A lot has been said about the formula romance
story: 1 - Girl meets boy. 2 - They like each other. 3 - Something or someone gets in the way of the two of them taking it any further. 4 - They meet again, usually by chance. Their attraction is reaffirmed. 5 - Again something prevents the two of them from exploring their obvious mutual attraction. 6 -This pattern of bumping into each other at the most inopportune times followed by being interrupted then pulled apart just as they are beginning to relate to one another, keeps repeating. Each time they meet they grow more and more, fond of each other, only to be denied the privacy or time needed to really get to know one another. Soon they begin to feel the frustration of constantly being kept apart, against their will, by outside forces. The reader also feels their frustration. Eventually they get it right and come together during the last scene of the tale. By this time they are truly in love. It is implied, they live happily ever after. |
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Obviously, if everyone is using the same formula or outline, the stories will begin to get boring. The key is for romance authors to find unique ways to spice things up and thus surprise the readership. Still, a new creative romance writer must become an expert on the basics first then experiment, experiment, experiment…Once we’ve mastered the proven foundation of a romance tale that is extremely marketable then we deviate for variety and entertainment value, striving for originality, freshness and thought evoking situations as well as showing off with a little of our own unique, awe inspiring prose.
Contemporary romance is the biggest selling type of story there is. They are written about everyday life and love found and lost. Females purchase the majority of contemporary romances so it’s easy to see why most contemporary romances feature a heroine or protagonist who is an average female, the more girl next store the better (not of royal blood, a billion heiress or a genius, a hermit, race car driver, astronaut or an eccentric). The idea is, the more females that can relate to the main character, the better it is for sales. With that in mind, it is not a stretch to realize that the hero or romantic interest of the heroine should be; handsome, gallant, strong, rugged, cavalier, witty, smart, honest and forthright, plus charismatic since this is who female readers wish to fall in love with.
We wish our female readers to see themselves as the female protagonist. So, our heroine must have endearing qualities that are universally appealing; honesty, loyalty, thoughtfulness, giving and selfless. But, we must also leave room in the development of our central character, blanks, so that the female readers can still make that all important connection between the protagonist and themselves. If we over develop the leading female’s characteristics the reader will not see themselves playing the star role in our tale. This is the tricky part. But, it is so important for the readers to think of themselves as the main character, to gain the emotional commitment that makes them feel like they have invested something in their reading of this tale. When they feel the story is about them, naturally they become obsessed with wanting to find out what happens next. This is what keeps them picking up the book each night.
On the other hand, the hero is who you will have to dedicate a lot of time on with developing characterization. Women readers are interested in men; learning more about men, what makes a man tick, what men are thinking at specific times. The female reader already knows plenty about what’s going through your female character’s mind. Men on the other hand fascinate women. What is your hero’s motives, dreams, fears, expectations, faults? Here lies the bulk of the difficulty of your writing. You must first develop a main male character who appears as if he could be anyone’s neighbor. Because, we want it to appear as if your protagonist and your reader, could actually bump into this eligible bachelor. But it is just as important to make your bachelor intriguing enough that your main character and your reader would be interested in him. There has to be something mysterious about him, enough to hold everyone’s interest and keep them turning the pages throughout the whole story.
As far as adding supporting characters, again the answer comes from envisioning your audience; females who want to read about everyday achievable romance. Therefore you want to limit the amount of supporting characters to as few as possible. And, don’t waste too much of your time over developing them. Your readers want to read about the heroine meeting a hero then falling in love. Your job is to deliver and leave them feeling it could happen to them tomorrow.
Now that you know what your mission is and are set up with your basic blue print for success, let’s discuss some of the difficulties a new creative romance writer is going to run into along the way of crafting a first love tale. Your biggest problem is going to be keeping it fresh. Readers of romances are known for reading two, three or even more romance novels a month. This is the market you want to cater to. If you can deliver, they’ll stay loyal fans of yours for years and years to come. But these ladies don’t want to read the same old thing over and over again. And most importantly remember they expect your writing to be top notch. They won’t put up with bad grammar, slouchy language usage, stringy sentences, run-on paragraphs or poor or excessive punctuation. Plots have to be engaging. Themes and sub themes need to be relevant and current.
Love is a base human emotion. Love is written about in poetry, song lyrics, advertisement jingles and sales slogans but you can’t stoop to use these same tired clichés. Originality rules in the romance writing market. You have to be creative and offer something unique!
