Write Writing Written

I've written at least 5 YA books. I had 3 full requests from agents for my psychological thrill. All three agents left the industry within 6 months of asking for my manuscript. LE SIGH.
Recently, I switched genres. I'm trying my hand at contemporary romance now (can you blame me??).
I love writing romance! Because of my love of writing love (sheesh), I choose all romance writing classes at #storymakers19.

One of the classes was by Jenny Proctor!

This is one piece advice I'm going to use every time I start a story:
⇒Before drafting, tell a friend (or your critique group) your story. Pay attention to the questions they ask! Use their insights and questions to fill out your story.

Know your characters!
Ask WHY for everything they do.
Allow them to make mistakes.
Know their conflicts both intelluctual (false impressions and assumptions) and emotional.
Too much 'hotness' doesn't a relationship make! If you use too much 'hotness' you don't have enough char…

Years and years ago, I wrote an LDS romance. I thought it was pretty good, so I decided I needed to figure out where to send my amazing manuscript to have it published. I read about a writing conference close to where I lived and decided that is where I should start. After all, the conference title had 'LDS' in it.
The conference was smaller back then. We fit in one of the ballrooms at the Marriott hotel in downtown Provo. I'm not sure how many were in attendance, maybe 100? I got to meet so many amazing people! I'm still friends with most of them today.

I soon learned I didn't write the perfect book. That hurt my ego a little bit, which was good. I'm still learning the craft. I'm still learning I can't write the perfect book in one setting.
There are quite a few writing conferences in Utah. My favorite isLDStorymakers. I think this year there were over 800 participants and it runs for three days in May.


Life, the Universe and Everything is a fun confe…