Okay, Just One More

I’m going to own up to this right now. I have a problem—it’s a good problem—but a problem none-the-less.

I am addicted to writing craft books.

I just can’t say no! They are like my own form of Pringles! Maybe not so tasty but certainly better for my hips. 

Image courtesy of giphy.com

This has been a lifelong habit for me; Whenever I find a topic of interest I always go overboard. E.g. Husband bought me a rose, but how does one look after a rose? Off to the library I went, seventeen books on roses later, well let’s just say I haven’t killed the rose yet.

With writing craft books, I started small. I went to the library and borrowed/reserved every writing book I could get my greedy little hands on. There weren’t a lot that actually covered my genre: Romance. That meant it was time to dig deeper. Booktopia, Ever After Book Store, Amazon… One little click into Google and I was buried with suggestions on the best ever romance writing craft books.

My writing craft collection

Over time I’ve built up quite a little collection (see picture above) But I thought I’d do a mini run down on those that I CANNOT live without. These babies sit beside me as I write, their corners well licked from my desperate thumbing of pages to find the information I need.

GMC – Debra Dixon

I think this is like a unicorn craft book – all bright, sparkly and beautiful. It’s mythical in its printed form but I was lucky enough to score a hardback from my local romance store and boy do I love this book. The authors tone is enjoyable and her information so darn easy to understand.

The Emotion Thesaurus – Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi

I’m going to add here that ALL the thesauri are incredibly insightful and useful for writers of any genre. Also the websites; https://writershelpingwriters.net & https://onestopforwriters.com are brilliant and I’ve often found myself losing hours just reading all the craft blogs and traipsing through the wonderful information contained on both of these sites. The emotion thesaurus though has REALLY added depth to my characters. It has improved my showing through visceral reactions, and I find myself now studying other people, matching their reactions to those outlined under the emotions in the books (yes I probably look weird; but I also hear voices in my head so really what hope is there!)

Romancing the Beat – Gwen Hayes

This is short, sweet and simple. I love the breakdown of beats for a romance novel. I mainly write category length, so I found this breakdown particularly useful for that. She also has some great follow up information on her website including a free scrivener template that has the beats laid out so you can just open and get writing. Her sense of humour had me chuckling whilst I soaked up her information like a sponge. I also found myself creating a playlist from her suggestions – though I will admit I can’t listen to it whilst I write.

These are my top three and they have all helped add structure and depth to my stories J Particularly GMC – the first few manuscripts I wrote I have now revisited – realising there was an underlying story but not enough strong conflict to sustain reader interest. My characters were flat and boring without obvious goals and motivations. Now I have a better understanding of GMC I really feel my stories have improved dramatically. It’s been a lifesaver!

If anyone is keen on some further reading on GMC, please let me recommend these excellent Blogs:

https://shannoncurtis.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/writing-101-internal-vs-external-conflict/

http://romanceuniversity.org/2017/05/03/goal-motivation-and-conflict-with-joanne-dannon/

I love to love... romance craft books
I love to laugh... at my terribly messy desk
I love to learn... what other’s turning points were for their writing

How about you? Do you have any favourite writing craft books you simply cannot live without?

3 Writers: 3 Creative hobbies

By Cassandra Samuels


Today I have 3 amazing writers who do beautiful creative hobbies. So, I asked them a few questions and they were happy to share some of their work with us.

Alison Stuart is the author of English Civil War novels and she likes to make quilts when she is not sitting down writing words.

Buy this book here

1. When did you start quilting and why?
When I was in Form 2, my school introduced a new idea – extra curricular lunchtime activities (how the teachers must have hated it!). It just so happened that Mrs. Howard the science teacher offered up patchwork – and perched on the benches in the science lab I learned English Paper Piecing patchwork (which is a considerable improvement on anything else I learned in the science lab!).

Alison finishing her first quilt

2.How important to you is refilling the creative well?
I know I am writing better when I am sewing (I also do cross stitch). I I do love hand quilting in particular but it is an awkward piece of sewing and the discovery of a local machine quilter has made me rather lazy!

3. And have you ever suffered as a consequence of not doing so?
At the moment I am definitely suffering because to embark on a major quilting project I need the same amount of creative (and physical!) space as my writing demands. I have to plan my project and it takes me a couple of days to get all my ducks in a row and cut out the material for assembly and piece the quilt top.


Cate Ellink  likes to write spicy hot romances for Escape Publishing as Cate Ellink and small town romance under Catherine Evans, but when she is not making her readers hot under the collar she likes to take amazing photographs.


1. When did you start taking photos and why?

Ever since I can remember I’ve written and taken photos. My extended family are good photo-takers. I hate having my photo taken so I rarely take others.

Buy this book here

Buy this book here

2. How important to you is re-filling the creative well?

I tend to think of this as balancing myself and my life, rather than re-filling the creative well. If I’m indoors too much, I begin to feel confined. If I’m doing too much for others, I become drained.

3. Have you ever suffered as a consequence of not doing so?

My balance is never perfect! Some years back, I had a really bad run with lots of stressful life events in a short period and everything got totally out of balance. I ended up really sick. As part of my change of focus, I looked more at creative pursuits. 

courtesy of Catherine Evans

It’s so hard to pick a favourite photo but since I have to, I’ll choose this one I took at Uluru in 2007.   I’d never seen one like it, so I was happy (even if you can’t really tell it’s Uluru!)

Melanie Scott likes variety in her books and so she writes fantasy under MJ Scott, hometown romance under Emma Douglas and sports romance under Melanie Scott. When she is not creating new worlds, new towns or new sports' heroes she loves to create lovely watercolours.

Copyright Mel Scott

1. When did you start painting watercolours and why?

I took a class on a whim in 2014. It was a few years after my first book came out and I had started to realise that I needed another creative hobby that wasn’t my job as well. I’d always liked watercolour but never been particularly arty so was just trying something out. Happily, I loved it!

Buy this book here

buy this book here

2. How important to you is re-filling the creative well? 

For me it’s really important. I know writers who don’t read while they’re writing or don’t watch TV/movies etc but I can’t do that. My brain needs lots of stories being fed into it as well as looking at pretty things and nice colours. There’s so much pressure on writers to just write, write, write these days and I don’t think most of us can do that long term without burning out.

3. And have you ever suffered as a consequence of not doing so? 

I definitely notice when I’m stressed and I start doing mindless internet surfing etc instead of reading or watching something on TV or doing some art that it flows over into the writing not going well.

What is your creative outlet?

I love to love…sitting at a cafe with a view and enjoying a sweet treat.

I love to laugh….at the positions my cat Angus gets himself into.

I love to learn…about other people's creative outlets.