jennaharte
by jennaharte
When To Tell Instead of Show in Writing
April 11, 2022 in Writing Romance
Show, don’t tell, is the golden rule of writing. But rules are made to be broken, right? Well, sometimes. While showing brings emotion and depth to your writing, you don’t need it for every scene. Who cares if her cereal snap, crackles, and pops, unless it’s part of the story? In most cases, breakfast isn’t important, so simply stating she had breakfast is enough.
But how do you know when you should tell instead of show? Here are some tips.
Text version is below the video.
The scene does nothing to further the story or tell us about character.
The breakfast scene above is an example of this. For unimportant actions, you can tell or gloss over them so you can quickly get to the good stuff.
Example: Sally woke up early, showered, dressed, ate breakfast, then headed to work to meet her new boss.
Sally’s morning routine isn’t that important. The good stuff happens when she meets her new boss.
Move from one scene to another.
Telling is a way to transition from one scene to the next, especially if the location has changed or time has passed.
Example: Joe had a fitful night’s sleep.
In this case, the writer doesn’t need to show Joe tossing and turning if the point is to let the reader know Joe didn’t sleep well. If, however, Joe was prone to night terrors, and that was an important factor in the story or about Joe’s character, then you would show Joe sleeping.
Example: Joe drove a hundred miles to confront Jane.
Joe driving isn’t as interesting as his confronting Jane. Using telling lets the writer get from where he is at the start of the scene to Jane so the action can occur.
Provide direction or a change in mood.
This example can get tricky. Many writers tell something and follow it with showing, when all they need is the show.
Example: Pat was lost. She looked around not recognizing any of the street names or buildings.
In the above example, the showing sentence (She looked around not recognizing any of the street names or buildings) lets us know she’s lost, so you don’t need the first tell sentence (Pat was lost).
However, sometimes telling can offer direction or a cue to a shift in mood that helps the reader know where the story is going.
Suzie was having the best night of her life. High on life and love and liquor, she stumbled out of the bar. A strong hand gripped her arm, guiding her away from her car and into a dark alley. The odor of rotting garbage and urine made her gag. The man pushed her against the wall, and fear finally broke through the haze.
In this example, we have telling of Suzie’s mood (she’s having the time of her life) and right after, we’re shown that this in fact is going to be a bad night.
To summarize information
Action is where the story is at, but sometimes, you need to provide information such as backstory or setting. Whenever you’re having to jump out of story to drop information or set up the scene, short and succinct is best. Telling can provide the info or setting quickly so that the story can resume.
Joe’s heart jack hammered in his chest and his legs burned as he ran from the car chasing him up the street. He’d always hated running ever since he came in last during the mile run in elementary school.
The first part of the sentence is showing Joe running for his life. The next sentence tells the reader something about Joe’s past. And that’s all we need to know. We don’t need to be shown a ten-year-old Joe lining up with his classmates to run the mile, or what it felt like as they lapped him and then all went back to class while he was still finishing his last lap.
Do you have thoughts on when to tell vs show?
by jennaharte
Camp NaNoWriMo 2022 Plan with Free Printable
March 29, 2022 in Blog
For many writers, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is too big of a beast or doesn’t fit with their writing plans. While 50,000 words in 30 days might seem daunting, the reason for doing it is to challenge yourself to write regularly and meet deadlines.
Camp NaNoWriMo
Enter Camp NaNoWriMo, which lets you set your own goals and projects outside of fiction. Want to revise the book you wrote for NaNoWriMo in November? You can do that at Camp NaNoWriMo. Want to write a play or a short story? You can do that too. Here are other ideas for Camp NaNoWriMo:
- A novella
- Poetry
- Screenplay
- Music
- Nonfiction
- Or, my favorite use of Camp Nanowrimo, finish something already started
If you haven’t been making progress on your writing goals, Camp NaNoWriMo is just the thing to jumpstart your writing habit and make progress. You can set goals more in line with your time and project, but remember, the whole point is to challenge yourself to achieve something, whether that’s finishing a project, plotting a project, or whatever you have that is sitting and not making progress.
Join in Camp NaNoWriMo with Write with Harte
The NaNoWriMo organization holds two Camp NaNoWriMos a year, one in April and one in July. To help you prepare, Write With Harte has a free Camp NaNoWriMo Planner. It’s one page on which you can determine your project, checklists to prepare and for when you’re writing, and a 30-day tracker to track your progress.
Download the Camp Nanowrimo Planner Here.
To help you achieve your romance writing goals, join Write With Harte, which will give you access to a growing library of printables and resources, a profile and blog, the ability to join in groups, including the Accountability Group, and participation in monthly giveaways. It’s free to join, so sign up now!
For 2022, I have a novella I need to finish. Because it’s nearly done, I might throw in completing another partly-written book.