Contemporary romance is the biggest selling type of story there is. They are written about everyday life and love found and lost. Females purchase the majority of contemporary romances so it’s easy to see why most contemporary romances feature a heroine or protagonist who is an average female, the more girl next store the better (not of royal blood, a billion heiress or a genius, a hermit, race car driver, astronaut or an eccentric). The idea is, the more females that can relate to the main character, the better it is for sales. With that in mind, it is not a stretch to realize that the hero or romantic interest of the heroine should be; handsome, gallant, strong, rugged, cavalier, witty, smart, honest and forthright, plus charismatic since this is who female readers wish to fall in love with.
We wish our female readers to see themselves as the female protagonist. So, our heroine must have endearing qualities that are universally appealing; honesty, loyalty, thoughtfulness, giving and selfless. But, we must also leave room in the development of our central character, blanks, so that the female readers can still make that all important connection between the protagonist and themselves. If we over develop the leading female’s characteristics the reader will not see themselves playing the star role in our tale. This is the tricky part. But, it is so important for the readers to think of themselves as the main character, to gain the emotional commitment that makes them feel like they have invested something in their reading of this tale. When they feel the story is about them, naturally they become obsessed with wanting to find out what happens next. This is what keeps them picking up the book each night.
On the other hand, the hero is who you will have to dedicate a lot of time on with developing characterization. Women readers are interested in men; learning more about men, what makes a man tick, what men are thinking at specific times. The female reader already knows plenty about what’s going through your female character’s mind. Men on the other hand fascinate women. What is your hero’s motives, dreams, fears, expectations, faults? Here lies the bulk of the difficulty of your writing. You must first develop a main male character who appears as if he could be anyone’s neighbor. Because, we want it to appear as if your protagonist and your reader, could actually bump into this eligible bachelor. But it is just as important to make your bachelor intriguing enough that your main character and your reader would be interested in him. There has to be something mysterious about him, enough to hold everyone’s interest and keep them turning the pages throughout the whole story.
As far as adding supporting characters, again the answer comes from envisioning your audience; females who want to read about everyday achievable romance. Therefore you want to limit the amount of supporting characters to as few as possible. And, don’t waste too much of your time over developing them. Your readers want to read about the heroine meeting a hero then falling in love. Your job is to deliver and leave them feeling it could happen to them tomorrow.
Now that you know what your mission is and are set up with your basic blue print for success, let’s discuss some of the difficulties a new creative romance writer is going to run into along the way of crafting a first love tale. Your biggest problem is going to be keeping it fresh. Readers of romances are known for reading two, three or even more romance novels a month. This is the market you want to cater to. If you can deliver, they’ll stay loyal fans of yours for years and years to come. But these ladies don’t want to read the same old thing over and over again. And most importantly remember they expect your writing to be top notch. They won’t put up with bad grammar, slouchy language usage, stringy sentences, run-on paragraphs or poor or excessive punctuation. Plots have to be engaging. Themes and sub themes need to be relevant and current.
Love is a base human emotion. Love is written about in poetry, song lyrics, advertisement jingles and sales slogans but you can’t stoop to use these same tired clichés. Originality rules in the romance writing market. You have to be creative and offer something unique!
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Creative Romance Writing by Stu Leventhal
Love is magical. Falling in love is probably one of the most important moments in anyone’s life. Writing about love can be light and frivolous or as heavy and deep as you wish to take it. Many people claim love is spiritual others proclaim it to be entirely, make believe. When something is hard to define, it is harder still to write about. Wars have been fought over love. It can be a powerful motivator or a great healing and cleansing force. A misguided love can also be very destructive. Many people have claimed love to be their salvation. Romance writing takes on this often controversial and always complicated subject. Artists of all kinds have been trying to express their feelings about love since the earliest times when art, music, dancing and acting were born. Love is mysterious and often mystical. It can bring instant smiles to our faces and just as quick break our hearts and spirits. For all of the above reasons, when one writes about a subject that has been called the essence of human life itself, one must be prepared to do that subject justice.
The idea that writing romances is easier than writing for other genres; mystery, sci-fi, inspirational tales etc. is an utter fable. A romance writer can only hope to give one’s readers a tiny, revealing glimpse of the power of a concept so often misunderstood, frequently misinterpreted yet so very important, influential and vital to human life as love. The lines are vague between what’s steamy, sexy romance and porno so my advice to new writers is tread lightly when roving there. The lines are equally vague when it comes to what is tear, jerking ‘Academy Award Winning’ emotion and what is out right corny! And, no creative writer wants to be called corny!
