1.My Readers Deserve Better Than Cookie Cutter Characters

If you’ve seen one Hallmark movie, you’ve seen them all. They rotate between two, maybe three, combinations of characters and just swap out the minor details. It gets old and stale very quickly. When my readers pick up one of my stories, I want them to know it will be unique.

2. My readers’ time is too precious to waste on cheap plots

Let’s face it, Hallmark movies are the ones we go to when we don’t really care about watching them. You know, the movie you put on for background noise while you wrap Christmas gifts, or when you take a nap on the couch. They are a dime a dozen.

They’re the ones you’ve been watching since October, because you want to save the really good Christmas movies for December. As an author, I want so much more for my readers. I want my stories to stand out, and captivate you. I know your time is precious, and when you sit down to read a book, it should enthrall you, instead of being just one more book like all the others.

3. Life is so much more than romance

Life is full of so many beautiful moments and relationships apart from the romantic relationship between a man and woman. Don’t get me wrong, those type of relationships are part of life and are beautiful in God’s will. But God has given us so much more. Hallmark is infamous for putting out movies with unrealistic views of romance, and just plain ignoring so many of the other beautiful aspects of life.

As a reader, I want to see more stories with themes of siblings, battlefield brotherhoods, family, and friends. And as an author, that is what I write. That doesn’t mean there isn’t clean, pure romance in my writing. There is!

But, I don’t make it the end-all-be-all.

4. My readers deserve more than just fluff

When was the last time you learned something from a Hallmark movie? Never? Same. They are stories comprised solely of fluff, or what I like to call “cotton candy plots”. They look pretty and are sugary sweet, but there is nothing to them. You taste it, and it’s there one instant but gone the next. Just like cotton candy, you can only consume so much before you’re sick of it.

Nothing could be more devastating to me, as an author, than to have that said of my books. I want my readers to go away from my stories changed in some way. Whether they are spiritually challenged, or they learn an interesting fact that they didn’t know, or maybe they just see something a little different than before. Whatever the case may be, I want my stories to have an impact on those who read them.

---

What about you, friends? What are some styles of writing that you love? What themes do you wish you could see more of in books? Let me know in the comments!

A. M. Watson