Writing Lessons From... Bingeing Christmas Romance Films aka How to Get Out of a Rut With Your Writing
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Do you ever feel like you’re getting a little bored with the stories you’re writing, with a genre maybe, or that you’re somehow stuck in a rut? Maybe you’re up for learning a new genre or just feel the need for a writing reset.
Maybe it’s time to find some inspiration.
This month, I’ve discovered a fun way to do this that really works!
Yes, it’s an excuse to sit on the sofa watching a ton of films.
I started writing Christmas romances back in 2020.
It was part of my COVID-19 anxiety kick, mixed with wanting to try something new and write something my mum would like.
It turns out that writing Christmas romances was fun. I started with three novellas in a series, worked hard on them, hit publish and something strange happened.
My sales went through the (very low) roof!
Things were on the up, until this year, 2025, when things started to stall.
Looking at the statistics for my romances shows a depressing trend: the books I’m most proud of don’t do well. They sell, but the ratings aren’t as good as my fantasy books.
I don’t give up that easy.
Mainly because those first three novellas I wrote as an experiment still sell and have those good ratings and reviews I’m hoping for with my other books.
And those first novellas (now available in one book: Christmas At The Manor) are quite different from my other romances.
I need to get back to that Christmassy romance vibe of those novellas, and that requires a brain reset and perhaps some research.
A revelation that came at the perfect time, just as Netflix was filling with new Christmas romance films.
Grab the mini yule logs, turn on the fairy lights, it’s time to get our research on.
If I binge a load of Christmas romance films, maybe I’ll see patterns, I’ll see what works and what doesn’t, and it’ll force my brain into that Hallmark Christmas vibe that I want to channel into my books.
Ahead there are minor spoilers for multiple Christmas films, all on Netflix.
I’m going to talk about Best. Christmas. Ever, Renovation Romance, Our Little Secret, Haul Out The Holly, Hot Frosty and Jingle Bell Heist.
Not in that order.
It’s mid-December and I’ve now watched quite a few Christmas romance films. It turns out they’re good watching while doing admin and marketing tasks when you’re a small business owner.
However, I reached the middle of one particular film and I stopped.
Didn’t even finish watching it.
That film was Renovation Romance and I just… couldn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, the characters are there, the premise is there, the tension and chemistry is hot and steamy, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care enough to finish it.
Why?!
I’d already watched so many and some of them were awful, but I kept watching!
The main reason I stopped in the middle of Renovation Romance was that it felt so predictable.
It’s a romance. Of course it’s predictable.
They all are.
You know who’s going to end up with who and they’ll live happily ever after.
Every romance is the same in that regard.
So, that’s not a good enough reason to just stop watching (or reading) halfway through.
No, this film must have been lacking something that the others had.
This required thought. Lots of thought. While eating mini yule logs (I bought three boxes in one go, they’re good for thinking).
Let’s take a look at some of the other Christmas films I watched:
Best. Christmas. Ever.
A young couple accidentally end up at the front door of the rich, successful friend from college and her family, they get snowed in and must spend Christmas together.
While doing so, our intrepid protagonist is determined to prove that their old college friend is hiding something and lying about how successful they are.
It turns out they are hiding something: their son has died.
Fa la la la la la. La la. La. La.
The film is bad, the writing is cringeworthy, the acting is a bit much and the story is trite BUT I watched until the end.
Why? Because there was a mystery, with red herrings and everything,
I had to watch to the end because I wanted to know if there was going to be an affair, if there something big and juicy being hidden.
Even when the truth came out, the film managed to stay sickly sweet and only touched lightly upon the grief the family were going through.
Our Little Secret
Just before Lindsay Lohan leaves her small town to become a city woman, her boyfriend proposes in front of everyone and she says no (because she’s going to the city and he knows this!).
Years later, she goes to her new boyfriend’s family for Christmas and there’s her childhood sweetheart, dating her boyfriend’s sister.
Struggling to be accepted into the family, she asks her ex to keep it a secret and, well, you can guess the rest.
And yet, I watched to the end.
