It's time for the second post in this series! This is a post that is VERY near and dear to my heart: quality time. This is, in fact, MY love language, and if you spend time with me--BOOM. New best friend right there. Give me your time and I will give you mine.

With that in mind, let's not hesitate to dive straight into this topic!

First of all: QUALITY TIME =/= KISSING TIME. I've received requests to deal with the friendship side of things in these posts, too, so you will get some of that toward the end of this! But to start with: Romance.

When I say quality time, I don't mean "quality alone time to kiss and cuddle n' stuff." No, I mean...let's talk! Let's do things that are FUN! Let's go for long walks and take pictures and spontaneously roadtrip and go to the bookstore together and get coffee and hang out and text late into the night and pour our time into doing the OTHER things.

Sure, sometimes that does mean some soft kisses or a hug or something. But more often than not...talking and DOING things is best. I have a scene where two of my girls are out throwing knives together. Another where my protagonist offers to fix someone's nest of hair. There's a moment where a mother and daughter sit together in a sickroom and cry together. Another where a girl has insomnia, and her best friend sneaks her out of the house and drives around and talks to her about her fears for a few hours.

I think that in novels, the best way to describe quality time would be: a chance to allow two or more characters to interact as people, and show the readers something about each of them--and their relationship--at the same time.

The best thing about writing with this love language? You can fit it in anywhere. LITERALLY anywhere. You have to build up to a kissing scene; you have to use the circumstances to find specific acts of services; you have to weave gift-giving into the plot. But there is ALWAYS a chance to put quality time into your novel.

Have your characters work together to search the library for the information they need for their quest! When they're locked in the dungeon, let them have a heart-to-heart! If there's a road trip scene, instead of cutting to black, if you have time, give your characters a chance to open up and talk to each other! I once snuck quality time into the middle of a BATTLE SCENE with a husband and wife, so if I can do that, you can too.

A factor of this that makes things especially fun is the fact that it allows you to have an even deeper character-driven novel. I know some of us are plot-first, but writing character-driven books allows the reader to really get into the story and feel it. If they root for the character, they'll root for the story. I've read books where I don't even remember the plot--but the characters burn like shooting stars in my imagination for years after I've read it. Making deeper characters gives you the chance to let your characters do the same thing.

It can be a struggle to find the balance, but incorporating this particular love language into your story gives you a chance to slow down the story a bit and delve deep into your characters. In the Keeper of the Lost Cities series (Heyyyyy Nicole ;)), some of my favorite scenes are the ones where there isn't a lot of plot-related stuff going on, but where the protagonist is allowed a moment to just talk to her friends or her parents or whatever. Those books (sometimes) have plots, but they like to focus on the characters. And even if the plots drag sometimes, the reader cares enough about the characters to keep going.

I kinda forgot about romance here, but that's because this love language is so universal and ends up being so critical to our stories. I hope this post inspires y'all to add some more character-driven scenes and moments to your books, and makes it possible for you to delve deeper into the minds and hearts of your characters!

It will ALWAYS be about the characters when it comes to books. Movies can be plot-driven. Books? Books are character-driven. So give us good characters, and give them complex and beautiful relationships.

THAT is the way to write a story people will love.