#RWChat at RWA!

July 19, 2017July 22, 20171 Comment

RWchat at RWA

The RWA national conference is in Orlando, FL, next week! From Wednesday, July 26th—Saturday, July 29th, a lot of #RWChat members will be there. Alexis Daria and Robin Lovett will be there, too. We’ve got FOUR #RWChat get-togethers planned so we can meet up and support each other. Big writing conferences can be exciting, yet daunting, experiences, so let’s help each other stay connected, inspired, and energized.

(For those of you who haven’t heard of the Romance Writers of America national conference, here’s the link if you’re interested in checking it out for next year.)

WEDNESDAY July 26th 8:00 P.M. Hang out! Come get your #RWChat BUTTON! We’ll be handing them out so we all know who our #RWChat friends are the whole conference. Location TBD—check Twitter! We’ll be in one of the restaurants/bars at the conference hotel.

#RWchat buttons!

THURSDAY July 27th 8:00 A.M. Wake up! Our first ever LIVE in-person #RWChat session. We’ll discuss how we set goals for the conference and how to stay focused and flexible when there’s so much to do. (Don’t worry, we’ll finish by 8:25 A.M.—in time for the 8:30 A.M. sessions to begin!) Location: Room Oceanic 4

FRIDAY July 28th 3:15 P.M. Check-in! We’ll meet and do a LIVE chat to assess how our conference goals are going so far and what plans we’d like to make for the final day. Location: Room Oceanic 4

SATURDAY July 29th 12:30 P.M. Wrap-up! We’ll chat about how to take everything you’ve learned at the conference and apply it at home. Location: Room Northern Hemisphere Salon E1

For those of you who will be there, we can’t wait to see you. For those of you staying home, we’ll be tweeting as much as we can to share it with you, and we’ll try to stream some of the live sessions. 🙂 Keep an eye on the RWchat Twitter and Facebook accounts!

Coming July 23rd… Community!

July 16, 2017July 16, 2017Leave a comment

Graphic by Alexis Daria

Next week we’re going to celebrate the awesome community that is you, #RWChat-ters! Come chat about the dependable support and empowerment in our creative community.

See you next Sunday 4pm PT/ 7pm ET!

ICYMI: Summer Goals Storify

July 16, 2017July 16, 2017Leave a comment

If you weren’t able to catch last Sunday’s chat on summer goals, RWchat co-host C.L. Polk created a Storify highlight reel. Since we’re past the halfway point in the year, participants checked in on whether they’re 50% of the way through their yearly goals, if they need to reassess (“Is this goal still right for me & my career path?”) or course correct (“I’m still aiming for this goal but I have to get back on track.”), and if it’s easier or more difficult to meet goals during the summer.

Join us for the next chat on Sunday, July 16th, where we’ll talk about selling your book!

Coming July 16th… Selling Your Book

July 9, 2017July 9, 2017Leave a comment

Graphic by Alexis Daria

Writing the book can be hard, but sometimes hardest part is what comes after: selling it.

How do we entice readers / editors / agents to buy our books? How do we pitch our books in person with a pitch, a blurb or a query? And how do we make sure the openings of our books are enticing enough to hook readers into the whole thing?

Join us to talk about it next Sunday 4pm PT / 7pm ET!

~Robin Lovett

ICYMI: “Starving Artist” & Other Damaging Creative Myths Storify

July 4, 2017July 16, 2017Leave a comment

If you weren’t able to catch last Sunday’s chat on damaging creative myths, RWchat co-host C.L. Polk created a Storify highlight reel. During the chat, we talked about creative myths like the “starving artist,” the “rich writer” (we’re looking at you Richard Castle and Carrie Bradshaw), and “selling out.”

Join us for the next chat on July 9th, where we’ll talk about summer goals!

Coming July 9th . . . Summer Goals

July 2, 2017July 2, 2017Leave a comment

Graphic by Alexis Daria

How’s the year going so far? A lot has happened this spring and so far this summer. Come chat with us about your successes and your struggles. We’ll check in with our expectations for the year and reassess our goals for the rest of 2017.

Join us Sunday 4pm PT/ 7pm ET on #RWChat.

ICYMI: Heroes and Heroines Storify

July 2, 2017July 16, 2017Leave a comment

If you weren’t able to catch last Sunday’s chat on main characters, RWchat co-host C.L. Polk created a Storify highlight reel. During the chat, we talked about our favorite character archetypes, developing backstory, and choosing names for our characters.

Make sure you also check out LaQuette’s guest post on selecting names that speak to the heart of your characters.

Coming July 2nd… The “Starving Artist” and Other Damaging Creative Myths

June 25, 2017June 25, 2017Leave a comment

Graphic by Alexis Daria

We studied those “Starving Artists” in school. Those creative types lauded for making self-sacrifices and mining their depression for the sake of their art. But this leads to a damaging stereotype: we’re not great creative minds unless we’re shrouded in misery. No. We can use our life struggles to help us write, but suffering is a not a requirement to write good books.

Come chat with us about how you combat artistic stereotypes. Sunday 4pm PT/ 7pm ET.

See you then!

What’s in a Name?

June 20, 2017June 20, 20175 Comments

This week on #RWchat, we’re talking about heroes and heroines, and today’s guest post comes to us from LaQuette. We asked her to talk about the thoughtful and meaningful names in her Queens of Kings series. Take it away, LaQuette!

Hello, I’m LaQuette, your friendly erotic romance author, embracing my crazy…one character at a time. Speaking of crazy and characters, I’m here to talk to you about my process of name selection for the crazy folks running around in my head.

I was attending a reader/writer event last year when a reader by the name of Shona asked me a thoughtful question about my characters. She’d read my romantic suspense series, The Queens of Kings, and asked, “You named the Amare family members, Hunter, Law, Free, Justice, True, and Heart. How did you come up with such unusual names, and what if any significance did the selection of those names have?” If I didn’t mention that I have smart and perceptive readers, let me tell you now, my readers are the business.

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