Savannah Knightly

Writing about an in-progress romance novel is hard. Writing about it on WordPress is even harder. Here’s what I mean:

5 Ways Writing About My Romance Novel Is Hard

1. Avoiding Spoilers

I’m still trying to figure out how to describe parts of the book without including too many spoilers. Even describing the main characters is complicated since the reader isn’t supposed to know everything about them to begin with. If I’m going to go to all the effort of trying to reveal each piece of information at the appropriate time, blabbing about them all in a blog post doesn’t really make sense.

Which is why I haven’t done feature articles about characters yet. I haven’t figured out how without hitting the spoiler problem.

2. Finding Appropriate Topics

Writing a book is very different from writing about the book or writing about the process of writing the book. I’ve spent a lot more time writing chapters than I have articles, so I’m not particularly secure or sure of what I’m doing. I’m mostly guessing the types of topics people might be interested in or tossing the dice and writing about what’s on my mind that day.

That’s almost certainly not the best way to go about it, but I’m not sure what else to do (But I am open to suggestions.).

3. Not Repeating Topics

Speaking of writing whatever’s on my mind that day, well, apparently, the same things are on my mind often. Especially related to writing. There are some writing issues I may end up struggling with the whole time I’m writing the book, so, naturally, I keep thinking of those same issues when I go to write for the blog.

You may have already noticed some topical repetition. Believe me, there’d have been far more if I hadn’t caught myself in time.

4. Avoiding WordPress Censorship

If a blog post does certain things, WordPress won’t show it in the WordPress Reader. One of the forbidden acts is including explicit or adult content. Which could be foul language or more sexual in nature.

And, of course, the rules don’t exactly spell out how far is ok and how far isn’t, so it’s a bit of blind man’s bluff. I’m trying to keep from crossing a line that’s not only defined by someone else but also essentially invisible to me.

That means not writing much about one of my favorite aspects of writing romance novels – the love scenes. I figure that’s a big part of what appeals to people who read romance novels (the type I’m writing anyway). If articles written about it don’t reach the audience, however, they’re not going to do me any good. It’s a frustrating conundrum that I haven’t found my way out of yet.

5. Avoiding Nom de Plume Spoilers

There are only so many things happening in your life at any one time and so many interests a person can have. If you’ve read the bio, you know I’m writing under a nom de plume to avoid drama from super conservative (one might even say priggish) family members. At the same time, I’ve promised you to write truth under that name and not simply make everything up.

Which means I have to be selective in what I tell you about my day-to-day life and interests. It’s not horribly urgent (I will survive facing the drama if need be), but I am giving it an honest try. And having given it an honest try for about half a year, I think I can safely say that it’s a good thing that I’m against adultery.

Putting aside moral and ethical issues for a moment (and there are many), I don’t understand how people do it successfully for any length of time. There are too many things you want to talk about, and if you’re actually talking about something in person, it’s much harder to realize you shouldn’t mention something before you’ve already blurted it out. At least I have the benefit of the time it takes to read a draft before my thoughts become public.

And, yes, I know this problem is mostly of my making. But I’m committed now, and I’m not one to stop in the middle of a task because it turned out to be hard. There are times I wish I were, but I’m not. So I’m going to have to keep plugging at this one even though it’s more complicated than I expected it to be.

In Summary

Writing a blog about an in-progress novel has been a bit of a struggle for me. I don’t know if I’m trying to write too often or if I’m missing obvious topics. Maybe I’m out of touch with the people who read blogs by romance authors (likely).

That said, I’m going to keep trying and (I hope) getting better at it as I go along. I wouldn’t say, “No,” to friendly tips though. 😉