If you are a fantasy lover, you surely have encountered the explosive new subgenre coined romantasy. Barnes & Nobles has even added an aisle dedicated to romantasy titles that have gone viral. As with the insurgence of any new book trend, there is always mixed opinion surrounding what to do with the new genre. Criticism is good, healthy even; however, the criticism I see of romantasy stems from a larger problem, a low view of romance in fantasy as a valid literary concept.
If you’re reading this, chances are you have a story you want to write. The truth is, most people do. Everyone carries around an idea for a book they wish they could put on paper. The wonderful part? Anyone can learn to write a good story. It just takes time and practice.
At this year’s Professional Writing Conference, keynote speaker Zena Dell Lowe (at The Storyteller’s Mission) delivered a powerful challenge to every storyteller. The world doesn’t need more content—it needs heroes.
I want to set my students up for success. They may have a day job but maintain their dream of one day getting their book published. The Professional Writing classes teach them the basics, and then their continued learning can happen at writing conferences.
Great worldbuilding and an exciting plot can only take you so far—if your characters fall flat, readers won’t stick around. That might sound intimidating—creating characters is super important—but not impossible. As you read in this article, I hope you will see that creating characters your readers will love is not as daunting as you think. Allow me to walk you through the process of creating characters your readers will never forget.
Join us at the Taylor University Professional Writers Conference / Genre Track for a two-day session learning all about (and creating) comic books.
Your instructors are Professional Writing grad Contessa Hussong (2025) and Multimedia Journalism student Caleb Heffron (2026). Caleb and Contessa have been interested in comic books for their entire lives and are excited to share their knowledge with you. This session began as an independent study where they created a series of weekly classes taught to interested students during the Fall 2024 semester.
PWR Blog 