Hello, my name is Kirsten, and I’m a romance addict.  I write romance because I LOVE romance.

That being said, I took two pieces of advice on writing and applied them to my process.

1.  Never write more than you read.

2.  Read what you want to write.

Every book I pick up is romance.  Be it sweet to sexy, tame to tempestuous, modern or historical…I devour them all.  They feed my craving for romance, bolster my vocabulary, and teach me, inadvertently, how to write romance well.  My goal is to share some of the tips I learned from reading romance that helped me improve my craft as a writer.

Lesson One:  Show, don’t tell.

Romance is about subtlety and the senses.  Sight, touch, smell, sounds, and dialog are important tools that, if you use them correctly, can make a scene pop.  The little details writers use to describe a particular scene can convey the intensity of the moment.  Giving the reader tangible elements help them to paint the images, characters, and environment in their mind.  I like to give just enough information to create an outline of the scene using the power of suggestion.

Don’t overwhelm your story with description.  Use only what is necessary to get the emotion and impact of the scene across to the reader.  Never underestimate the reader’s imagination. 

I wrote a short story with a cowboy named Levi.  When I described him, I used general descriptions to create a shadow of an image.  Every one of my beta readers fell in love with Levi, and each one of them filled in the gaps I left for his description.  By doing this I give the reader the power to create the perfect image of the story in their mind, without drowning them in words.

Join me next week for Lesson 2….

  READ….it’s the best form of escapism.  🙂