If you’d like to join me, and you’re a member, come check out the Discussion Forum in the Accountability Group.
by jennaharte
Secret Pregnancy/Secret Child Trope: Ideas for Writing an Accidental Pregnancy
February 22, 2022 in Blog, Writing Romance
I have a confession. I hate the secret child trope. It always breaks my heart for the man who loses so much time with his child. I’m not a huge fan of the secret pregnancy trope either. Romance characters are driven, independent, focused, and smart, so how do they accidentally get pregnant?
Along with my own writing, I ghost write, and my client has me write a lot…I mean A LOT…of secret pregnancy and secret child books. As I prepared to start a new series of five books, all with an accidental pregnancy (one is a secret child), I was stuck in finding new ways a couple would accidentally be pregnant without being irresponsible.
I posed the question in a romance author Facebook Group: What are other ways a couple can end up accidentally pregnant that doesn’t involve antibiotics, St. Johns Wort, or being drunk? (Note, I don’t like the drunk scenario as it brings up questionable consent.)
I got so many answers and the thing that surprised me the most was how many said they were the product of or their children were the product of failed birth control pills. Plus, I got a ton of other interesting true-life stories of accidental pregnancy, and few ideas to consider.
Here is the list of ways you could write an unexpected pregnancy in a secret pregnancy or secret child romance:
(Note: These are ideas shared in the Facebook group. Except for medications, I haven’t researched to verify these claims)
Failed Birth Control
As I said, I was shocked at how many authors posted personal stories about failed birth control. Some of them more than once. My research suggested failed birth control would be rare enough that having a group of women (as appear in a series) all have failed birth control would be far-fetched (How many women in your friend group had an accidental pregnancy?) As it turns out, an unexpected pregnancy when using contraception isn’t that uncommon.
Below are a few reasons hormone-based contraceptives might fail:
Interaction with Medications, Supplements, or Other Ingestible Item
- Antibiotics
- St. Johns Wort
- Low-dose or non-estrogen birth control often prescribed for women who have migraines with aura
- Activated charcoal which is popular in skin care, supplements, cleanses, and food (including ice cream and pizza). It’s designed to remove toxins, including medications.
Illness or Conditions
- Flu or other illness that causes vomiting or diarrhea, in which case the pill can be expelled before being absorbed.
- A bicornuate uterus, which is essentially having two uteruses. The women who posted this condition indicated that each uterus acted independently; sometimes brith control worked well on one but not the other. She also indicated that it can lead to high-risk pregnancy as the uteruses are half-normal size.
- Allergies. It seems like if a character was allergic to one form of birth control, they could use another, but you could conceivably create a scenario in which all birth control was problematic.
Other Birth Control Fails
- Failed vasectomy or tubal ligation were listed as the culprit for an unexpected pregnancy by several women in the group. In a twist, one woman shared that her mother blamed a failed vasectomy on her pregnancy to hide an affair. The vasectomy occurred 5-years earlier.
- Condom slips off or breaks
- NuvaRing slips out of place, is expelled, or breaks.
- Pill-fail. Several women reported using the pill correctly and still getting pregnant. A few women said that the birth control pill was sometimes less effective on curvier women.
A Diagnosis of Infertility that’s Wrong
- Endometriosis can make it difficult to get pregnant. Several women were told they had little chance of getting pregnant, in which case, why use birth control?
- Injury can lead to infertility for both men and women, but sometimes the doctor is wrong, and a pregnancy occurs.
Human Error
- Passion turns off common sense
- Rythem Method is an age old method of contraception that requires a woman to be sure about her fertile and not-fertile days in her cycle. Since sperm can live inside the woman’s womb for up to five days, even if she’s not fertile during the sexual act, if she becomes fertile in the next few days, she can end up pregnant.
- Forgetting to take a birth control pill or not taking it at the same time daily
- Switching birth control or not using it right after a vasectomy or tubal ligation. Several women in the group indicated they got pregnant when having sex too soon after changing birth control pills, or after a vasectomy or tubal ligation.
Do you have other ideas on how an accidental pregnancy can occur in a romance novel? Let me know in the comments below!
by jennaharte
5 Ways to Get Tons of Reviews for Your Romance
February 1, 2022 in Blog, Marketing
Reviews play a bigger role than many authors might think. Yes, a review on a blog can build awareness and sales of your book, but don’t underplay the importance of the reviews on the book retailer sites or Goodreads or Storygraph. A 2018 survey by Gigi Griffis at The Ramble, revealed that 52% of readers read reviews whereas only 13% read the blurb.
This survey also showed that the most common reason readers bought a book was that they knew the author or a friend recommended it. Prominent placement or free/sale opportunities equated to less than 7% of why a person bought. This data tells us that it’s important to expand your reader fan-base and encourage them to recommend your books. One way to do that is to build up your reviews.
Here are 5 ways to get reviews for your upcoming release (or even your backlist):
1. Have a call to action at the end of your book, asking for a review.
Make the review request the first thing they see when they finish the book. In an ebook, include a link to the review page of the retailer. (Note, some ebook retailers will not accept your book if there are Amazon links. Create versions for each ebook retailer you’re selling on. For example, have a link to iBooks review page in the version on iBooks, and a link to Kobo for the books listed on Kobo).
