Hey fellow writers!
My birthday gifts continue. My official birthday is tomorrow, but I already had one delicious chocolate cake yesterday.
For the last three days, I’ve posted the first three chapters of my romcom novel Making A Difference (M.A.D.) (aff. link). Chapter links are below:
For romance writers, I crafted How to Write an Amazing Romance Novel.
If you want to get a taste of the book before you buy it, here’s the chapter on finding and developing your romance novel idea.
Finding the Idea: 6 Ways to Find and Develop Your Romance Idea
Sometimes it just comes to you, and everything’s just right. Often, the idea needs to be tweaked a bit. But there will be occasions when you’ll need to fight for it. You’ll only find a concept worth writing about by digging deep, which might include some long and frustrating brainstorming sessions.
- When it comes to you
The idea for Making A Difference (M.A.D.), my romance novel, came to me during my second year in college. I was sitting at a Public Relations class taught by this famous professor who was a PR legend in my country. She was in her late seventies, early eighties and shared fascinating true stories. One story stood out in particular, and she became the basis of Faye, a cool supporting character whose influence shaped my romantic hero into the man he is.
My hero Jay, aka the male protagonist, was partly inspired by this other great teacher I had the year before. Here’s the funny part: They don’t really resemble each other. The one thing they had in common was how entertaining, informative, and engaging their lectures are. I loved this teacher so much I’d drag myself out of bed for his classes, come hell or high water, bad health or sleepless nights. I felt betrayed when we ended up getting only one class from him.
College is a time when a lot of students develop crushes on their professors or TAs. While I didn’t develop a crush on a teacher, I had several friends who did. And I wondered what it would be like if I had. What if there was a teacher who I was so attracted to that it distracted me? And wouldn’t it be complicated if that teacher was attracted to me too?
But professors having affairs with students is not exactly fresh, or very romantic, is it? Think about it. There is a power imbalance. There is usually an age difference. And the yuck factor is high if the teacher is married. The yuck factor intensifies if this teacher has done it more than once. Now you, and potentially your readers, have zero respect for both of your main characters.
But what if…this teacher was so not happy with his feelings for his student? What if he wasn’t a full-time teacher? What if he went out of his way to avoid his feelings? What if the student was extremely passionate and believed in following her heart no matter what? What if the age difference was minimal? What if he was obsessed with ethics and walked the walk? What if they were both single?
Now, you have no reason not to root for your characters. Sure, it is still awkward and difficult, but it could happen to you. Have you never been attracted to someone you shouldn’t be attracted to? Is ten years of age difference really that bad when it comes to love? And you have created a ton of internal and external conflict by making characters’ personality and values differ from each other.
So Making A Difference (M.A.D.) was born:
“Everybody loves Jay. He’s that humanitarian PR guru who doesn’t live like the rich and runs a profitable company so that he’ll have more resources to help people. He defines himself through how much he and his company make a positive impact.
He’s engaged to a gorgeous CEO whose purse collection could feed the homeless in NYC, but he’s only human.
If anyone notices the irony, it’s Jay’s new partner Zoe. 10 years older than her, Jay is the reason she studied PR. So when Jay’s business partner/best friend takes a less pressuring position, she’s delighted to return to the firm she interned for.
But Jay and Zoe have a big secret: 5 years ago, they fell hard for each other. She was a student at NYU where Jay was a lecturer. To Jay, his legacy was everything, and he’d never risk his reputation by dating a student. Moreover, he’d die before he let Zoe ruin her career. She is furious he doesn’t take the risk for them. She even leaves the country for a year to get over him.
And now she’s happily coupled-up with lovely writer Colin.
Colin detests Jay, and he doesn’t even know the entire story. Zoe’s upset Colin’s turning into a whiny jerk, but he’s the first guy she has felt strongly for in a long time.
Jay can no longer dismiss his feelings as nostalgia, but Zoe’s still furious at him. And the last time he tried to fix things, she left the company and the country. And now that the stakes are even higher.