The key to writing good romance, as with any quality creative writing, is balance. Keep the story’s plot fast moving and exciting but hook the reader in with intriguing and insightful characterization. Add sub themes for more value and substance. Use all the senses to describe even mundane settings. A river bank, a dining room, a tool shed can all be made memorable. Describe the thickness of the air, its smell, the temperature, the lighting and the sounds of places. Through the characters describe the overall feel, tension and atmosphere. Use dialog to add a little humor and to lighten or darken the mood or to create a sense of urgency.
Tons and tons have been said about the use and importance of conflict to drive the Romance story. But as with any other aspect of creative writing I must warn you, never introduce conflict just to add drama. The conflict must develop naturally from the other literary elements of the scene. The same also goes for; sex, humor and violence. Never throw something in to any story simply because you feel the story is dragging or feels slightly boring. If you feel the tale is lacking something, for instance, which a little humor, sex or a fist fight might fix then go back as far as you must to adjust the story so the humor fits in. Go back and set up the humor, sex or fight scene. A paragraph here or there, earlier on, may be all that is needed to precondition your reader to accept that the humor scene makes perfectly good sense to be happening at your chosen time. The reader will always sense when, even a greatly written sex, humor or action scene was forced into the story plot.
When writing a romance story, I feel the most important decision a creative author can make is choosing the best point of view with which to tell the type of tale being told. Who is telling the story allows the author various, specific, roads he can take the story down. If the heroine is telling the story then the author can write what the heroine’s thoughts are at any given moment. This allows the author to tell the reader what’s going on inside the main character’s mind. This point of view, can really add romantic tension, romantic anticipation and romantic frustration when our heroin is denied her love ration. We know exactly how she feels, why she does what she does and says what she says. The author can delve deep into showcasing the different emotional states of his main character during decisive and pivotal scenes because she is telling us what she is thinking as it is happening and in her own voice. This of course, works best for romance stories which revolve around a heroine who has a strong inner strength, is diverse enough and is charismatic enough to carry us through most of the tale. Since she obviously must be present at almost every scene, a main character with a weak personality will eventually start to bore your readers. Choosing the heroine to be your play by play commentator also limits you as an author because she can only guess what the hero and other characters in the story are truly thinking. Thus you can end up with a one sided view of things.
If you use a friend or third party as your narrator for the romance story, you can sometimes tell a more realistic and well-rounded version of the tale. The friend is not always immersed in the action and thus can tell a more objective view of the happenings. The friend will usually tell the tale more in a movie type style, where he or she describes what they are witnessing as it unfold before their eyes. The friend can tell both sides of the story but only as he or she knows it. The friend/narrator isn’t going to always be around during every scene so some of the tale will be coming to the reader second handedly. Someone, perhaps the hero or heroine told the friend what took place during certain scenes and then the friend is retelling that persons version with a few adlibs to the reader. The narrator, friend can make guesses as to what is going on inside another character’s mind or tell the reader what the character said he or she was thinking about but again it can only be taken as second hand information. After all, the character could have a reason for telling the friend he is thinking one thing when really thinking something else so these as well as any inferred thoughts must be taken by the reader with a grain of salt.
Using a first person point of view can make for an enlightening and often charming romantic tale. ‘I’ stories are easy to write since they can be written in the same style as one talks, sort of like, when you are catching up a close friend on what’s been happening in your life during an afternoon tea or while lounging around the pool. [“I did this. I saw that. I heard this. I felt this way. I was mad because.”] ‘I’ stories offer the romance author an unparalleled opportunity to delve deep into explaining emotional reactions since this style of writing lends itself naturally for the narrator/ main character to explain to the reader why they feel a certain way at any time and to ramble on about their feelings for quite a while without it seeming excessive to the reader. Plus, the ‘I’ in an ‘I’ story doesn’t necessarily have to be the author talking about himself. For instance, a male author can write an ‘I’ tale where the ‘I’ narrator telling the story is a woman character. Thus allowing the creative male author a chance to really explore and expose his female character’s inner thoughts which could result in a very, unique perspective.
Making an emotional connection with the reader is generally what determines whether a romance story is successful. So you can see how choosing who will be telling your romance story will greatly affect the point of view being expressed to your reader. The point of view your reader hears determines what types of love themes can be tackled. Different points of views allow you to examine romance from different angles which determines the type of romance story one can create and ultimately how romantic the story will be.
