Tag: Guest blog by Melissa Knight

Writing Clean and Sweet Romance

Writing clean and sweet romance

So happy to have YA author Melissa Knight back! As a romance author, she’s the perfect writer to give advice for writing clean and sweet romance. The stage is yours, Melissa!

As a romance writer, a Valentine’s Day mentality is always on my mind!  As a Christian YA romance writer, however, must passion be scaled down or sanitized to the point where love seems bland or blah?

It depends on your definition of romance, of course.  There are plenty of suggestive scenes in both adult and YA books that depict the steamy, physical side of mutual attraction. Is that romance?  How about the longing looks, the deep, dreamy sighs, the stars-in-her-eyes forgiveness of the big red flags signaling trouble ahead- is that true love?

In my YA world, I strive to keep the romantic interactions clean and sweet.  I don’t go beyond holding hands, hugs and a few light kisses. My audience knows what’s out there, however.  They hear their friends talk about going much farther than that, in their relationships. Perhaps they’ve made those choices themselves, with no regrets, and scorn a point of view teaching about sexual purity and waiting until marriage. How on earth am I going to engage, and hopefully influence, those readers?

The answer goes back to my original question, I think.  What is romance, really?  What moves a relationship from “I like you” to “I love you”? One we want to last forever? 

As a Christian, I ponder the gold standard of what true love looks like, and go from there.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

There are a bunch of verbs and actions in that passage!  Protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres!  Is patient and kind! Is not proud or selfish!  Wow, what young girl wouldn’t want a guy like that?  This passage is also a writer’s dream, because it outlines one of our cardinal rules:

SHOW, DON’T TELL

Love isn’t just words, it’s action.  So what does that look like, when writing a Christian romance that will intrigue even non-Christian teens?

I try to focus on all those verbs we just read.  Yes, the female main character will notice the way the guy looks, the sound of his voice, his roguish smile, the spark in his eyes, the way he gives her butterflies with a single look.  There may be teasing or tension in their conversations.  They may have shared interests or projects to move the relationships along.  But what will make them last, beyond a surface attraction? What will make the reader want to claim the guy as her book boyfriend?

Personalities influence actions, of course.  The arrogant guy is gentle with the girl, when she is upset. The popular guy is kind to the girl’s younger sisters, becoming their friends and treating them with respect.  These aren’t unusual actions, but that’s kind of the point. Though flawed, perhaps with pasts riddled with mistakes, the young men show kindness, forgiveness and protectiveness.  It’s part of who they are, revealing their hearts to the young women through their everyday decisions, not in some showy one-off display of showering the girl with candy and flowers, or eloquent flattery.

That is the kind of guy every girl should expect.  The kind of boyfriend we want our teenage daughters to dream of!

Romance is surely one of the simplest, yet most complex subjects to capture in words. Perhaps the Creator of romance intends it that way, always a work in progress.

Thank you, Melissa! To read her previous guest post on writing for teens, click here.

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If there’s a formula to great relationships, will Casey ever figure it out?

Lots of life changes mean much stress when Casey moves to a new town and high school, complete with a new stepfather and stepbrothers. Add broken friendships and a possible new romance to the mix, and the potential for things to go horribly wrong- or amazingly right- is yet to be decided!

And then there are the hard questions- is the faith in God that I used to have as a child still there? What does God really want from me?

“Feelin’ The Chemistry” is the first book in the Christian Contemporary YA series High School 101.

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Melissa Knight

I have spent most of my adult years surrounded by kids of all ages, having taught in public schools at almost every grade level. I did some writing “on the side” through the years, publishing articles and short stories in various magazines and publications for children and teens.  I kept collecting ideas and writing down what I hoped were cool scenes and characters.

Our teens deserve clean books that not only entertain but provide clarity in a chaotic culture. My aim is to write fiction that is real, relatable and attracts young adults to Christ!

I live with my husband in the heart of oil country, west Texas, have two amazing adult children, and am looking forward to adding a son-in-law in the not-too-distant future!

