The Qualifications
I am meant to be a romance novelist. This realisation comes to me approximately once a month. I think about it really intensely, and then I consider myself a failure and give up. Often, I don't get past the early planning stages of writing a romance novel, so sure am I that I will fail. I've told myself the story that it doesn't come naturally to me. That my soul is not romantic enough. Why not? I fall in love. I read romance novels and romantic comedies. Those are the qualifications needed to write in the genre. So, why do I act as if I'm not qualified? Maybe it's because I don't like the alpha male hero type. I find anything that even hints at bullying a huge turn off. That's okay, though. My novel can be more focused on the heroine. And my hero can be a gentleman. A gentle gentleman. That's the whole point of this endeavour: I get to create him from scratch. There are a few ideas flitting around in my mind. One is to do with this idea of...