I'm an avid romance fan, but I really like crime thriller and sci-fi as well. If I would try to write in one of those other genres, I would still probably add a love interest for the main character, but the romance would only be a subplot. As of now, I have no plans to leave the romance genre behind.
Read books that were published in the same year that you were writing.
You see, when I first started writing back in the late '90s and 2000s (as a teenager), I was reading books published in the 1980s. The writing styles that were accepted back then are frowned upon now, but that was how I taught myself to write. I didn't realize passive voice and headhopping was no longer deemed "correct," so now I've become crazy strict in writing active and using proper scene breaks when switching character POV.
Just keep trying even when you’re feeling bad about yourself and the quality of your work. No one is perfect. Don’t rush a project; give it the love and attention it needs to be the best it can be. You as the writer, the book itself, and the readers deserve it.
I read my first romance book when I was 12 after I snuck a Harlequin paperback out of my mom’s bedroom. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I wanted to create my own story about two people having an adventure and falling in love. I wrote with pencil in a spiral-bound notebook and finished that 200-plus page story in about six months.
I published my first book when I was 26, and Lyrical Embrace, my latest story, is now my eleventh book to date. I have about ten more manuscripts on my computer waiting to see the light of day.
