Bookish New Year’s Resolutions for 2020

—Payton

Writing Every Day: What Writing as A Journalist Taught Me

A photo of the newsroom, FA 115, Rose State College, 2018. Photo by Payton Hayes.

After working as both a social media coordinator and a features writer at a local newspaper, I learned the writing process isn’t as complex as some make it out to be. This job taught me that I don’t have to wait for the right moment for creativity to strike or for the creative muse to grace me with its presence. For years, I believed I could only write during ungodly late hours of the night, when I was in the writing mood, or when I was in the right headspace to do my best work. The truth is that I was a) just procrastinating writing and postponing the growth of my craft and b) was never going to create my best works on the first draft anyways.

The latter has to be one of the hardest concepts to grasp as a writer and I’ve made multiple blog posts addressing it because was probably the biggest hurdle for me to overcome as a creative mind. I don’t doubt that thousands of other writers out there, struggle with this same problem—that writer’s block will pass and when it does you will do your best writing. The thing is—perfection is overrated. Even established, best-selling authors can expect poor quality writing in their rough draft. Its just a fact of the craft that a writer cannot create a perfect draft in the same breath as their first draft. You can read more about this topic in my blog post about blank pages versus bad pages here.

Not only have I learned that I shouldn’t set such high expectations for first drafts and that I should just write instead of waiting for the right moment, but I have also learned that with enough diligence and patience, I can harness and master creativity in an everyday routine. Working at the newspaper required me to adhere to strict deadlines and write on a routine to ensure each step of the publishing process was completed in a timely manner so that the paper made it to the press on time. This was a demanding job, but it taught me a lot about the writing process, even if it was journalism. Journalistic writing often requires you to write way a head of schedule so multiple edits can be made, and fact checking can be done before print. Demystifying the creative process has helped me to overcome writer’s block and the fear that comes with writing. It is certainly possible to commit to creative deadlines and longer projects.

Being a successful, professional writer means you can and must write consistently. Publishers and agents are looking for writers who write because it’s what they do and not how they feel. If all the great American writers stopped writing when they felt writer’s block begin to set in, the list of the Top 100 Books Everyone Should Read would be much shorter than a hundred books.

Another thing is, that if you write every day, you will become a better writer. The more you write and edit your work, the more familiar you become with the writing process. This not only removes the fear that comes with writing, but it is exactly as they say—practice makes perfect. By consistently practicing writing, you are effectively honing your skill and making yourself a better writer.

Over the years, I've learned that writer's block takes two forms; it appears as the lack of motivation to write or the lack of inspiration. While these two forms sound incredibly similar, there's an important distinction—motivation is the reason someone feels compelled to do something while inspiration is the sudden, brilliant creative idea that person feel compelled to create or bring to life.

Lack of motivation typically comes from burnout, wavering between the writer and editor mindset, feelings of inadequacy, and procrastination. Lack of inspiration comes from stagnancy, lack of stimulation, and lack of challenge. The key difference between the two is this: a writer cannot be inspired and unmotivated simultaneously, because inspiration acts as an entity of motivation. When a writer feels inspired, they may push through these negative feelings in order to achieve their goal and see their creation to the end. A lack of feeling inspired might stem from an environment that isn't conducive to growth, lack of stimulation, and lack of challenge.

I was inspired to write the blog post because of the sheer number of comments I get from writers who claim they can only write when they feel inspired or in the right frame of mind, when that is simply not true. What any prolific writer will tell you is that they’ve achieved success because of consistency, patience and dedication. If you truly love your craft and the art of storytelling, you owe it to yourself and your writing to honor these values.

Want to read more about this topic? Boy, do I have great news for you! By signing up for my email newsletter, you instantly get access to my FREE Consistent Writer’s Checklist and tons of other freebies! Click the button below to sign up and DEFEAT WRITER’S BLOCK FOREVER!

Thumbnail photo by Payton Hayes.

—Payton

Bucket List For Writers (Things Writers Should Do WAY Before They Kick The Bucket)

I’m a writer! I love lists! I love buckets! Okay, that third one might not be quite so true—I mean who loves buckets? Apparently, Shayla Raquel, the editorial blogger I borrowed inspiration—and this list—from. Shayla says Catherine Smith of Sooner Not Later first came up with this idea and she even completed 52 bucket list items in 2015. Low whistle. 😏 Impressive.

A lot of the goals on Shayla’s list are actual goals I have on my own bucket list so I thought it would be fun to put my own spin on it by scratching out what I’ve completed and adding my own items as well. Check out Shayla’s list here. I’m going to have to get creative to cross off green eggs and  ham as a vegan!

Make sure to read until the end to get your free PDF version so you can start crossing off items right away!

Without further ado, here’s the list!

Travel

• Go on a writing retreat

• Take the train

• Visit Stratford-upon-Avon to see where Shakespeare lived

• Take a weekend getaway to Walden Pond and live simply for a while—no cell phones!

• Set off on a literary pilgrimage to a site where your favorite author lived or spent his/her time writing

• Visit a printing plant to see how books are made

• Go to a book signing and show support for a local author

• Visit a famous bookstore in another state

• Go to a writer’s convention

• Visit a bookstore or library in another country (like Dublin, Ireland’s “The Long Room”)

• Visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

• Spend a day in the Library of Congress

Experience

• Do something weird just to write about it

• Start a book club or writing workshop

• Use the 5 senses while reading a book

• Write an in-depth book review

• Get a little free library outside your home

• Complete the “100 Books Everyone Should Read” list from Bussiness Insider

• Start a personal library

• Go to the late show at the circus

• Create art out of books that are falling apart

• Read at least one book from every genre

• Cosplay as a book character and see if friends can guess it

• Read a ridiculously difficult book, like Ulysses (Not my line, but OMG! I’ve never read anything truer in my life.)