2. Build up a list of book bloggers in your subgenre of romance.
Begin building this list early. Many bloggers need your book 6 to 12 weeks prior to release.
Start by finding comparable books to yours from best-selling authors (traditional and indie published). Search for reviews on the books you find, such as title+review or title+book review. Read the review policy of the blog, and if you’re a good fit, pitch your book. Reedsy has a more in-depth article on how to build your blogger review list.
Bonus: Read the reviews in the Editorial Reviews section on Amazon pages with books similar to yours. In this section, authors/publishers can list reviews from other sources, such as blogs.
3. Connect with active reviewers on Amazon.
Find books similar to yours and scroll down to the reviews. Click on a reviewer to learn more about them, such as other books they’ve reviewed and their reviewer rank. Sometimes they’ll include website or contact information. Pitch them as you would other reviewers.
This is time-consuming, but since Amazon reviews are powerful, it could be worth the effort. There are tools and services that can help you find Amazon reviewers, such as the Review Grabber tool at Author Marketing Club.
4. Sign up for Booksprout or Booksirens.
These services make finding reviewers and managing an ARC team easy. You can set limits on how many ARCs will be available and conditions for getting the book, such as leaving a review at Amazon is required. You can ask for reviews at other sites such as Goodreads or Bookbub as well. The services can send reminders to reviewers, and it can block anyone who got a book but didn’t leave a review from getting an ARC from you in the future. Just be sure to give your reviewers enough time to read the book. I like to get the book to my ARC team at least 3 weeks in advance.
5. Build your email list.
Too many authors wait too long to capture the email addresses of their readers, but you’re wasting time and book sales by not doing this as soon as you can. I have an extensive article on why email is better than social media for selling books, and tips on how to set up and email your readers. Build Your Email List of Raving Fans
Once you have your list, email them about the book and remind them to leave a review. In fact, you can invite them to join your ARC team through Booksprout or create a segmented list for ARC readers.
BONUS: Remind your social media followers to leave a review.
You don’t want to inundate your followers with “Buy my book” posts or with “Leave a review” post, but having them occasionally is recommended. Many readers get busy and forget to leave a review. An occasional social media post can remind them.
Do you have other ideas for getting reviews? Let me know in the comments below.
by jennaharte
Romance Beat Sheet for Swoonworthy Emotional Stories
January 10, 2022 in Blog, Video, Writing Romance
How hard can writing a romance be? Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy wins girl back.
As it turns out, writing a GOOD romance isn’t so easy. First of all, the leads aren’t always a boy and girl. Sometimes they’re not human.
Second, the meeting, losing, and winning don’t just happen. There is an emotional roller coaster ride readers expect to go on.
Writing a romance that readers enjoy involves:
- Characters readers can root for
- Conflicts and stakes readers can believe
- A plot that takes readers on an emotional ride.
So how does a writer achieve that? It starts by expanding the meet-lose-love idea into plot points, sometimes referred to as beats. These beats make up the structure of the story…essentially, they’re the steps to writing a romance novel.
Text version continues below the video:
I can hear all the pantsters out there saying, “But Jenna, I don’t plot. I want the adventure of not knowing where the story will take me.” That’s fine. Even as a pantster though, your story must hit certain beats to fit within the romance genre.
There are great romance beat sheets on the Internet, including Jamie Gold‘s and Gwen Hayes‘. Billy Mernit in his book Writing the Romantic Comedy, offers an eight-beat outline. While each of these beat sheets has a different number of plot points, often called different names, they’re all referring to the same thing. You need to find the story structure sheet that makes the most sense to you and helps you develop your story.
Not to be outdone, I’ve created my own romance beat sheet that takes what resonates with me from above. This beat sheet, including a fillable worksheet, is in The Romance Author’s Novel Organizer available in print or PDF for download.
Note that this beat sheet is for a regular romance. If you write a romantic suspense or mystery, or romantic fantasy, you may need to include other beats. For example, in a mystery, you need beats that involve finding clues or being in danger. If you write fantasy, you may prefer the Hero’s Journey plot outline, but if it’s a romance, you also need to make sure you have the romantic beats included.
Before Plotting
Which comes first? Plot or character? There’s no right or wrong answer to this. Sometimes a plot idea is the inspiration and other times it’s a character. What is important that before you plot you need to have basic understandings about your characters. Primarily: their goals and conflicts. Knowing their personalities and motivations helps as well.
Plotting Using the Write with Harte Romance Beat Sheet
Below are the beats I use when plotting a basic romance. These have been adapted from three-act structure, Romancing the Beat, and other beat sheets. You’ll notice that most sheets have similar beats but with different names. Mine is no different where I’ve changed the names to some beats to make more sense to me on the purpose they serve.