Will Jay be able to follow his heart even when improving the world seems easier?”
How the what ifs and following questions came together
So Jay Clark, my male protagonist, became the grandson of a PR guru, the co-owner of a successful PR company and humanitarian who was dedicated to making the world a better place. There is no catch, no hidden agenda. He just wants to improve the world – and he does so by helping as many people as he can with healthcare, food, and shelter. He is a workaholic who defines himself through his work, so he doesn’t really care much about dating or romance.
I have read and watched too many characters who care about their reputation and will do anything to protect it. What makes Jay different is that he avoids doing anything that might harm his reputation in the first place. If you have nothing to hide, it’s much easier to avoid a scandal.
So if he doesn’t pursue his romantic interest, how do you get them to spend time together? By making them mentor/mentee, boss/employee, and really good friends. This is contemporary romance. The novel isn’t set in the 20s. It is expected to see professors hanging with their students. So it is both heaven and hell for these characters to be together all the time (and they want to be), but not being able to actually be together as a couple.
How do you throw them together after college is over? How do you create new (or redefine former) obstacles to keep them apart?
Another common thing to do is giving your main characters other love interests. Nothing complicates things further than other significant people.
They don’t live in a vacuum, and the purpose of their existence isn’t just to find love or to be together. The trick is to get them to be with these other people without making their feelings for each other seem less special. But also you don’t want your main characters to come off as completely selfish jerks. You want them flawed, but not as heartless or cruel.
But how much your characters can get away with, how much they can be forgiven for depends on the world you created and your own values. If you are going to have your characters commit adultery or murder, for instance, you better show us damn good reasons for us to still root for them. Most of us flex our values and morals for fiction, especially if you give us enough redeeming circumstances.
Let’s take adultery. I am, as a person, 100% against the concept. I’m so against it, in fact, that when someone forgives a cheating partner and stays with them in a story, I’m immediately turned off. But there have been some exceptional fictional examples that inspired me to start a fun blog post series called “When Adultery is Okay.” On my entertainment site pinartarhan.com/blog.
For instance, in the movie Revenge (based on the novella by Jim Harrison), Kevin Costner falls in love with (and of course has sex with) the wife (Madeleine Stowe) of his friend (Anthony Quinn). Gross, right? Who does that?
But his “buddy” is a much older, ruthless Mexican mobster. His wife is totally trapped. And have you seen the younger Kevin Costner? You can’t help but want the star-crossed lovers to be together.
And with this example, let’s look at the other side of the coin, the characters our protagonists are with now – the Mr./Miss Right Nows. While stories like Revenge give the hero and heroine a clear out, you need to check if it is not too easy. So easy, that it might backfire.
Let me tell you what I mean. In the Revenge example, there is no contest between Anthony Quinn’s character and Kevin Costner’s. If the current significant other is such a jerk, it only makes sense that he loses the girl. But here are two things the writer did that avoid clichés and easy-way-outs. For one thing, Madeleine Stowe’s marriage was not arranged. She wanted to marry him. He was charismatic, wealthy, impressive. We are pretty sure he promised a gentler, kinder future where he didn’t have mistresses. (Oh, yes, he cheats too. What a prize!) The second is that you understand why she hasn’t tried to leave him. How can you divorce a powerful mobster? So dumping the guy isn’t an option.
But in most modern settings and sub-genres, this doesn’t work. When you want to offer your readers an escapist fantasy rooted in realism, when you want to write a feel-good romance, you don’t generally write abusive or dangerous partners. You create characters that are not impossible to leave. And since the character isn’t dangerous, there is no good reason your main character stays with them:
Suppose you created strong heroes and heroines who are nice people at their cores. They don’t use people for their own pleasure. They are emotionally intelligent.