You can connect with me at these links: Amazon , Facebook , Goodreads , X

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Three Rules for Writing YA Fiction

Three Rules for Writing YA Fiction

Give a warm welcome to author Melissa Knight, who writes YA Christian contemporary fiction. Today she’s writing about her three rules for writing YA fiction. And check out her latest novel, You Were There, releasing tomorrow!

Is writing fiction for a teen audience any different than writing for adults? Perhaps a better question for authors is, what will make a teen audience want to read your book?

Prior to writing my first YA novel, I taught English, among other things.  I attempted to match up students with books which interested them, allowing the books themselves, and by default the authors, to captivate and entice the students into becoming lifelong readers. One of my biggest triumphs was watching a fourth grader, below grade level in reading and with precious little interest in books up to that point, almost walk into a wall because he was so engrossed in a Magic Tree House book and wouldn’t put it down!  In my second gig now as an author, I have heard from a teacher working at a juvenile detention center that her incarcerated students enjoy my YA Christian romance books- even the guys. I’m delighted by this but don’t pretend to completely understand what the secret sauce is.

Here’s what I do know, and the convictions by which I abide.

Keep it real but honor the reader’s innocence. Yes, there are YA books out there with obscenities and suggestive, if not explicit, sexual encounters, and they sell. An argument for this is “realism”, meeting the readers in the everyday worlds in which they live.  My counter to this as an author is that we can do better. We can depict gritty circumstances and convey the pressures teens face with solid, well-chosen words that resonate with our readers, without cheapening the reading experience with vulgarity.  Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I used to tell my own kids that cussing only reveals a poor vocabulary!  Let’s honor our teen audience with solid, thoughtful writing, not sensationalism.

Keep it snappy. It helps me to imagine each chapter, or section within a chapter, as a scene from a movie.  If it doesn’t have movement or conversations to carry the plot forward, does it need to be in the book?. Teens today have grown up with memes and brief social media posts. Involved descriptions of the way the sunlight shines on the water may be beautiful and seem necessary to set a scene, but make sure it’s downright magical or a lot of young adult readers are simply going to skip it. Even I do that! (And I’ll bet you do, too.)  Great dialogue and strategic action will keep me, and those teen readers, wanting to turn to the next page.

Read what other YA authors are writing.  I’m a firm believer that the more you read, the better a writer you become. If I want to perfect my peach cobbler, I’m for sure hanging out with the legendary cook at the church potluck or examining that southern chef’s cookbook recipe! I read YA romance all the time, as well as other YA genres, and have often been stopped in my tracks by a great line or a plot twist I did not see coming. I cheer for those authors, and also learn from them. How did that writer pace the story?  How did she freshen up a tired trope?  What made the flashbacks effective?

Bottom line? Solid writing is solid writing, regardless of a reader’s age. 

Call me biased, however, but in my opinion our young adult readers, for a variety of reasons, deserve – and have- the cream of the crop.

*****

True love? What a fantasy!

Reese has plenty of reasons for being a skeptic. The Owens women, despite their thriving wedding planner business, have a sad history when it comes to matters of the heart!

And yet, there’s this guy…

Tall, athletic Daniel Dixon is full of contradictions. Super-competitive yet gentle, his bold stance on what love really means affects Reese deeply.

Complications arise when she discovers a not-so-secret figure from her past. Add a troubled ex-friend to the mix, and Reese questions not just her judgment, but her physical safety.

Reese’s journey to faith, and to a love that is joyful and enduring, is told with humor, honesty and a healthy dose of grandma advice!

You Were There is a Christian YA Romance, Book One in The Rayburn High Romance Series. Find it here on Amazon!

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A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Melissa Knight and her husband live in west Texas. They enjoy exploring state and national parks, eating good food and hanging out whenever they can with their two grown-up kids. A former high school and special education teacher, Melissa writes YA Christian contemporary fiction and adult Christian nonfiction which entertains, encourages and challenges readers to deepen their relationships with God.  

Follow her on Amazon, Facebook, BookBub, and Goodreads!

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