ACT 1: Set Up
Opening
This is where we meet our protagonists. Often, the opening is the start of a normal day that is about to be turned upside down. You should include a few bits about the protagonist(s) that set up goals and hints at inner conflicts.
Inciting Event (Meet Cute) (Catalyst)
This is where our two love birds meet or are brought together on the page at the same time to set off the story. In a rom com, a meet cute sometimes involves humor or a screwball situation, but it doesn’t have to be that. It could be intense or scary.
This meeting is the event that sets our characters off in the direction of falling in love, even if they hate each other at this point. If the characters already know each other, there is something different in this meeting than in all their previous meetings. For example, in The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, Lucy and Josh have been hating each other from their desks for some time (opening), however the inciting event is when their bosses tell them about a new position that only one of them can get.
Note about the inciting event…in my plot sheet, this really happens in the Stuck Together beat because this beat is the catalyst to the rest of the story. A romance can introduce our couple on the same page, but there can be a status quo where nothing is changing. With that said, the meeting, resistance, and stuck together can happen in a single chapter, even in a single scene.
Resistance
The first response to the inciting event is nearly always resistance or a butting of heads between the love interest.
“The idea of a fake engagement is a terrible idea.”
“We can’t be in the same room together. How will we be able to share the only car left to rent to get to the conference?”
However, the resistance isn’t always from dislike. In a friends-to-lovers situation, often the resistance is trying to avoid revealing their true feelings. Sometimes, the meet-cute is friendly and there is an attraction between the lovebirds, yet there is still resistance. This response is rooted in their goals and/or inner conflicts. Sometimes there is an attempt to avoid each other which brings us to the next beat…
Stuck together (New Path/Inciting Event)
Act one ends with our lovebirds without a choice or reluctantly agreeing to a situation that puts them together. Snow storms and stuck elevators would be a situation in which they’re stuck without a choice. Working in the same company or living in the same building would also fit this. A fake relationship or temporary partnership would involve a reluctant agreement.
This beat is important because our lovebirds need to be together in order to fall in love. In Red, White and Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston, Alex’s mother, POTUS, coerces him to spend time with Henry to fix an embarrassing situation he created at Henry’s brother, the Prince of England, wedding. Without this, Alex and Henry don’t spend time together because they live an ocean apart and don’t like each other.
If it isn’t presented earlier, this scene identifies the external conflict as well; the thing outside them that is preventing them from reaching their goal.
ACT 2: Falling In then Out of Love
Fighting Attraction
The lovebirds enter their stuck-together phase fully intending to keep their walls up. They’re focused on their goals and not letting the other person get in their way. If they don’t get along, there is usually banter and arguing. If they do get along, there is usually inner dialogue about how they can’t fall for the other.
Waning Resistance
As the lovebirds spend time together, their initial impressions start to change. This is especially true in an enemies-to-lovers story. But even when they get along (friends to lovers), time together shifts their feelings or heightens them (in the case of unrequited love).
In this section, they begin to entertain the possibility of a relationship, physically and/or emotionally. Note that kissing and even sex may have already occurred (in the case of a non-sweet book), but this is where the wall of resistance wanes.
Desire
Resistance is futile as desire leads them to consider giving into a relationship. Note this doesn’t have to be sensual desire. In sweet romance, this is simply moving away from resistance to considering a relationship.
Ut Oh (Pinch Point 1)
I don’t know where the term pinch point came from, but I much prefer Ut-Oh. This is a situation in which an antagonist or conflict appears to remind the lovebirds what’s at stake. In my writing, I like to make this first one one mini-sized. It’s like a tap on the shoulder reminding one (or they both can have an ut-oh) what can happen.
Imagining HEA (Midpoint)
Despite the ut-oh, the characters are drawing ever closer. They’re rethinking goals and concerns. They believe they can overcome the conflicts, but selfishly. They want their cake and to eat it too. But they haven’t grown yet, so they’re susceptible to their inner demons (conflict) and the antagonist.
HEA within Reach
This is a honeymoon moment, but the characters still haven’t delt with the conflicts that threaten their love.
Doubt/Fear
Personal fears and conflicts are creating doubt in their feelings for the other, and how the other feels about them. Fears and inner conflicts cause the characters to slow down.
Ut-Oh 2
This ut-oh is a bigger one than the last. It’s a whack on the head, reminding them of everything they could lose by abandoning their goal. For example, a CEO falling for his admin might get a talking to from a board member about the possibility of being forced out for having a relationship with an insubordinate and putting the company at risk for a lawsuit. The first ut-oh caused hesitation, but this one makes them stop in their tracks and rethink the situation, and what they’re willing to risk. Remember, they haven’t grown so, their thinking tends to be based in their fears.
Retreat
After the big ut-oh, one character or both pulls away. They don’t want to risk their heart and their goal, and they decide to choose the goal instead. The other character may notice this distance and pull away as well.
