Coming Jan. 8th… Titles

rwchat-1-8-17The title, the name we give a book, is perhaps its number one marketing tool. Getting it just right makes or breaks a book. But finding the right title can be an exhausting process of lists and options and polling and hair pulling and… Ah!

Making sure the title captures the subgenre, heat level, time period, and tropes, all while being witty and original – the factors to consider are endless.

Come share your ideas and learn how others pick their titles on our next #rwchat. Sunday 4pm PST/ 7pm EST.

~Robin Lovett

Graphic by Alexis Daria

Coming Jan. 1st… 2017 Goals

RWchat 1-1-17 (1).pngIt’s a brand new year! Let’s welcome 2017 by setting some goals for our writing, and let’s see how S.M.A.R.T. we can make them. Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely goals can help keep us accountable to our goals.

Come join us and discuss our goals for the year together. See you at 7pm EST / 4pm PST.

~Robin Lovett

Graphic by Alexis Daria

Coming Dec. 18th… A Year In Review

rwchat-12-18-16It’s been a year, 2016. And it’s almost over.

It’s the time of year to reflect back on how it’s been. Trying to be as objective as possible – with as little judgement as we can manage – what did we achieve and how did we achieve it? What brave endeavors did try that went well? What ones did we try that did not go well? And which opportunities passed us by that we wish we’d taken and run with?

Join us to chat about it, Sunday 4pm PST/ 7pm EST!

~Robin Lovett

Image by Alexis Daria.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall: Finding Your Readership by Finding Your Own Voice

Our guest post today on Finding Your Ideal Reader is from the always fabulous LaQuette.

Finding your readership is essential to every author’s career.  It doesn’t matter how talented or skilled a writer is, if there’s no one to read it, both the author and the work will fall off into obscurity.

How does an author find their audience?  Simple, by being true to one’s own voice.  Think of your readers as friends you share very specific interests with.  When you hang out with friends to go paintballing, or running, or quilting, it’s because that person(s) thinks you’re interesting enough to spend time with, and you share a common pursuit or perspective.

Continue reading

Coming Dec. 11th…Finding Your Ideal Reader

rwchat-12-11-16

  Image by Alexis Daria

Finding out who is the ideal person to read your books is key to selling them. Where your ideal reader hangs out on social media and learning the best ways to attract and engage them is complicated and endless.

Join us to learn what things others have tried – the successes and failures alike – next Sunday Dec. 11th 7pm EST / 4pm PST!

~Robin Lovett

Can Self-Awareness Make You Write Faster?

We have a treat of a guest post this week from R.L. Syme (writing as Becca Boyd). It’s a preview of her series of articles on Self-Awareness coming in RWA’s Romance Writer Report beginning in this month’s December issue.

Everyone wants to write faster and better. Right?

Most people think there’s one way to write faster or better. Somebody’s had success doing “faster” by sprinting, so that’s the way to do it. Somebody else has gone “faster” by outlining ahead, so that’s the way to do it.

Who’s right? Continue reading

Coming Dec. 4th… Antagonists & Villains

rwchat-12-04-16

Image by Alexis Daria

A good love story isn’t a great one without a powerful obstacle in the way. We love writing about our heroes and heroines falling in love, but as important is a formidable villain or antagonist – someone who gets in their way. It makes our characters fight harder for their love and adds invaluable conflict to the story. But writing those bad guys and gals isn’t always easy for us romance writers.

Come chat with us about how you write your antagonists and learn how others do it too. See you Sunday 4pm PST / 7pm EST!

~Robin Lovett

Coming Nov. 27th… Self-Awareness

rwchat-11-27-16

Image by Alexis Daria

Sometimes we get in our own way. We have goals and things we want to achieve with our writing but getting there… it just somehow doesn’t happen. Outside forces are often the cause, but often there are things we can do differently to help ourselves. But figuring out which of our ingrained habits are inhibiting us isn’t easy. It takes fortitude and no small amount of self-awareness to discover our optimal habits for success.

 

Join us this Sunday to chat about the things we can learn about ourselves that will make our writing easier.

See you at 4pm PST/ 7pm EST!

~Robin Lovett

Coming Nov. 18th… Conflict

Image by Alexis Daria

Image by Alexis Daria

A novel isn’t a page turner without conflict. Conflict is what keeps us on the edge of seats worried about what will happen next. But managing conflict as a writer–planning it, producing it, keeping it–is an exercise in stamina. Beginning a novel with enough conflict to last until the end isn’t easy. Add in the struggle to keep the conflict ball in the air chapter after chapter,  it takes a lot of practice.

Conflict stems from two main sources:

  • External conflict--the plot, the events, the other people in the story– the things that come at the heroine from outside and keep her from reaching her goal.
  • Internal conflict–the internal struggle of the character, the flaws, the past wounds, the emotional barriers–those are the things that thwart the hero from inside himself.

Balancing external and internal conflict is like walking a tight rope. There has to be enough external conflict to keep the over arching plot moving without stalling. But there has to be enough internal struggle to keep the reader emotionally engaged in the stakes till the end.

We love our characters and the temptation to make things easier for them, to help them fall in love sooner, reach that happily ever-after faster, is possibly the worst enemy of our story. If it’s too easy for them, who wants to read that? There’s no reason to keep turning pages. But if we torture them and employ my favorite technique from James Scott Bell, “What’s the worst that can happen?”, then we come up with the kind of books we can never get enough of–even after the HEA.

Join us for our chat on conflict Sunday at 4:00 pm PST / 7:00 pm EST.

~Robin Lovett

 

 

Coming Nov. 13… The First Draft

rwchat-11-13-16

Image by Alexis Daria

It’s NaNoWriMo season which means lots of us are slogging away at putting thousands of words on a blank page every day. Creating something out of nothing can be exhausting. Do you prepare with an outline or fly by the seat of your pants? If you plot, how do you cope when things go off track from the plan? If you’re a pantser, how do you deal with the inevitable scary moment of “I have no idea what happens next?”

Come share with everyone how you cope with the challenges of writing from scratch. And hear how others manage it too.

See you 4pm PST / 7pm EST!

~Robin Lovett