Dear Purposeful Prose, I’m a romance author, and I’m self-sabotaging. Whenever I get to a romantic part of my story, describe a romantic part, or approach something that might be considered cheesy, I try to avoid it or “write over it” if that makes sense. I’m downplaying what makes my romance romantic. I intentionally try to subvert the genre so my readers won't think it's to lovey dovey, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’m missing the point of my own book by doing that. I

Purposeful Prose would like to extend congratulations to all authors who were present at Eat Local Read Local , the ninth annual book sale and festival! You all understandably presented your work with so much joy and excitement, and it was addictive!  For those who are currently continuing a series, for those whose works have been sent to their wonderful editors, and for those whose next work in progress is still in their minds, may your pens be filled with ink and may your i

Dear Purposeful Prose,  I don’t know anything about building a story. When I see words like “pacing” or “character development”, especially in writing groups, I don’t know what to do. I’ve written for fun before, but I don’t understand mechanics at all. I feel like I’m too old to learn all this.  There’s a lot of jargon in writing that’s helpful to know. The good news is that the concepts behind those terms existed before the term did. We have “character development” because