Characterization

It’s the romantic characters of a novel that we live with, breathe in, fantasize and admire. Thus characterization is very important part of romantic novel writing. Infuse life into your characters, make them real, throbbing with energy. Even if the characters are like ‘dream come true’, make them appear real and close to life. Build them carefully, pouring your heart into it. Their thinking, nature, appearance, talks – everything has to reflect in your story. Make characters so real and romantic, that your readers fall in love with them.

Get inspired from reality

Real people should be your inspiration. If your characters belong to countryside, go and interact with the people there. It will help you in weaving characters, close to reality. If your character is a complete romantic person, talk to a romantic person in reality. Spend time together, watch him or her, and find out his or her story. The more you mix up with people in reality, better your characters shape up.

Make a perfect ambience

Get into detail of situations. If your hero falls in love with a coffee shop waitress, create such situation. Create an ideal coffee shop in your novel. Describe everything – from aroma of coffee to the story of corner table – always occupied by couples. Since romance will bloom in the setting, make it appear real. A love story can bloom even in a cemetery. Love stories need not always sound like a fairy tale.

Build climax slowly

Make your readers wait patiently for the right moment. Don’t give them the scoop of ice cream so easily. Let it come slowly, teasing the reader bit by bit. Build drama, conflict, climax, suspense. Don’t let the steamy scene come so easily. Don’t let the story rush. Remember, true love doesn’t unveil overnight. Let it bloom slowly yet steadily.

Finish with an impact behind

Sign off your story with grace. Finish with a deep impact behind. Make ending so impactful that it stays in your readers’ heart forever, burning with passion. Good novel readers swear by and give example of that love, everywhere.

Go for it!

Here are some guidelines regarding how to get rid of depression.

Don’t cry over the spilt milk

One of the main reasons of chronic depression is talking and thinking too much of the unpleasant past or troubling issues. One should stop being unhappy and cry on a sad past. It never heals problems, rather aggravates it. Negative thoughts blown out of proportion can cause severe harmful depression. Rather try to see the beauty of life, find happiness even in small things like a nice meal with the family, a lively sunset, a walk along the beach under starry sky.

Practice your hobby

Under the grilling pressure of work, studies, duties, financial hassles we often forget what keep us happy, we forget what passion or hobby is. Gardening, stamp collection, knitting, writing, drawing, music, dancing – practice whatever amuses you.

Meditate and relax

In this rat race age we have forgotten the meaning of peace and relaxation. Get back your mental peace with meditation and relaxation. Soothe yourself with cool breeze. Breathe in fresh air, meditate, and start your day with a good spirit. Exercising, walking, running also help one to beat depression.

Just step out

Often solitude leads to chronic depression. Whenever you feel low, just step out of the home and let the fresh air and sunshine make love to you. Talk to people, visit friends, and colleagues. If you don’t have anyone in the city, visit a coffee shop or restaurant. The sight of people and their conversations will excite you.

Avoid negative energies

Whatever or whosoever transmit negative vibes, avoid it. Stop talking to negative people, or watching negative films and shows. It will make you pessimist. Replace such negativity with a good book or walk in a park.

Read something inspirational

Read some inspirational texts or books, regularly. Follow your idols. It will foster good energies within you. You will learn and grow every day.

Yes, saying goodbye to depression is that easy.

Plan and prioritize your projects so that you don’t feel overwhelmed by having too many things to do at the last minute.  Figure out what you need to complete now, so that you can push a few things off until later.  By creating a schedule ladder of importance, you can focus on the tasks and complete them with plenty of time.  Taking the stress off, allowing you to relax a bit, and keeping you happy as well as productive.

Remember to take your breaks.  Even if you have a ton of work, and you want to skip a break to work through it, don’t!  Skipping your breaks will only make you feel more disheartened and overwhelmed.  Take that break so you can get some fresh air, maybe a cup of coffee, and relax for a few minutes.  You’ll feel better, and will work more effectively when you resume your duties.

Know when to ask for help.  Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s just finding a solution to a problem that you can’t solve yourself at the moment.  What’s worse that having to ask for help, is not getting your work done because you didn’t.  Failing on your own instead of succeeding with help should never sound like the better option.

Always stay polite and courteous no matter what.  Keeping in a positive mind with a positive attitude is the best way to work through the problematic times.  By staying positive you’ll feel better, as will the people around you.  You’ll all get more done, and you’ll be much less apt to get overwhelmed, or feel unhappy at your job.

