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in this lesson I'm going to talk to you

about your final project and how to

develop your idea by taking you through

the steps that I went through in order

to write my new novel Only Love Can Hurt

Like This Only Love Can Hurt Like This

is my 20th novel so obviously I've had

quite a lot of experience by this point

and I hope that some of my tips will be

able to help you when you come to write

your first novel I brought together a

lot of ideas to write this book and you

will too the first idea that came to me

was when I was on a walk one evening

around the farm that I live near I was

walking around these fields and it was

getting dark and I imagined a character

walking around these same fields and

bumping into a hot farmer I could

picture it under the stars I imagined

that you know maybe there was some

altercation between them but this gave

me the initial idea I was intrigued by

the idea of setting my book on a family

farm and I knew that the farm near me

had been passed down from generation to

generation for something like 200 years

so this intrigued me I wondered what

would it be like to be you know the

oldest son who is going to have the farm

passed down to them what if you didn't

want to farm you know what if the

expectation of having to take on this

family farm that had been going for 200

years was just too much and I also knew

that mental health was a serious problem

for farmers and so slowly this idea

started to come to me of this family

farm run by this old older brother who

was suffering with mental health

problems I decided to make the main love

interest the brother of the farmer who

is coming home to the family farm to

look out for his older brother so this

first idea initial idea provides a

setting for me it's going to be set

around a family farm there is going to

be two brothers and now I'm starting to

get an idea of what my main love

interest is like this is the sort of man

who will drop everything to come home

and look after his older brother while

he's suffering with depression so it's

just a few ideas are just starting to

come to me about this family of farmers

when I think about previous books I

realize that I have almost always come

up with the idea for the main love

interest before any of the other

characters I think it's because I'm

writing from the perspective of someone

who's falling in love with that

character that that's the thing that

most interests me because I love to

write a love story as a straight woman

writing from a straight woman's

perspective my main love interest always

tends to be mail but obviously you can

write whatever story from whatever

perspective you wish hopefully you've

already got a few ideas swimming around

from the exercises we've already done

but right now I'd like you to have a

look through your notepad and write down

a short list of all of the ideas that

most inspire you these should be the

ideas that you're most excited to write

they don't have to necessarily be your

main idea my book is about so much more

than a family farm but this is just one

of the ideas that forms the whole plot

around my novel so you should be looking

for a whole bunch of ideas ideas that

excite you because all of them might be

able to make it into your

novel I find there will always be one

idea in particular that pulls forward

that I'm most excited about and all of

these other ideas can like slot in

around it to somehow form a plot because

ultimately you're going to be writing

potentially 100,000 words so you need

lots of ideas to keep you going and keep

you excited another idea came to me and

it was probably my biggest idea because

it forms the basis of a Twist that

happens later in the novel which

completely pulls a rug out from

underneath the readers it forms the

basis of the All Is Lost moment in my

story structure it was based on

something absolutely horrific that IID

heard that had happened to someone and I

couldn't stop thinking about it was kind

of keeping me awake at night imagining

what it would be like to be the people

who loved that person and how it might

affect them so just remember that events

even absolutely terrible ones might be

able to give you a really good cause of

conflict in your novel so definitely

watch the news listen to podcasts and

make a note of anything terrible that

sounds awful but ultimately you do need

an All Is Lost moment and you might be

able to find an idea that contributes to

really making your readers feel it all

when they hit that moment in the plot

now I'm saying this but I write

emotional love stories so ultimately

there will be quite emotional sort of

dark things that might happen in my

books they're not kind of light-hearted

romance you know romantic comedies if

you were drawn to writing much lighter

stories and funnier stories you probably

should avoid the whole dark plot twist

you can still be inspired by by things

that happen but you might want to keep

it a little bit lighter it's all up to

you that I'm just talking you through

the idea for how I came up with my

latest book which definitely has like a

bit of a dark plot

twist I think it's great if you can put

a little bit of a spin on it if you can

do some sort of twist it doesn't have to

be really dark but that sort of thing

could create a talking point between

readers and a literary agent or a

publisher who reads your book will

realize that because if readers talk to

each other they pass on you know Word of

Mouth read this book you won't believe

what happens in this chapter all of that

stuff especially on social media I

remember that happening with one of my

other books the one we fell in love with

