Writing Tips for Budding Romance Writers
Last year I developed a writing workshop to share with any new writers who might like to attend. (If you live in Auckland (or Southland) and would be interested in attending one of these two day workshops, please email me at anne@anneashby.com for details). I was often being asked for advice for beginning writers, people who dream but dare not attempt to progress that dream. I’ve decided to do a series of writing advice for them.
As the Internet is so full of advice about almost anything imaginable I’m not considering taking my workshops to ‘the air’ at this time. I’ve found the interaction with brand new writers gives me such a buzz, not to mention ideas for my own work, that wouldn’t be achieved without the face to face contact.
I’ve already been asked by workshop attendees if I have an advanced workshop ready to take them to the next level but at the moment I am concentrating on the very basics of writing. There seems to be very little out there about how to actually get started. We can easily find advice on plotting, characterisation and conflict; settings, point of view and dialogue. But someone with merely a dream of putting their stories into some semblance of order can be scared off by the assumption they’ll understand all this “heavier” advice.
One day I’m going to write a book!
Over the next few weeks, my plan is to provide some thoughts about how budding romance writers can get started with writing a story, not how to improve their writing. That will come much later in the writing journey. While I will touch on the topics mentioned above, its okay if you have no idea what they actually mean until I share my piece with you. Your desired writing need not be a romance story either, although this is where my expertise lies and my examples etc will display this. But the rudiments of fiction story writing are universal. What I share with you can be adapted to fit any fiction writing genre.
Currently I have several ideas to share with any budding romance writers, I intend to keep each one quite short so as not to swamp you all at once. But I believe by the end you’ll have the confidence to sit down at your computer and start writing your story. The possibility I might be able to help even one person realise a writing dream is so awesome.