Many romance writers swear exotic settings and fast moving action plots are the key to successful romance stories. The dashing hero rescuing the gorgeous, half-dressed, damsel in distress who is tied to the railroad tracks is so played out, it’s an understatement. If you insist on going this route you absolutely must bring something original to the table. Again, I’d say at first glance an exotic setting would seem like a no brainer for any romantic tale but an exotic setting must be handled with kid gloves as should any high action plot. You’re going to have to start delivering lots of romance at some point during the story and fast action in exotic atmospheres takes the spot light off your starring couple and away from their love affair.
Feats of daring do can become more of a distraction than an asset in a romance tale when your goal is to have your reader focused on love themes not wondering how your main characters are going to untie themselves and escape from a abandoned warehouse before the bombs timer runs out. Why talk about the beautiful view from a hot air balloon, fast descending over the dangerous jungles of Peru due to a sniper’s bullet hole, when you could be talking about your beautiful heroine and describing how your hero’s mouth goes dry, his palms start to sweat and he gets weak in the knees whenever he catches a glimpse of her.
Romance writing is about love; love themes, love dreams, love schemes and most of all love scenes! The more love the merrier. From steamy sex to silly innocent flirting and everything in between, it’s all good. The only way to develop deep, emotional love themes with writing is through strong characterization. If you don’t develop your characters fully you can only address superficial love themes. Make your readers care about what happens to your characters. In order to examine deep, heavy, tear jerking, love related issues in your stories, you must expose everything you can about your characters. You must expose your hero’s vulnerabilities if you expect a reader to believe he is truly, love sick over your heroine. If you want us to be sympathetic, you must lay your heroine’s soul bare for us. Why should we buy in that she is truly smitten to the point of being willing to give her life to save our hero despite the fact that he doesn’t seem to even notice her? Remember, love is a mystical, mysterious thing, for a creative writer to make one’s point it may take getting a little spiritual and/or Freudian. The key is to always keep it entertaining first. Dip in and out of the heavy love stuff. Choose wisely how you present your deep love themes. Romance is supposed to be fun. But, we all know love isn’t always fun. With this in mind, always be sure to heed the only true rule of romance writing; make sure your ending is happy and your main characters succeed in falling in love.
The idea that writing romances is easier than writing for other genres; mystery, sci-fi, inspirational tales etc. is an utter fable. A romance writer can only hope to give one’s readers a tiny, revealing glimpse of the power of a concept so often misunderstood, frequently misinterpreted yet so very important, influential and vital to human life as love. The lines are vague between what’s steamy, sexy romance and porno so my advice to new writers is tread lightly when roving there. The lines are equally vague when it comes to what is tear, jerking ‘Academy Award Winning’ emotion and what is out right corny! And, no creative writer wants to be called corny!
The key to writing good romance, as with any quality creative writing, is balance. Keep the story’s plot fast moving and exciting but hook the reader in with intriguing and insightful characterization. Add sub themes for more value and substance. Use all the senses to describe even mundane settings. A river bank, a dining room, a tool shed can all be made memorable. Describe the thickness of the air, its smell, the temperature, the lighting and the sounds of places. Through the characters describe the overall feel, tension and atmosphere. Use dialog to add a little humor and to lighten or darken the mood or to create a sense of urgency.
Tons and tons have been said about the use and importance of conflict to drive the Romance story. But as with any other aspect of creative writing I must warn you, never introduce conflict just to add drama. The conflict must develop naturally from the other literary elements of the scene. The same also goes for; sex, humor and violence. Never throw something in to any story simply because you feel the story is dragging or feels slightly boring. If you feel the tale is lacking something, for instance, which a little humor, sex or a fist fight might fix then go back as far as you must to adjust the story so the humor fits in. Go back and set up the humor, sex or fight scene. A paragraph here or there, earlier on, may be all that is needed to precondition your reader to accept that the humor scene makes perfectly good sense to be happening at your chosen time. The reader will always sense when, even a greatly written sex, humor or action scene was forced into the story plot.
When writing a romance story, I feel the most important decision a creative author can make is choosing the best point of view with which to tell the type of tale being told. Who is telling the story allows the author various, specific, roads he can take the story down. If the heroine is telling the story then the author can write what the heroine’s thoughts are at any given moment. This allows the author to tell the reader what’s going on inside the main character’s mind. This point of view, can really add romantic tension, romantic anticipation and romantic frustration when our heroin is denied her love ration. We know exactly how she feels, why she does what she does and says what she says. The author can delve deep into showcasing the different emotional states of his main character during decisive and pivotal scenes because she is telling us what she is thinking as it is happening and in her own voice. This of course, works best for romance stories which revolve around a heroine who has a strong inner strength, is diverse enough and is charismatic enough to carry us through most of the tale. Since she obviously must be present at almost every scene, a main character with a weak personality will eventually start to bore your readers. Choosing the heroine to be your play by play commentator also limits you as an author because she can only guess what the hero and other characters in the story are truly thinking. Thus you can end up with a one sided view of things.
