What I Learned From Writing Romance

By Louise Titchener (romance written under pen name Maude Wood)

No matter what the genre, a bit of sexual tension can perk up your storytelling. Years ago I wrote romance novels. This is what that experience taught me. Love is a lot more interesting when it’s all about the conflict.

Readers are surprised when I tell them that a romance is a love story. But not all love stories are romances. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a love story. The conflict in that...

Fishing for a story

What is creativity? The ancient Greeks believed that artists channeled their music, dance, poetry etc. from the gods. Sometimes it feels that way. Sometimes it feels more like going fishing in an empty pool.

I don’t know the process that musicians, dancers and poets go through to do their work. I do know that writing a novel, at least in the beginning, can be a struggle. Facing that blank first page is daunting.

As I picture the vacant computer screen after I’ve...

To Prologue or not to Prologue

By Louise Titchener

Writing first chapters makes me think of wallpapering a room. If you don’t get that initial strip of gingham checks on right, every new addition will be askew. The finished project will be totally off kilter. I have a novel I’ve been revising for years. The first chapter never quite worked but instead of fixing it I kept on writing. What was wrong about the first chapter bled into the second and things just got worse and worse. Big mistake.

The...