Then why would they stay with an annoying partner who doesn’t value them? Why would they waste their time? When you make their current romantic partner insufferable, you make it easy for your reader not to feel sorry for them. But if they are so insufferable, why is your strong, self-respecting lead with them?
A better option would be to make the temporary love interests human too: flawed, but lovable. So that staying doesn’t seem like a cruel, stupid or unnatural thing to do. But don’t make them more loveable than your main character, obviously.
I know, writing can be so complicated!
How to wire your brain so that ideas will come to you
I can hear some of you shaking your head and saying “Yeah, that’s just great, but ideas don’t just come to me!”
Maybe they don’t. Maybe they do, and you don’t recognize them yet. In any case, here are some tips to stimulate your brain so that it creates, captures, welcomes, and stores ideas:
- Live your life to the fullest to the best way you can. This doesn’t mean you have to do things out-of-character or things that make you uncomfortable, although that sometimes helps as well.
Traveling inspires. If you can’t afford to venture far, discover more things to do in or around your neighborhood.
I don’t think my current novel idea would have come to me had I not spent a month in Santa Barbara, California. I created that novel as a screenplay at first. While I was getting notes from a professional reader in Hollywood, she asked if I was from California because I had captured the atmosphere so well.
Take that dancing class. Go to that language course. Meet up with that friend you haven’t seen in more than ten years.
Live! Live, especially when you are healthy and you have some money. When
you need to do less due to work, health or financial reasons, the stored up fun from your past will come to you as inspiration.
- Read. Listen.
The news. Memes. Books. Blogs, magazines, newspapers, comics, graphic novels, spam emails….Whatever comes to you, read, learn, forget. You never forget the most useful stuff. And if you want to make sure you remember a certain something, take notes.
I’m not a fan of reality TV. I don’t think reality shows will inspire you to create anything unless you are interested in conjuring up reality shows or stories featuring reality shows.
That said, everyone is different. If it is fun for you, go for it. Just don’t forget to watch other stuff too. Variety is key. I rarely watch documentaries (though I’ve watched some magnificent ones), and I’m not a fan of gory horror. Besides those, I watch anything and everything that seems interesting.
- Learn, even if it is trivia or obscure.
While one of my ideas was inspired by a true event (an inspiration source I go into detail about in Section 4: True Stories and Memes), it wouldn’t have been possible without my intensive trivia knowledge of rock music, particularly about rock music history in the 80s and 90s).
I have always been a huge rock fan. Writing that story was second nature to me. When you already know so much, writing, researching and developing your story all become easier.
It might also make sense to incorporate some of the real-life events into your characters’ dialogue. If your characters first meet during the grunge scene in the 90s, it’d make sense to have them talk about Pearl Jam and Nirvana, even if you made up the main musicians and songs for your story.
Juliet, Naked (aff. link) is a 2018 movie starring Ethan Hawke and Rose Byrne. Based on Nick Hornby’s novel, it’s a charming romantic drama and comedy about a 40-something woman re-evaluating her life choices through her boyfriend’s obsession with a former famous rock musician.
The musician character played by Ethan Hawke feels so authentic. While it is a credit both to the actor and the screenwriters (and of course, Nick Hornby), it’s hard to imagine Hornby wasn’t inspired at all by what happened to some real-life musicians when he created the story.
You can watch the Juliet, Naked trailer on YouTube.
You don’t have to give two hoots about music. Your passion might be about football, knitting, racing, or gardening. Your knowledge about your interests might spark your imagination, as well as add authenticity to your characters.
- Dreams… and Nightmares
I dreamed about the current romantic comedy-drama I’m working on. Set in Los Angeles, it’s about the unconventional relationship a disgraced actor forms with a fan. I took the plot of the dream, added a supporting cast, and some minor characters. I included some personal experiences and real-life struggles and expanded on it.
But the idea came within the dream.
When I woke up, I remembered it vividly and enjoyed it immensely, so I started taking notes. Before I knew it, I had my next story.