• Take a character quiz for your favorite story

• Start a savings fund for self-publishing

• Try editing a book

Bookish Buys

• Collect a series

• Buy old books at garage sales—and barter!

• Get an autographed book

• Purchase a real inkwell and quill

• Go to a book signing and get a selfie with the author

• Visit a library

• Buy a beautiful leather (or vegan leather) journal

• Pick up a vintage polaroid camera

• Have a movie marathon based on the books you love

• Buy a first edition copy of a bestseller

• Purchase a handmade book

• Buy a typewriter

• Go on a blind date with a book

Write On

• Win NaNoWriMo

• Get an article published

• Write under a pen name

• Write a poem

• Submit to Writer's Digest

• Write fan fiction

• Send fan mail to your favorite authors

• Write a comic strip or graphic novel

• Write 100,000 words for one project

• Guest blog for someone famous

• Write in a genre that you hate

• Write a letter to your future self

• Self-publish a book

• Send your ready-for-publication book to at least three traditional publishing houses

Personal Development

• Find a mentor

• Write an affirmation statement that expresses all your strengths as a writer

• Buy a book for a child

• Read The Elements of Style

• Donate any unused or forgotten books to a local library

• Donate copies of your book to a worthy cause

• Join at least three writing associations

• Mentor a teen who is interested in writing

• Create a productive writing space

• Trade manuscripts with a close writer friend and critique each other

• Subscribe to a "word of the day" email

• Tutor students in English

• Write a private self-help blog for yourself

Literary Eats

• Host an Alice in Wonderland tea party

• Eat a cake that’s designed like a book

• Try some fictitious dishes

• Make green eggs and ham

• Visit  a coffee shop you’ve never been to

• Have a midnight dinner like in the Night Circus

• Have second breakfast

• Throw a Great Gatsby-themed party

Does a Great Gatsby-themed/Roaring 20's themed prom count?😂

My friend Hailey and I at our 1920’s/ Great Gatsby themed senior prom. Photo by Hailey Donaldson.

It looks like I’ve still got some things to check off my own list! Have you done any of the items above?Comment below and let me know what you think of the list! Don’t forget, the concept goes to Catherine Smith and Shayla Raquel for originally doing this bucket list for writers! Check out Shayla’s list here and Catherine’s Facebook page for Sooner NOT Later here.

If you love this writerly bucket list as much as we do, click here to download the printable PDF version so you can start crossing off items right away!

And that’s it for my writerly bucket list! Have you crossed any of these off of your own bucket list? What did you think? Did I forget anything! Let me know in the comments below!

Thumbnail photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters.

—Payton

Blank Pages Versus Bad Pages - Writer and Editor Brains At War Cause Writer's Block

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” -Jodi Picoult

One thing writers will tell you is that writer’s block is alive and well in most of us, but the reality is that those who claim to experience writer’s block haven’t build up to proverbial muscle memory of writing without editing and it is easier to repeatedly fall victim to bad habits than to take time out to build new ones. Everything comes down to this: writer’s block is defeated by writing. Simple as that. So, why am I telling you all of this? Because once you realize that bad pages are better than blank pages, it will get exponentially easier for you to write despite writer’s block, and eventually it won’t be an issue for you anymore.

What is writer’s block?

Writer’s block, as per Merriam Webster, is the problem of not being able to think of something to write about or not being able to finish writing a story, poem, etc. However, in recent years, the noun has become synonymous with the problem of not being motivated to write, or not being in the right head-space to do your best writing. Subsequently, this has been the definition of writer’s block I’ve come to know well, as it was the version that plagued me.

Blonde woman in a grey sweater, looking at blank pages in an unlined notebook. Photo by John Schnobrich.

Rough drafts

See, here’s the issue with writers that cling to that second definition—everyone’s rough draft is supposed to be ROUGH. There’s a reason that’s why we call them rough drafts. Even New York Times’ bestselling authors and prolific writers create rough drafts. It is foolish to think that your best writing would come from your very first, second or even third drafts. This is why writing is a process and not temporary—it takes time, and usually several iterations to get to the best, most polished version of the work.

Writing and editing

The reason so many writers struggle with cracking out that crusty rough draft and that’s because they have a hard time separating their writer and editor brains. These two modes of thinking are exactly as they sound—the writer brain is the creative one credited with using the creative process and is the one usually struck by the muse and the editor brain is the corrective one that is often employed during the editing and polishing process. The thing is—these two thought processes can’t coexist. This is why it is important to separate the two when you sit down to write, because it is nearly impossible to be creative when you’re using your editor brain, and it is likewise nearly impossible to effectively edit with your writer brain, since the two are diametrically opposed.

Blank pages vs. bad pages

Blank pages are meant for the writer brain and bad pages are meant for the editor brain, specifically in that order. You must write first, then edit later if you want to effectively move through the writing process and better your craft. If you’re only ever stuck on blank pages because the editor brain won’t get out of the way, you won’t grow as a writer and the stories inside you will suffer because of it. However, if you can learn to write despite the writers block, by separating the two modes of thinking, you will find it increasingly easier to pick up the pencil (or keyboard) each time, and your rough drafts will get better over time.

And that’s it for my hot take on Blank vs. Bad pages and how the two brains (writer and editor) at war with each other cause writer’s block! What do you think? Have you ever had writer’s block? Do you agree with this argument? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Further reading:

• Writing Every Day: What Writing as A Journalist Taught Me

• When Writing Becomes Difficult

• 5 Reasons Most Writers Quit

• Self-Care Tips for Readers and Writers

• Yoga For Writers: A 30-Minute Routine To Do Between Writing Sessions

—Payton