The Write Now Retreat: Romance Edition
You don’t need to draft another outline. You need to start writing that romance novel.
The Write Now Retreat is a virtual workshop for aspiring romance authors who want to stop spinning their wheels and write their first chapter already.
The next retreat is happening: Saturday, April 25th: 9 am – 5 pm AST
Fee: $249 CAD + tax
You’ve got a romance novel in you. Let’s get it out.
Simple strategies to get you writing.
You’ve been thinking about this romance novel for a while now, haven’t you? Maybe years. I know I thought about writing a romance novel for a long time before I ever told anyone about my ideas. I know what it’s like to want to get that story into the world but not know where to start.
You want to write a romance novel, and yet:
- You don’t know if your idea is good enough to write
- You’ve tried outlining and it kills the story before it starts
- You sit down to write and the inner critic shows up instead
- You don’t have a system so you keep waiting until you find one
- You’re afraid you’ll spend time and money on this and still not finish your romance novel
Here’s what I want to tell you: none of that means you can’t write the book. It means you’ve been trying to write it the wrong way for you.
There’s another way to do this. I know because I had to find it myself.
It’s okay to write your way. You don’t need to follow any rules to get started.
What is The Write Now Retreat: Romance Edition?
The Write Now Retreat is a one-day virtual writing day for romance writers. If you’ve ever read a romance novel and thought, “I could do that” but then have no idea how to start, this retreat is for you.
Fun fact: I don’t write with an outline. I don’t follow a traditional story arc. I don’t map my characters before I meet them on the page. I’ve written seven romance novels this way and Lord help the person who tries to tell me it can’t be done that way: I’ve done it that way. The traditional advice for writing a romance novel didn’t help me get started. So I came up with my own approach and have been happily writing ever since.
This retreat is me handing you what I wish someone had handed me: permission to forget the rules, and strategies to actually write my romance novel.
Permission to write
We start by naming what’s been stopping you, out loud, together. We dismantle the rules that aren’t serving you and replace them with one simple instruction: tell yourself the story first. Everything else comes later.
The First Draft
My actual process, not the textbook version you’ve come to expect from these kinds of workshops: how I turn a messy first draft into a readable book. How I outline after the fact. What “it’s a draft until it’s not” looks like. You’ll leave with a new outlook on the book writing process.
Writing Sessions
A warm-up exercise to get you out of your head leading to open writing time. You write. For real. I’m available in breakout rooms for anyone who wants 1:1 support, feedback, or just someone to think out loud with.
How to Keep Going
We close by answering the question writing always creates: how do I keep going when real life comes back? You’ll leave with a specific, personal strategy for the week ahead, not a generic writing habit, but a plan that fits your actual life.
What if this doesn’t work for me?
Maybe you’ve spent money on a course before and didn’t finish it. Maybe you’ve signed up for things with good intentions and real life got in the way. Maybe you’re worried that you’ll show up on Saturday, stare at a blank page for six hours, and walk away with nothing. Based on traditional writing advice, I’d say that sounds about right.
But when you let go of the rules and expectations of writing, you find a comfortable place to write. And you’ll walk away having written more of your romance novel than you would have on your own.
There’s no perfect time to write a romance novel. But there is a perfect way for you to write it that’s all your own. You don’t have to be afraid of trying to write a romance novel. I can help.
The Write Now Retreat is Not…
There are no beat sheets, no plot structures, no hero’s journey handouts. If you’ve tried those and they didn’t stick, good. You won’t find them here.
Nobody is tracking your word count. Nobody will ask you to share if you don’t want to. The only goal is that you write something today that didn’t exist yesterday.
I can’t write the book for you. What I can do is give you one day where there’s nothing in the way of you sitting down to write so see what happens.
I figured it out the hard way so you don’t have to.
Heather Deveaux
I wrote my first romance novel without an outline and without the plotting, story arcing or frameworks normally used. I figured out if I just told myself the story first, I could fix it later. And it worked. So I did it again. And again. I’ve written seven romance novels (with more in the works). It works.
Nobody taught me that method. I invented it out of necessity because everything else felt like a cage. And for years I assumed everyone else had figured out a better way until I started talking to other aspiring writers and realized most of them were stuck for exactly the same reason I almost was.
The Write Now Retreat is what I wish had existed when I was figuring it out alone so you don’t have to.
For what it’s worth: I’m also a certified coach, trainer, and facilitator with a Master of Adult Education—which means I don’t just know how to write a book, I know how to help someone else learn to do it in a way that actually works for them. I know how to meet you where you are. I know how to get you unstuck with simple strategies that helped me write seven romance novels and counting.
But mostly I just really want you to start your romance novel. We need more of the good stuff.
That romance novel isn’t going to write itself.
Give it one day and try something new. Come write with someone who’s done this multiple times but still remembers what it’s like to start from scratch. For romance writers only.
Next retreat: Saturday, April 25th 9 am – 5 pm AST
$249 CAD + tax
F.A.Qs