I also recently dreamed this weird sci-fi, dystopian romance I’m trying to differentiate from others of its kind, but I quite like the bare bones of the story.
Unfortunately, I don’t always dream writeable-plots. More often than not, it is ordinary stuff featuring people I know in real life. Sometimes they are so weird even director David Lynch wouldn’t use them in a film. But once in a while, I wake up all inspired, thanks to the dream muses.
But you can also take the other definition of dreams and run with that.
For instance, what did you dream about becoming growing up? Maybe you wanted to be a doctor but you hated science classes, or the sight of blood made you nauseous. Maybe you desired to be a pilot, but your eyesight prevented you from realizing that. There is no reason your characters can’t fulfill your dreams and fantasies for you. Even the sky isn’t the limit when you are writing fiction.
What about nightmares? What are your greatest fears? Maybe you are secretly terrified of being accused of something you didn’t do and being sent to prison for it. Perhaps your worst nightmare is being kidnapped by some lunatic and being tortured.
If you are thinking one nightmare doesn’t make a story, or you are not satisfied where this line of thinking got you, why not combine the elements?
What if you were a doctor wrongly accused, and then you emerge from prison a different person and decide to kidnap the people responsible? Or maybe you just got out of prison, and to add insult to the injury, you got bitten by a werewolf? What if the accuser was a vampire and had a good reason to sully your good name? It could be a dark, Stockholm Syndrome-y story.
Don’t be afraid to brainstorm. Bad ideas will come. So will good ones.
- Speaking of bad ideas: sometimes a tweak in the right place is all you need
The first romantic comedy story I thought about was a love triangle. But the happiness of inspiration was overshadowed by disappointment. It was cliché. It didn’t feel worth pursuing. But there were too many things about the storyline that I had enjoyed, so I decided to reverse one situation. It became funnier and a lot more romantic. Then I gave it one more twist, and voila! It turned into something I would be happy spending so much time with.
Tweaks can include anything from changing the location to altering jobs of characters, from transforming how characters feel for each other to reversing personality traits…anything goes. Change anything and everything until you come up with a central idea that you are happy with.
- True Stories and memes
I’m co-writing a screenplay inspired by two funny memes we saw on the Internet.
And one of my favorite romantic stories that I wrote as a screenplay, which will probably be my third or fourth novel, was inspired by true events.
Now, the story inspired by true events is not related to what happened in real life at all. I just thought of a tragic event, reversed it with a “what if this happened instead of that” question, and imagined my own reaction if that tragic thing had happened to someone I was a fan of. And jackpot!
If you are basing your novel on actual true events, however, I recommend doing your research on not getting sued. Here’s some initial reading on the matter:
How Not to Get Sued When Writing about Real People (article on LitReactor)
A Writer’s Guide to Defamation and Invasion of Privacy (article on Writer’s Digest)
- Brainstorming from scratch…. or prompts
We talked about using your own dreams and nightmares. You can mine your experiences, what you would change in books you felt meh about, endings you never got to see, but you wish you had…
However, if you are feeling stuck and nothing seems to help, it might be time for writing exercises. Many writing websites offer free prompts and methods for stimulating your brain. My favorite so far has been “The Blank from Hell” exercise suggested in ScriptMag.
The “blank” from hell can be used for any genre, and it is a fun and creative way to create any character, especially your antagonist.
You can use it for animals, locations, jobs, relationships and so on.
- Being Inspired by Popular Works and Writing Parallels
If a creative work is public domain, it means it’s not protected by intellectual property laws. It belongs to no one. Because it doesn’t belong to one person, anyone can use a public domain work without getting permission.
This is how it was possible for Seth Grahame-Smith to write the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (aff.link), a highly successful twist on the Jane Austen classic. It was even made into a movie in 2016 starring Lily James as Elizabeth Bennett.
You can watch the movie trailer here.
Now, instead of a romantic comedy, you have a romantic horror story with a lot of kickass fight scenes.
