Fake relationships: Fake fiances, marriages of convenience – however you work it, I love me some fake relationships. I’ve written quite a few MOCs because I write historicals, but I read a lot of contemporary fake fiancé books and I can never get enough of them. It reminds me of that scene in Leap Year where they’re at that farmhouse and the family makes them kiss – totally cliched, but it works! Best friends to lovers: Admittedly I’ve never written one of these myself, but I read a bunch of them. I’ve always been a sucker for this trope. Frankly I think it stems from the fact that my sister married her best friend when I was like 13 so right at that ripe age for falling in love with falling in love. You get my gist. But it’s just the best for people who already love each other to realize that love can now involve sexy times. Nerds in love: OMG! I’m not sure this is an actual trope, but we’re going to call it one for my purposes. I don’t care if it’s the hero or the heroine that’s the nerd, there’s just something about the awkward sexiness…

It was a dark and stormy night… Beginnings. I know so many writers that love beginnings. They love them so much they have drawers (really files since most of us don’t keep our writing in actual drawers) full of story beginnings. It’s nothing for them to whip up a new proposal and send it off to their editor or agent. They love the excitement, the freshness, the limitless possibilities. Me? Not so much. And that’s really putting it mildly. I hate beginnings. It’s not that I don’t love all the possibilities, that’s great, wonderful, even. I mean that’s why brainstorming can get a bit addictive. I get the whole newness thing, I can see where they’re coming from, but I can’t feel it. Getting and shaping the idea is one thing, but when it comes to the actual writing, I’m a bundle of nerves. Well, I’m nervous and stressed pretty much the whole time I’m writing, but the beginning, especially. (And the ending, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog) The way I look at it, I’ve got a blank canvas with two people I don’t know at all (regardless of how many things I know about them, it’s way different…

In its various forms, love scenes are probably one of the most discussed topics at romance writers’ conferences. Love scenes are an integral part of romance writing yet for some writers the thought of writing one can strike the same amount of fear as the dreaded synopsis. I can’t tell you there is no reason to be afraid, sex, unlike synopses, can actually have fearful roots. But I can tell you that there was a time when I found writing love scenes to be rather uncomfortable, yet now they tend to be one of my favorite scenes to write. My journey through them isn’t important, and frankly I’m not sure why everything has changed, so I can’t offer you a step-by-step guide. I can tell you that the first one I wrote (many years ago now), I just typed as fast as I could to get through it as quickly as possible. When I re-read it, it was riddled with clichés and purple prose and had zero emotion. Needless to say it needed a lot of work. The first step to writing love scenes (okay, so I lied, apparently I am giving you a step-by-step guide) is to ignore those…