Romance

Whether your summer story has two heroes ready to jump into the fires of love or a heroine facing some serious emotional turmoil over her hero, romance novels contain so much more than the basic love story. But before a romance can make a hit, there are many elements to keep in mind during its creation.

Tips for Writing Romance:

1. Have a hero or heroine – Readers will thank you for making them fall in love with a main character they can relate to.
2. Have a conflict – No plot anywhere anytime will amount to anything without a conflict, and emotional conflicts are crucial to a romance.
3. Make a happy ending – Leave the readers with a good feeling when they have turned the last page of your book and set it down.
4. Read previous successful romances – It helps to know what you’re writing about and how successful novels in your genre do things.  

Things to Avoid When Writing Romance:

1. Don’t make perfect characters – Readers aren’t reading your book for a perfect hero. They are looking for the struggle, the insecurities, the abuses that make characters relatable.
2. Don’t make a story about nothing but sex – Sexual tension is one thing, or even a sex scene, but don’t set out to make a porn novel in the name of romance. They are not the same thing.
3. Don’t mistake romance for a love story – Yes, romance does have a love story, but a love story isn’t always a romance. Love stories can have tragic endings, but romance stories are meant for ending on a good note.
4. Don’t mistake boring for romance – although romances may have a basic structure to them, you still can find adventure or plot twists within them. It couldn’t hurt to think about writing something in to add a unique flair.

To see these characteristics in actions, it’s important to read through successful novels that have made a good impact on the readership they aim at. Here are some examples of what these successful novels have done within their stories. Let’s take one of the most famous romance series in today’s world – The Twilight Saga.

1. Character relationships – There are many relationships within the story, both romantic and basic. One major vein within the story is in relationships with all the characters, which brings out the emotional connection between the readers and characters.
2. Character Struggles (Conflicts) – Every character in the story has a struggle. That makes them more imperfect and allows us as the readers to relate to them. From Bella’s struggle with loving Edward in the first book to Renesmee’s struggle with being accepted by the vampire world.
3. Action – With all the struggles and conflicts from the series allows many tense scenes and chapters, such as the fight between James and Edwards, the emotional turmoil Bella felt towards Edward when he was gone or even Edward’s turmoil when he thought Bella was dead and he attempted to reveal himself to the world as a vampire.

These are simply a few of the romance elements shown in the story. The most important decision you can make in a romance – in any genre – is establishing an emotional connection between your readers and your characters. The rest is your playground! 

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