Louisa Unscripted – Part 1
This is a shortened version of the Louisa Unscripted Newsletter. If you want to know everything that is going on, including extra goodies and excerpts from the books – make sure to subscribe to the newsletter!
My Writing
I threw myself at writing professionally last fall, but it’s still not my full-time job if it ever will be. Starting the journey to write or should I say write again, because I wrote many stories as a girl, snuck up on me and took me completely by surprise.
After many years in the corporate treadmill, hence the corporate setting of many of my novels, I decided to take the leap and start my own business within HR and Communications. In the past years, I held positions as Human Resources leader in American owned companies and loved my job, traveling to various locations, meeting and interacting with people; a story I’ll reserve for another Letter.
When you start your own business, it’s many hours networking, building relationships and maybe not getting so many clients from all your hard work. I found balance in writing. Cooper and Indy’s story came out of nowhere. They were my comfort food in hard months and my everyday go-to.
For me, it’s pretty normal to throw myself into something I can control when everything is a storm around me. I could control my writing and my characters whereas I couldn’t control other people’s willingness to purchase my company’s services.
Writing is such an integral part of me and has been for many years, I may not have written novels until recently, but professionally I’ve composed many different types of writing from social media posts to job ads, to press releases to contracts. This leads me on to my next topic.
If you have an aspiring author inside you, just let him/her out and start writing. Personally, I love 1-2-3 advice so here goes:
1. Read
Read as your life depends on it. Reading expands your vocabulary, your horizon, your knowledge about places, history and what goes on in the mind of other authors.
2. Write Every Day
Even though you may not think you have a lot on your mind, I promise you that you do when you start writing so empty your head anyway. An idea is to keep a journal that you carry with your wherever you go.
3. Feedback
Find people who kindly will give you honest feedback. Honest feedback is not trashing what you wrote but coming up with suggestions and possible solutions. I’ve found that I need people who will correct my grammar, don’t we all? People who will read the stories for flow, and enjoy the ride, and others who will give constructive criticism (meant in the best possible way.
4. Write Drunk. Edit Sober
This is a piece of advice that I actually haven’t tried out myself. If we just go behind the words and don’t necessarily take them as literal as they’re written, I believe we should write without overthinking the technicalities – just write and let go. You can always edit later! And perhaps I’ve had the occasional glass of wine to go with my writing by nightfall.
5. Don’t Overthink
Overthinking about who will like your writing and who won’t is a complete mood killer. There will be people who will cheer for you all the way without having read a word of what you’ve written, and there will be those who will dissect every sentence you write. We have to let go and believe that there will always be lovers and haters and we can’t do anything about it. It’s beyond our control.
Let it go!
My Reading
If you’ve read this far, we’re getting to the good stuff, and that’s my current reading list or what I’ve read recently – in the last 2-3 weeks. I will not at this point be making book reviews, but the list below is a recommendation in itself.
Now that we’re talking 1-2-3 lists I would recommend in the following order.
- Redemption by Jessica Ruben – but you have to read Rising and Reckoning first, 2018 must-reads
- Dirty Headlines by LJ Shen
- Keeping Him by Kennedy Fox – but again it the last instalment in a series, however these are standalone
The last of the list are also really good. I’m saving “You” for a special time.
I’ve had a nose in a book since I cracked the code as a kid, ask any of my family members about how annoying I was and probably still am. From Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert, I’m a French major, Hemingway, Henrik Ibsen to Steven King, I’ve swallowed everything in between.
Why do you then write and read erotic romance?
I’m simply a romantic at heart, and I love the twist and turns between the characters, the fact that they have to go through so much until they finally get their HEA. And another catch is that we just don’t close the door to the bedroom. If I ponder a little deeper over the WHY, I think the stories are somewhat a realistic dream world. It’s a paradox, I know. You can live the lives of the characters to a certain extent and relate to the oldest story of time: The Love Story. Romance stories often also have the traditional Fairy Tale recipe, which appeals to many people myself included, a story for another Newsletter, this is getting long…..I told you so.
I’ve had a nose in a book since I cracked the code as a kid, ask any of my family members about how annoying I was and probably still am. From Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert, I’m a French major, Hemingway, Henrik Ibsen to Steven King, I’ve swallowed everything in between.
Why do you then write and read erotic romance?
I’m simply a romantic at heart, and I love the twist and turns between the characters, the fact that they have to go through so much until they finally get their HEA. And another catch is that we just don’t close the door to the bedroom. If I ponder a little deeper over the WHY, I think the stories are somewhat a realistic dream world. It’s a paradox, I know. You can live the lives of the characters to a certain extent and relate to the oldest story of time: The Love Story. Romance stories often also have the traditional Fairy Tale recipe, which appeals to many people myself included, a story for another Newsletter, this is getting long…..I told you so.
One of my all-time favorite romance novels. I could entertain you with what this has meant for my romantic heart, but I will let it rest for now, but we will touch upon the subject again.
My Inspiration
I’m inspired by so many things from my daily life like people I know, meet and interact with as well as art, books, nature, etc. One of the greatest inspirational sources is music. I listen to music when I plot the next story, and I plot a lot while I drive my car. Music is also included in my writing, and the novels come with a Spotify playlist at the end of every book.