Writing Romance When You’re a Little Bit Heartbroken

Some of the most powerful love stories aren’t written when you're in love—they’re written when you're trying to remember what love feels like.

There’s something about heartbreak that sharpens the pen. The longing, the what-ifs, the ache of unfinished conversations—it all pours onto the page with a rawness that perfect love can’t always reach. And maybe that’s okay. Maybe it’s even beautiful.

Romance writing doesn’t have to come from a place of perfection. It can come from a need to believe in something soft again. A reason to still reach out. A hope that the world will feel warm once more.

So if you're sitting at your keyboard wondering how to write about love when your own heart feels bruised—write anyway. Write because of it. Write the happy endings you still believe in, even if they feel far away. Let the page be your safe place, your brave place.

Because sometimes, the best love stories are the ones we tell ourselves first.

Getting Back To a New Normal

This pandemic had been hard on everyone, but this week we had some light at the end of the tunnel. Our area has finally got the pandemic a little bit under control, so the kids can go back to school. Exciting! They've been out of school since last March. It's January. Oh, they went back to school for a couple weeks in September, but that was over quickly enough. Now, however, things are looking up.

So now I will have 2 less people in the house all day every day. My sister is still not back to working in the office and my retired mother will still be home, but it's a start. With the kids returning to school, I can start diagramming what my week will look like. Last week I'd made the decision to return to nonfiction, and I still intend to do that. It's quick and easy and a little annoying but a good way to make some money. But fiction is my first love.

Still, can't dive too deep too quickly. Fiction doesn't work that way, at least for me.  I need to ease back into it. I had wanted to return to my Fallen Romance series, but that takes a little more time, a little more research, a little more attention. So I'm turning back to romantic fiction. Historical romance, actually. That's always a fun genre to write and there's quite the market for it. 

My idea for right now is still simple. I'll flesh it out later. Just a girl, running away from home, and getting into more trouble than she rightfully should. Formulaic, I know. But it works. It works well enough that I'm certain to find it a home as soon as it's written. How long will that take? Anyone's guess, really. But it's somewhere to start and it should be fun to write. 

And I won't have the kids home 24 hours a day to interrupt me. Monday, here I come!

Writing Through a Pandemic

Coronavirus has touched us all. Covid-19 has ripped around the globe, disrupting the lives of everyone. It hasn't been fun, that's for sure. Many people have lost their jobs. Countless others have lost their lives. And it's not over yet. Though a vaccine has arrived, delays and problems with distribution means it could be months before enough people are vaccinated to make a difference.

And in the meantime, we all have to find a way to manage, to get through the pandemic in whatever way we can. In my case, I went from being at home alone all of the time, to being able to get work done on a regular basis, to having a house full of people at every moment of every day. We've been in lockdown here for nearly 10 months. We live in a multi-generational household that includes my two children, my younger sister, and my aging mother. The boys were usually in school, my younger sister works in an office, and my mother was typically at an appointment or a small gathering with her group of friends. Sometimes she would visit my older sister for a few days. For the most part, I was alone. I could work in peace.

And then the pandemic came. Everything was locked down. My younger sister had to work from home. Schools were closed. Everything was closed and visiting each other was no longer recommended by our public health officials. Eventually, getting together at all with people outside your household was severely restricted. All we could do was stay home.

At first, that was fun. It was great. The kids and I built a barn, a rabbit hutch, and we had a fence installed for our growing hobby farm. At some point, however, I realized I had accomplished little work. In fact, I stopped writing for 4 months. How could I write? I had both my children at home and my house was crawling with my mother and my sister. I couldn't possibly work like this. And it would pass soon anyway. Wouldn't it?

As it turns out, no. I tried waiting it out, but it's now January of 2021 and we're not even close to out of lockdown. I can't not write any longer. I need to get paid, after all. But after months of not writing, it was going to be hard to get back into the habit. Did I have a choice? No, not really, but it would be tricky.

You'll often hear writers moan that we can't possibly write on command. We can't possible just sit down and get it done. I've been one of them from time to time, but it's just whining. I have to get something done. It's not an option anymore. I still have a house full of people and working with all of them wandering around is definitely not easy. And the libraries are closed so I can't wander off and write there. But not working is simply unacceptable.

I'm primarily a fiction writer. Tamora Rose is my pen name for romantic fiction, but I write fantasy as LAQuill as well. Writing fiction really does take some inspiration, and I simply don't have any. So I'll turn back to nonfiction. Not as exciting, maybe, but there's money to be made there and I have children. 

It's been a while since I tackled nonfiction, and it's not my favorite. But it's an infinitely easier task than creating stories out of thin air. And it will get me back into the groove of writing every single day. Plus, if I get interrupted for the 9th time in a row, it's so much easier to reengage. I've been interrupted 4 times since I started writing this post 45 minutes ago. Long stretches of detailed plotting just isn't going to happen until people go back to work.

I'm not abandoning fiction. I'll work on my next romance when the house is quiet and the people are still. But right now, I need to write full time. Time to hunker down and get something done. Anything.

At the Beginning: That Dreaded First Chapter

Well, after a prolonged absence to deal with my declining health, I've started a new novel. The idea arrived in a rather timely fashion, so I've got that going for me. It should be smooth sailing, though not quick sailing. A book should essentially fall out of my brain now, as it usually does once the idea has manifested in my brain. Except for one small problem.


The first chapter. I am not a fan of first chapters. I know they're the hook, the way to draw readers in. I know they are for catching attention, for giving the reader just enough information to want to continue the story. But I don't like them. I find them endlessly annoying to write, though typically a joy to read. I'd rather jump into the meat of the story, a place where I can weave plot and dump exposition because it makes sense and it continues the spell for the reader.


But before I can continue the spell, I have to start the spell. And that's a real bummer. Introducing characters and settings when I already know them by virtue of thinking them up in the first place...it's just so boring. And while I could write the book out of order, that never works for me. I have to start at the beginning or there won't be a beginning. I'll just never go back and write it.


So here I am. About to introduce Sorcha, a girl who's lived in my head for the past six weeks. I know her, I know her story. I want to write her story. But before I can do that, I have to orient my readers to the story I'm about to write. I have to make sure they can find there way.


It's important. I know it's important. But I don't have to like it.