Stepping Your Way to Creativity

This month I’ve been writing something new. I know I’m supposed to be revising, but I just felt like I needed a bit of a change. Besides Nanowrimo in 2023 (yes, almost two years ago), I’ve been revising for close to three years straight (though the amount of time I’ve had to dedicate to working on my books has not been a lot, especially the last year). Revising for me is very draining, and as a result of doing it for so long, lately I’ve been feeling a little burnt out. I thought starting something new might help me get those creative juices flowing again.

I have a few stories that have been pestering me for a while to be written, so I decided to jump into one of them and see how it goes. But since I haven’t written in a while, it’s been a little slow. Not bad exactly, but more rusty. Kind of like when you haven’t skated in a while, and it takes you a little bit to figure out where everything should go and how to get all your movements to sync up at once. I’m working on it. Little by little. But it has meant a lot more moments of feeling stuck or unsure than I normally have during a first draft.

And when I feel like I’m stuck, I know I have to do something else for a little while. Other people might be different, but for me, no amount of staring at a screen will fix my head not being in the right place. Since I’m also trying to be more active, when I’m stuck, I’ve been getting up and going for a walk. Figuring if the writing is working for me, I might as well work on my step goal. Even if it’s just a walk around my office.

While I’m walking, my mind can wander. It gives me the same feeling as when you take a long drive down the highway. You can kind of zone out, your body knowing what to do on muscle memory, and your mind can drift. On these walks I usually start making new connections. Come up with some idea I hadn’t thought of before, or some character detail that hadn’t occurred to me before, and soon I’m unstuck. Or at least I will be unstuck in some place in the novel, and I can work on that part instead (I’m an inspiration writer, meaning I write whatever scene is inspiring me at the moment, and don’t often write the story chronologically).

When I noticed how often this has been happened to me lately, I realized this isn’t a new phenomenon. Any time when I was walking routinely was also my most productive. When I was writing the Frostbite Falls series, I would take a walk during my lunch break at the evil day job, before finding a grassy place to sit and do some writing. And that was my most productive writing year ever. Writing, revising and publishing six books, and writing two others that were published later.

I wondered if it was just me, or if other people had the same experience. So out of curiosity I did some research. And it appears I am not alone. A Stanford study showed that walking improved people’s creativity by up to 60% either during or after a walk. It doesn’t matter where you walked, on the treadmill, around the house, or outdoors. As long as you get your body moving and the blood flowing, you can boost your creativity by simply taking a stroll.

And even if a walk doesn’t end up giving me a new creative idea, I’ve moved my body, probably gotten a little healthier, and—besides time—it costs me nothing. Which is exactly the kind of hack I love. One with no downside.

Now that I know this, I’m trying to focus my walks to right before I start writing. To get the creative juices flowing, and get myself into the right headspace before writing. And it has help me come up with some great ideas, and even better questions. But more than anything, it gives me the time and space to focus my thinking on writing before I sit down. That kind of focus is hard to come by in my life right now.

Only time will tell if this trick leads to a year of productivity that can rival my previous personal best, but I’m certainly happy to give it a try. And even if I don’t have a record-breaking year, I’m sure to have a good time either way.

So if you’re ever struggling creatively, and just can’t figure out what to do, or how to get to the next scene. Take a walk, and let those creative juices flow. And you might just find yourself stepping toward an exciting new idea.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

I’m sure as a reader we’ve all read a story we can’t shake. That series we love, or those characters we can’t get enough of, no matter how much time has passed or how many other great books we have read since. I know I have. Stories we just want more of. That we can’t stop thinking about, long after we’ve read the last page.

As a writer I experience the same with the books I write. I have some characters that I just never want to say goodbye too. Characters and stories I loved so much I continued to think about them, and the twists their lives might take after the story was done. Owned Forever is a book I wrote for precisely that reason. I just loved these characters, and I love the conflict that started in Owned For Christmas so much, I had to see what happened next.

Frostbite Falls is the same.