If you want to use this method for creating your story or finding inspiration, check out this list of public domain works.
Other True Stories of Inspiration from Published Romance Authors
Carmen Radtke
Carmen Radtke fell in love with romantic comedies as a child in front of a TV set. Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’ Toole shaped her sense of adventure and love of foreign places as well as her expectations in witty dialogue. Because real life turned out to be sadly lacking in this respect, she’s recreating her ideals in The Case of The Missing Bride, and A Matter of Love and Death. More novels are with her agent, and she’s also busy trying her hand with screenplays, encouraged by cat and daughter.
About The Case of the Missing Bride
When a girl goes missing on board of an ocean liner, only one person is convinced that the disappearance is no accident.
Alyssa has found herself with a group of impoverished girls who are embarking from Australia to Canada in the hope of marriage. As the daughter of a senior official, Alyssa doesn’t share this goal. She hopes to return to England via Canada.
But the girls all share one problem. Their presence on the ship is not known to many of its passengers, but their worlds collide when one of the gentlemen discovers them. Then Emma, one of the intended brides, goes missing. Alyssa is convinced the disappearance is no accident and will risk her own life to search for the killer.
What happened to Emma? Is there a murderer on board the ship?
Alyssa is about to discover that there is more to her voyage than she bargained for.
About A Matter of Love and Death
Adelaide, 1931. Telephone switchboard operator Frances’ life is difficult as the sole provider for her mother and adopted uncle. But it’s thrown into turmoil when she overhears a suspicious conversation on the phone, planning a murder.
If a life is at risk, she should tell the police; but that would mean breaking her confidentiality clause and would cost her the job. And practical Frances, not prone to flights of fancy, soon begins to doubt the evidence of her own ears – it was a very bad line, after all…
She decides to put it behind her, a task helped by the arrival of their new lodger, Phil. Phil takes her to a nightclub, where she meets charming but slightly dangerous club owner Jack. Jack’s no angel – prohibition is in force, and what’s a nightclub without champagne? But he’s a good man, and when Frances’ earlier fears resurface, she knows that he’s the person to confide in.
Frances and Jack’s hunt for the truth put them in grave danger, and soon enough Frances will learn that some things are a matter of love and death…
Carmen Radtke on How She Found the Inspiration for Her Books
“ While researching The Case of the Missing Bride I read that Australia was only topped by Germany when it came to unemployment during the Great Depression. I didn’t know that. I read up on the prohibition after 6pm, and since I’ve always loved the Thin Man movies and 1940s movies, I had this idea of a girl supporting her whole family, so she has to do whatever it takes to not jeopardise her job, and a decent guy feeling the same kind of responsibility. Jack breaks the law because he’s a good guy… I took it from there, with the added bonus of Uncle Sal turning up unplanned, but fully formed, as the connection between Frances and Jack’s worlds. It’s very much a homage to classic movies, only set in Australia.
A matter of love and death has romantic subplots which directly influence the mystery. Most of my favourite mysteries are to a certain extent romantic novels.
I was living in New Zealand when I stumbled upon that one paragraph that became the basis for Missing Bride. It made me sad and angry, and got me thinking about how something like this could as easily happen today, a group of poor young women nobody would care about if they vanish…
With A Matter of Love and Death, it was my lack of knowledge about Australia during the Great Depression. I knew heaps about the effects in the US, UK, and Germany, but down under? And it’s fascinating. It truly is, frog cakes included… I could see Frances dancing on board the Floating Palais, Dolores singing, the gaiety and the desperation goes my hand in hand…
Everything can spark a story, even a place…”
Fiona Leitch
Fiona Leitch is a novelist and screenwriter from the UK. Her debut novel, the dark romantic comedy Dead in Venice was published by Audible as one of their Crime Grant finalists, while her romantic comedy screenplay ‘Parliamentary Affairs’ was recently optioned by a producer in LA. She dreams of living in a crumbling Venetian palazzo and enjoys scaring her cats by trying out dialogue on them.