Black moment
This is where the $h!t hits the fan. Everything that could go wrong goes wrong. Done well, your readers are weeping or worried (in the case of a suspense). If motivations aren’t strong or if the stakes are weak, a black moment can feel predicable or worse, it can annoy readers.
One thing I like to do just before this scene is have one or both characters make the decision to confess their love (move HEA within Reach here). They’re about to put it all on the line for love, then whammy, the black moment. The lie or deception is revealed. A choice is made that the other can’t live with. This little gimmick doesn’t work on it’s own though. The black moment must feel believable and make sense. Something as little as a miscommunication isn’t enough for a black moment. This moment needs to feel like the end of the road for our budding couple.
A recent wish of some romance readers is a softer black moment. They lament the angsty breakup. It is possible to write a black moment that isn’t full of anger and heartache. Lauren Blakely books often have a soft black moment where the couple is parting amicably. Or the black moment can involve danger, so the risk of loss has to do with getting killed, not breaking up.
ACT 3 Fighting for Love
Aftermath/Misery
This is the aftermath of the black moment. Initially, one or both, convinced they’re right, goes off in an attempt to regain their past normal life. The problem is that they can’t go back. The more they try, the more miserable they feel. I like to live in this moment a little bit. Too often, writers rush to relieve the agony of the black moment, but I like to bring home how much they’ve lost by not choosing to change, by not choosing love.
I want to point out here that characters don’t have to give up their goal for love. The characters still win even if they don’t get their original goal. For example, in the Hating Game (slight spoiler), one person is offered the job, but the other person ends up at a different company and is much happier about it.
Epiphany (Ah-Ha)
This is when one or both characters realize their fears and inner conflicts getting in their way, and accept that they love the other person. This is where growth takes place. In order for the past problems (conflicts and ut-ohs) not to cause problems in the future, the characters need to grow into new people.
Grand Gesture
This is when one character reaches out, putting all on the line for the other person. It’s different from earlier attempts that played it safe. Here, they’re vulnerable.
HEA
The happily ever after scene is when the other person also is vulnerable and they come together with new understanding and a commitment to each other.
Life After HEA (Epilogue – optional)
This scene is optional, and shows the couple living in their new happiness not just with each other, but with their goals as well.
Some plot sheets have fewer points. Others have more. For me, this hits all the major points needed in a romance. In a romantic suspense or fantasy, you may need a few others beats, but for the relationship part of the story, these beats hit them all.
Plotting Resources
If you like to check out my beat sheet or others, you can get them here:
Download the Write with Harte Romance Beat Sheet here (no email or membership required!)
Jamie Gold’s Romance Beat sheet
Romance Plotting Books
The Romance Novel Organizer
Take your romance novel from idea to published and selling with The Romance Author’s Novel Organizer. Flesh out your idea, plan your writing and publishing schedule and routine, organize your thoughts, store research, plot, publish and sell with these checklists, worksheets, tips, and more.
The Romance Novel Organizer in print
The Romance Novel Organizer PDF for Download
Other Romance Plotting Books
Romancing The Beat by Gwen Hayes
Do you have questions about plotting a romance? Maybe you have tips. Let me know in the comments below.
by jennaharte
5 Easy Ways to Level Up Your Writing
November 11, 2021 in Blog, Writing Romance
Successful authors mystify us with how easy writing seems to come to them. Some people believe people are born with the skill to write or they’re not. However, writing is a skill that can be learned. Even the best writers have improved from when they started. Nearly every writer I talk to shares the same tips and hacks for improving as a writer. Here are a few of them:
1. Write Regularly
You don’t have to write every day, but it’s easier to stay in the flow of your work and in the habit of writing if you do. I write every day if I’m working on a book unless it’s a holiday, birthday, or a family gathering. If you can’t write every day, write as frequently and regularly as possible.
2. Read Regularly
Writers are readers. Read a variety of books to expose yourself to different styles of writing. Most writers avoid reading in the genre they’re writing in as they’re writing. However, when you’re not writing, you should absolutely read in your genre so you can stay up-to-date on the latest trends. Consider keeping a reading journal with quotes, your impressions, and other observations you make that can help you in your writing. I often write words used in situations I hadn’t considered using them in. For example, the word shimmer in a love scene.
3. Don’t Edit as You Write
Nothing slows down the creative writing process faster than switching to editor mode. It can also make you doubt your abilities.
I’m convinced writing and editing use different sides of the brain and can’t work simultaneously. You might think you can in the same way you think you can multitask. The truth is, you’re doing one or the other.
When you write, focus on getting all the ideas in your head on the paper, regardless of the quality of writing, spelling errors, missing punctuation, and everything else that can be wrong. When you’re done writing, then you can revise.
4. Accept that First Drafts Suck
No one who makes a living writing publishes a first draft. I saw a Facebook Live with Nora Roberts in which she indicated she had four to six revisions before her books were published. The good news is that the more you write and get critiqued, the better the first drafts get, but they’re still not publishing quality.