Why?
Because of the characters.
The sister didn’t deserve to have her heart broken, and some parents were having an affair, and who cares about the main couple when there’s stuff going on elsewhere!
By making sure that each character was developed and had their own storylines, I was made to keep watching until the inevitable end.
Haul Out The Holly (and Lit Up)
GUYS! I love these two films.
A young woman breaks up with her boyfriend and decides to spend Christmas with her Christmas-mad parents for the first time in ages.
Her parents (and the street they live on) decide this is the perfect opportunity to match her up with her childhood best friend. He’s an architect now, don’t you know.
Again, we know where this is going.
But I LOVED these films. The first is better than the second, but there’s a Halloween-themed third and I want to see it.
Why?
Because it’s funny. It’s silly. It’s quick.
There’s no drama, there’s no grief, there’s just quick, funny silliness that makes me want to be a part of it all.
Hot Frosty
Yes, this came out last year and I avoided it, because it’s called Hot Frosty!
But the same actress from Haul Out The Holly is in it, so I gave it a go.
A woman grieving the death of her husband puts a gifted scarf around a chiselled snowman and he comes to life. He’s sweet, kind, in love with her and a quick learner.
We all know where this is going.
It’s SUCH a good film.
Not because of his muscles (I do wish he’d put more clothes on), not even because of him!
It’s a good film because of the sheriff and his deputy, and the local doctor, all of whom are amazing comedy actors and bring the hilarity.
They are the only reason I watched Hot Frosty properly, completely distracted from my work.
Jingle Bell Heist
This is something very different! A young American woman is back in London where her British mum is having treatment for cancer on the NHS. Sadly, she needs to go private but her daughter, despite working two jobs including in a department store at Christmas, just can’t afford it.
Turns out she’s a great pickpocket, though, and teams up with a developer freshly out of prison for a crime he didn’t commit to rob the department store. The owner deserves it.
Which results in a Christmas heist by two young people falling in love.
The love is so subtle in this, but it’s there as we learn more about their lives and the wrongs that have been committed against them.
What did I learn about writing Christmas romance from watching a lot of Christmas films?
Going forward, I’ll be making changes to how I write my Christmas romances.
Hopefully, this festive research has paid off.
When it comes to a romance, the getting together of the main characters and the happy ever after are expected. That can’t be messed with. Readers expect it.
It means that we need something else to connect it, to keep us reading, because the main focus is always going to be predictable to a certain extent.
From watching these films, I’ve realised that the best way (for me) to keep a story flowing, to make it readable, is to keep it fun.
The best parts of the films I really enjoyed involved excellent character development of all the characters involved, not just the main couple, and something fun that wasn’t romance based.
This was usually some kind of light-hearted silliness, like the ploy around the street to set up the young couple and get them together, but it could also be found in a mystery, or a farce, or a heist.
The other main lesson I came away with from these films is that the romance wasn’t too laboured. It was subtle.
Now, having these things in a film is very different to having them in a novel.
Books go deeper than screenplays, we see how characters feel and think rather than just their actions and words.
Still, from now on I’m going to attempt to keep my grief and drama in other genres and out of my Christmas romances.
Christmas is about magic, and so is romance, so that’s where I want my focus to be. And there’s always the opportunity to throw in something from another genre, like that mystery or heist, and give the romance a different quality.
In fact, the joy about these kind of romances is that as long as the romance is the main element, the rest can be as much fun as you like, whatever you like.
Sometimes I think it’s so easy to get bogged down in the kissing and the chemistry and the bringing together of two people, that it’s easy to forget that there’s so much else to play with to make the story fun and interesting.
Isn’t it strange how taking a deeper dive into this genre, in a fun, easy way, made me somehow take a broader look at the genre from a distance.
And now I’m raring to go!
This experiment of mine can also be done with books, and I’d like to remind everyone that reading and writing can be done during the festive period with twinkling lights and the Netflix fireplace on the TV.
Whatever you do with your end of year period, whether you celebrate or not, I hope you have a wonderful one full of yummy food and magical inspiration.