Meet Sophie Stern

We were lucky to catch up with Sophie Stern recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sophie, so excited to have you with us today, particularly to get your insight on a topic that comes up constantly in the community – overcoming creativity blocks. Any thoughts you can share with us?

One of the biggest challenges authors face is not knowing what to say next. Over the years, I’ve encountered moments where writing was particularly difficult for me, so I started to develop a couple of habits that have really helped.

First, I make sure I’m physically comfortable. Have I eaten? Have I had water? Am I in a quiet place where I can focus on my writing?

Next, I plot. I make big decisions ahead of time so that when I’m ready to write, I can just focus on the writing.

Third, when I am writing, I skip over specific questions that I can come back to later. For example, what is my main character’s horse called? I’m not sure. I’ll leave an asterisk for myself, and I’ll come back to that part of the story. It’s too easy to spend half an hour thinking up a name, so I do that during “non-writing” time.

Finally, if I find that I’m stuck at a particular scene, I skip to the next one. I know where a story is going to go, so I just move my characters there and keep trucking along. For example, if my characters need to get from Town A to Town B, but I feel stuck writing the actual journey, I’ll skip ahead to what happens at Town B. I can fill in the journey later.

So I’d say for me, the biggest secret is to be strategic in how I write. If there are choices that will take up a lot of time, I don’t force them. I set them aside and return to them when I’m in the right mindset.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m a romance author who writes characters who are curvy, bisexual, polyamorous, sassy, snarky, and curious. My stories feature people who are dealing with real issues, and who don’t let those challenges get in the way of their adventures. For example, my main characters sometimes have asthma or allergies. The hero in “Megan Slays Vampires” is deaf. My protagonist in the third “Grimalkin Needs Brides” books only has one leg, and she utilizes a prosthetic. My readers are real, and I want them to be able to see themselves in the reality of my characters.

One of the most important things to me is creating a strong, exciting story. I love to write about characters who go on wonderful adventures. What’s even better is when the characters learn something about themselves along the way.

Of course, like many romance authors, I love romantic tropes. A few of my favorite are fake dating and the “just one bed” trope. If you’re looking for stories like these, check out the Aliens of Malum series or the Shifters of Rawr County series. Each of these feature snarky characters who are either in fake dating or fake marriage relationships, but who each get their own happy ending.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The three most important qualities of a writer are willingness to learn, patience, and openness. I think many authors tend to shut themselves off from criticism, when the reality is that we should embrace it so we can learn how to be stronger writers. For the past two years, I’ve been in an intensive graduate school program where I’ve been focusing on developing my creative writing skills, and one of my key takeaways is that we can always improve regardless of where we are now.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

Over the last year, I’ve been focusing on deepening my storytelling through precise word choices and slowing down my scenes. I love writing fast-paced, high-heat romance, so slowing down my scenes and letting my characters live in the moment has been an incredible challenge for me. It’s also been a lot of fun!

I think that as writers, we have a tendency to feel like our way of writing is the best way. The truth is that there are many wonderful ways to write, and there are many incredible authors in the world who have figured out how they best like to express themselves. As I continue to pursue my author career, I want to make sure I’m always looking for opportunities to improve as a writer and create stronger, more impactful scenes for my readers.

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