on social media everybody was talking

about it about this twist that happens

and oh I can't believe what happened at

the end of chapter 37 I think it was so

that sort of thing is really really

helpful if you can create a talking

point and do something a little bit

surprising but don't do it just for the

sake of it don't just kill off a

character or do something like that you

know just to create some drama it has to

feel real and authentic to the story so

definitely stay true to yourself and

stay true to the sort of book that you

want to

write funnily enough I came up with a

title for my book Only Love Can Hurt

Like This well before I developed the

full idea the book is based on a song by

Paloma Faith written by D Warren it's on

one of my writing playlists and so I

listen to it quite a lot and it was

bringing about all the emotions that I

like to create in a story obviously as I

say I write Emotional Love Story So I

really like to feel it all when I

started to think about the sort of books

I've been writing lately which are quite

emotional you know they are about sort

of Love hurting and it just seemed like

a really good title for my next book and

the title inspired me to create a really

heartbreaking story about love and it

also plays into the twist that I've

already been thinking about have any

book titles come into your mind as

you've been coming up with ideas are

there any lyrics that really stood out

to you from one of the songs that you

were listening to or even a song title

because it's really nice I think if you

can have a title as you're writing your

book it doesn't always happen I remember

getting right to the end of my book

Chasing Daisy and it was weeks away from

being published before we came up with

the title so it doesn't always happen

but it is really nice if you can have a

working title even if you end up

changing it

later so back to the ideas for Only Love

Can Hurt like this I've got a general

sort of idea that is going to be set on

a family farm it's going to be about

these two brothers I've got an idea for

this massive twist that happens it's

going to be really heartbreaking but I

still didn't have an idea for the very

beginning I had an idea for the moment

that my characters meet for the first

time out on a farm in the darkness under

the stars but I didn't really have an

idea for that life-changing moment I'd

been thinking a lot about love triangles

cuz I've written a few love triangles in

my time where my character she's with a

boyfriend who's maybe not particularly

right for her certainly that was the

case of Lucy in the Sky and then

somebody else comes along and you know

the reader is really rooting for that

guy because he just seems like so much

better a fit and I was imagining what it

would be like to be the person who is

not the one who's chosen in the end I

imagine what it would be like if I wrote

from the perspective of that character

so I came up with this idea of my

character is set to be married to who

she thinks is the love of her life

meanwhile he has met someone at work who

may well be the love of his life they

have a really good relationship my

character and her fiance but when he

meets someone else that he just really

clicks with on a different level it

makes him question whether or not my

main character is right for him I

decided to make the opening scenes of my

novel the moment that my character

catches him giving a long look to his

coworker and realizing that he's fallen

in love with

her can you think of something

life-changing that could happen to your

character in the first couple of pages

we're going to do some more work on this

later on but I definitely want you to

just be thinking generally about an idea

that could be the basis for that

life-changing moment but now we're just

going to continue talking about all of

the other ideas that are going to form

the basis of your novel which could end

up being 100,000 words so you need quite

a few ideas so in terms of my idea I

still had this meat cute which is the

moment that your main love interest and

your main character meet for the first

time and I still had this idea of her

bumping into a hot Farm out in the

fields in the middle of the night Under

the Stars initially I pictured this

happening in the fields near my home but

I've written about my hometown a few

times in different books and I started

to think about where else I might be

able to set this book I love to write

about places that I've lived and visited

and I realized that I had never written

about Indiana where I had lived in

Indianapolis for a little while when I

was young and then later in my 20s and

when I started to think about Indiana

and all of the of sprawling corn fields

and fireflies that I remember I used to

trap in jars

that suddenly seemed like a really

beautiful setting for a novel can you

think about where you'd like to set your

novel is there some way that you're

excited to write about have a think

about that now because it will really

help you flesh out your

idea so now I know where I'm going to

set my novel it also feeds on to where

the characters are from I decided to

make my main love interest American and

now I needed a reason for why my

character who I always pictured as

British why she goes to America I

decided to make her father American and

then opened up this whole other story

idea I was thinking about the fact that

my character's father lives in America

she lives in England why is that I

started thinking about how her father

may have left her mother when she was

younger or maybe she grew up in America

she spent some of her childhood there

that meant that I could also write about