Just accept that your first draft will be messy and ugly. It will have weak words, passive voice, clichés and all the stuff you’re told not to use. But the first draft isn’t the place to worry about them. Revision is.
5. Get Feedback
The more you do something, the better you get at it. But in writing, you need to know what areas you’re weak in and how to strengthen your prose. So writing regularly and getting critique are crucial to improvement. Critique and editing have vastly improved my writing. Hands down, they are the top two reasons I get paid to write now. I highly recommend joining a critique group. If you can’t find one and would be interested in one through Write with Harte, let me know.
Getting critique can be hard. You need to listen for the constructive criticisms and tips, and avoid feeling like your book is being attacked. But if you pay attention, you’ll learn easy ways to instantly improve your writing. Some of these tips you’ll internalize and use them as you write your draft. Others you’ll use when you revise. Check out Write With Harte’s post on 7 Tips to Dealing with Critique Feedback
by jennaharte
How to Master Show vs. Tell for a Swoonworthy Romance
November 4, 2021 in Writing Romance
It’s almost like a commandment:
Show, don’t tell.
The problem is, many writers struggle with knowing the difference. After all, isn’t everything we write part of telling a story?
Read text of this post below the video.
Here’s what you need to know about Show Vs. Tell
Showing creates a visual impression.
Telling provides information.
Why is showing so important? Because creating a picture or movie in your readers mind is what evokes emotion. It’s what connects them to your characters to care enough to read on.
How to show instead of tell
Use the Senses:
Ask yourself, what does the thing want to convey look like? Or smell like? Or feel like. Or sound like? Or taste like. In other words, use the senses to deliver the information.
Tell: Jane was cold from the snow.
Show: Jane pulled her coat tighter around her.
Show: Her feet sank into the snow, slowing down her progress.
Show: She inhaled the frigid, clean air.
Use Strong Verbs and Active Voice
Active verbs do better at evoking imagery for your reader than passive state-of-being (to be) verbs.
Passive: The date was planned by Bob.
Active: Bob planned the date.
Use Dialogue, but Don’t Info Dump
If you have to parley information, do it through action, such as dialogue.
Tell: They had to get out of the car before it exploded.
Show: “We have to get out of the car. It might explode.”
Don’t Explain Things
Janice Hardy has an excellent article on red-flags of telling instead of showing that you should read. The essence of the article is that whenever you’re explaining motivation, emotion, or description, you’re telling, and she gives you the words that can clue you in to explaining instead of showing. Along with this tip is to avoid using self-reflective words such as noticed, realized, wondered, etc.
Jane cried out in pain. (What does this look or feel like?)
Jane could see that her words hurt him. (What is she seeing that makes her think he’s hurt?)
Jane wondered if she was safe. (Was she safe?)
HOWEVER…Telling isn’t always wrong.
Sometimes you want to give information instead of showing. If your character is going through mundane activities such as getting out of bed and ready for work, we don’t need a play-by-play of that, unless, of course, it’s important to the plot or revealing character. You can tell introductions between characters and save the “Hi.” “Hello.” “How are you?” “Good. And you?” In these cases, telling gets us quickly from something unimportant or mundane to the next bit of action.
by jennaharte
Writing Intimacy in Sweet and Spicy Romance
October 21, 2021 in Blog, Writing Romance
Intimacy is often used as a euphemism for sex, but intimacy isn’t just about sex. Whether your book is steamy or sweet, intimacy lets readers know the couple have something special with each other.
Read text version below video:
What is intimacy?
There are six types of intimacy, which offer creative opportunities for writers when developing a romance.
1. Emotional Intimacy:
At some point in your novel, your characters need to have emotional intimacy. While this isn’t limited to romantic relationships, in the romance novel, it shows the deep feelings of trust, respect, and love binding our characters together. They feel safe to share their deepest desires, secrets, fears—their deepest selves. It’s usually expressed through communication.
2. Intellectual Intimacy:
This involves the level of comfort in sharing of opinions and ideas, even if they differ from their partners. In a romance, it would be shown by the characters feeling free to think for themselves, and believe their opinions and beliefs are valued, even if they’re different.
3. Creative Intimacy:
This involves feeling comfortable in expressing passions and interests. They don’t have to be shared passions or interests, but each person in the couple needs to feel safe to express their creative side.
4. Experiential Intimacy:
This all about shared experiences that connect people. It can be created through working together, or simply living life with another person (family, roommate, friends, etc) and having shared memories. The inside joke comes from experiential intimacy.
5. Spiritual Intimacy:
While this could include religious connection, it goes beyond that to shared values and beliefs. This is common in sweet romances. However, differing values or beliefs can make for conflict in any type of romance.
6. Physical Intimacy:
You might think this is sex, and while it could be, that’s not all it includes. Holding hands, hugging, cuddling…any loving touch is physical intimacy. Both steamy and sweet romance can have physical intimacy. The difference is that steamy will include sensuality and sex, whereas sweet romance focuses on the emotional connection of a touch, not the sensual.