The idea for Frostbite Falls came to me one random day in January. I’m sure I was still wanting to be in the Christmas spirit, even though the time for Santa and sleigh bells had long passed. A solitary vision of a woman adjusting a red ornament on a tree, quick morphed into an entire exciting world before me. A cast of characters I loved, places I wanted to go, parties I wanted to attend. I even developed recipes and cocktails that fit the Annual Christmas Ball’s theme. For a whole year, which is how long it took me to complete all four books, I lived in this small town. Writing and revising these stories. After that long, you would think I was sick of these stories, that I would grow tired of these same places, and people, and be desperate to write something else. But I never did. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Giving inspiration, devotion, love.

Since I finished the original four Frostbite Falls stories, I have conjured up several more stories set in this small town. Some featuring the same characters, some with a whole new generation of stories to tell. I don’t know what it is about this town that I can’t quite shake. If it's just the fun of attending a Christmas Ball (I have to admit I would love to have one of those in my own town), if it’s the great characters that seem to beg for more stories, or if it’s the small town atmosphere where everyone is kind and takes care of each other, that I crave.

This last Nano, I was struggling to write. The words weren’t coming. The characters and their motivations felt too far away to grasp. And once again I found myself heading back to Frostbite Falls. To my old stomping grounds, my happy place, my escape. In only a week I managed to write a whole new story for Frostbite Falls (and winning Nano), the words escaping from my fingers so quickly it was hard to believe. While I haven’t gotten the time to finish that book just yet, being delayed by other projects, I am planning to get it done this year. And if all goes as planned, I hope to be spending another Christmas at the Frostbite Christmas Ball.

But I’d be foolish to believe this would be the end of this series. Or that there ever will be an end for me. Even when I think I’m through with them, when I think I will never be attending another ball, they sneak back up on me. They suck me back in, and right back to town.

And as crazy as it may sound, I hope that’s always true.

And for any that would like to join me in Frostbite Falls the Christmas season, all four of the original books will be discounted to only $0.99 on bookstrand.com, on their anniversary of their releases. Put on your ball gown, twist up your hair and throw on your jingle bell pumps to join us at the best Christmas party of the year. And if you’re very lucky, maybe you’ll be able to go home with a cowboy or two for Christmas.

Tropes I’d Love to Write Someday

Over the last forty odd years of reading, I found that many authors tend to stick to the same tropes. For some it might be due to the type of stories they write or the genre they are in. It would be very difficult (though not impossible) for a contemporary romance author to write an arranged marriage story or for a fantasy author to write a single dad story. It’s just outside of the norms of their genre. Though I would gladly read both of these stories. For others, I believe they stick to the same tropes because that is just how their brains work. Those are the stories that they are drawn too.

I definitely see the same in my own writing. I often write the same tropes multiple times. My favorites being friends to lovers and second chance romances. Because I write spicier books, I’ve always found having that history between the characters helps me jump to the smutty stuff faster, instead of having to spend a lot of time having to create the relationship between them and the reason they are together. I love how the conflict and tension in these relationships that is there on page one. But even though I have a few tropes I tend to lean towards, as a lifelong romance reader and writer, I have a ton of tropes I’d like to write that I just haven’t found the right story for, or the right characters to entrance me.

Here are some the tropes I haven’t written yet, but I would like to explore one day soon...

Snowed In – This is one of my all time favorite tropes. As a lover of forced proximity romances, and someone who tends to set a lot of my stories in cold places, it’s amazing I haven’t written this trope already. And I have come up with a few ideas, but nothing that I think is worth of the trope.

Amnesia – this trope harkens back to my early early romance reading days, when this trope was a lot more prevalent, especially in the historical romance that were my first romance loves. One bonk on the head and any heroine could rewrite her entire life and find the prince (sometimes literally) of her dreams. Over the years this trope has gone out of favor, I imagine at least partially because of the unrealistic nature (though I always thought that was half the fun), but I’d love to write an amnesia story, maybe with a more modern twist. But as of yet, the story idea hasn’t come to me.

Professor and student – It’s still hard for me to believe I haven’t written a story about a student and professor yet. The first erotic romance, the one that had me enthralled and set me down this crazy career path, was a professor and student story. Nothing like that power dynamic to set all the butterflies loose in your stomach. Which is why I find it so hard to believe a story like this has come to me yet (though I did have a play version in Heart’s Ultimatium). I have no doubt one will. Hopefully very soon. 

