Resources

Writing Tools

• Scrivener – You can find free romance templates for Scrinver at Gwen Hayes or Jami Gold’s websites.
• Jot from Boogie Board– An Etch A Sketch for note-taking and will send notes to an app.
• Nuance’s Dragon Naturally Speaking: I’ve doubled my output and spend less time at my desk by getting the Professional Individual version where I can digitally record and the software transcribes the recording. It’s expensive, but for me, it’s well worth it for the increase in output and a decrease in time spent writing. (Get rewards using Swagbucks or Rakutan)
• Digital recorder: You can use your phone, but I like to use my phone to refer to my plot, so I use a small Sony Recorder that has the USB plug built in. I record and then plug the recorder into my laptop.

Romance Resource Books

Phrasing Books

• Character Expressions: A Fiction Writer’s Thesaurus of Facial Expressions
• Romance, Emotion & Erotica Writer’s Phrase Book
• Action Writers’ Phrase Book: Essential Reference for All Authors of Action, Adventure & Thrillers (Writers’ Phrase Books)
• The Romance Writer’s Phrase Book (This may be out of print)
• Master Lists for Writers
• The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression – This doesn’t have phrases, but it provides physical signals, internal sensations, mental responses, and more to help you come up with ways to express emotion in your writing. There are several books in The Writers Helping Writers series that are helpful to writers. I’ve listed them below.
• The Synonym Finder
• Another Way to Say That (website)
• Other Ways to Say (Pinterest) – This is a board I created that has all those infographics on “Other Ways to Say” (this I tend to pull up on my phone if needed)

Writers Helping Writers Series

• The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression
• The Conflict Thesaurus
• The Emotional Wound Thesaurus
• The Positive Trait Thesaurus
• The Negative Trait Thesaurus
• The Occupational Thesaurus
• The Urban Setting Thesaurus
• The Rural Setting Thesaurus

You can get all 8 books together on Kindle here.

Character Development Books

• The Conflict Thesaurus
• The Emotional Wound Thesaurus
• The Positive Trait Thesaurus
• The Negative Trait Thesaurus
• The Occupational Thesaurus

Settings

• The Urban Setting Thesaurus
• The Rural Setting Thesaurus

How-To/Help Books

• Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels (How to Write Kissing Books Book 1) – How to plot and write a romance.
• Write True: A Bestseller’s Guide to Writing Craft and Achieving Success in the Romance Industry – Insights and tips on being a romance author.
• The Writer’s Guide to Training Your Dragon: Using Speech Recognition Software to Dictate Your Book and Supercharge Your Writing Workflow– How to maximize voice recognition software to write more in less time.

Idea Generators

• Romance plot generator
• Servicescape