The Best Writing Advice I didn't Take: My Top 10
There’s a lot of really good writing and author career advice out there. But not all of it is good for you. Over my many years in the publishing industry, I’ve been given some excellent advice—advice rooted in experience, statistics, and wisdom. But the truth is that advice would have been terrible for me.
Here are my top 10:Write to the Market: this advice has been given to me in different forms throughout my writing career and it is never going to work for me. Most recently, an editor (not Andie from Beyond the proof - our creative connection is magic) told me I needed more sex scenes in order to satisfy readers of mafia romance. That advice wasn’t inherently wrong. It was based on data and a good editor’s instincts.
The problem? It clashed with one of my personal creative boundaries: I never include a scene solely for marketability.
This isn’t a judgment on anyone else. It’s simply a rule I hold sacred in my own writing life. Could I have added those scenes skillfully enought that no one would ever guess they weren’t integral to the story? Probably. I’m a good writer. But that doesn’t mean I should or would be happy with the story if I did.
Because I know myself. And when I write what I think the market wants—rather than what my story demands—my creative well dries up fast. Like down-to-the-sludge dry. If I want to keep writing books I love, I have to protect my process.
I promote to the market, not write to it. When I’m done with a book, I analyze it and figure out what popular tropes are in it, what reader trend I might be able to tap into with this particular story. How it fits the market now that the story is finished.
Use multiple pen names if you are going to write in more than one subgenre of romance.
That sounded smart, but I was hesitant for a few reasons. Luckily, a friend arranged a quick call with the very gracious Jayne Ann Krentz, and her take on the issue resonated deeply. She said that many readers follow authors across genres, and if I split my name (especially as a new author), they might not be able to find me.
Some authors thrive using multiple pen names—including Jayne herself! But for me? Using just one name means I don’t have to have and maintain multiple websites, newsletter lists and social media accounts. Knowing what I know now about my capacity for peopling, I realize if I’d tried to do that, I probably wouldn’t be writing anymore. Seriously.
Have an account on TikTok: Everyone said I had to be on TikTok. Not just one guru or Facebook group—everyone. So I gave it a solid year. I posted five times a week, made high-quality videos, ran ads, and interacted with readers. I gave it my all.
And I saw zero change in book sales. Zilch. Nada. No difference between when I had 12 followers to when I had over 2,000.
I don’t regret giving it a shot. Learning and trying new things stops us from stagnating. TikTok absolutely works for some authors. Careers have been launched there! But for me, it was a lot of time and effort for no return. And at the end of that year, I honored my promise to myself and walked away. No regrets.
Tone down that alpha hero to make him more appealing to modern readers.
Funnily enough, that advice came before I sold my first book to Harlequin, where I built a successful career writing alpha heroes that were just as often the villain of the story. (Precursor to writing the delicious morally gray heroes of mafia romance for sure!)
I love writing intense alpha heroes, even when they make readers furious for two-thirds of the book. Because that payoff? When the reader finally falls for him? That’s the magic. That’s my kind of story. I know my books are “love or hate” for many readers and I’m okay with that. I want to touch reader hearts and that’s what I’m doing.
Stick with one publisher until you build your reader base before branching out.
No surprise, that advice came from my first publisher. I didn’t listen, but I probably would have if Lori Foster hadn’t sent my first published book The Greek Tycoon’s Ultimatum to her editor at Kensington. Kate Duffy emailed me to tell me how much she loved the book and if I ever wrote a single title, she wanted to see it. I sent her The Real Deal that afternoon.
For some authors, staying with one publisher works beautifully. For me, it would have been creative suffocation. I need variety—longer books, shorter books, paranormals, historicals. I’m so grateful I had the choice to go my own way, and I’m even more grateful to the readers who’ve followed me from Harlequin Presents all the way to mafia romance and everything in between.
You don’t have to market yourself if you’re writing category romance.
When I started out, I was repeatedly told not to bother promoting my category romances, that the built-in readership made it pointless. But I couldn’t not market. I have an MBA with an emphasis in marketing and finance (and another in international studies - because I’m kind of a nerd that way). I couldn’t turn off that part of my brain.
So I taught myself HTML. I built my own website. I wrote one of the first free bonus scenes online, long before BookFunnel existed. I posted it as a PDF on my website for a year before the book even came out. And that story? It helped my debut do incredibly well—because I’d already built a relationship with Presents readers.
Write the same book again and again…if the first one made money.
I wrote 40 Harlequin Presents, each with their own unique plot and cast of characters, but in between those books? I wrote dozens of others that were really different. Some books sold well, others not so much. I don’t regret writing any of them. I needed to write those books. Building a career on constant releases in the same sub genre might have been more profitable but it wouldn’t have been more sustainable.
Don’t write love scenes that are too graphic.
A couple of my editors at Harlequin had issues with how graphic my love scenes are. One actually told me that by writing them the way I did, readers wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between my books and erotica. I fought against toning down the sexy times in my books. Hard. (I even had to negotiate how many times I could use the word “penis.” Seriously.)
I don’t regret standing my ground.
Erotica and romance are both valid. Both require skill to write. But erotica is written for the sex, while romance is written for the story, the character arcs, and the emotional journey - sex scenes included. If your editor can’t tell the difference because your love scenes are “too vivid,” maybe the issue isn’t the how graphic the writing is.
And finally, the writing “rules.”
Show, don’t tell.
Showing is important—but telling has its place, especially when you’re working within a tight word count. If you try to show every single moment of a complex story with layered conflict in a 60K novel, you’ll run out of space before the climax. (Trust me, I know. 🥴) But even in a longer book, showing all the time can actually slow down the pacing. Knowing the right balance to strike for our stories and our readers is up to us.
Don’t use the same word too many times.
I have a funny story for this one. Many years ago, a contest judge dinged my manuscript for using the word “she” too much. Yes, she. A literal pronoun. The truth is, some words don’t have good substitutes. Trying to replace them just makes your writing clunky. So, while I actually think not overusing words is great advice, it can absolutely be taken too far.
So there you have it.
Some of the best advice I’ve ever received—and why it was the wrong advice for me. Maybe someday I’ll write about the truly bad advice… but that’s trickier, because one author’s bad advice might be another’s golden ticket.
The bottom line? If something doesn’t resonate, it’s not going to work. I won’t go all-in. I’ll hold back. And the result will show.
Only you know what works for you.
Happy writing!
Until next time,
Lucy
USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Lucy Monroe has over 90 published novels and more than 12.5 million copies in print worldwide. Her stories—rich with emotion, heat, and high stakes—span contemporary, historical, and paranormal romance.
Now publishing independently, Lucy writes the bold, deeply romantic stories she’s most passionate about. Her latest series, Syndicate Rules, explores the dark and decadent world of mafia romance with morally gray heroes, fierce heroines, and all the spice fans crave.
A voracious reader and longtime romance fangirl, Lucy loves connecting with fellow book lovers online.
For info on all of Lucy’s books, visit her website.
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