What I like about the above types of intimacy is that by including some of them in my romance, I can increase believability in my characters’ coming together. Sex isn’t love, so they have to have other opportunities to bond emotionally as well. In fact, sweet romances focus highly on these other forms of intimacy (experience, spiritual, intellectual), but so too should romance with physical intimacy.
By providing other opportunities for intimacy, either through shared experiences, values and beliefs, or any of the other forms of intimacy, you deepen their connection.
by jennaharte
How to Market Your Book without Social Media
October 6, 2021 in Blog, Marketing
Earlier this week, Facebook and Instagram suffered a massage outage, affecting over a billion users worldwide. For the casual user looking for recipes, updates on family members, or cat videos, the outage was no big deal. But for marketers, such as authors selling their books, the outage meant ads weren’t running, scheduled posts of book quotes didn’t post, and followers weren’t engaging.
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with social media for some time. I post on Twitter, but never read my feed because I can’t keep up. I’m on Facebook because I feel compelled to be there, but FB treats its users like crap. Worse, I pay for ads, so I’m paid to be treated poorly. I’m still iffy on Instagram’s effectiveness. I enjoy watching TikToks, but haven’t been able to create a system by which I post regularly. I have a dormant Pinterest page as well.
Except for FB ads, I’m not sure how well these platforms have helped in book sales. One could argue that my lackluster postings and irregular appearances on social media are to blame. That could be true, although I regularly post to my FB group and page.
However, with the outage, and FBs bots that willy nilly block users’ content and ads, authors have to develop marketing tactics outside of social media. You can’t leave your books sales in the hands of third parties. The outage highlights that.
Carol J. Michel posted an article on Jane Friedman’s blog in which she talked about doing a 30-day social media detox from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (she kept her LinkedIn page). After the 30-days, she reduced her FB friends from 750 to 75 people she really wanted to stay in touch with, continued to ignore Instagram, and deleted Twitter. Now, a year later, she doesn’t regret or miss social media.
What struck me most about her article was the research she did on the shelf life of a post. Doing my own research, I found various timeframes, but all were within close limits. In general, the lifespan of content is:
- Twitter: 15 minutes
- Facebook: 5 hours
- Instagram: 21-48 hours
- LinkedIn: 24 hours
- TikTok & Snapchat: minuscule unless goes viral
- YouTube: 1-3 months
- Pinterest: 4 months
- Blog post: 1-2+ years
I found this data disheartening considering the time I spend creating content. I take longer to create it than it exists in many cases.
I’m not saying social media is a complete waste of time because there are plenty of authors who have large followings that consistently buy. I follow Pippa Grant, and her group members are the types of fans who buy swag and share pictures of who they think her characters look like, and much more. But most authors, even those with readers who enjoy them, don’t have that level of excitement, and to create it on social media is a job in and of itself.
Maybe you don’t want to quit social media (I still feel obligated to be on Facebook), but maybe the outage and the data above will encourage you to develop alternative marketing tactics that make better use of your time and don’t put you at risk if there is an outage or a FB bot decides it doesn’t like you.
Before I give you my tips for marketing without social media, I want to encourage you to build your author platform base, which includes:
- Author website: Many authors put this off because of the cost, but the alternatives put you at the mercy of other platforms, which will promote other authors and shiny doodads to distract your reader. Many aren’t customizable. Some have rules that make it hard for you to promote (e.g. if you’re an erotic romance author). Having your own site is the best way to give your readers a place to go to learn about you and your books without distractions or penalties. Some marketing experts recommend having a blog as well. If you’re going ot blog, I recommend having it on your author website (as opposed to two different sites). With that said, I don’t blog on my author site anymore. Here’s a post I wrote about it.
- Email list: I have a post in which I explain how email has higher read rates and conversion rates than social media. Plus, the people who sign up for email are more interested in you than those who click “follow.” It also gives tips on how to create an email list, what to send, and how to grow it.
Social media can be a part of your platform, such as having an author page, but again, you don’t own your FB page so you’re at the whim and mercy of the platform.
How to Market Your Book without Social Media
Once you have your author website and email, you need to reach your readers. One thing I think many authors miss in marketing is that it’s all about outreach. Building a website or posting on social media works only if people know about you. If they don’t know you, they won’t read your books or blogs or social posts. You’ll be lonely if you expect people to find you.
Instead, marketing is about going out and finding your readers and inviting them back to your home (website).
Here are tips for doing that:
Build your email list!
I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. Email lists have a greater power to sell your books than any other source. Here are tips on building your list:
- Offer a free book (e.g. first in your series, a prequel, or bonus material) in exchange for a reader’s email address
- Include your email list in your books!
