5 secrets shared by romcom authors
Tips, tricks and tales collected at this weekend’s Love Stories, etc festival.
I’ve just got back from a weekend in Manchester having attended / spoken at one of the loveliest writing festivals - Love Stories, etc - a celebration of romcom featuring 28 romance writers.
Organised by the brilliant Alice Murphy-Pyle of HarperNorth and Sara-Jade Virtue of Simon and Schuster I was honoured to join one of the themed panels (our was about writing ‘funny stories’) to share some of our cringey experiences (mine involved a portaloo and wet jeans. Grim), favourite comedy books/shows that we keep returning to (Breaking Bad for me - that hook is pure genius) and inspirations for writing funny.
But outside of my own panel (which was chaired by Lauren Bravo and featured writers Melanie Cantor and Jamie Fewery) we had panels themed around beach reads, what is love, hope and many more.
So I thought I’d share some of the talking points, tips and tricks discussed during the day. AND APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE if I can’t recall who to attribute what to - I took no notes because I’m a doylem! Please add in the comments if you were there and remember who said what! (And if I got any of them wrong!)
Most authors experience a crisis of confidence when writing their current book - no matter how many times they’ve written before
This was incredibly reassuring to hear, because I feel this Every. Single. Time. Can I really do it? Were all the other times I produced a complete manuscript simply flukes that are never to be repeated again? What if I’ve ran out of steam and should instead be chucking it all in and applying for a job on Tesco bakery (that was a gem from the hugely successful author Lucy Diamond - and she’s written about 20 - including some Sunday Times bestsellers). It’s clearly a universal issue. Oh, and another thing…
Most authors dread the 50k mark…
I thought it was just me but apparently the ‘dreaded 50k mark’ is A THING. A point where you’re ready to scream while chucking your laptop out the window. The point where your mind is either blank or blocked with too much STUFF. It feels hopeless - but lots of authors go through it - and their books are all about twice that long in the end so…
We don’t need to write likeable characters
During one of the morning sessions, one audience member asked how the panel made their characters likeable. If memory serves me correctly, it was the panel chaired by Lucy Vine…anyway, I was SO reassured by her (was it Lucy’s?) response which was along the lines of ‘but why do my characters need to be likeable?’. I’ve heard a few people say this recently and it really helps because, to be frank, my characters can be rather abrasive, prickly and difficult beings. In my mind, I think I don’t need readers to necessarily like my characters, but to understand them. And perhaps find their journey entertaining / thought-provoking. After all, everyone loved Succession and I’m not sure there was a single likeable character in that series (aside from the Disgusting Brothers, of course).
Specificity is key to funny…
This one was a gem of a tip from Lauren Bravo - who I am sure credited it to another author or comedian, but I can’t for the life of me remember who (Victoria Wood, maybe?). As Lauren put it (in words vaguely similar to this but you’ll get the gist), rather than saying, I was eating a ready meal, say I was eating one of those about-to-turn ready meals from the whoopsie aisle in Asda…Adding specifics somehow makes it more entertaining.
Joyous books about LGBTQ relationships do exist…
This was discussed by a few authors, including Kate Young on an earlier panel and Philip J Ellis later in the day. I was honoured to host Kate’s recent event in Whitley Bay at The Bound and she also talked then about how important it was to have a story about LGBTQ relationships that was joyous having grown up with so many darker tales focused on the struggles and discrimination faced by the community. Yes - those stories are important. But so are brilliantly joyous LGBTQ romcoms. We need more of them in the world, but there are a few already making their mark (a couple to mention are Experienced by Kate Young and We Could Be Heroes by P J Ellis).
There’s lots of imposter syndrome around saying the words ‘I am a writer’
This is a long-held observation of mine - as someone who has written and published several books, I still sometimes feel slightly cringey about saying I’m a writer - as if someone’s going to ask ‘Oh do you write full time?’ or ‘Is your book available in Tesco?’ (The answer to both of those questions is no, in case you’re interested). Anyway, the thing is, yes, sometimes I might get asked those things. Indeed, my husband is an actor and he can’t remember the number of times a taxi driver has asked him if he’s been in EastEnders. It doesn’t make him any less of an actor, and it doesn’t make you any less of a writer. So this is a reminder to myself, and every writer I met he described themselves as ‘an aspiring writer’ - the only prerequisite to saying you’re a writer is, well, writing. You’re not saying you’re a Sunday Times Bestseller or even saying you’re a published author. But if you write…then you are a writer.
Anyway, there’s a few little nuggets from the day. But thanks to everyone who made the festival what it was - because it was MINT. But I guess if a bunch of romcom authors / readers / publishers can’t create warm and fuzzy vibes when they’re all in a room together then, seriously, who can?
Here’s a little montage of all the authors, workshop leaders and speakers….