-Make sure that you have a good schedule, and that you stick to that schedule.  If you’re a writer that works from home, the biggest part of making that transition is remembering that this is still a serious job.  Just because your environment is the comfort of your own home, doesn’t mean you can slack.  Schedule out your projects and stick to them, in the long run this will help you feel like you’re in more of a professional environment, and you’ll be more apt to get your writing done.

-Know when you need to take a break.  Because writing is so creative, sometimes you need to take a break to keep the creative juices flowing.  Give yourself 5-10 minutes when you’re feeling especially unproductive.  Take a moment, go outside and get some fresh air, then go back to work.  You should feel calmer, and more willing to resume normal duties.

-Don’t get down on yourself, or bully yourself into writing.  Everyone goes through phases where they don’t feel like writing.  You just have to stay confident and positive, and keep plugging away.  The feeling will pass, but don’t give in and stop working because of it.

-Finally, try making a reward system for yourself.  If you have a lot of articles to do, map out the articles and make up rewards for completing a certain amount.  Like if you desperately want to take a break, set a goal to finish four of those articles before you do.  If you’re hungry and really want to eat lunch, make sure you complete another two beforehand.

Of course on of the easiest strategies is to take a short break if you’re feeling particularly frustrated.  Take 5-10 minutes to yourself if you’ve been frustrated working on the same problem for a long period of time without making any headway.  This way you can leave the problem, focus on something else for a minute, and you can then reenter the situation with a new perspective.

Another way to keep relaxed is to clear out any unnecessary clutter from your environment, to create a clean and concise work area that makes you feel more productive.  Bogging yourself down with cluttered items just makes you feel more trapped and overwhelmed adding to you stress level.  Which is exactly why adding plants is a good idea, as it will provide you with fresh air and more healthy natural feel to your office area.

Get a comfortable chair, it’s no use having to work for 8-9 hours in a day on an uncomfortable chair.  A comfortable body is a more relaxed body, and the more calm and relaxed that you can be, the better you’re going to feel, and that will translate into your performance.

Finally personalize your workplace.  Find out what you are able to bring in, or hang up around your cubicle, and make sure everything is office appropriate, but still make the area yours.  By letting your personality flow throughout your surroundings your identity remains unique and true to your character, taking away a little more of the corporate world stress.

One of the most common methods, and one that you should most definitely be employing already, is to keep an idea notepad with you at all times.  Not necessarily an actual pen and paper mini notebook, but something to function as such.  If you have a smart phone, like an iPhone or Blackberry, you can use their note taking features to quickly jot down anything that pops into your head.  This keeps you ahead of the game with a wealth of ideas that you can look to later, when you find yourself in need.

Read.  Can’t stress that one enough.  The more you put your energy towards learning new things, or reading new ideas, whether through books or magazines or online articles, the more information you’re taking in that you can call upon at a later date.  Extraordinarily useful when coming up with a new topic to write about.

Find a friend or colleague to bounce a few ideas off.  Let them know about the concept and tell them some things you were considering, or ways you want to approach writing about the idea.  The input they have could help you guide yourself into a brilliant new direction you couldn’t have thought of on your own.

If you find yourself struggling to think of anything while sitting at your desk, take a break.  Go outside for a few minutes, get some fresh air and clear your head.  You’ll find yourself feeling much more refreshed, and after wicking away the fatigue, you’ll be in a much better place to re-energize your thinking.

Finally, as a last resort, twist around another idea you’ve already read about or heard about.  If you can’t find an idea all to your own, borrow someone else’s.  Don’t just rehash an article or book that you’ve read before of course.  But take what you learned there, or the basic concept, and apply it to your own outlook, and your own unique writing voice to manufacture an entirely new piece of work.

One main stratagem is to just allow yourself to write badly.  Often a writer with writer’s block feels disappointed with anything that they are able to write.  One way to get beyond this is to just keep working even if you are unhappy with the quality of what you are writing.  By allowing yourself to write badly you are still writing and influencing the creative process, increasing the likelihood of you escaping your dreaded writer’s block sooner rather than later.

Take a break and clear your head with a trip outside.  Take a nice long walk, or go for a jog or run, do some yard work, anything around fresh air that involves a relative amount of physical exertion.  After which you’ll feel better and your mind will feel much more clear, taking away the stress you felt before from your inability to write.

And if those don’t work, there’s always one of the best methods in music.  Listen to some of your favorite music, something that moves you, makes you emote whether in anger, happiness, sadness, etc.  Anything that inspires your emotions to come out or come alive, as that will facilitate the artistic need to create, inspiring you to write, and to write words you are connected to, that you feel.