- Have an engaging onboarding sequence that keeps subscribers on your list, and contact them enough that they don’t forget you, but not so often they get annoyed. I email my list once a week sharing interesting anecdotes or asking questions (recently I asked my lists opinion on pumpkin spiced lattes), provide links to free books (from giveaways–see below), and of course, share info about my books, but sparingly unless I’m launching. You can get more details from this post about email.
- Participate in giveaways. Bookfunnel and Prolific Works both offer opportunities to join in giveaways. My list grows by several hundred subscribers a month using this method. Over 90% of them stay on my list. Pick giveaways that target your readers (don’t join a sweet giveaway if your book has sexy bits).
- Do swaps. Bookfunnel recently added a swap feature to its services. Bookclicker is another swap resource many authors use. You can do swaps or buy space (usually $10 to $20) in another author’s newsletter. Choose authors who create books similar to yours in subgenre, heat, and tone.
- Include your email list (link to your giveaway and email signup) in your outgoing emails and wherever else you have a bio.
Find Your Readers and Reach Out to Them
- Search for blogs and podcasts your readers visit, and pitch them as a guest. Have a schedule where you pitch one or two a week. Note, your goal is to find romance readers of your genre. While writing blogs and podcasts can be informative, those listeners may not be your readers. Instead, find romance book related blogs and podcasts and pitch to be a guest.
- Submit to a serial app. Radish, Amazon Vella or Kiss will serialize your book. Note that Amazon Vella wants unique content. Radish seems to work like Wattpad, where you post your content and create your own pricing. It’s unclear to me if you can serialise published books on Radish. Kiss will take your published book and serialize it for you on its platform. If your book is in Kindle Unlimited, don’t serialize it. However, you can serialize your list giveaway book.
- Contact book clubs. This is one situation in which social media can help in that you can find book clubs on them. Some are virtual, but you can Zoom or Skype into in-person book club meetings. Contact your library about local book clubs.
- Set up readings or signings at local bookstores or other locations in your area, such as a cafe. If you’re self-published, getting into the big bookstores is a challenge, but independent bookstores often work with independent authors. If you use print-on-demand that doesn’t allow returns, you can ask to sell on consignment.
- Attend reader events. There are ton of romance-oriented reader events throughout the country. Many general reader events have a romance track. Find out how to take part as a panelist or speaker so you can sell your books. Some events are signing events in and of themselves. You buy space at a table and attendees show up to shop.
- Library events. I’ve spoken at my library twice and every time I sold out of books!
- Be creative. Where do your readers hangout and how can you hangout with them?
Whether you’re like me, and are burnt out on social media, or you love social media, it pays to have other marketing strategies at work for those times social media goes offline or limits you.
Do you have other ideas on how to market without using social media? Please share them!
Are you a member of Write With Harte? It’s free to join and gives you access to a growing library of tools and resources, romance writer groups and forum, and you can have a free author profile! Don’t wait. Join Now!
by jennaharte
Ready to Plan and Write Your Romance Novel?
September 28, 2021 in Blog
It’s that time of year…time to prepare of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) where millions of writers across the globe set out to write a 50,000 word novel during November. In anticipation of the challenge, they plan in October.
Some writers believe NaNoWriMo is a gimmick that promotes poor writing. I can spend a whole other blog post questioning why writing more words more often is automatically considered “poor writing.” Instead, I’ll share my thoughts that NaNoWriMo is a great way for a would-be or struggling writer to jump-start new writing habits and to start and finish a book.
Many NaNoWriMo participants have parlayed their 50,000 words, after lots of editing, into a published work, including Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus.
It sounds daunting to write 50,000 words in 30 days, particularly in the middle of the holiday seasons, but it can be done and I want to help you.
FREE Preptober and Writevember Romance Writing Challenge
For many years, it took me forever to write a book. I was successful a few times at NaNoWriMo, but it wasn’t until I became a ghost writer that I really learned the tips, tricks, hacks and tools to writing regularly and finishing books within weeks instead of in months or years. I want to share these strategies with you during Preptober and Writevember Romance Writing Challenge
The goal of the Preptober and Writevember is two-fold:
- Plan a novel (October)
- Write a novel (November)
The challenge starts October 1st, and each day in October, you’ll get an email with information, tips, and homework to plan your romance novel. Most lessons won’t take very long. Others might take an hour. Of course, finding time will be one of the topics covered so that when November comes, you have the time and organized ideas to write 1,667 words in an hour or 90 minutes.
You’ll continue to get a daily email in November with additional tips, inspiration, and pacing cues to help you stay on track.
Along with daily emails, there will be weekly Zoom meetings to recap the week’s goals, ask questions, and get support. In November, the Zoom calls will include writing sprints.
Participants can connect between calls by joining the private Romance Writing Challenge group here at Write with Harte. If you haven’t joined Write with Harte, it is free, and gives you access to a variety of tools, as well as the ability to take part in groups and forums.
Don’t wait, join now! Learn more and sign up for free here: Preptober and Writevember Romance
This Watch for the 2024 challenge announcement coming soon!