If you use a friend or third party as your narrator for the romance story, you can sometimes tell a more realistic and well-rounded version of the tale. The friend is not always immersed in the action and thus can tell a more objective view of the happenings. The friend will usually tell the tale more in a movie type style, where he or she describes what they are witnessing as it unfold before their eyes. The friend can tell both sides of the story but only as he or she knows it. The friend/narrator isn’t going to always be around during every scene so some of the tale will be coming to the reader second handedly. Someone, perhaps the hero or heroine told the friend what took place during certain scenes and then the friend is retelling that persons version with a few adlibs to the reader. The narrator, friend can make guesses as to what is going on inside another character’s mind or tell the reader what the character said he or she was thinking about but again it can only be taken as second hand information. After all, the character could have a reason for telling the friend he is thinking one thing when really thinking something else so these as well as any inferred thoughts must be taken by the reader with a grain of salt.
Using a first person point of view can make for an enlightening and often charming romantic tale. ‘I’ stories are easy to write since they can be written in the same style as one talks, sort of like, when you are catching up a close friend on what’s been happening in your life during an afternoon tea or while lounging around the pool. [“I did this. I saw that. I heard this. I felt this way. I was mad because.”] ‘I’ stories offer the romance author an unparalleled opportunity to delve deep into explaining emotional reactions since this style of writing lends itself naturally for the narrator/ main character to explain to the reader why they feel a certain way at any time and to ramble on about their feelings for quite a while without it seeming excessive to the reader. Plus, the ‘I’ in an ‘I’ story doesn’t necessarily have to be the author talking about himself. For instance, a male author can write an ‘I’ tale where the ‘I’ narrator telling the story is a woman character. Thus allowing the creative male author a chance to really explore and expose his female character’s inner thoughts which could result in a very, unique perspective.
Making an emotional connection with the reader is generally what determines whether a romance story is successful. So you can see how choosing who will be telling your romance story will greatly affect the point of view being expressed to your reader. The point of view your reader hears determines what types of love themes can be tackled. Different points of views allow you to examine romance from different angles which determines the type of romance story one can create and ultimately how romantic the story will be.
Many romance writers swear exotic settings and fast moving action plots are the key to successful romance stories. The dashing hero rescuing the gorgeous, half-dressed, damsel in distress who is tied to the railroad tracks is so played out, it’s an understatement. If you insist on going this route you absolutely must bring something original to the table. Again, I’d say at first glance an exotic setting would seem like a no brainer for any romantic tale but an exotic setting must be handled with kid gloves as should any high action plot. You’re going to have to start delivering lots of romance at some point during the story and fast action in exotic atmospheres takes the spot light off your starring couple and away from their love affair.
Feats of daring do can become more of a distraction than an asset in a romance tale when your goal is to have your reader focused on love themes not wondering how your main characters are going to untie themselves and escape from a abandoned warehouse before the bombs timer runs out. Why talk about the beautiful view from a hot air balloon, fast descending over the dangerous jungles of Peru due to a sniper’s bullet hole, when you could be talking about your beautiful heroine and describing how your hero’s mouth goes dry, his palms start to sweat and he gets weak in the knees whenever he catches a glimpse of her.
Romance writing is about love; love themes, love dreams, love schemes and most of all love scenes! The more love the merrier. From steamy sex to silly innocent flirting and everything in between, it’s all good. The only way to develop deep, emotional love themes with writing is through strong characterization. If you don’t develop your characters fully you can only address superficial love themes. Make your readers care about what happens to your characters. In order to examine deep, heavy, tear jerking, love related issues in your stories, you must expose everything you can about your characters. You must expose your hero’s vulnerabilities if you expect a reader to believe he is truly, love sick over your heroine. If you want us to be sympathetic, you must lay your heroine’s soul bare for us. Why should we buy in that she is truly smitten to the point of being willing to give her life to save our hero despite the fact that he doesn’t seem to even notice her? Remember, love is a mystical, mysterious thing, for a creative writer to make one’s point it may take getting a little spiritual and/or Freudian. The key is to always keep it entertaining first. Dip in and out of the heavy love stuff. Choose wisely how you present your deep love themes. Romance is supposed to be fun. But, we all know love isn’t always fun. With this in mind, always be sure to heed the only true rule of romance writing; make sure your ending is happy and your main characters succeed in falling in love.
