Romance Writers Weekly - #lovechatwrite

If you like to read romance novels of all genres, join the writers of Romance Weekly as we go behind the scenes of our books and tell all...about our writing, of course! Every week we'll answer the same questions. Once you've read my blog, the link below will direct you to another. Tell your friends and feel free to ask questions or make comments.

Our blog tour will be six months old on July 29th. To celebrate our first milestone, the authors of Romance Weekly are giving back some of the love. We have incredible prizes on offer, including a Kindle Fire and multiple romance libraries. Enter for free HERE! 

If you've joined me from Collette Cameron, welcome! Isn't her blog pretty? Now for this week's questions...

How do you respond to someone calling your writing smut or demeaning your work in some other way?

If someone is demeaning the romance genre as a whole, I usually just nod and smile and move on. Bad reviews of my own work can really sting, of course, and that's harder to let go. But in my day job, writing TV commercials, I work with clients who can have very definite ideas of what they want. I can't take it personally when they change something I have written. I think I have carried that attitude into my novel writing. If someone disparages my work, I first look to see if they may have a valid point. After all, I'm not perfect, and often negative criticism is where you can learn the most. If, after some consideration, I don't agree with their comment, I move on as best I can.

When critiquing or beta reading, do you ever find the voice of the other author creeping into your writing?

I haven't done that much critiquing or beta reading, so I can't say it has. I do know I have to stop myself from inserting my own writing style into my partner's work. As the amazing Jennifer Crusie says, “there are many roads to Oz”, and each way has its own merits. I can say I have learned a lot from the beta reading I have done – each author has shown me ways to make my own writing better.

My writing space

What’s one quirky thing you do or must have around you while writing?

I can't write in silence. Which is a funny thing to say, because as I write this the house is very, very quiet! But usually I write surrounding by normal household noise – mainly because I don't have a separate office and write in my living room.

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I invite you to continue your journey around the Romance Writers Weekly blog with .... J.J. Devine!