August is romance writers conference time in Australia and New Zealand. This year New Zealand went first, with its conference in Christchurch over the weekend of 9-11 August. This weekend is Australia’s turn with Trope Actually being held in Adelaide, South Australia. Adelaide deserves it. They’ve often had to trudge to Sydney or Melbourne to be able to attend a conference in person. The tyranny of distance in this big wide land.
I’ve been following the socials and, in both cities, the excitement is palpable. Catching up, meeting new people, listening to inspiring speakers, getting the nitty gritty details about how this business of romance writing works. I’ve spoken to people who are attending and they were counting down the days. Although, it can also be daunting to those who are new or shy and aren’t quite sure how to introduce themselves to strangers who all seem to know each other.
People save up their dollars and cents and their holidays, take a day or two off work, then discover they have new ideas, sometimes in a genre they haven’t written before, for example, teen romance or short reads, around 15,000 words or so. Writers need a starting point.
I’ve made vows after conferences or workshops or when I listen to podcasts to do those things more often, because when you’re surrounded by other like-minded people ideas seem to automatically percolate. Something as simple as a question from a presenter can start a whole new line of thought. I wasn’t able to attend conference this year. However, I’ve signed up to some zoom workshops and recently attended my first physical romance writers group in a long time. It was fabulous, and I solved a problem that had been bugging me for a while.
So, here in my cave this weekend, I’m going to remind myself of some of the Ah ha moments from past conferences and workshops.
Michelle Pennington’s (LERAworkshop24) Scene Tropes zoom session. Her strategy for brainstorming your next book? Write different tropes on raffle tickets and then pull 2 or 3 out of a hat and develop a plot based on that. I haven’t tried this yet.
Pamela Cook (rwaconf22) Climb Inside Your Character’s Skin (2022)—challenged us to watch two skiing videos—one backed by mood music, the other containing the raw sounds the downhill skier could hear—to get inside the head of the character and see, hear, feel, think and experience the world as they were. For someone who doesn’t use visual images as triggers, this was an eye opener. For me, video 1 was mellow, relaxed almost playful whereas video 2 was gritty, adrenalin-charged with high stakes. An exercise worth repeating.
Cassie Hamer (rwaconf23) Taming the Voices. If you start your book with one character’s point of view (POV), a lot of readers perceive that character as the main character. Is that what you want? Do you want to upend convention?
Shannon Curtis (#rwaconf23) Mining the Back Story for Gems noted that writers are looking at—and I’m paraphrasing Shannon—the emotional shrapnel embedded in our fictional character—the wound; their bedrock belief, which is in fact a misbelief built on flawed, yet convincing logic. And their fear—whether real and well-founded or perceived. This fear changes the character’s behaviour to avoid threats, and thus prevents them finding love.
Social media and dating apps have changed cute meets, that is, the actual first meeting of our protagonists. With a dating app, the first meeting is often to check the person is real and in some way resembles their photo, the second is to see if you have anything in common, then you can take it from there. I gather this is also where some people produce their list of pre-prepared questions, can you support yourself? Can we have a baby straight away? That might work as an opening line for a rom-com?
Kristine Charles (rwaconf22) Let’s Talk About Sex noted that tension is the key in sex scenes, that is, bringing the couple(s) one step closer or further apart. Choosing whose POV the scene will be in. Physical and mental attraction are both important. What is at stake? Why is this the wrong time, the wrong person, the wrong situation? If they do this, what happens next? How does intimacy prompt them to make new and difficult choices?
Amanda Ashby (rwaconf23) Be Your Own Developmental Editor mentioned the Chekhov principle—if there’s a gun in the first act, someone needs to pick it up by the third.
Scrolling back through old notes, recalling conversations has reinvigorated me. And some of these tips are pertinent for a just finished manuscript.
Hope you’re doing what gives you joy this weekend.
My e-books are available through all major booksellers, paperbacks from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
PS. Thanks to the social posts that I used to create my webpage image for this blog, in particular, Jo Speirs’s photo of her goodies bag.
Find me on
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/romanceauthorjen/
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/jenniferrainesauthor
- Goodreads—https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22577889.Jennifer_Raines
- Bookbub – https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jennifer-raines
- Diana Kathryn Penn’s Indie Reads Aloud podcast has recordings of me reading the opening 20 mins of my books:
- Lela’s Choice (episode 143)
- Planting Hope (episode 101)
- The Anderson Sisters (episode 54 Taylor’s Law and 80 Grace Under Fire) http://www.dkpwriter.com/indie-reads-aloud-podcast.html
You can also contact me directly via the contact page on my website if you have any other questions.
Jennifer Raines 