Phoenix where I spent some of my

childhood so that worked quite nicely as

being able to write from experience and

talk about the things that I remember

from from my childhood the idea of my

character's father leaving her mother

also feeds into the title Only Love Can

Hurt Like This so I thought there's

another element there for me to be able

to write about my character's difficult

relationship with her father all of

these ideas are starting to take shape

my character is starting to take on a

life of her own she's starting to get

family members I'm starting to picture

the American Farmer it just all starts

building into this idea and now my brain

is really ticking over we're going to do

a whole lesson on characters later so

don't worry about that too much but

generally you should just be thinking

about it everything works together

characters setting

idea so now I have an idea for the

opening of my novel I know that she's

going to go to America I know where it's

going to be set I know that there's

going to be conflict around the family

and also the main love interest and I

because I know that there's going to be

a big twist which is going to be

directly affect the main love interest

and it's going to make it really really

hard for him to fall in love with my

character this idea of longing is an

emotion that I really like to capture in

my novels so I like to create reasons to

keep my characters apart I have one with

the twist I'm now imagining these

characters my main love interest and the

main character will start to develop a

connection after that initial moment

where they bump into each other I can

picture that even better now I'm

starting to think about how maybe he's

on a motorbike so it causes a little bit

more of an altercation when he almost

runs her over that creates some

possibilities for some fun banter

between them and you know a few

light-hearted moments because I don't

want to write a book that's just sad you

know this is still a love story it needs

to be fun and it needs to be packed full

of chemistry so I've got all of these

sort of fun moments there which are

lifting my character up making her fall

in love with this hot farmer who is home

to look after his brother you know she's

starting to care for him he's taking on

you know a whole life of his own and you

know ultimately though she's going to

fool for him and there's going to be

something that keeps him apart which is

this whole big twist so that's my always

lost

moment but also I didn't want the moment

that my characters meet to be in the

darkness because you know I want there

to be way more chemistry than that so I

decide to write another scene set at a

bar where she sees him for the first

time and they share this long look and

then he doesn't look her way again so

she's sort of really intrigued by him

but you know he's not looking at her so

why isn't he looking at her it all ties

into the twist but that's something I'm

not going to tell you tell you about in

case you've ever gone to read this book

I don't want to spoil it for you but I'm

creating this moment of chemistry where

you know they're they're looking each

other and I'm writing about you know

what she's seeing you know describing

what he looks like so you're going to

need to have some sort of moment like

that too and I want you to packet full

of chemistry like really give yourself

Goosebumps if you possibly can just a

little note on chemistry I would much

rather you over did it and really piled

on the chemistry even if it makes you

cringe a little bit if it still makes

you cringe when you come to read this

book later you can edit some of that out

you know it's no problem whatsoever to

change it later it's much nicer to

really pil it on as much as you can and

and then tone it down a little bit if

you need to if you need some help with

chemistry I really recommend that you

read other books that do chemistry

really really well get inspired by them

don't use the same words necessarily but

look at the language they use think of

ways that you can say it will inspire

you to do better and it will really

really help you to ramp up the chemistry

I've definitely been inspired by other

books in my time and it just makes me a

much better author so be inspired

wherever you can and just pile it

on so so now I'm getting to a point

where my book is really coming to life

you know I've got a rough idea for the

characters I've got a rough idea for the

setting and I've got quite a few

different ideas that are going to keep

me going throughout the novel I really

want you to at the moment Focus mostly

on how your characters meet for the

first time that should be a moment in

the book that you cannot wait to write

Be Inspired as much as you can read

books listen to music you know watch

films and just

Daydream right down as many ideas as you

can you will find that when it comes to

daydreaming that your ideas stay mainly

in your head that's certainly the case

for me I tend to just daydream about my

novels sometimes for a year before I

come to write them I'm not suggesting

you take that long but do really sort of

just Daydream man it allow yourself to

do that I would recommend for your first

book that you write down as much as you

can because I tend to remember stuff now

but you know there's certainly been

times in the past when I forgotten and

you know it doesn't hurt to have as much

in your notepad as possible because you

can always go back and read it later so

we've been talking about hopefully the

main ideas that will form the basis of

your novel you will come up with more

ideas as you go along but in the next

lesson we're going to be talking about

characters