In my last Substack Love, Poetry and Time Management I wrote about how I had recently subscribed to the BBC Maestro platform and was enjoying the courses. One of those courses was Writing Love Stories by Jojo Moyes. Although the course is directed at unpublished writers, there is plenty to offer established authors as well.

Jojo is not only a warm and humble personality, but she is also an excellent teacher

But before I say more about the course, let’s talk a little bit about love stories.

When I started out in my career, I was largely considered a writer of family sagas – stories that extended over generations and several continents. But quite often I was also classified as a ‘romance writer’ although I certainly wasn’t writing anything formulaic.

White Gardenia is essentially a love story between a mother and daughter; Wild Lavender between a woman and two men with whom the main character, Simone, remains in love with at the end of the novel. Silver Wattle is the story of a woman’s love for the natural world. I used to wonder if perhaps simply being a woman meant that anything I wrote would be considered a romance story.

Jojo Moyes is often described as a ‘romance writer’ although her books frequently focus on female friendships and tackle difficult topics such as grief and voluntary euthanasia. Her megaselling novel, Me Before You, does not not have a stereotypically happy ending. Not that I have anything against traditional romance writing: I have many friends who write in the genre. They work hard at their craft, make a lot of readers happy, and their sales figures are something to envy.

But I was interested to learn that Jojo Moyes believes all stories are essentially love stories because that is the chief need and desire among human beings

I found her insights helpful because the manuscript I was writing at the time had a complicated, multi-layered love story woven through it.

Jojo made the point that in the past, love stories had the obstacles of social mores, such as class and race, as well and distance and time (think how long a letter used to take to arrive in Australia from England in 1900 compared to the speed of email, texts and phoning today). A lack of reliable contraception and the social stigma of children born out of wedlock added certain layers of danger to relationships. But in an age of instant communication and more reliable means of birth control, obstacles to love must now come from within the character’s own complex psychology, rather than the world around them. And that, I think, makes for quite exciting writing.

The course gave me much to think about regarding the development of my characters and the complex emotion that is love

For unpublished writers, Jojo also includes an interview with her own publisher Louise Moore, and literary agent Sheila Crowley which would be helpful for anyone starting out on their writing journey. For already published authors, Jojo offered something quite unique: an interview with Lisa Christie who is a psychological coach specialising in helping creative people overcome blocks. In listening to other authors, it seems that even the most experienced of us often struggle to get words on a page for all sorts of emotional reasons.

Most of us just accept it as part of being a writer, and muddle through until we can find our way again. Listening to Lisa Christie talk about those challenges in psychological terms - ‘difficulty with task initiation’, ‘fear of evaluation’, ‘the nebulous nature of creativity’ – made me think it might not be a bad idea to get a coach to help with those struggles. If sports people do it to improve their game, why not writers? (Watch this space for future developments!).

Whether you are a budding newbie writer, an established author, or someone who simply loves love stories, the course is not only delightful but practical.

Highly recommended.

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