This month we've been featuring romance writer Mia Sosa and her new book The Worst Best Man. She Writes got the chance to sit down with this incredibly talented author and get to know her process better.
Describe your writing routine.
I typically drop the kids off at school in the morning, get distracted by an issue on social media for the bulk of the day, then scramble to get words on the page in the evening. It’s a problem. But I figure that recognizing my problem gets me one step closer to resolving it. In an attempt not to get sidetracked by life and to meet my daily word count goals, I recently started to use the Pomodoro Technique, which breaks writing sprints into 25-minute increments followed by short breaks. The technique allows me to focus for a brief period on making much-needed progress while enabling my occasional—make that frequent—desire to procrastinate.
What is the first thing you can remember writing?
A childhood friend and I used to write song lyrics together. We were seven or eight at the time. I remember co-writing a song with her titled Life Is Like a Bowl of Cherries. The only other thing I remember about the song is the next line: “But some people are in the pits.” We were incredibly deep even back then.
What inspired you to write your latest romance The Worst Best Man?
Several years ago, I wrote a blurb for a romance novel tentatively titled The Wedding Disorganizer, in which a man objects to his sister’s wedding and vows to stop it, putting him squarely at odds with the woman helping the bride to plan the nuptials. I envisioned a story filled with sabotage and pranks and a hate-to-love vibe. When I sat down to add meat to the concept, however, I realized that my catchy premise lacked a sufficient purpose behind the conflict to support a full-length book. So I took my germ of an idea and tweaked it, this time around making the brother partly responsible for the demise of the wedding planner’s own marriage—to his older sibling. Cue the enemies-to-lovers trope, the shenanigans, and ALL THE FEELS.
What’s your best trick for getting over writer’s block?
Honestly, I get in the shower; it works every time. I find that when the words aren’t flowing, or I’m stuck on a plot point, getting away from my desk and taking some time to clear my brain helps to get the ideas flowing again. And for some reason, when I’m noodling through an issue, the answer often comes to me when I’m taking a shower. Knowing this, my husband purchased Aqua Notes for me, and they’re a game-changer. These waterproof pads and pencil sets stick to the shower wall (via handy dandy suction cups) and simply wait for your best and brightest ideas to be jotted down on them.
Did you find it difficult to go from writing multiple books in one series to creating a new standalone story? What did you most enjoy about writing a stand-alone novel?
Surprise! The Worst Best Man isn’t a standalone. Not technically, at least. Series in the romance genre usually take two forms: a series that follows one couple over the course of multiple books; or a series that follows different couples in the same world. In the latter type, each book is a standalone (i.e., a reader should be able to follow it without reference to earlier or later books), but the characters in the world are familiar if you’ve read other books in the series. I envisioned writing a book about one secondary character in The Worst Best Man all along, but a completely different character jumped off the page and begged me to tell his story first, which is why Max’s best friend Dean is the hero of the next book in this world. Dean is already a fan favorite, so I’m excited to share more of his story soon.