About Dead In Venice by Fiona Leitch
Bella Tyson is a famous 40-something crime writer suffering from writer’s block ever since a bitter divorce two years before. When a fan offers her the use of an apartment in Venice, Bella jumps at it, hoping a change of scene will have her writing again. Once there, she soon meets Will, a charming Englishman, who shows her around the city.
Enchanted by both Will and her new surroundings, Bella decides to write a supernatural murder mystery and begins researching local legends and the city’s more sinister side, including an illicit visit to the island of Poveglia, spooky former home of Venice’s asylum. Soon Bella uncovers more than she has bargained for and finds herself enmeshed in a series of gruesome real-life murders that uncannily mirror the legends she is researching.
As she and Will join forces to investigate, real life and local lore merge disconcertingly – for nothing in Venice turns out to be what seems, including Will…
Fiona Leitch on How She Found the Inspiration for Her Books
“My main inspiration was Venice itself. I visited it before I had any ideas about a story set there. It is without doubt one of the most romantic places in the world, but it’s also really easy to get lost and disoriented. If you end up down one of the back streets at night, when it’s dark and deserted and quiet, it has a real atmosphere. You can easily imagine dark deeds being done, bodies in the canal, ghosts… So it inspired me to think about love and death, and I thought ‘what if you fell madly in love with someone in this romantic place, and then found out he was a murderer? Could you forgive him?’ And that’s the story behind the book…!”
Inga Batur
Inga Batur the author of Faodail: Lucky Find in the North of Scotland (Romance in Scotland) and Second Chances (Romance in Scotland Book 2)
She lives in the city with her husband, who makes sure she looks great on all the photos and two kids. She dreams of moving into a cottage in the most remote corner of Scotland, where she can write steamy contemporary romances, stare at the Ocean and eat scones. Her daughters aren’t impressed.
Inga Batur on How She Found the Inspiration for Her Books
“We were on holiday in the North of Scotland, and we were staying at this small whitewashed cottage on the cliffs. We had no wi-fi, no TV, no schedule, we spent our days walking around and doing nothing. With no other stimuli, my brain had no distractions. So, I kept getting these flashes of images, kind of like my brain playing a film for me.
The whole setting made me think of a story. I had fragments in my mind from before, because I had wanted to write a book for a long time. But I was always too busy with something else. Here I finally wasn’t. I was able to play with it, as we explored the beaches and the cliffs. Each place was a small aha moment. I could use this and this…
Besides, I had such a hard time leaving, and then I thought, if I write about it, then I don’t have to leave, I can return in my mind over and over again.
So, it seems my real inspiration are the places we travel to. Last year we were in Ireland, and I had a story set there in a second. I think it has to do with scenery, with a new setting, new experiences, of relaxing, not being stuck in a routine…
I have now written two books set in Scotland, they work as a series but can be read as standalones, and I am just about to start on the third, making it a trilogy. But I am also starting to think where else can I stage a book.”
N J Simmonds
N J Simmonds, author of YA fantasy romance series The Indigo Chronicles, began her career in glossy magazines. She went on to manage marketing campaigns for big brands before becoming a freelance writer and consultant.
In 2015 she co-founded online magazine The Glass House Girls and has since contributed to many publications. She writes books filled with fearless teens, magic, and adventure, and also lectures on storytelling and self-branding. Originally from North London, with Spanish parentage, N J lives in the Netherlands with her husband and two daughters.
N J Simmonds on How She Found the Inspiration for Her Books
“Everywhere. It could be from a dream, something my children said (I got the title of a new book I’m working on that way), lyrics of a song or an emotion or event I’ve experienced. Sometimes it’s from a story we all know and love, but by changing the setting, time, a few events or perspective you can create a brand new and original tale. As Mark Twain famously said – “There’s no such thing as a new idea.”
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