Warring Families – as a lover of Romeo and Juliet in my teenage years this has always been a trope I’ve loved. Whether it is with vampire families, mafia families, or just two warring family restaurants, I always love two families that hate each other so much they can’t stand to be in the same room, and the children that fall in love to throw the whole thing on its head. I’d love to write my own version of the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s, but maybe ones that fight over Christmas decorations instead of stolen farm animals. 

True Enemies to Lover – Enemies to Lovers is one of my favorite tropes. I absolutely love reading them. The tension between the characters. That white hot hate, that turns into white hot passion with just the right spark. When done well, it is amazing. But it has to be done well, and with the right characters, the right motivation and the right passion, otherwise you’ll never get that power and passion the reader—and I—crave. And as of yet, no characters that could hate each other that much have come to me. Though I am definitely on the lookout. There’s nothing I would like better than to write some hot hate sex scenes. The idea alone has me excited.

I’m sure there are a few others tropes I’d love to add to my collection, but these are the ones that really tempt me to bring them to life. And I hope I find the right story and the right characters to do soon. These tropes are all so awesome, how could you not want to write and read them all.

Are your favorite tropes included in this list? Do you have another trope you really love you want to see written? Leave it in the comments below and maybe I’ll add it to my list to torture myself with.

Hallmark Romances with Extra Spice

Ever since I was a kid I always loved Christmas movies, especially romantic ones. I would watch the same Christmas movies over and over again, swooning over the leads finally finding love, or the spirit of Christmas, or family before the end of the film. There has always been something magical about this time of year to me. It always seemed like a perfect time, where anything could happen. People are nicer, the weather is wonderful (I know its not always a popular opinion but I love snow, and even the cold, especially if I can be cuddled up inside), and there is a sweetness in the air that is probably part cookie, but also at least some part Christmas magic. Looking back its probably not a huge surprise that I ended up writing so many Christmas romances. Maybe it’s a surprise that I haven’t written more (but I’m working on that).

When I was in my teens lifetime and hallmark really started to get involved in the Christmas spirit with their own brand of sappy romantic Christmas movies, we have all come to love and make fun of in equal measure. Probably not surprising, I ate those up too. I loved every one of them, even though the stories weren’t that different and the settings were the same, they were still magically to me and I watched each and every one all season long.

But as I’ve gotten older, the hallmark movies just don’t interest me the way they did as a kid. It’s not that I can’t get into the sweetness and the love of the season, or I can’t enjoy the romance of the stories, but so many of them cut short on what I want to see. And can sometimes give an unrealism that can pull me out of the movie, at least in one specific area.

I love the romance of a big city journalist falling for the Christmas tree farmer as much as the next girl, but expecting she would give up her whole life, her career, her friends, her future, for one bland kiss, was too much for me to stomach anymore. If I’m giving up everything for a guy (even a hunky small town sheriff), there better be more passion involved than a few kisses.

Then six years ago I had a tremendous idea. I wanted to write a series of Christmas stories, romantic Christmas stories just like the ones I enjoyed as a kid, just with more spice. The kind of stories I would produce if I were running the hallmark channel (though of course they would never be able to get past the censor, but luckily in the book world the only censor is yourself). That’s how the Frostbite Falls series was born.

All four Christmas stories revolve around the annual Frostbite Falls Christmas Ball, a huge event the entire town pitches in to create every year, and the love and romance each heroines find that night. There are all the tropes you love of a great hallmark holiday movie. A small town full of fun characters, a baker making the most delicious food, a librarian, farmers (horse farm, not tree farm, at least not yet), a snowstorm, a cheating ex-fiancé who comes crawling back, the town mayor even gets involved in some of the stories. But at the end of the night, instead of a quick kiss or a peck on the cheek, all my heroines get to take home two sexy guys and truly experience what it would be like to be with them. In every way.  Just as all great Christmas stories should end.

If you love hallmark movies, but you’ve always wanted your movies to come with a lot more spice, a trip to Frostbite Falls might be just what you are looking for. And this month many of the books are on sale for only $0.99 on the siren bookstrand site in celebration of this glorious time of year.

Series Buy Link: Frostbite Falls Christmas - BookStrand | Bestselling Erotic Romance eBooks